Martina - of Simon and Martina, a Canadian couple living worldly adventures on YouTube - recently openly shared her experiences with depression coupled with chronic pain. She spoke about the hopelessness that accompanied her struggle with her chronic pain and the limitations placed on her by her doctor, who advised against physically strenuous activity. What she had to say really struck a chord with me.
When you experience chronic depression, you're constantly trying to answer the question of what the point of it all is. What's the point of this or that when I'll just be depressed, at the end of the day?
Martina's way of fighting these emotions was to tell herself that she would rather be in pain after having done something new/memorable/challenging than to be in pain after having done nothing at all.
Depression can sometimes numb your ability to be happy or accept notions of happiness. So much so that being happy or fulfilled can feel like a far-off dream, rather than an achievable state. When depressed, we ought to fill our lives with reminders to focus less on the "point" of things and more on the "process" that gets us there. After all, happiness is a journey, not a destination.
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I've always been a journaler - I love the act of sitting down in front of a blank page and pouring out my deepest, most private feelings, unfiltered, as ink on paper. This blog post is the first in a series of random musings that I will share from my journal.
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