Depression. There I have said it. It seems to be everywhere around me this year. People at work are depressed, family members are battling depression and I am trying to keep my head above water to escape it. The other night I was on my way home feeling generally down. The weather was gray, work had been difficult and I just needed some general cheering up.
So, I called my daughter. Well, as it turns out, she, too has been battling a bit of depression. So when my husband came home from work we were talking about our day and he said, "I can't shake this feeling of impending doom". Wow, just what I didn't want to hear that evening.
Since I live in Missouri, I am going to blame the weather on this phenomena. After all, that is what we do in Missouri, blame the weather! It has been a rainy, cold, dreary winter season. And I am sick of it. No surprise there, you may say. Problem is, I don't usually complain about winter. I see it as the rest period for wonderful growth and change through the other seasons. I like warm soups and stews, curling up in front of a warm fireplace with a book and watching it snow. But this year it has been too much for too long.
I was reading recently that depression can be helped by eating healthy foods and avoiding processed or fast food. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean come on, can fast and processed food really be the root cause of all of our evils? I don't even eat much of it. I love to cook from scratch, and I take my lunch most days to avoid fast food. It just seems like fast food and processed food is the popular step child of the world right now.
Other depression causers can be lack of sunlight (duh!), not enough exercise, isolation and lack of sleep (or sleeping too much).
I am lucky that I have never suffered from any severe bouts of depression. It just comes and goes with me. Although I have to admit that the other night I kept asking myself "what is the purpose of all of this?" meaning life in general. And then I thought; "is this all there is?" Not exactly Susie Sunshine thoughts.
But I feel better today. The sun was out for a short while today and I had vegetable soup for supper. With that combination, I must be cured!