Alex wrote: "Talking about depression, my wife has a motto: “Don’t get depressed, get angry instead!”"
Those of you who have been dissing that statement are taking it the wrong way. This is actually good advice for those coping with depression but admittedly, it needs some clarification. Here's the scoop: feelings of anger, if not released, turn into feelings of sadness. A contributing problem for many depressed people is that they have not yet learned healthy ways to feel, and thus release, their anger before it turns to sadness.
This is particularly a problem for females who have fewer socially acceptable ways to vent their anger. And females, more than males in our society, are generally taught to "be nice" - to be cooperative not confrontive, keep disagreements to a minimum, etc.
The problem is, after years of deep-6'ing your anger and burying it inside yourself, it burrows a knot in your stomach and leads to, you guessed it, depression. So the trick is to find healthy ways to get your anger out. When you feel angry, pay attention to it. Don't deny or ignore the emotion. Feel it. Have healthy ways prepared for how you will deal with the anger. Hit a pillow as hard as you can, buy a punching bag and hit the crap out of it when you need to, journal your thoughts, write furiously until the rage passes, scream at the top of your lungs (only if you're somewhere no one can hear you - go for a drive and do it), etc.
Those of you who have been dissing that statement are taking it the wrong way. This is actually good advice for those coping with depression but admittedly, it needs some clarification. Here's the scoop: feelings of anger, if not released, turn into feelings of sadness. A contributing problem for many depressed people is that they have not yet learned healthy ways to feel, and thus release, their anger before it turns to sadness.
This is particularly a problem for females who have fewer socially acceptable ways to vent their anger. And females, more than males in our society, are generally taught to "be nice" - to be cooperative not confrontive, keep disagreements to a minimum, etc.
The problem is, after years of deep-6'ing your anger and burying it inside yourself, it burrows a knot in your stomach and leads to, you guessed it, depression. So the trick is to find healthy ways to get your anger out. When you feel angry, pay attention to it. Don't deny or ignore the emotion. Feel it. Have healthy ways prepared for how you will deal with the anger. Hit a pillow as hard as you can, buy a punching bag and hit the crap out of it when you need to, journal your thoughts, write furiously until the rage passes, scream at the top of your lungs (only if you're somewhere no one can hear you - go for a drive and do it), etc.
Hope this helps. Great article, by the way.