Widespread depression or anxiety?

[Little Fang]

I'm optimistic and positive almost to a fault, so I'm not getting the "winter woes" this year it seems.  Yet.

Hang in there ok?

If anybody is feeling dangerously under the weather, I urge you to reach out to me and I'll listen and be there.  We'll all be here for you too.

 

There is a lot of stress and horrible things happening in this world right now, and it's hard to keep fighting sometimes.  Deep down it hurts, it's painful, it bothers me all the time.  I do sense the happenings, and yet, I can't let it control me.  I refuse to. 

[DownUnderNZer]

You cannot control the bigger things in life, but you can control what happens in your own life.

 

It is all about "mindset".

 

If a number of people made it through the Great Depression between 1929 into the late 30s - it is not impossible and it can be done again.

 

Mind over matter, making the best of situations and making a personal choice not to get overly caught up in negativity.

 

You only have so much energy, so why not focus it on what really matters in life.

 

 

 

 

[gregory]

I'm optimistic and positive almost to a fault, so I'm not getting the "winter woes" this year it seems.  Yet.

Hang in there ok?

If anybody is feeling dangerously under the weather, I urge you to reach out to me and I'll listen and be there.  We'll all be here for you too.

 

There is a lot of stress and horrible things happening in this world right now, and it's hard to keep fighting sometimes.  Deep down it hurts, it's painful, it bothers me all the time.  I do sense the happenings, and yet, I can't let it control me.  I refuse to. 

The world is very heavy just now - but it does feel as if there is something bigger going on. I refuse to let it control me too, but it is still very much there. And the #metoo thing isn't helping.

[gingerblue]

You cannot control the bigger things in life, but you can control what happens in your own life.

 

It is all about "mindset".

 

If a number of people made it through the Great Depression between 1929 into the late 30s - it is not impossible and it can be done again.

 

Mind over matter, making the best of situations and making a personal choice not to get overly caught up in negativity.

 

You only have so much energy, so why not focus it on what really matters in life.

 

Mind state and depression isn't a choice similar to how gender or sexuality isn't a choice- it's chemicals and conditions and genetics. We can't choose to tell our minds not to worry or be anxious. Sorry if I sound snippy, but as someone who has dealt with anxiety and depression her whole life, and has lost friends to the constant advice of "oh, just try and cheer up!", I just can't deal with that line of thinking anymore. It's not okay to tell someone with depression or anxiety to choose a better "mindset".

 

And plenty of people drank themselves to death during the depression because of fear and anxiety. People are resilient, and depressed people are too (we will survive) but we still get to feel how we feel.

 

I think people who really believe "mind over matter" don't understand how depression actually feels and works. I'm sorry if I'm offending you, but this is all like telling someone with an addiction to just stop using- it's just not that simple. I know maybe it *is* that simple for some people, but for others it's a lifelong struggle.

 

And I know there are people reading this who will hear "choose your mood level" and it will really *hurt* them because it's something they have no control over. Just because someone actually internalizes and deeply feels the issues of the world on a deep level doesn't mean they are broken. It's simply not a choice for many people.

 

For some it is a choice, and I commend you for that- for for a lot of others, it's just not a choice. Some things just HURT and that should be honored. This all makes me so sad that on this forum of such love and open mindedness there might be those who encourage others not to feel their deepest feelings.

 

To anyone reading this who needs a friend or even someone so send energy, love, positive vibes, metta (a Buddhist prayer of loving kindness), please let me know. You have every right to feel exactly how you feel. Even if the world wasn't a dark place, you still have that right, and I honor your feelings.

[PathWalker]

Thank you gingerblue for putting that so well.

 

Yes there are tablets, and long years of CBT, but the actual chemical levels  in your brain are not under your control, and you can't choose to 'change your mindset' when that is the case.

 

I remember a 'friend' who assured me I could get over life-threatening depression by "going and having my hair done" - always pulled her out of low apparently. And I thought to myself - You have no idea how this feels do you?

 

I accept that if you haven't been to that place you can't understand how it is - but you then should not try to tell people who have been or are there how they should deal with it, because you have no experience or wisdom on the matter, and sometimes careless foolish words are the last straw.

 

 

[gregory]

I third both the above posts. With true depression, you don't have that level of control. You don't have ANY control. You know for a fact that there is nothing you can do.

 

That said - what we are talking about here is something huge, global and peculiarly evil feeling, not something that individuals are suffering, kind of personally, in their own minds. I've been through major depression too, complete with hospitalisation - and this is NOT that. This thing is big and global, not something where we can just cheerily change a mindset. Suggesting that would be like saying, as the flood waters approach, "that's OK, if I don't look, I won't drown." This feels like we all ned to work together to put up flood defences for all of us, not go think about a nice movie or something.

[Trogon]

I have battled depression most of my life as well. So has my wife. A couple of years ago, if I had suggested to her that she "cheer up", she'd be dead now. I've been on that edge a few times myself.

 

But as Gregory & others have mentioned (I guess I had too), what we're talking about feels different.

 

And, no. I personally don't take offense at the suggestions of "retail therapy" (which, believe me, I try, and often ;)) or the "change your mindset". I work every day to do that. And, for me, Tarot is a tool which helps. But depression is much more than being sad for a little while, or waking up and deciding you don't feel like getting out of your pajamas that day.

 

I think what we are saying here (at least I am) is a little understanding instead of condescension ...

[EmpyreanKnight]

Winter is about to set in. I know some people suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (aptly termed as SAD too), and for them the next few months are going to get even more trying. May the oncoming winter be kind to you.

[gregory]

Oh yes. SAD. I am well stocked up with my 5HTP, but even so....

[DanielJUK]

Great thread discussion you started Trogan!  :)

 

I suffer from chronic anxiety which really impacts my life but I've had it for over 20 years and sadly I've not found something that really helps but I live with it. I have suffered depression sometimes in the past but it's rare for me, my problems are all really anxiety related. I do feel very anxious at the moment but I am coping. I've been thinking about this topic and these are my possible reasons why....

 

- Competitive Society - If you look at any time frame, things have been hard for some people but comparing now to my parents at the same age as me (30's), society is hugely competitive. Getting a job or a house or moving up society is a competition with others. It was so much easier, even 10, 20 years ago! In the UK, it's a really hard time to be under 40 and this is not the only place. Getting even a low paid job which doesn't need too much experience or skills is a competition with people not paid enough to really live on. There is also competitiveness between people showing how great their lives are but the people who push this the most, obviously are not really happy with it, it's showing off. There was always elements of this in the past but now it's full competition! Social Networks magnify people showing how good their lives are now to compete with others. I always remember I think it was Ace on AT posted a post about someone was driving her crazy and would write things on their social networks like "oh it's exhausting having to spend so much time cleaning all the rooms in my really big house"  ;D

 

- Capitalism - I'm not going to be a hypocrite here, cos capitalism has brought me all my mass produced tarot and oracle decks and I can be quite a materialistic person. It can be quite a good thing if you limit it but it's gone crazy! Everything now is instant gratification, I want it now! Comparing again to my parents at my age, they didn't have unlimited virtual credit and they waited and waited to buy things and used things handed down their families. My younger brother recently bought a house and started a family and bought everything brand new on credit, he was able to access thousands and used it all. There is nothing that is older than a year apart from the house. I was reading something recently about how many young people have really flashy expensive cars in London. They are driving around with huge things and my parents were unable to afford a brand new fairly good brand until they were in their 50's and they both worked full time jobs for 25 years before that. Those people have those expensive vehicles because they are paying for them monthly on credit for years and years but for now they have the latest top brand that they can show off with!

 

This isn't a judgemental nagging point but a wider view of society. I really try not to compare myself to others or them to me. Buying expensive things and showing them off makes you a better person or "higher" person in society, that is the message now. Way before being kind and compassionate to others and finding happiness with what we have.

 

If our economies take a turn for the worst, the instant gratification will take a turn for the bad, so many people are in huge debt! I think we have to find something to satisfy us that isn't capitalism and spending, like finding a cause or meaning to our lives, maybe spirituality or religion. There is more to life than this and somehow we are missing it and this is still something I am dealing with personally. Having expensive things = does not make you a better person! you don't need to compete with other people and show how much you have. Society has always done this to some extent and regarded people with beauty, money and / or power as the highest achievers but people with exactly what they need and have worked out their happiness and confidence is hugely empowering! If you buy a yacht in Monaco, someone will have a twice the size better version or maybe 2 yachts! We cannot win on this game and we have given this too much power! What about people who spend a day a week unpaid and help people in a voluntary job that is a pretty good thing to rate! What is important feels like it's totally upside down, maybe because it takes time and effort to work at. Friendships and altruism is far better for our souls than the expensive thing we dream of.

 

- The State of the World - Many countries in the West have political upheaval at the moment and could cause anxiety and depression. Many other countries have had this for decades, we have been quite lucky really but now with shock political decisions and huge changes in stability and so we now worry about the future! We have come to extremes! People are turning on minorities and don't want people fleeing from danger to enter other countries, people don't want to spend money on other countries anymore. Things seem depressing and people want to close themselves in and isolate from the world. Lot's of people are very worried about their future and what will happen to their country in a few years time but many countries have had this for a long time but it's now hit the traditionally stable and rich countries.

 

- The Universe is against us - gregory wrote a bit about this before. I don't believe the world or universe is against us, I believe it does try to work in our best interests but it's not always a nice time. We are undergoing a big shift in astrology at the moment and the last months of this year are a huge new phase! Slow planets are moving into new areas, they can hugely influence our lives long term if we are affected by that transit. Saturn has been in Sagittarius and will soon move into Capricorn, before people had to get serious about travel and things like the refugees are all in this phase. The world had to grow up but the new phase is having to be more mature about money and be more disciplined. Uranus has been in Aries, people have been angry and so many countries are at war. It will soon move into Taurus and more earthy but it might mean more natural disasters and again about the money and finance, sudden surprises! Those things have been horrible in my birth chart, I have been really affected by it, I know other people have not been affected at all but it's been the hardest phase of my life so far! It really touched the worst areas of my life and made them bigger issues and more difficult! But I hoping we are now moving into a different time that we can deal with. Major change is afoot anyway.

 

I believe there is widespread depression and anxiety like no other time for all these reasons together, some challenging astrology, the competitive element of society, the extremes of capitalism where we use spending to satisfy our needs and the scary and difficult times in the universe. I am not sure what the answer is and it's something I am going to work on myself to separate from because I think it will be healthier for my life. Society as a wider concept is the cause but I have faith that we will find a way to deal with it (or the universe will force a solution) because that's what always happens in history.

[faerybraids]

Has anyone had a shift out of this feeling recently? Say, sometime between the last full moon and now? It's eerie how accurate the feel in this thread has been described in relation to what I just came out of. I'm not sure if it's another awakening of sorts, but it's strange--I've only felt a similar shift of sorts once before, and that was sometime around the start of 2012, and it was only after talking with others in my meditation group that I found out many of them had felt it too (that was also when I found out a lot of people viewed the whole "end of the Mayan calendar" thing as us moving into a spiritual age that they just hadn't written down, not the end of the world thing the media sensationalised). 2016 had felt like a distinct unlucky shift from that for me, but more like sliding downhill than waking up, and that was before the year even started--but that one seemed to be a personal shift coz almost everyone I knew thought it would be super lucky year.

 

So, yeah. I'm curious about this. Is it just me who's been (even temporarily?) released from it? Been complaining to my partner so much the past few months about my moods not feeling right, but we kept putting it up to hormones, moon phases, my mental illnesses, etc. I kinda wish I had seen this thread before instead of ignoring most online forums in favour of focusing on NaNoWriMo, I agree with so much of what's been written here I'm kinda like 'whaaaaaaaaa?' right now.

[Cocobird55]

There are days when I can't read the news without cringing. So I stop for a few days, but then tell myself I don't want to be an ostrich so I start paying

attention again.

 

What is going on in the US is surreal to me. I grew up in the 60s and protested about racism, war, etc. I thought things were better. Apparently

I was wrong. All the hate has just been underground for a while, and now it's resurfacing again.

 

It's sad and scary.

 

 

[Padma]

I have noticed the same - since early 2016, around April, it has felt like a looming s***show. Everyone I know personally has had a really bad year, and they mention their friends have, as well. As have I.

 

Feels like the end of times :p and I am personally an optimist...

 

I try and stay away from the news. It just makes everything *ever* so much worse.

 

I don't think this is something we can just "cheer up" or "change your mindset" about. I feel this is global, and very, very dark. And dangerous.

 

I have been working hard on cleansing and shielding, and doing what I can for the people I know - I don't know what else to do...

[faerybraids]

Welp, apparently that awakening feeling I had was just temporary. *sadness* It was so nice while it lasted, though... Everything feels just as heavy as ever. I wonder if tomorrow will be different.

 

eta: Seems it was just me waking up funny. Things aren't as light as before, but even my partner's been feeling things aren't as heavy the past couple days. Apparently all the customers at his work were unusually happy yesterday, including several giving gifts to the staff. (o.O) I wonder if negative energies are being cleared out in waves or something...

[Alta]

I read through with interest.  Daniel your comprehensive look at what most of are facing or faced with was enlightening.  Probably we absorb the news day after day and it ‘leaks’ into our psyches.

 

There was a humorous comment on the internet somewhere:  “In the West it is like watching the fall of the Roman Empire, but with Wifi”.  Really struck me, because the information is everywhere and yet it feels as if we are busily processing it, or at least our leaders are, as if it was it really happening.  I don’t mean that the West is likely to fall soon, but rather the feeling that decay of prized values is spreading.

[gregory]

I couldn't agree more. In a global way, I feel like that famous election quote, "I want my Canada back."  I want the world to go forwards in some of the ways it was getting better. Instead....

[Ephemeridae]

I think I've been attuned to this sort of... current of illness for a long, long time. At least as long as I can remember being consciously aware of these things.

 

But to me it feels like that current that was once contained under the surface, isolated to individuals and kept under control by a collective effort, has recently burst the dam and is eroding the earth right from under our roots and drowning everything in its path.

 

In my area of study, the 100-year storm is used to describe a storm of such magnitude that you were only likely to receive one every 100 years. Due to climate change, we are now experiencing 100-year storms multiple times a year all over the world. As above, so below.

[EmpyreanKnight]

Does anyone feel just a bit more hopeful this 2018, like the veil has lifted a bit?

[Albadawn]

Kind of stunned reading everyone's responses. 2017 was an insane year for me, health-wise. Quite literally as well as figuratively, I'm afraid. I'm better now than I was, but things have definitely been unsettling and destructive in a way that feels more beyond my control than usual.

 

That said, I am not feeling hopeless. I'm starting to gather this sense that it's time to go to ground and prepare, to get ready. I've been taking the time to educate myself about ecology, and frankly we as a human race are f***ed UNLESS we do something to change our demands on the planet. We've had our fun with oil and gas and plastic, and it's time to put the toys away now and grow up and show some responsibility. Our collective negligence is killing people, animals, plants. The glory days were never going to last forever and we in the West have been foolish to pretend otherwise.

 

Hubby and I have been discussing this recently. He's considerably older than me, and he's picking up on this shift too. For far too long, we've all been at the behest of a few very rich, very powerful people. Buying whatever they tell us to buy, living however they tell us to live.

 

My way of coping with all of this has been:

• disconnecting from mass media - this includes news reporting, which is heavily biased towards perpetuating fear
  
• disconnecting from social media - I still have my accounts but am not active on them
  
• learning about herbal medicine, so that I can treat my own ailments as best I can
  
• learning to grow my own food
  
• learning to repair and make my own clothes
  
• most recently, learning how to look after honeybees
  
• reducing my reliance on plastic, and choosing items with less packaging or with reusable packaging instead
  

 

These are small things. I know that. But this basic ability to care for ourselves, to hunt and gather and survive, is a skill we in the West have lost to a dangerous extent. I actually know people in my age group who don't know how to prepare a meal from scratch, not even soup. I know people who don't know how to make fire, or how to be safe around an existing one.

 

I do think the world as we know it is beginning to decay. As mentioned this has happened over and over again with ruling nations, it's just the way of things. So let's empower ourselves to take care of ourselves and of each other. Remember as tarot readers we are counsellors and friends. If we really believe we can foresee glimpses of the future and then use that knowledge to change it or mend it or improve it, we have every reason to believe in ourselves and to have hope.

 

I don't believe we can stop what's happening, but I do believe we can respond to it and get ready to start saying no to the oligarchs and no to violence and no to oppression. If we can grow our own food and make our own clothes and just generally be resourceful with what we have, it won't matter if the lights go out because we'll build a fire. We'll build a fire and sit together around it and eat together, and this dark shadow we're all feeling right now will eventually be a distant memory as we forge a new future away from all of the horrible things DanielJUK so eloquently described.

 

It's going to be okay again.

[CharlotteK]

I've started Kundalini Yoga classes and was interested to learn about Tantric numerology. This insight into 2018 is deeply interesting I think as the themes in here definitely ring bells for me and lots of people I know.

https://www.3ho.org/numerology-2018-let-s-get-it-right-time

 

ETA: Also interesting to see what 3ho said about 2017 - https://www.3ho.org/numerology-2017-month-january-non-stop-change

 

Especially this part...

 

"2017 will be quite the year for stellar advances in holistic medicine, religion and spirituality, as well as great leaps in science towards solutions for the environment. There is more than enough good to go around, the only catch is, will anyone try to mess it up by being a tyrant?

 

This is the inherent danger contained in the Negative polarity of the number 10. In the Positive polarity 10 is a kind, conscious, benevolent ruler. However, when it goes negative it can be tyrannical and willing to win at any cost. Let us pray for our world leaders, as one wrong push of a button can lead to a global catastrophe."

 

 

 

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

[faerybraids]

Albadawn[/member] Written so well.

 

My dad was shocked to find out I know how to darn--my sister had no clue what it was, and despite knowing I can sew and am into other handicrafts he had never imagined I'd sit around using oranges to mend old socks and such (or using lemons, in my case). It's really sad that such a basic skill has been lost because of the throw-away culture that's developed. :( Like you I'm also into herbalism and growing my own food, of being self-reliant. It's a wonderful breath of fresh air to read a post that sounds like it's come from my own heart. I just looked at your profile and it turns out we're close in age, too, which makes everything you've written that much more relatable. (Especially the peers not knowing how to cook thing. Oh my goodness. /facepalm)

 

EmpyreanKnight[/member] Mm, I'd say so. I felt a major shift in early-mid December, and I've felt a few waves of what I can only describe as cleansing since. Kinda like how sometimes you need to sweep the same spot several times to get rid of all the dirt.

 

CharlotteK[/member] Interesting reading!

[EmpyreanKnight]

EmpyreanKnight[/member] Mm, I'd say so. I felt a major shift in early-mid December, and I've felt a few waves of what I can only describe as cleansing since. Kinda like how sometimes you need to sweep the same spot several times to get rid of all the dirt.

 

Glad to know that I'm not the only one. :)

[faerybraids]

EmpyreanKnight[/member] Mm, I'd say so. I felt a major shift in early-mid December, and I've felt a few waves of what I can only describe as cleansing since. Kinda like how sometimes you need to sweep the same spot several times to get rid of all the dirt.

 

Glad to know that I'm not the only one. :)

 

Mm, same. :) If it's any help as well, my partner's also felt it, and I've noticed a shift in some of my family as well. ^^

[Padma]

I have some faint hope for the year ahead. I am trying to get over my fear of the looming disaster that is the US and North Korea. I am very worried about what the autocrat is doing in the country next door to mine! (I am in Canada) Scary times. It makes me feel impotent rage and great fear.

 

AlbaDawn, interesting links, thanks :) I did feel that numerically speaking, 2018 would be better than 2017. Let's hope!

[sandrang123]

I also feel that 2018 will be better than 2017, despite the powers-at-large.

 

But that being said, my 2018 is off to a rocky start. Geesh!