Depression is getting bigger and bigger in the western world. According to Marisa Peer there are 3 main causes of depression, they are:
1. The harsh, hurtful, critical words that we say to ourselves on a daily basis.
Criticism withers people's soul.
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO: Stop being your own worst critic, be aware of what you are saying to yourself and the language you use. As a general rule don't say anything to yourself that you wouldn't say to other people.
Change the language that you say to yourself, instead of saying for example "I am such an idiot" instead say "I'm a silly Billy", this sounds silly and not critical to yourself.
2. Failing to follow your hearts desire Not following your hearts desire of what you want to do in life. What is it you really want to be in life? Its not black or white - you don't have to be a famous artist to be in the art world or sell more books than JK Rowling to be an author. WHAT YOU NEED TO DO: Ask yourself is there some way you could follow your hearts desire now? Its never to late to follow your hearts desire. Think about what excites you? What you're passionate about? What did you like when you were around 7 - 14 years old? When you work this out you can then go on to work out a way to follow this passion. If you are unable to then dig down deeper as to what it is about the passion you like. Say for example you wanted to be a doctor but you couldn't pass the training to be a doctor - then work out what it was about being a doctor that was so appealing to you, maybe it was helping people getting better, then you can work out a way of helping people to get better without being a doctor - so for example care worker, reiki healer etc 3. Being disconnected This is a huge one for us in the western world. There are more people on anti depressants in the western world compared to Africa, not because the lack of medication in Africa, its because in Africa they live as a community, they have social interaction. When we were tribal we use to live in communities, now in the modern day we tend to live alone and not socialise. We don't need to go out because we can have shopping delivered, we can go on facebook to interact but this is not the same interaction that we need at a deep level, we need face to face interaction. Some people go down the gym and stick ear phones in and not bother talking to anyone, you need the social interaction of seeing people. WHAT YOU NEED TO DO: Help yourself by going out and joining a few clubs that interest to you. Look at your local community and see what clubs are out there. If there are no clubs that interest you then start one, you will be amazed at the people that are in the same situation as you but don't do anything about it, if you do something about it then you will then in turn help others. Meet up is a good place to start to find like minded people. Think also where would the people you want to hang around with hang out, if you are an active person then go to the gym, yoga classes, 5 a side football teams. Of course there are more things that can cause depression (which I will talk about in later posts) but in my opinion these 3 things are very big reasons why a majority of people suffer from depression.
