Contributor: Katie Harp of the blog Resilient. At Resilient, Katie writes excellent articles about depression, including this one, in which she shares the full story of how she overcame her depression.
Mollie: Can you tell me when your depression began, as far as you know? Was there an event that brought it on?
Katie: My depression started as a teenager because I was bullied for being weird and different. But many years later, these were traits I slowly learned to love for how they caused me to break the mold and not always follow the status quo.
Mollie: What were the turning points for you?
Katie: Discovering the world of personal development was a big turning point for me. I discovered personal development when I started looking for the answer to the question, “How can a person be happy?” and realized that you have to create the changes in your own life that lead to happiness. I started reading books from people like Jack Canfield (The Success Principles) and also developing more of a spiritual practice and incorporating new things into my life like meditation, mindfulness, and teachings from the Dalai Lama and Pema Chodron.
Mollie: What was your most effective strategy when starting out? Did the results last? What did you try after that?
Katie: Forgiveness work was very helpful for me. I have a post about that here.
I still do forgiveness work regularly. It’s like having a regular practice of gratitude or any other positive habit. Sometimes forgiving can be difficult, but you can remember the quote, “Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”
Healing your past is a good place to start, and from there you can add more positivity into your life.
Mollie: Do you believe that you were or are wired differently from other people? Meaning, do you have depression due to a chemical imbalance that is part of your DNA? Also, do you believe your depression can be healed completely?
Katie: I’m not sure I’m qualified to answer that, but I do feel that depression has both biological reasons and reasons caused by situations and circumstances in your life. I also think your beliefs, attitude, and thought patterns can have a big impact on how happy you are.
Mollie: Final question: On a scale of 1-10, how effective is forgiveness for healing depression?
Katie: I’ll give it a 7. It depends on what factors are contributing to the person’s depression, though.
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I suffered from chronic depression and anxiety up until my stroke 7.5 yrs ago. That is almost all behind me, now. But I do know that I have been trying to clear my mind and spirit and have created a list of people I forgive. It started with 2 and is now 79. Some were just minor things long ago, but I remember them; now, I feel much better. I read the name, forgive them, then say a prayer for them. I have also created a “thank you” list for the same reason.
Both of these have helped clear me and my Law of Acceptance works so much better.
Scott
I love that. I find forgiveness isn’t all that difficult for me for some reason. Maybe I’ve just had a lot of good people in my life. Mostly my negativity turns inward. My dad’s depression sort of healed itself. We shall see.
Depression is healable. Each in their own way, I say.