Anxiety And Depression Are Signs Of Struggle, Not Of Weakness
There is a false belief that anxiety and depression are signs of weakness and incapacity for life. But no. A person suffering from anxiety or depression or both is neither crazy nor good for nothing.
Nor does it have a weak or inferior character to that of the others. It is sad and tiring to fight against this prejudice, but it is a social reality that we cannot ignore.
Unfortunately, despite the progress made by science and medicine in this field too, the modern collective unconscious that permeates our society is still anchored in the belief that emotional and psychological problems are synonymous with fragility and vulnerability.
Since anxiety and depression are not considered wounds to heal, it is not uncommon to hear repetitive comments and speeches such as: “relax”, “it’s not the end of the world”, “try to wake up, this is not life” , “You have no reason to cry”, “it begins to mature”, etc …
These are not new words, are they? Indeed, it is very likely that we have happened to utter them or to be victims of them. For this reason, it is important to do a mindfulness exercise and recognize the importance that emotional pain has.
Just as we pay attention to the pain that a severe twinge or migraine causes and it would never occur to us to ignore it, so we must deal with emotional pain.
We cannot let these emotional wounds heal on their own, but, on the contrary, we must process them in order to extract the meaning they hold within them. We must, therefore, turn to a psychologist who will help us and offer us strategies to deal with the emotional pain that causes us anxiety and depression.
To go back to the example above, just as we stop taking lactose if we discover that we are intolerant to this substance, so we should stop “assuming” certain thoughts and circumstances that do nothing but infect our emotional wound. There is no need for plasters or bandages: the wound must be cleaned and disinfected.
For this reason, in this article we would like to normalize the feelings experienced by those suffering from anxiety or depression. Let’s find out some more details about these problems, to better understand them and to be more aware.
Anxiety: a terrible roller coaster ride
The feelings that anxiety makes us experience are very similar to those caused by a roller coaster ride, in which we begin to feel bad. Let’s focus on the situation: we went to spend the day in an amusement park where there is a large roller coaster that attracts us and on which we decide to climb. To do this, we wait for our turn, making a long queue.
The day is very hot and the sun beats insistently on our heads, causing us pain and severe physical discomfort. We feel tired and the desire to get on the wagon passes, yet we get on anyway because that’s why we went to the park: to have fun.
Once we get on the wagon, our heart begins to beat very fast. Our heads begin to spin in a dizzying way, the wagons begin to move in 360ยบ turns, we immerse ourselves in a dark tunnel and the balloons seem to want to attack us.
Our breathing gets faster and faster and our heart beats faster and faster. We feel that at any moment we could be hit. Our sensations are disordered: something oppresses us in the chest and immobilizes us, making us unable to react.
We can’t help but think about negative things. We scream, cry and complain, but no one hears us, not even ourselves. We would like to ask for everything to stop, but words die in our mouths. Our wagon does not brake and continues to move, as it was programmed, like the others, to make its turn.
In this sense, the anxiety attack is equal to an unfortunate roller coaster ride like the one just described. It could end at any moment, but we don’t know when or how, which makes it difficult to stay in control in the face of so much uncertainty.
Depression: the darkness of the soul
People with depression feel that their world is shrouded in darkness. Little by little he loses his happiness and interest in what surrounds him: there is nothing that can stimulate him and lift his morale, he has difficulty studying or working and he finds himself in a state of absolute sadness or irritability.
Depression is the straw that breaks the camel’s back, a vase already full of complicated situations and circumstances that have opened a crack in us and are wearing us down.
For this reason, it is very important to contact a professional as soon as we realize that something is wrong: the help of an expert will give support and emotional coherence to what we are experiencing.
Having emotional problems is not a choice. A person with depression does not say, “I want to feel bad and I want to throw myself into a pit of sadness to see if I will drown in it once and for all.” Things don’t work like that. In fact, it can happen to all of us.
No one is safe from the claws of depression and anxiety
Anxiety and depression are signs of struggle and not of weakness, but, on the contrary, of strength. These emotional problems do not appear suddenly, overnight, but grow in the forges of the hell of life, amidst difficulties and emotional exhaustion.
Nor is it the consequence of a personal choice: we cannot choose whether or not we want the company of these problems ; both derive from the struggle against the difficulties of life that accompany us and, therefore, from the attempt to have resisted them for too long.
It is a detail that we cannot forget, because it makes us understand how vulnerable each of us is and can be affected, at a given moment, by anxiety and depression, both directly and indirectly. We pay attention, we try to understand the nature of these problems and, above all, we avoid judging …
