Today, the whole world grieves for the terrorist attack in Paris. It dominates the news; the internet, newspapers, radio, TV. It's hard to find any media that is not covering this horrific act. Our hearts are crushed as the whole world shakes.
Not only our hearts, but the minds of the mentally ill are thrown into confusion.
Today, I got up at 2pm, because my mind was shattered by the attacks on Paris and I just couldn't sleep all night. I'm going to try to explain what happens to the mind of someone who is depressed.
Imagine a strong, mature maple tree that has a single damaged branch. It may still be deriving sustainance from the tree. This tree is like the mind of a "normal" person. But, then a strong wind whips up and rattles the whole tree, making it sway to and fro; the broken branch is ripped from it's hold on the tree. After the storm, the tree has obviously been damaged. Not only is the branch ripped from the tree, but other branches have cracks or are now hanging precariously from the its base, leaves have been ripped away. It's a fairly ugly tree now and if it were an animal, our reaction might be to put it out of it's misery.
The mind of a depressed person is like that tree with the broken branch. Overall, we probably look pretty well put together. After all, everyone has some kind of flaw, right? We keep them hidden in our minds. ALOT of depressed people are perfectionists (I know I was for many years). All it takes to rattle us is a bit of wind; the death of a friend, a relative, sexual abuse, any kind of abuse really. We become that tree with the one broken branch, and we walk with a bit of a psychological 'limp'. Inside, we are suffering from a weigh of self doubt, inadequacy, deep sadness that we can't shake. You can't cheer up a depressed person. We might smile for a bit, go for a walk, out for dinner ~ whatever you drag us out to. But as soon as you are gone, we return to that unshakable sadness that weighs us down.
Back to the story about the tree. A MIGHTY wind (divorce, an earthquake, tidal wave, terrorist attack...) whips up and our minds become chaotic. We slide a little deeper into a greater sadness. We stop showering, stay in our jammies all day, sleep in late and stay up all night. We don't bother talking to anyone, or we argue vehemently over the littlest things. We avoid those cheerful friends and withdraw into ourselves, into our self~made loneliness and start believing all those negative thoughts that seem to plague us. We become that ugly, broken tree with missing leaves and other broken branches.
Given time, the broken tree will survive and will grow new branches and leaves. Maybe one day, provide shade from the weather and shelter from the wind for others.
Given time, a depressed person can begin to heal. But it takes time and effort on our part. It takes an effort to step out of our comfort zone, which, if you will remember, is not a very happy place anyway! 😊 For some, maybe all, it will take medication. It could take counselling and prayer/mediation. It could take a 're~wiring' of our minds to think, not 'happy thoughts' but positive thoughts.
I will be sharing my experiences in coming blogs, but I'd also like to hear from you. There is only one way out of the stigma of mental illness and that is to talk about it. I don't have all the answers, but I could have some of them.
So let's talk!
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