LEARN TO RE-BOUNCE; FIVE WAYS TO OVERCOME DEPRESSION

Mohammed Ali Ibrahim.        U16MM1006

Mohammad Shamsiya Gado   U16MM1094

Photo credit: Daly family.ng 

Looking at the rate at which people commit suicide today and precisely students, it becomes highly imperative for me to abide in me a pen so as to warrant a prudence on this particular predicament battling our society as a whole. At first, it has been established that depression actually leads to suicide. 

Depression is nothing but a mental state characterized by a pessimistic sense of in inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity and could be neurotic, retarded or psychotic by type. However, for the sake of this discussion I foster my interest on psychotic depression; which is a state of depression so severe that the person loses contact with reality and suffers a variety of functional impairments. Going with the above definition of psychotic depression, you will concur with me that majority of victims of suicide are psychotically depressed. 

Photo Credit: Forbes

People get depressed when they slide a step back after two steps forward, they think they are failing, and that they've lost it but they have not. However words like It’s never an end to…, no condition is permanent. You can still emerge victorious, your present situation in life does not mean an end to your dreams. Why suicide after depression? are words usually used to console people with depression.  Instead, delineated below are some things to do and renew the image of your dreams to become a better person in life:

1.0 Change Your Values, Change Your Life!

If you find that your life values are not arranged or defined in a way that will propel you to achieve your goals, then surely it’s time to take charge and re-design them! When you change your values, you immediately change the way you make decisions, the way you behave and ultimately, your future. We must remember that the values we have today are not the result of conscious choices we have made in the past. You never consciously chose the values that you have today. They came about because of conditioning from your environment and the significant people in your life.

2.0 Give It a New Meaning and Rescue Yourself.

What we must understand is that all meaning is context dependent. In other words, there is no meaning in life except the meaning we choose to give it. When we look at things (an experience, an incident, an event) from one perspective, it may seem totally bad. However, when we change the way we look at the same thing (i.e. from a different perspective), the meaning completely changes. It could become totally powerful… for you. You can also see that any experience in life carries with it multiple meanings. Anything in life has the potential to be either good/positive or bad/negative. It depends on your perspective, the frame in which you are seeing it from.  

3.0 Rekindle Your Hope, Face The Challenge!

You must learn how to objectively explore the weaknesses in your own thinking and to challenge the self-deception that is undermining your effectiveness in life. Dr. Branden once said "To trust your mind and to know that your worthy of happiness is the essence of self-esteem; the value of self-esteem lies not merely in the fact that it allows us to feel better, but that it allows us to live better—to respond to challenges and opportunities more resourcefully and appropriately". Don’t lose hope before getting frustrated at a situation, remember you never know what tomorrow holds for you. It is only those who wait for tomorrow that see the goodness in tomorrow. Gather your courage and be patience for tomorrow is never too late.

4.0 Make Yourself Smarter and Schedule Your Come Back.

You can schedule your own comebacks. You can look ahead on your calendar and block out time to refresh and renew and recover. Even if you feel very "up" right now, it's smart to plan for renewal. Schedule your own comeback while you're on top. Build in big periods of time to get away—even to get away from what you love. If you catch yourself thinking that you are too old to do something you want to do, recognize that you are now listening to the pessimistic voice inside of you. It is not the voice of truth. You can talk back. You can remind the voice of all the people in life who have started their lives over again at any age they wanted to. John Housman, the Emmy award-winning actor in The Paper Chase, started acting professionally when he was in his 70s. Nobody cares how old you are but you. People only care about what you can do, and you can do anything you want, at any age, for it is better to be late than to become a late.

5.0 Build Self-Confidence, Be Prayerful!

You should know that the ‘state’ in which you are in at any moment in time is determined by your physiology, and your internal representation. You have also been taken through a slew of strategies, each one designed to manage your physiology in order to optimize your ‘state’. Nothing is hard in life but everything can be harder when you have no confidence in yourself. You must develop self-confidence through consistent motivation. Its normal to lose at a point in life, its normal get depress in life because failure is constant and you can’t afford to avoid it. The most important thing is to learn from your mistakes and source of your failures as it is said that “failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor”. Success will never come without challenges, but the worst aspect is to allow these challenges to defeat you. Consistent prayer also is paramount to accomplish your goals. When depression comes move closer to your Lord, seek for His guidance and protection and He will surely provide a way out.

Depression will come but committing suicide is not the answer. Anyone could be depressed including “the have” and “the have not”, the rich and the poor. For the rich in the face of optimism or in our comfort zone, we should always perceive banes and develop anti-negativity to curtail pessimism whenever it arises. For the poor, discuss your problems with people because a problem shared is a problem solved. Silence will only worsen your condition. Your life is precious, your family needs you and your society is looking forward to see your contribution to her development. So, why suicide? Because of a single predicament? Or because you are financially constraint? No condition is permanent, life is changing and change is constant. What goes around comes around, everything will change, your life will also change. Your sadness shall become happiness, your worries will turn to glories, your failures will become flavors and you shall move from grass to graces. Say no to suicide, depression is not the end. Think of your family, friends and loved ones, learn to come from behind and come to your own rescue.