Depression

Depression is the most powerful, most consuming illness on earth. It is that way because it has no boundaries. It’s so dangerous, even fatal if not treated right. It never goes away, but waits just out of sight, in the shadows. When you think you have it beat, it will work itself back into your life.

Depression doesn't care how smart you are or how many degrees you have, how you dress, or what part of town you live in. It doesn't care about how much money you have. Or how famous you are. Depression is the vilest thing ever. When it gets you, you keep it a secret and that makes it stronger and bigger and smarter.

There is such a stigma attached to depression that people will act like everything is okay while they’re acting there dying inside. Depression grows and grows. You feel like an outcast and like there really is nowhere to turn as depression just smiles and sucks your soul out of you. People who don't know about it talk about it and make it worse. Depression is always working hard to bring you down all the time. It never stops.

To overcome depression is a nonstop fight. The only way to beat it is to fight it all the time, every day, depression loves it when people stay at home. People also keep to themselves and stop talking to their friends. Depression loves that, too. Depression loves it when people start drinking and taking drugs. Depression kills people and when it does, other people say that the person was a coward or that they took the easy way out. Other people who suffer from depression know that and so feel that they can never talk about it, which makes their problem even worse.

People with depression don't kill themselves. Depression kills them. They reach a point where they are so deep and so low with it, there is nowhere to turn. They are afraid to fight and do not know how to fight, and giving in seems so much easier. I used try to run from it that never worked. I sat in my office and cried, even walked out of the store. I was going to walk till I died one day.

Depression has taken so many lives and so many suffer in silence and the stigma behind it is so great that it seems like it will always win. I have suffered for over 38 years. I stood at the edge myself and I turned. I ran away and I learned to fight. I have tools that depression can't match. I practice every day and I fight everyday and I will win over time because I get stronger every day.

This is a great month for me. I celebrate it by taking pride in the fact I stood and fought .But there are so many people who have not taken the steps I have taken. That’s why I am writing this book: to help people like me! If you are one of them, please make the call for help! Depression is killing so many people mentally and physically. It needs to be stopped.

Use the tools:

Write every day to prove to yourself that those negative thoughts are wrong.

Forgive yourself, and everyone else.

Love yourself. Prove it by treating yourself well.

Live in the moment

Make affirmations: Write them and say them:

I succeed in life

I am worth changing

I deserve to be happy.

I am not afraid to be happy

I am not afraid to be myself.

I am a strong and smart person.

I will beat depression.

Don't be afraid to talk to someone. You’re not alone, no matter how lonely and empty you feel when the world closes in and you have nowhere turn or run. Pick up a phone, like I did, and make a call. It is so easy and it will change your life and make you strong. You will learn to fight this illness, get the proper help you need and the tools to live a happy life.

Learning that you are worth changing is so very important we all have the right to be happy, each and every one of us. Time invested in your self is never wasted. You are the most important person in your life. We will all make mistakes and we all have to admit we are human. Then we all have to forgive and forget.

I will say it again: forgive yourself.

Most of all, don’t carry guilt around with you. It will bring you down. Enjoy life. Take chances and smile and laugh at your attempts that fall short. Fight depression at every turn. Take its power away. Fight and battle. Write and write, talk and talk. Stop acting like nothing is wrong when something is wrong. You can even sing my song lyric if you like. It will inspire you like it does me , If I am having a bad day sometimes I will sing it all day to remind myself that I have to fight and fight to live a happy life and be myself. “Nothing worth having doesn’t come without some kind of fight..... You gotta kick at the darkness till it bleeds day light”.