A spiritual perspective on depression and anxiety.

As it’s mental health week here in the UK it seemed a good time to address a serious subject that most of us know something about. If we haven’t suffered with either depression or anxiety ourselves, the chances are we know someone close to us who has or is.

Depression is not just the odd bad day here and there, we all have those, it’s a constant battle and not something you just get over. It’s debilitating, exhausting, all consuming. It’s scary as hell. And it’s even more difficult when you can’t understand why you feel like this, and neither can those around you. Anyone suffering needs a good support network, with no judgement, no trotting out positive quotes or platitudes etc, but other souls who will listen, encourage, and just be with you. Without trying to fix you.

It’s not the easiest of subjects to write about as a therapist. I often find myself standing with a foot in both camps of the spiritual and the scientific. I can talk from my own journey of dealing with both anxiety and depression, and how, in the end, it was the catalyst to my changing my life. I can talk of people I know who have tried many, many therapies and in the end it’s pharmaceuticals that keep them on track. I can tell you true stories of those, like me, who found pharmaceuticals only made matters worse and it was a combination of therapies that worked. And then there are tragically the souls who don’t find their answer.

So, I guess what I’m saying is that there is no ‘one suit fits all’ approach to dealing with mental health. It’s a hugely emotional subject, it’s a difficult journey, and sadly not everyone makes it through. On a positive note, many, many people do, every day, and go on to live a more peaceful life. It’s completely personal journey to each and every soul traveling it. One person’s panic attack can be so similar to yet so different from another person’s that although we can talk about it, and empathise, we cannot, ever, know what it feels like to be walking in that person’s shoes. What seems like a small step forward to one person can feel like a mountain to climb to another. It’s about taking those steps when you feel up to it, about knowing that each step, no matter how small it might seem is a step. And that it matters. Congratulating yourself for taking that step rather than criticising yourself for it not being a big enough step.

The western approach to depression traditionally has been to see it as a chemical imbalance in the brain that medication can address (though I must state that in a lot of cases that seems to be changing). And, in some cases, that is what works. Healers, shamans and many therapists believe that depression and/or anxiety are caused by an imbalance in the soul. That our soul is trying to get a message through to us that something in our life is out of balance. That we are not walking our walk or traveling our path. And that using medication to mask or supress these messages is only going to prolong the problem.

Shamanic texts talk about the 3 causes of illness, whether mental, emotional or physical as being Disharmony, Fear or Soul Loss.

Disharmony is seen as a loss of personal power. It could be a sudden, sharp loss or a quiet creeping sense of loss. But either way life seems to lose its meaning causing us to feel lost and useless.

Fear is often masked through other emotions such as anger, jealousy, woe or stress. Most of our ‘reactive’ emotions can be tracked back through our body to fear as a root cause. And this triggers our body to produce stress hormones leading to further imbalance which often then justifies the initial fear as being valid.

Soul Loss is usually experienced after a tragedy or sudden event, such as an accident, a death, or even bullying or a bad breakup. It’s a deep wound on a soul level that is carried into the future. You’ll commonly hear expressions such as “part of me died” or “I’ve lost a part of myself” or “I’ve not felt the same since…” it’s an extreme and very deep reaction to an event. I personally refer to it as a shatter. You still retain your soul, it is after all your essence, but you fundamentally change. Part of your soul shatters or is left somewhere else. And there is no going back, you have to learn who you are and go forwards. You have to heal your soul or retrieve the parts that are out there somewhere else and allow yourself to heal, then move forwards on your path, changed but still you.

It’s never easy trying to categorise something which is such a personal journey. My personal experience was caused by a change in life and my soul telling me that I needed to change further, to step onto a different path and to follow my truth instead of trying to fit into a world in which I didn’t belong. Your story may be totally different. Spiritually, for me, depression and anxiety are your soul screaming to be heard, to be healed, to change. And therein lies the problem. It’s not always easy to effect change even when you know what change is necessary, it’s damn difficult trying to do it when you have no idea.

But here’s the thing. When your soul wants to speak to you, the best thing you can do is listen. And you’re not going to listen when you’re busy filling your time with avoidance tactics. Or making sure that you’re just “too busy”. Your soul speaks to you in the silence. It’s not about being psychic, or even intuitive. It’s about being true to yourself and really, honestly listening to what your heart and soul are telling you. 

You might listen by journaling, by dancing, by meditating or creating. You might listen by walking in the countryside, by sitting under a tree or by water, you might listen by swimming or yoga. You might listen by using oracle cards or a pendulum. The important thing is that you do listen. Allow yourself the time and space to let your soul speak. And then don’t ignore what it is saying. It might sound too difficult, hell it might sound downright impossible. But chances are you can still do it if you think about how you can make the shift. Talk it over with someone you can trust to listen without judgement.

It might be that your relationship is no longer working, or that your career or job no longer serves you. It might be that you need to let go of something you’ve been carrying for years, or that you have things from your past that need dealing with now. Whatever it is, it’s showing up as a mental illness.

Spiritually depression can happen simply because we live in such a material world, with high expectations of who and what we should be. It can be challenging to step back from that expectation and refuse to be drawn into the competitive world of who has the most, who is the busiest, the most successful, who drives the best car, has the largest house etc. But your soul really doesn’t care about any of that. Not meeting those expectations though can leave us feeling useless or a failure, worthless. It can make us forget that we came here simply to experience, to learn and most importantly to be ourselves.

Then there’s the major upheavals in life. Bereavement, divorce, redundancy, retirement, major health problems or loss. They too need time, need healing. But the gift of these is that they can be periods of incredible growth though it often doesn’t feel that way at the time. They can bring to the surface long buried feelings or problems, they can help you to see the changes you need to make, you’ll often come out emotionally and spiritually stronger. As long as you’re willing to work through it and not hold onto heavy emotional baggage.

The last thing I’ve seen is energy absorption. Trying to find your way when all about you are filled with negativity, if you’re trying hard to help someone deal with depression and you take on that energy yourself. It can be really tough to keep yourself clear and light in these situations. To not get sucked down into the negativity and the despair. It can be hard to keep going, to stay positive each and every day. Not to let comments get to you. And in this situation taking steps to energetically keep yourself clear, to do something every day that matters to you to help you flick off the emotions that aren’t yours. Journal, meditate, create something. But keep yourself energetically cleansed.

There are no simple solutions, not everyone will see themselves as having a spiritual crisis. And that’s ok. We all walk our own journey; we meet people along the way that we can walk with for a while. But only we can take our own steps. Finding your own pathway through depression and anxiety is key to dealing with it. Try to avoid judgements and platitudes. Find your tools to help. I’m not saying it’s easy and simple. Trust me, I know it’s anything but. Diving deep into yourself is hard work. But it’s work that pays off in the end. When you truly know yourself, it makes a huge difference in how you interact with others. 

You might be one of the people who respond well to pharmaceuticals, and you know what – that’s perfectly ok too.

Whatever it is that works for you, do that. But do something. Depression and anxiety can stop you from living your best life, but they might just be the thing that makes you change enough so that you can do. Like me. I wish you so much love and support on your journey if you are trying to find your way through depression or anxiety, take each minute as it comes, be kind to yourself and remember you’re doing the best you can.