“Managing versus Curing” Depression

You may have noticed I have named my blog “depressionmanaged” and not “eliminating depression” or “curing depression”, not even overcoming depression. In my experience depression is something we can’t just get rid of. It has taken time to build up the depression to its present state and it will take time to control or manage it so that a normal life can be pursued. I have a friend who says that she just wants to take a pill or see a doctor and then the depression will be gone, or cured. Unfortunately things don’t work that way. Yes, there is medication that helps you manage depression better – see that word “manage” is there again – but none of them claim that they “cure” depression. Also I find that having the expectation of a cure for depression is setting my goal somewhere up in the sky and making it nearly unachievable, which in turn will just dishearten me and worsen my fragile emotional state.

However, if my aim is to “manage” my depression I set myself little, achievable goals along the way. For example I try to get through one day without feeling overwhelmed by my emotions. If one day is still too difficult, well then I cut it down to one hour. When I have achieved that goal, I will set the next one. Like this I can enjoy a sense of achievement throughout the day, every day and this will brighten my mood. However, if occasionally I can’t fight off the depression monster it’s not so tragic, because there is always another opportunity tomorrow. It is a bit like giving up smoking. You take it one hour at a time. The cravings are there but if we manage to distract ourselves and occupy our mind with something more interesting then the cravings – or in our case the negative emotions – will start to fade away. The more we can overcome them the more they will fade and with time depression only periodically raises its ugly head. But this does not happen within a week, it takes time and we must allow ourselves to go through this process of personal development.


By learning to manage my depression I went from being totally consumed by depression over 90% of the time, every day of the week, to dealing with depression maybe 10-15% of the time and this only periodically. I am not cured of depression, it is still there in the background and when it makes itself felt I still have to make an effort. But I can function normally nearly 100% of the time, just sometimes it is a bit more difficult.

Fighting the dark shadow of my depression has sharpened my empathy for other people and strengthened my belief in myself and given me the courage to live in the present and not in the past or in the future. I truly believe that I am a better person because of it.