DEPRESSION
What is the cause of
depression? Depression is one of the major problems of our age. The ideas we
have studied will give us an insight into this area.
A central feature of the
sensation of depression is the feeling of hopelessness and despair, the feeling
of no movement toward any goal, the feeling of the impossibility of reaching
any goal. And the cause of depression is exactly that: absence of movement
toward a goal. When the neshamah, the soul, senses that life is sliding by and
no meaningful progress is taking place, no real development is occurring, there
is a sense of stagnation, of despair. Happiness is the response of the neshamah
to its journey through life, the response of the neshamah to its own
development, its own growth and achievement. And depression is the response of
the neshamah to stagnation, to a situation of motionlessness and the absence of
achievement.
Your neshamah knows that
it is here to grow, to develop. That journey is the essence of life. So when
your neshamah senses that the journey has come to a halt, that life is sliding
by and you are going nowhere, you will become depressed. The journey is life
itself, every step on that journey is essential and priceless (you cannot get
to your destination unless you walk the entire road that leads there), and
therefore when time is passing but the journey is not progressing the neshamah
feels the cold hand of death. Depression is no less than a minor experience of
death itself; that is exactly why it is so painful.
A depressed person may not
know that this is the cause of the problem, but the soul knows. It is weeping,
crying out to be allowed to move on, to move actively and urgently to its
destination, and it is being obstructed. It is being held back from the most
urgent and important task that there is, the task of building itself and its
eternity in a race against time. If it fails to build itself now, it will exist
forever incomplete, deeply lacking. That would be disastrous, painful beyond
description. So the response of the soul is a feeling of deep pain, of life and
its opportunity lost. And it is possibly the deepest pain there is.
The problem of organic (or
medical) states of depression is outside the scope of this discussion. Here we
are referring to the depression experienced by people who have not yet
discovered their unique path in life, those whose lives seem pointless because
there is no real work being done, no meaningful exertion being expended in a
positive direction.
What is the cure for
depression? What should we tell someone who is depressed? What does such a
person need to do?
The answer is, get moving!
If the problem is lack of meaningful movement, get busy moving in the right
direction. As soon as the soul feels that it is moving and on the correct
course for its own development and fulfillment, it will forget all sadness; the
depression will end. You cannot feel depressed when you know you are moving
correctly toward a correct goal.
You may feel pain; you may
feel agony. Your face may show strain and your eyes may fill with tears, but if
you are winning the battle and moving ahead you cannot be depressed.
Sometimes it is necessary
to start the movement in an external area: getting the body moving may be
necessary before the soul can be roused. Judaism teaches that the
"external awakens the internal"; experiences and actions of the body
will stimulate experience of the soul. It may be necessary to begin with
physical exercise or occupation for the hands so that the outer can begin to
drive inward and affect the soul. But the idea remains: cure stagnation with
movement, passive wallowing in misery with activity.
You cannot approach
someone who is depressed and say, "Be happy." That will not work.
Instead, take that person for a run, get them moving, doing. Best of all, get
them busy doing something for someone else.
And the real cure will be
felt when the soul gets moving, when the personality begins its unique journey
toward its unique destination.
One who is laboring to
achieve, to build, and is aware that the result is taking shape as it should
cannot be depressed no matter how hard the work.
SELF-ESTEEM
A major problem for many
of today's youth (and adults) is low self-esteem. A healthy self-esteem
requires knowing who you are, knowing what you must become, and knowing that
you are getting there. If you know yourself, if you have a clear vision of your
goal, and if you are feeling genuine movement toward that goal, your
self-esteem will be intact. Not just intact; it will be throbbing and vital.
When you know that you are fulfilling your potential and becoming the very best
you can be, you will have such a rich sense of self-worth that you will glow
with confidence and positivity.
(Of course, you need to
know yourself and discover what your unique goal should be; we shall study this
later in our discussion on "Who Are You? Defining Your Role in Life,"
the subject of chapter 5.)
But if you are not moving,
if you are vague and unsure about where you should be going and you have no
sense of your own development, you will certainly lack self-esteem. You cannot
have esteem for yourself if you do not know who you are. If you are going
around in circles in the confused search for yourself, your self-esteem will be
spiraling down too. Self-esteem is the automatic result of a sharp, clear focus
on your unique personality and the perception that your uniqueness is being
fulfilled. If you are not working hard on these things, your deepest sense of
self will stagnate and dissolve.
TRAVELING THE WRONG ROAD
There is another way to
avoid depression and the pain of nongrowth: the wrong way.
It is possible to satisfy
the deep need to build and achieve by building and achieving trivial things, to
channel the drive to build into superficial areas. This escape often provides a
sense of achievement, a sense of work transformed into result, which is enough
to keep a person from the real task of working on the self without the warning
signs of a feeling of emptiness or depression.
People will build
collections of objects or throw themselves into projects which are meaningless
because this gives them a sense of purpose and movement; the fact that the
purpose is irrelevant or foolish is ignored.
Some people build collections
of beer cans; some build collections of valuable paintings. Some devote
themselves to sporting achievement, some to business. Some people build muscle;
some build empires. All of these have the potential to satisfy the need to
produce, to move, to build, at least for a while.
But very often they are
simply the superficial substitute for the really hard work of building the
self.
There is nothing wrong
with building things in this world; some of those things may be necessary and
most worthy. But when the building here becomes a substitute for the real work
of building the self, building that which will last for eternity, that is a
tragedy. This world and its achievements must always be the vehicle for the
real journey.
You cannot afford to forget
that the road leads somewhere; you cannot afford to forget the destination.
Consider this:
A man hired a truck driver
to deliver a load of goods to a distant city. "Drive carefully," he
instructed the driver. "Take good care of the truck, obey all the rules of
the road, do not do anything dangerous. Do not speed, take no chances."
Two days later, the driver
was back. "How did it go?" asked the man who had hired him.
"Fine," said the
driver. "I did exactly as you instructed. I took care of the truck, I obeyed
all the rules of the road, I drove safely all the way, and I took no
chances."
"Did you deliver the
goods as arranged?"
"Oh!" said the
driver. "I forgot to deliver the goods!"
You cannot afford to
forget to deliver the goods. Do not get so involved in the journey that you
forget where you are going. Do not get so involved in the excitement of doing
and moving and building that you forget to ask yourself where it all leads. You
do not want to travel for years and then discover that it has been the wrong
road, or that you were so preoccupied with the trivia of the journey that you
hardly moved at all, or that you forgot that you had goods to deliver.
You have goods to deliver:
yourself. You have the most important and precious goods to deliver, and only
you can deliver them. You have yourself and the future of the Jewish people in
your hands, and one day you will be asked that final and most profound
question: "Did you deliver the goods?"
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