Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Consider depression's gifts as well as medication

Today in Beck Corley's blog entry about medication and depression, she references a section entitled "Gifts of Depression" from Thomas Moore's book, Care of the Soul. She writes,
"I was reading my fave magazine Wellbeing and I stumbled across an article on depression and anxiety. I was excited because I have experienced both and I knew my fave mag would have lots of natural remedies and healing modalities to offer.

But I couldn't get past the second page where there was a section on depression as a gift. Thomas Moore wrote an essay called "The Gifts of Depression" likening depression to the winter of the soul."
This writing by Moore is available online. Corley includes, "I have also been keeping up my healthy eating and exercise. Mum and I go to the gym at least 4 times a week and every morning we return home buzzing and glowing. Yoga at least 4 times a week too. Exercise really helps me mentally. I'm not sure whether it's a great distraction from the thoughts in my head or if the serotonin is kicking in and giving me happy times. I don't care. It works and I'm going to keep it up."

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