Another way of looking at depression

[LadyForCamus]

That's the entire thing about clinical depression, EP.  It has nothing to do with choice or rational thought.  Just like you can't talk yourself out of experiencing a delusion or a hallucination, you can't talk yourself out of depression.  The emotions blossom like horrible fireworks; uninvited and completely uncontrollable.  It hijacks your brain and eats away at your personality.  It is a mental illness.  It's not the same thing as just "having a bad attitude" or, "being a negative nancy."  

I've become fairly good at talking myself out of hallucinations or delusions or whatever is actually is that happens to me. I did several months of group therapy for learning just this technique. Not the we all sit around and share our problems group therapy. Actually...I'm not even really sure why it was in a group. We all met every Tuesday and we practiced a few other techniques for different PTSD triggers as well but mostly we focused on this...day dreaming as I like to call it. I suppose if you live someplace really dangerous it wouldn't be a good option for you, but you basically live on the assumption that anything really terrifying isn't real. So you stay calm, assess your situation, and look for proof. At that time the snow was a huge help for me (so huge that I slept with my bedroom window cracked open the whole winter) I lived with my ex husband in South Georgia so if there was snow that meant my ex husband wasn't really there. I've come a long way since the days when "there's snow outside my window" was a saving grace.

Not an over-share at all, Losty!  That's actually fascinating.  Fighting back is all that we can do, and you are courageous for working so hard at it.