Excerpts from “Recovering from Depression: A companion guide for Christians”

PART 2           SETTING OUT ON THE JOURNEY

6    Some essentials                                             

There are one or two foundation stones I would encourage you to put down for your path of recovery.

The first is your determination to avoid at all costs a return journey into your particular Darkness. But you will need more than the desire not to follow that downward path again. You will need determination and motivation to make positive choices and to follow positive and healthy ways of living as you reach out for recovery for your bruised and battered mind.

 AN UNEXPECTED INTERLUDE

Journal entry: Wednesday 1st May 2013

Over the last few weeks there has been an outbreak of measles in Wales which has reached epidemic proportions. Thousands of children who have not already been immunized against the disease are being vaccinated to protect them from what is a very nasty illness.

And I’m thinking, ‘wouldn’t it be great if depression was an illness like measles, chicken pox or mumps – very nasty but preventable, or only catchable once because the sufferer then has natural immunity.

But depression just isn’t like that. I think of it more like a condition with which I live, constantly aware that it’s in the background all the time. Sometimes it can flare up and interfere with my everyday life to varying degrees, then it’ll fade away again and I can get back to whatever ‘normal’ is for me at the time.

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