Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Renunciation.....
Each day, accept everything that comes to you as a gift. At night, metally give it all back. In this way, you become free. No one can ever take anything from you, for nothing is yours.

What is depression?

Everyone has felt depressed from time to time. A death in the family, a failed romance, a lost job, a serious illness, or other life crisis will cause most people to feel sad, lonely, or down for a time. A period of grief or sadness is a normal reaction to such stressful events. It's even normal to feel "blah" sometimes for no particular reason. However, it also is normal to recover after a short time and feel like yourself again.

When the blues don't go away—when sad, lonely, irritable, or weary feelings prevent getting on with life—you, or someone you know, may have the mood disorder called depression. A mood disorder is an extreme, persistent disruption of a person's usual emotional state.

Depression is a "whole body" illness—one that affects a person's physical health as well as how he or she feels, thinks, and behaves toward others. A person who has depression may have problems sleeping, eating, working, and getting along with friends.

Depression can cause many different kinds of unhappy feelings. A depressed person may cry all the time, be very fearful, have panic attacks, argue with friends and coworkers, lose self-confidence, even have hallucinations. On the other hand, he or she might feel numb; not really sad, but not happy either.

People who are depressed will often try to self-medicate their bad feelings with drugs or alcohol, which only makes matters worse. Alcohol is a depressant, the last thing a depressed person needs.
Depression can come on suddenly, seemingly for no reason, or be triggered by a stressful event. It can also grow slowly over months and years, gradually draining away happiness and hope.
It is important for a person who is depressed—and his or her family, friends, and coworkers—to understand that depression is a disease. A depressed person has not caused these feelings and cannot simply decide to snap out of it and stop being depressed.

Depression is a very common health problem, and it is frequently misunderstood. People who have this illness often are embarrassed to admit they are depressed and to seek help for what they may see as a character flaw or weakness. This may be the reason two thirds of all people who are depressed never seek professional help.

Weakness has nothing to do with depression. Trying to ignore these feelings only gives them time to grow. Depression is a physical disorder that causes chemical changes inside the brain. These changes will not go away on their own. Recovery from depression may require psychotherapy, medication, or a combination of these or other treatments.

It seems like a lot of people I know who are suffering right now. It's ok to be sad but if it takes over your life it's best to get help.
Thinking positive, and running out on the trails always helps me when I feel depressed.

WOD 2/10/2009

Run 400m four times.
Rest 2 minutes between efforts.
Try to keep 15 seconds difference between all efforts.

Here are my times: 1:41, 1:42, 1:43, 1:43
also 3 mile run today.

10 comments:

Hone said...

Awesome advice!!

It is something I suffer from quite a bit. I am not ashamed to admit it. Running has really helped me in this aspect. When I stopped skateboarding years ago I needed to find a new outlet. For me it was running.

Everyone is sad now and again. We just have to get up and put our shoulders to the wheel and keep going.

Ron said...

Hang in there, Catra. You epitomize the saying "live life to its fullest" and I enjoy following your adventures and am inspired by you.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the great post. I've been feeling really "blah" lately. Haven't been running much as I live in Cleveland, Ohio and the weather has been not so great. I've been reading your posts for a while and decided to try the Master Cleanse to see if that could change things for me. That detox was too rough for my first detox, so I switched to a raw fruits and veggies detox (going off caffine was rough but glad I did it, also glad I quit eating all the garbage I'd been "poisoning" my system with), I'm feeling so much better, it's amazing. Really cleaning my system from the inside out has done wonders, don't have the "blahs" anymore, and the only thing that has changed has been my diet (and mental outlook), can't wait to do the Master Cleanse to see what wonders that does for me. Thanks for all your words of wisdom and inspiration.
Sara

Anonymous said...

Yeah...right now is fitting. What to do? Have another? It is not easy. I want to type but I know it is not appropriate. So I am going to do what I want...

Anonymous said...

Hi Catra!

Way to be consistent on your 400 meters today. Especially after a 3 mile run. I love any workout that does not involve squats! Mission Peak would be good next week....Sequoia 20k is on the 28th. Woodside 17k was great....8 minutes faster than last time!

Sara

Jack said...

Great post Catra. I might add surrounding yourself with POSITIVE friends who build you up also helps. On the other side sometimes you have to let the friends go who continuously bring you down...

Danni said...

Oh Catra I bet you could do 90 second 400 m sprints ;)

Olga said...

It is also very important to separate a real depression as an illness from depressing state of mind, a short-term syndrome or symptom. Often it is simply SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), what, of course, is not simple per se, but surely treated quite easily. I believe, besides running and positive people and positive thoughts, it is crucial to not overthink what we have - kind of many mothers do when kids get sick (oh, he coughs - must be pneumonia!). May be it is medical education (I've seen bad things), may be it's being Soviet (psychology disorders are just weaknesses there for the most part in general population), but I do believe in taking an approach: everything can be overcome with the right attitude, and when needed - ask for help and use it!
Smile. I know you do:)

*Ultra*Rockstar* said...

I have been all the above for as long as I can remeber,but I must say lately,the past year or so has been the worse.Full on depression.Ever since my dad had his crisis and was in the hospital and had emergancy surgery and all the bad news just came all at once.It has been hard to pick myself up and recover. A string of events has left me feeling weak BUT I feel the tides are turning and things are looking up.
thanks for this post.

jb said...

what is going on? everyone i know (even the mellow ones) are anxious and bummed out right now. true- nothing like a good trail run.