Throughout our lives, we are conditioned to believe that depression and anxiety are a bad thing.  We are told over and over that these experiences are negative and we must “fix” them.  And how do we do this?  How do we fix them? 

Well, the pharmaceutical world would like us to believe the answer is through medications and other forms of expensive therapies.  They want you on their drugs so they can profit off of your depressive and anxious experiences.  Sure, this may impact you chemically, but it does nothing to improve your mentality.  They want you to think that their medication is the answer, so you continue to take it and not pursue further self-growth.  I am going to dive deep into this topic in a moment but first, a story.

When I was a teenager, I was going through it.  I was experiencing full on insomnia, depressive and suicidal thoughts, limited feelings of any self-worth, and constant anxiety and self-doubt.  And everyone from friends and family to even my schoolteachers were adamant that I fixed it.  So, after much reluctance, I agreed to go see my first psychiatrist.

The first doctor I saw was not a good experience.  He charged my family $110 for the appointment just to sit with me for five minutes and hand me handfuls of sample packets of medication from his closet.  These meds were basically whatever was popular in the pharmaceutical world at the time.  Because he did not put any effort into knowing me, these medications failed and actually made me feel worse.  This doctor was eventually arrested for this form of practice with his patients and is still in prison today.  But even after medications making me worse, people still insisted I needed to fix my depression and anxiety, so it was off to psychiatrist number two.

This doctor was much better with his communication.  We had several appointments and he sat with me longer to get an understanding of what my personal needs were.  However, he ended up putting me on way too many drugs.  And when it didn't work, he countered the failure by adding yet more drugs.  In fact, I fully believe that the combination of all these medications as a youth lead to having epileptic seizures as an adult, as there are adverse effects of all these medications.  These pharmaceutical companies are even making drugs to counteract side effects of other drugs now, which is insane.

To make a long story short, I eventually started to feel better by diving into self-work.  And this is what I want to share with you today.  You have the power not to “fix” yourself, but to channel your emotions into an energy that can give you great strengths.

You see, if you are experiencing depression or anxiety, nothing is wrong with you.  When I learned of my experiences as not something to fix but instead as something to embrace, that is when my life changed.  Let me explain…

I will continue to share my experience and I encourage you to pause the reading of this blog and reflect inwards on yourself. 

I realized that my experiences with depression and anxiety carried many gifts.  For example, through these experiences I gained a great ability to creatively express myself through music, art, and writing.  I gained a huge amount of empathy for others, I became physically and mentally stronger, I became emotionally in tune with myself and my surroundings, and most importantly gained the desire to help others through their tough times.  The list goes deeper than this, but I encourage you to pause here and think about what gifts depression, anxiety, and hard times have brought to your character and abilities.

I am not saying that depression and anxiety are not real or that they can be “fixed” in fact I believe the opposite.  I feel like these experiences will always be a part of you, but they can lead you to great power.  Just as every coin has two sides, every experience, emotion, circumstance, and thought does as well.  It is up to you to be aware of them all and let go of the side that does not serve you and your higher purpose.

As I conclude, here are some exercises to try to help you become aware of your thoughts, emotions, and to understand yourself better.

1.) Write down everything that you can think of and feel how your experiences with depression and anxiety can be                transformed into a gift.

 2.) Use “I AM” affirmations to progressively change your thought patterns.  If you would like a guide to some I Am affirmations, click here

 3.) Try different physical activities to serve as an outlet for pent up emotions.  When you find something, you like, physical activity can change your chemical balance and put you on a path to Total Health.

I hope this post has been helpful to you.  Remember that everything is energy…absolutely everything.  And all energy you can transfer to something that is impactful for you in a positive way.  If you would like more information on this energy transfer or would like to learn more methods and techniques to organically combat depression and anxiety, hit the link below and Results Fitness Mobile will meet with you and help to create a strategy.

Wishing you all the best and to never lose sight of your love, abilities, and powerful energy that you possess to create anything that you desire.

-Coach Derek