* remission

Remission is the holy grail of those seeking to treat along with those who have depression. While at times it’s felt to me to be an impossible goal, much more recently it has felt much more attainable, at least for a while (for the good and not always so good news regarding the reality of depression is nothing lasts forever).

Part of the challenge of depression is that for most of us who struggle with it, remission, while possible, is just that. You don’t end up cured of depression, you just look forward to those times when things are going about as well as they can, given the circumstances. It involves days when you are happy to get up and going, energy to do what needs doing, the self-confidence needed to meet with people, idea generation, enjoyment of life and the list goes on. This in contrast to pretty much the opposite of all the above when you are experiencing depression.

So what lends itself to remission? In not necessarily this order it involves Sleep.
As in enough of it every night. A skilled psychiatrist patient enough to tinker with all the meds now available to get as best a fit as possible with your own emotional and biological makeup (what I’ve called in a previous post, you as a “walking chemistry experiment”). A patient therapist, willing to go over life with you, encouraging you to rewrite some things, forget others and respond to life as it happens in new ways. A spiritual walk, my own being Christian. Sunlight and exercise, both of which lend themselves of assistance to all the above. Friends, as in those willing to walk alongside you through the good days and those which aren’t. In other words, it takes a lot to help you arrive and hopefully stay for some time at the destination of remission. And while you’re there you need to be breathing deeply of all it entails, so as to fill up the corners of your brain so that the memories of remission can be part of the light at the end of what can at times be very long tunnels of depression.