How to Be A Warrior

Living with depression has not been easy for me, but it is easier now than it has ever been before. One doesn't "beat" depression, or "cure" it. The best you can ever hope for is to live with it. And just like every cancer is different, every depression is different too. I speak this, not as a medical doctor, but only as one who has lived with depression and who has witnessed many people survive and sucumb to cancer. It's hard doing battle with your own body, your own mind. How can you ever truly win.

So, if you're going to lead a good life with depression as your companion, you need to be a "Sacred Warrior", in the vernacular of Chogyam Trungpa, and remember some good basic precepts to live by.

1. Get Help: Nothing great was ever accomplished by one person truly acting alone. If you're going to fight depression, get help. Get professional help, see many different doctors, gurus, medics, experts before settling on the one or two that help you the most. Depression has been around for quite some time and it's quite common. You need to learn from the richness of experience of all the people who have come before you.

2. Get Support: Your friends and family may not be experts on depression but they love you and will support you. It's important that they know what's going on with you. Later, as you grow in knowledge of the disease it may become necessary for you to educate and train your loved ones so that they can help you most. But the first step, is to get your depression out in the open.

3. Drugs help some people. Personally, I am not a huge proponent of anti-depressants. Still, I was on antidepressants for a decade. I do not think drug are The Answer. But medication can help stabalize you so that you can get other systems of support in place. So do your research, give them a try, and see what works.

4. Be visible, don't keep it a secret. When we keep something it a secret it is a trigger to ourselves. We send a message: this is shameful. When we share information, when we name something, we start to see it everywhere. By keeping depression a secret we make it shameful. So make it visible. Start with those whom you trust the most. Perhaps, do not start sharing your depression at work or with strangers you meet in the elevator. The point is, once you start talking about it you will be amazed at how much you have in common with others.

5. Don't neglect the body: Depression, like any illness, affects the whole body. So don't forget about diet and exercise. There is a lot of research that suggest that increasing exercise and changing the foods we eat can help treat depression.

6.Knowledge is power: There is a whole wealth of books and knowledge about depression. Become an expert. Whether you like it or not, if you have depression, you need to become an expert in it. The more you know, the easier things will be.