The Indidiousness of Depression: Past, Present, Future
One of the problems inherent with depression is its absolute insidiousness.
There is the blood/brain barrier, but as far as I am aware, and maybe you could consider memory loss or the placebo effect as being "defensive"...but the brain (where the mind resides) has no natural "immune system" like our physical bodies do.
When a virus or threat or harmful pathogen is introduced to the human body, it will do its absolute best completely on its own to rid it of that threat. We seem to forget that, with modern medicine, it's easy to take our own physic healing capabilities for granted---it is planted within us to keep us alive/to survive.
The mind is also different in the body in its absolutely amazing neuroplastic abilities---the ability to CHANGE itself into a brain more suited for our environment.
This amazing ability of the brain is also a key reason why depression (especially chronic) is so insidious: it takes advantage of the brain's "changability" and uses it for disadvantageous, irrational purposes. We condition ourselves by how we respond to our environments...for the positive or negative. The brain does not judge: it functions.
So when you're depressed, for example, your MIND is totally up for grabs for whatever maladaptive coping mechanisms that happen to fly your way. And it gets stuck inside your mind: and it CHANGES it.
Depression does not just affect the present moment: it seeps into your past and drains it of all the feelings you're not able to feel anymore. It takes the color from your memories until they're not even really distinct memories anymore...just a mess of brown/black once-images.
Not only does it drain your past and your present of color, but your entire future, too. You literally cannot see the colors anymore...those colors that most people use as guiding lights to follow through their lives. Colors like joy, pleasure, grief, suffering. All of the hues, on all the spectrums. Sometimes you're left with only one color to see through: like anger...but then sometimes it's just black and white. The future is not as jumbled as the past but it is JUST as unclear/unable to be discerned.
I guess I'm just saying I hope everyone who reads this has color in their lives, and can see clearly through the blobs and once-colors that are now indistinguishable to me. Dont let anyone tell you you are selfish for relishing in those colors: because that's what life is for, and people like me desperately need more good colorful examples to look up to.
That is all.












