Get Angry. Grrr!

It turns out that a lot of negative emotions can easily trigger depression. Surprised? Well, you shouldn't be. Today my anger kind of took a bad hold over me. When a person gets too angry they can tend to throw metaphorical or even literal fists to try to work out the rage, but when someone who struggles with chronic depression feels angry, they tend to throw the punches at themselves. It’s very, very easy to get caught up in a cycle of self-judgment and even self-loathing. Why does this tend to happen? We live in a world where everyone judges everyone; whether it’s based on race, gender, sexual preference, intelligence, strength, and/or physical appearance. It just kind of fits our society to be the biggest judges of ourselves, but this can and will lead to a dangerous train of thought. It becomes dangerous because you, just like me or everyone else, is far from perfect.

Unfortunately, it can easily be seen that most people who struggle with depression tend to look inward when searching to find something or someone to blame for the issues in their lives. I have countless times blamed myself for something that I had absolutely no control over whatsoever. I recall a time that I blamed the cloudy weather on my own existence. How stupid is that? People can easily laugh at the absurdity of that thought, but at the time I believed it fully within my heart. That is a heavy, unbearable weight to carry on your own. This is something I have struggled with (more specifically used to battle with) that has taken a while to overcome. Your mind, emotions, and life don’t have a switch; you’re not going to just flip things around with the flick of the wrist. It takes a lot of time, discipline, and fighting.

It’s so easy to forget that the depression itself is the enemy to be fighting. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that anger is a natural emotion that is necessary to the human soul, but if it is let loose off of its leash, it will wreak havoc. Instead, we can guide our anger to do good things. One can use anger as motivation: get out and go run, lift weights, write a story or poetry, turn on some music and sing your heart out. I've met way too many people who let their emotions control them when it should be the other way around. Our emotions are direct reactions to the things outside of us that we cannot control. However, when we take a sad thought, such as judgments over one’s physique or why someone left our lives, and replay the thought over and over again, we are letting the emotion do way more than it should. We cannot allow the emotions to run our lives, but rather be a healthy outlet. So, get out there and use your negative emotions to conquer the day!

Carl J. Bromley