Losses of Depression – When You Can No Longer Feel

Depression is a wakeup call to get better as soon as possible. But getting better is no longer as simple as we’d like it to be. There’s a process ahead, requiring more strength than we can contemplate. We’ll need help. Counsel. Support. Pharmaceuticals possibly. Self-help strategies. Faith. And any other strategies and assistance that come helpfully into our orbit.

One of the greatest challenges in the battle for mental health is the weakness we experience because we can no longer feel. What a dreadful satire life is when we plummet to this influx point.

Yes, an influx. The dam barrier of our personal sanctity is breached and privation ensues.

What replaces the ability to think is an influx of thoughts that constitute a fog. Awash with noise near and far the mind knows not how to direct the heart to feel, and the heart, like an orphan, loses confidence, and our soul loses touch with hope. Soon feeling is a foreign entity that used to represent who we were. The identity is mislaid. Connection to what we valued, but we feel irrefutably disconnected.

Good mental health occurs when the mind is strong enough to think logically, yet supple enough to engage in vulnerability, allowing the heart to feel all the varietals of reality. The mind nurtures the heart, and the heart, via instinct, informs the mind of truths the mind may not discern.

Working in unison, the mind and heart, our thoughts and feelings, are designed to govern our being; the operating system for representing our soul. But in mental ill-health the mind is weakened, the heart is directionless, and the soul is in crisis.

But recognising you can no longer feel is an important realisation. It explains so much. Because we’ve lost the capacity to feel we’re not only unable to feel our sadness, we’ve lost access to feeling, even seeing, the joys of life. Even in depression we want to feel connected to our feelings, unless it means being overwhelmed by them.

Knowing what’s missing is a key to the steps to be taken ahead.

Part of the way forward is to begin feeling again. It sounds so simple. It’s not. If we overextend we find we’re flooded in a deluge of feelings we cannot regulate with our mind.

Revelation is what we need. We need God to break through into our minds and instil us with belief and, from that, confidence. Faith can help a great deal in becoming curious enough to search for ways to feel.

There are many losses we experience in depression. Recovery is about reclamation and reinvention. Learning to feel again without being overwhelmed is part of that recovery.

DISCLAIMER: it would be irresponsible to suggest that the general nature of this article is a solve-it-all for all depressive conditions, especially the depressive disorders. My motive for writing is simply to generate awareness, bringing the discussion into being, and, of course, assist the afflicted, of which I’ve been.