Happiness and depression
The
idea that we should live
the current moment is
also a lesson by the
Spirits, which have
invited us to make the
most of
today, that we
should consider as the
last of our lives
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"The contemporary man is
happier than his
ancestors, because he
has more means to be
glad ", underlines the
psychiatrist Luis Rojas
Marcos, author of the
book Nuestra
felicidad, in
interview to the site
Saluladia.
However, his prognostic
for an immediate future
is that "we’ll keep
having anguished men and
women ".
The immediate future, in
fact, has already
knocked on our door,
since his book came out,
eight years ago. We just
look around and see the
wave of bad feelings
that
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sweep society
away,
challenging
everybody.
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Dr. Marcos says: "The
human beings tend to
think that we live the
worst moments of our
existence. History is
the best antidote for
this nostalgia ".
We live, sometimes, in
search of a lost time,
in the past, when we
were happy, forgetting
that, provided happiness
is built and resultant
of small moments, the
best moment to live it
is now. Neither
yesterday nor
tomorrow. It doesn’t
mean we won’t come back
to the happy places of
our past; or that we
gave up believing we can
be happier in the
future...
The idea that we should
live the present
moment, which
would denote maturity
and balance, is also
taught by the Spirits,
which have invited us to
make the most of today,
that we should consider
as the last of our
lives.
This is what Joanna de
Ângelis says: “If you
want to be happy, live,
every moment, in an
entire form, gathering
quotes of happiness,
hope, dreams, blessings,
in a complete panel”.
And goes on: “Happiness
isn’t about things: it’s
an inner state, an
emotion”.
The psychiatrist goes
on, later, commenting on
the thieves of
happiness: pain,
fear, anger
and depression.
Depression, especially,
is considered by him as
"the most unhappy thief
of happiness ever”,
because it steals our
hope, and can take us to
auto destruction.
Later he says that even
though “the youth of
today has grown
wealthier, more direct,
more possibilities to
fulfill and more
freedom, they are more
pessimist and suffer
from boredom”. The new
generations are, this
way, more vulnerable to
depression, which is on
the verge of becoming an
epidemic all over the
world, according to
other specialists.
For the psychiatrist,
many factors must be
combined to understand
“the spread of
depression”:
·
The growing
glorification of
individualism which
foments competitiveness;
·
The feeling of failure
for the obsessive search
of social status;
·
Frustration for the
unbalance between our
aspirations and our
opportunities;
·
The personal
responsibility for our
successes and failures
and
·
The increasing number of
divorces.
In spite of these
figures, he understands
that “medical and
pharmacological
breakthroughs have
allowed that endogenous
depressions, originating
from within, be timely
diagnosed and precisely
treated. In more than 90
per cent of cases there
is a sensible recovery
or total cure”.
The patient should work
without
self-pity or
self-punishment
As he finished his
interview, he describes
depression if one shows:
“sadness, lack of will,
apathy, indifference,
violence...” And he
gives, at last, his
recipe to combat it,
inside the pictures of
medical and
pharmacological
resources, which
constitute his
referential as a
psychiatrist. In his
words: “We’ll combat
depression with medical
treatments, with the
evolutional improvement
of the species and our
knowledge about brain.
The prevention will be
based on our knowledge
about the human genome”.
It’s not up to us to
show, as it’s common and
inelegant, the limits
and faults of thoughts
from others, to exalt
the resources we have
available, whether they
are the Spiritist
resources of diagnosis
and cure, or other ways
of therapy, that fits
our preferences best.
We must respect,
therefore, the
Psychiatry,
Psychoanalysis,
Psychology and its
derivatives, because
these specialties have
their own approaches and
methods, worth of our
respect.
Every professional will
always work inside its
set of beliefs, values
and resources. And even
if we can distinguish
certain limits they use,
we can never disqualify
them.
To resume, it has been
theme for many works.
Joanna de Ângelis, in
her books with a
psychological insight,
has approached this
subject precisely within
Spiritist referential.
As for depression,
what is the Spiritist
view on this syndrome,
epidemics today?
The message entitled
Nostalgia and
Depression, by the
aforementioned author
will guide our study.
She says that:
● No matter the origin
of depressive
disturbances;
fundamental is the
participation of the
sick one in its process
of cure.
The depressive is sick,
because depression, as
the experts in the
medical area say, is a
disease and requires
proper treatment.
It’s not; we need to
emphasize, vague
sadness, a temporarily
being upset, but an
installed ailment.
The fact the treatment
requires medicative
action shouldn’t
cause us any surprise,
because of the physical
implements, the brain
chemistry is
compromised, altered,
requiring adequate
treatment.
● The patient should
work without self-pity
or “self-punishment to
find the objectives of
his existence”
Self-pity
or being the victim
is a complex that
affects us all. We tend,
many times, to feel
sorry for ourselves,
as if we said: “poor me,
I suffer a lot...”
As self-pity was not
enough we still add to
this dangerous state of
soul self-punishment.
In this case we would
add: “I suffer and it’s
no wonder, because I
don’t deserve anything
different; because what
I did (or didn’t) is
unforgivable. God will
never forgive me...”
Joanna de Ângelis says
that the man is
the
measure of his efforts
● The personal effort is
fundamental in the
process of cure.
The patient must act the
forces of will,
searching whenever
necessary is, humbly,
the reinforcement of
other resources – the
support, the aid, the
caring of friends and
relatives.
● The search of
conscience of self or
self-knowledge to
promote the release of
“depressive idea, of
self-compassion”,
providing “mental
renovation and building
action”.
It’s necessary to
discover our hidden
talents in such
occasions; beside the
limits we should realize
our great potential of
growth for life. This
will certainly require
us more efforts of
thought, higher flights,
so that we can feel,
from now, we as an
immortal Spirit, heir to
God.
We can have notion of
the abyss before our
feet, which we should
avoid, but it’s
essential to contemplate
the stars, so that we
can see little by little
the fruits that come
from our fights looking
to getting over
ourselves.
To all this they are
used to calling as
self-cure, which will
demand much more than
quick readings and soft
music!
Joanna complements her
thought, in this aspect,
by saying that “the man
is the measure of his
efforts and inner fights
for self-growth”...
The cure of this and
other ailments,
syndromes or
disturbances, must not
be conceived as a simple
process of releasing the
patient from something
that constrained him,
unease him, hurt and
made him unhappy; it is
needed to consider it as
our commitment,
individual, so that we
can look to adjust the
ways of life itself, in
view of the necessity of
our deeper
transformation.
Then we can state that
we are disease-free,
even though many
symptoms are manifested;
we are sick in a long
process of cure for so
many ailments that
we still retain in the
depth of ourselves...
● Physical exercises for
the revitalization of
the body and
detoxifying,
consequently, of the
plexus.
Many times we forget
that we are living in a
body and that the latter
acts and react to our
commands of thought and
emotion. The old adage
“sane mind in sane body”
should not be forgotten.
● Therapeutic resources
can be added, such as
“bioenergetics therapy
(Reich, as well as the
Spiritist), logotherapy
(Viktor Frankl), or
according to the
symptoms, the help of a
specialized
psychotherapist, as well
as a help group, can be
helpful”.
The indication of such
resources throws to the
ground the idea,
sometimes in the
Spiritist environment
that: 1) everything is
obsession (even
depression and other
psychological
disturbances); 2)
everything can be cured
with passes and
fluidized water, and the
removal, in the meetings
of disobsession, of the
agent...
The role of the patient
is the touchstone
for
the process of cure
The Spiritist therapy,
as a complement is
essential and at times
can correspond to the
entire responsibility
for the cure of the
patient, affected by
this or that ailment.
However, it should
not be exclusive, if
the intervention of the
health professionals is
required.
The role of the patient
is the touchstone for
the process of cure. He
proposes to study, to
transform, and to
activate the resources
that Spiritism puts at
our disposal. If there
is any miracle,
it’s the miracle
of self-overcoming,
self-transformation.
● The choice of the
therapeutic resource
suitable “must be done
by the patient, if he is
lucid enough to do so”,
or then, by the family
“in order to avoid
comprehensible damages,
which, occurring,
generate more complexity
and difficulty of
recovering”.
The resistance by
patients and families to
some ways of treatment
can generate the
“complexity and
difficulty” quoted by
Joanna. In extreme
cases, the patient is
not cured or even
commits suicide.
The resistance to
treatments goes from the
psychological therapy to
the ingestion of
medicine prescribed by
doctors or
psychiatrists,
regardless of those who
hold out to reap the
benefits of auxiliary
resources available in
Spiritist Centers: the
passes, the fluidized
water, the orientation
via fraternal dialogue.
● Other important
resources for the
recovering of mental and
emotional health of the
patients will depend: 1)
on the creation of a
healthy psychosphere
around himself and 2) on
the change of
psychosocial factors at
home and even at
workplace.
As we can see, the
process of cure must
count on the
participation: 1) the
patient himself; 2) the
family; 3) workmates and
even the existing
environments and
psychosphere around him
can affect positively or
negatively.
Conclusion
We approached the
question of happiness
and depression, from
lessons found in the
book by Dr. Luiz Rojas
Marcos.
The lessons by Joanna de
Ângelis about depression
brought us important
enlightenment and now
it’s up to us study such
themes, complex ones,
demanding other readings
and studies.
And we remember, at
last, in our struggles
and searches, what was
taught by the Spirit of
Truth, as it is written
in the Gospel
according to Spiritism:
“Spiritists! Love one
another, that is the
first precept; educate
yourselves is the
second.”
References:
FRANCO,
Divaldo Pereira. Love
Unbeatable Love (by
the Spirit Joanna de
Ângelis). 1st ed.
Salvador: Livraria
Espírita Alvorada, 2002.
KARDEC,
A. Gospel According
to Spiritism. 112th
ed. Brasília: FEB,
1996.
ROJAS
MARCOS, L. Nuestra
Felicidad. 1st ed.
Madrid: Espasa Calpe,
2000.
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