Not the story that was imposed on Her. But the story that She chooses to tell. The story about breaking free from labels and social conditioning and finding Her way back home.
The story about how She chose to find inner peace and freedom from what she was told to be. Because one day She said: ENOUGH!
Enough of being labeled as broken, chaotic or emotionally unstable. Because She knew that this is not who She is deep down inside. She knew that there is light in her heart in spite of all that She suffered through.
She decided to stop giving her power away to those She falsely believed to be better than her and find a way to transcend the abuse, the rape, the neglect, the love She gave, but never received.
She was ready now to re-define herself. She was ready to re-define the way She allowed herself to be called depressed, anxious, overwhelmed, mentally ill, emotionally disturbed…
This journey inward was the hardest She ever took. To go back into the abuse story frightened her. How can She go through the feelings that almost took her life? How can she face again the events that hurt her so deeply?
But what else can she do? Accept that she will be medicated for the rest of her life? Remain a statistic.
No! She was ready to no longer live with a knot in her stomach, feel nauseated or just feeling sick all over. Her body suffered as much as her mind. She realized that all that she believed in her mind was stored in her body. And it hurt so much!
She was tired of the shame, the tears, the feeling of not belonging, the loneliness…
So, she decided to heal herself from the inside out. To reclaim herself from under layers of emotional sediment and piece her life back together without a diagnosis. Because “feeling” a certain way doesn’t mean that she is mentally ill.
As She looked deeper, She realized that what is called depression is in fact a deep unrest inside. It is a feeling of unhappiness with her life and an inability to see where her future is going. It is hopelessness. It is lack of confidence. Lack of self-esteem. A feeling of feeling lost. It is a lack of self-love.
It is Soul loss. And Soul loss is not mental illness.
She also came to understand that anxiety is in fact the failure of not living true to her values and truth. Often, it is not knowing who She is. It is living without purpose. Without meaning.
The deeper She looked, the more She understood that She is not mentally ill. She doesn’t a have mental disorder as She is taught to believe.
The problem is with the language used to describe how She feels. If Her emotions are called unhappiness, fear, or sadness, it would be very hard to medicate them. It would be very hard to come up with a diagnosis for feeling dissatisfied with life.
So, She decided to Re-language the way She describes her mind and how emotions feel in the body.
She no longer accepts labels or the way mainstream psychology describes Her emotions. Because feeling is in fact healthy. All human emotions are acceptable and necessary. Her emotions are guiding posts that show Her what She needs to change in her life.
Without emotions and feelings She wouldn’t know that She is in the wrong job or the wrong relationship. She wouldn’t know that She longs for more love, more passion, more meaning.
She looked even deeper and concluded that in our current culture, society replaced the word “unhappiness” with “depression.” It is a matter related to the internal vocabulary accepted as truth.
“Depression” and its culturally ingrained meaning became a metaphor that allows the medical model to first label Her and then medicate Her perceived illness.
To free herself, what She needs to do is make a linguistic switch from describing unhappiness and sadness as depression. Because it is linguistically incorrect. In doing so, the help She needs is not a pill or two.
She no longer allows herself to be manipulated and seduced by the medical model to believe that her unhappiness can be fixed with a pill or even endless therapy where she tells her problems without much feedback.
She is now Rethinking Depression…She is Re-languaging mental illness…She is reclaiming her freedom from labels.
Now, she chooses to Re-enter her story, dig at her holy site and piece back the pieces of herself scattered during abuse and abandonment.
She realized that it is her responsibility to do her inner work and create long lasting inner peace.
And surprisingly, by healing her emotions she unearthed her gifts and talents. Who would know?
She is no longer numb and detached from herself. She begins to feel whole.
Now she feels responsible to help others heal and find their own inner treasures.
The desire to help others find their way home and remember who they are allow her to live a life of meaning and service to the world. She no longer feels alone and sad. Depression and a life of meaning cannot live together.
She now knows that it is her responsibility to find her Self and contribute with the best of who She can be to the Universal Puzzle.
Because if we want to make the world a better place it has to begin with us.
She decided to take Her power back and free Her Self from the abuse of being labeled as mentally ill.
