My advice would be to do some reflection on what are the things that you have been passionate about in the past. What are your drivers? What are your values?

There are some quite good tools out there to help with that process. An excellent one has been put together by Martin Seligman from the school of positive pychology - he wrote the book Authentic Happiness - and at http://www.authentichappiness.org there is a tool which allows you to assess your character strengths. I think it is called a VIA Character strengths assessment. It’s free and it allows you to understand your top 5 character strengths. Seligman says with research to back it up, that the most fulfilled people are those that use there top character strengths on a regualar basis.

For career insight there is a very good tool at http://www.assessment.com called a MAP - Motivated Abilities Profile - this takes you through some questions and then reveals the top skills you are inherently motivated to use. It then tells you which vocations allow you to use those skills. Again there is a free version of this but I reckon the best option is one for about $US40 that gives a lot more detail and practical advice.

With regard to your current situation - you don’t need to change overnight - but if you start doing some of this reflection - with the help of a career coach you can then start plotting a new path at a time that suits you.

I know I’ve never been happier or more fulfilled than I am now and I think that potential is there for everyone. The world is not as you know it now - you’ve only seen one facet of the diamond. Maybe it’s time for another.
Kind Regards
Graeme

My mum sent me the link the other day because im going through a tough time now.This last depressive eposide has come from a vision I had of not being able to live a more meaningful life.In all areas of my life.I feel i have been growing into a more mature person, happy with myself and thinking rationally and keeping positive often. But this last thought seemed to strike some emotional cord so deep.First the continuos anxiety and then severe depression. I have been fighting this illness for the last 2 years since I stopped a long dependent period of illicit drugs.I didnt really have any goals as such, but im trying to work my way back into some sort of happy challenging life??

I think ones values are involved more than the fact of unrealistic goals and i feel that depression is a time of the mind and body doing some evaluation time re-determining what our real values are and re-ordering these values. It is also a time to nurse ourselves through the hard knocks we have received over our lifetime.

I personally believe that sensitive people are prone to depression because there is so much insensitivity surrounding our lives. Two groups of people, the sensitive and thoughtful kind and the hardened insensitive kind who lack any consideration toward others other than themselves.

Life is a journey we are told, this journey i believe is learning how to negotiate between these two tyes of people who effect our lives and also maintain our true values. This is why i feel that self-esteem is effected in depression. It’s tough remaining to be a sensitive person and kind-hearted in a world that is often quite cruel.

I have learned to value my sensitive self and also how to deal with those who are insensitive and still retain my integrity. I now am not afraid to take on the adversities i face in life and do not feel overwhemed by these but rather joyfully take it on in my life’s journey and dare to be my sensitive self.

Yours sincerely
Lynette

Kind Regards
Graeme

What he is saying about reaching unattainable goals is only part of the complexity of depression.

I think sometimes that people confuse low mood which is experienced by most people at one time or other in their lives due to hurt, loss, grief or rejection and the like with deep clinical depression. For a long time I have been working on “baby steps” but the depth of the depression doesn’t seem to change.

Sometimes the “baby step” can be as small as getting out of bed or taking a shower and the like.

At the moment I’m giving myself permission to work on the computer etc during the morning and just chilling out in the afternoon reading or watching a DVD in my beautiful sunny lounge room. A lot of me not being able to attain goals is caused by my partner because he’s such a doer and his expectations of me or anyone for that matter is very high. A lot of my non self belief is a result of my family of origin and the messages which I perceived whilst growing up.

As for the hypotheses relating to pain being a mechanism to stop a human from reaching a goal, when thinking of the pain experienced in childbirth, that pain is the positive force in the delivery of the baby. If there were any substance to this hypotheses I would think that would have stop women from the birthing experience.

We each have to find the way through the maze of our life journey.

So Nesse ‘likens the relationship between mild and clinical depression to the one between normal to chronic pain.’ He explains the usefulness of normal pain and low mood, but there is no ‘evolutionary’ explanation for chronic pain or clinical depression here perhaps apart from Jim who believes: ” depression is actually a protective device in the mind which prevents overload damage until the thinking/cognitive system has made the necessary adjustments.”

I’m very interested in this ‘evolutionary medicine’ line of thinking; it often helps me when I have a fever to remind myself that my body is doing this to fight the virus/infection in my body. If I could hang depression on a similar hook it could help me. Are there any other links to his or similar research?

By the way, this is the most helpful discussion I’ve seen on depression on the Australian web as long as I can remember. I’ve given up on depressionet; I dont want to login to discuss trivial things, I want to get better. Good on you for facilitating these articles/discussions!

I found that using ‘baby steps’ worked extremely well for me in overcoming depressive symptoms. While reaching for the unattainable deepened my low mood, accepting that goals could be attained if I didn’t set my standards so high eventually lightened my symptoms.
While I do consider myself to be a bit of a perfectionist ( or is that OCD ! ), I did not find it demeaning to lower my expectations of myself, as someone else has suggested may be the case. The opposite was true actually ~ even though the steps I was achieving were tiny in many ways, they were in fact monumental, and led to bigger and bigger achievements….which led to a much improved mood. By taking those tiny steps, I eventually made my way back to work ( part-time ) and am now living a helathier, happier life.
It is obviously an individual thing, but I honestly believe that setting more realistic goals is absolutley beneficial. Why aim for a 30 minute walk when you can’t make it out of bed ? Instead aim to get out of bed and congratulate yourself on that achievement. next, aim to walk to the front gate, or to just collect the mail….exercise does not have to be a session at the gym [ although who knows where that initial getting out of bed will lead to ].
My views are based upon my own experience, and have certainly helped in my overcoming the most severe bout of depression I have experienced thus far. Whilst I have had LONGER depressive episodes, this one I believe was cut shorter because I followed the belief that achieving small steps was the way to good mental health.

Thanks for the opportunity to discuss this issue Graeme.
Take care, Kathy

So too with depression.. yes it is a very common occurance and most people will at different point in their live suffer being depressed. But for one to have the continual battle with depression can not be measured in this way. I wonder how many successful people at the very pinical of their careers suffer greatly with depression and anxiety issues which eventualy robs them of where they have built.

One can have quite high selfesteem and yet feel deep depression. We are by far too complicated human beings to be judged in this way. Yes setting realistic goals is certainly a key to maintaining a health mental attitued. At the age I am now I know the limitation which will not alway allow me to accomplish what I would once feel just part of a day.

Whether or not we disingage with goals certainly is not a measure of how we will cope with bouts of mental ill health. Even selfesteem and success will not stop one from dropping into a pit of depression. Our resiliance can be helpful in allowing us to climb our way out of the darkness.

His equation simply s lopsided and meaningless.

regards Chris