My tryst with Depression and Anxiety
I don’t know what the clinical definition of the depression and anxiety is and I am not sure whether I have exactly experienced depression but I definitely know that I have experienced anxiety and depression at some point of time.
Most people just use this words frivolously to describe their little pangs of disappointments in life.
I know I have suffered from depression and anxiety because the doctors have recommended medicines for anxiety and sleep to me previously without telling me.
The problem with both these types is that you won’t know when you will get them. Worst is, you won’t know why you are getting them.
You just get them and you suffer from it and no one around you can guess that you have anxiety.
However I do know that there is a connection between the two.
As Per webmd, an online medical portal for medical information –
“Among other things, depression causes feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and reduced energy. Anxiety creates feelings of nervousness, worry, or dread. Although the two conditions are different, you can have both at the same time. Agitation and restlessness can be symptoms of both depression and anxiety.”
Now since I have felt both sometimes at different intervals of time and sometimes at the same time, so I know that both can happen to anyone.
It doesn’t matter whether your life is going good right now or everything seems to be on track.
Sometimes some old inner unfulfilled ambition is the cause of depression and anxiety.
Anxiety is mostly caused by lack of action, too much future planning and worrying about the future. Atleast this is what I have realized.
One of the tabooed side effects of the anxiety is that men starts to ejaculate more than usual, which is again very harmful. It is not much discussed in public domain but it is true.
According to a study published in sexual medicine magazine, called “Psychological, Relational, and Biological Correlates of Ego-Dystonic Masturbation in a Clinical Setting” written by multiple prominent authors expert in the field of medicine, mentions –
“It has been found that younger men masturbate with the highest frequency. Additionally, the study found that men who masturbated most frequently had higher levels of anxiety. Men who experienced the highest sense of guilt for masturbation also had the highest levels of anxiety.”
I experienced it too but it was such shameful and quite frankly, am extremely personal act that I couldn’t verify it from anyone whether what I was doing was right or wrong. There is no way to know that it was harming me more than anything else.
The thought to google it didn’t even come into my mind as when you are suffering from depression and anxiety, you often feel that you are alone in this world, that it is only you who are suffering while everyone else is living the better life and there is no one who can help you. So you don’t google it to know that it can be a common occurrence.
There is a feeling of desolation and often helplessness during the pangs of depression and anxiety. You don’t want to share your feelings with anyone because you don’t want to sound weak.
The two times when I had panic attacks and I mentioned it to doctors without using the words “depression and anxiety”, they never said anything regarding to it, they just simply gave me medicines and asked me to take them among other medicines.
Somehow the doctors felt that if they talk about one’s depressions and anxiety disorders or give a name to one’s condition, it will worsen the condition.
On the hindsight, I think they are quite right.
It is very difficult to get it out of your mind the name once you decide that you have certain special condition which has a nomenclature too. On one hand, psychologically it affirms your fear that you are unique and different from others and on the other hand you get a name to define your condition which brings it more into existence.
In case of depression and anxiety, it is better to be unaware of it and let it solve on its own.
However I knew about it and I had to find a solution soon.
The solution took years before I found it. I tried everything, read every book on the subject but nothing worked. Everything worked for some time but after a while it would stop working.
I recently came across this saying by Jeff Bezos that anxiety is usually caused by the lack of action and too much planning. It coincided with my thought process too.
How I solved the problems of Depressions and Anxiety?
The solutions which solved my problems were found in the Hindu scriptures. I tried every western book but they don’t have solutions for anything.
Every western book focuses on getting more and more in life and giving you solutions which will make you even more anxiety driven.
Three things which came to my rescue were Brahmacharya, also called celibacy, Naam Jap, also called name chanting and finishing every task I decided to finish it.
Celibecy is highly underrated practice which gives you immense energy and will power. It gives you extra chemicals in your body like testosterone, adrenaline and serotonin which keeps you energetic all the time.
After two weeks of brahmacharya you will able to finish tasks in time and there won’t be much fluctuations in your thoughts.
If you want to know more about Brahmacharya and the power of celibecy, then read the book of Swami Sivananda called “Practice of Brahmacharya”. It will shake the roots of your mind and thinking.
Naam Jap is the process which keeps you engaged in one thought for a long period of time. It removes the negative feelings and frequent running of thoughts and keeps you calm.
There is also something about finishing tasks which boosts your will power and excitement towards life. Finishing tasks and writing on paper are two things which are very important for a person to do. Don’t try to go behind the science and logic of why it works. It just works.
When you write something on paper, somehow it etches in your memory.
There is also a fourth thing which surprisingly helped me and it was a Vitamin D supplement. Living in India and having brown skin rich in melanin, it is tough to get the proper doses of vitamin D without taking some kind of supplement.
Do your blood test now, show it to a doctor and check levels of your vitamin D. If your thoughts are frequently changing and you feel fatigued all the time, taking Vitamin D supplements will change your entire life.
I know I added one extra method there but if you follow these four methods than your entire life will take a turn around in two months and will get you rid the depression and anxiety.
