Antidepressants and spirituality

[Hugo Oliveira]

I am struggling with a decent amount of depression and anxiety. 

I always had these symptoms, since childhood, but they intensified after intense "awakenings" and also intense bad trips with psychedelics. 

Pretty often I suspect that I am crossing the dark night of the soul, therefore, sometimes I feel like the only way out is definitively "transcending this world" through spiritual practices and surrendering. 

Over the last 10 years, I made lots of psychiatric treatments which provided me some relief for a while, but my life hasn't changed. 

I got in touch with anti-anxiety medication again recently, which surprisingly gave me a lot of relief pretty quickly. 

My questions are:

• Am I numbing myself from a pain that possibly is associated with spiritual processes?
• Could it be delaying my "liberation"?
• Do you think that intense depression could be (by brute force) detaching me from my materialistic delusions? Sometimes I think that if I feel good I'll become more materialistic and disconnect from seeking Truth. 

 

[integral]

The question always is, are you sleeping, exercising intensely every day and eating right, where 90% of all mental health problems start?

Edited April 17, 2023 by integral

[M A J I]

Depression when you break the word down you get Deep-rest.

I personally would avoid pharmaceutical anti-depressants as they do numb and suppress the issues and more of a (band-aid) approach and not an actual cure or true treatment. There are many natural alternatives which work much better and are not damaging to the system like psilocybin or other medicinal mushrooms like reishi, chaga and lions mane, raw cacao is especially effective for depressive moods, pair with some mct-oil and other herbs that assist in depression, get some nature and sunshine, do some gardening, go for forest walks or mountain treks, change things up in your life, and you will gradually see results, one step at a time, be gentle on yourself. Here to help

Edited April 20, 2023 by M A J I

[Yimpa]

On 4/17/2023 at 7:51 AM, Hugo Oliveira said:

Pretty often I suspect that I am crossing the dark night of the soul, therefore, sometimes I feel like the only way out is definitively "transcending this world" through spiritual practices and surrendering. 

It’s not about merely transcending the world. You can also integrate those experiences into the world. Improving your human self does not go against spirituality unless you believe that humans are a problem to Reality.

Edited April 20, 2023 by Yimpa

[Salvijus]

I would agree with MAJI here. You can find natural remedies for depression that are much more wholesome for your growth. Maybe add simple 5min breathing excercise and Voila!. That should be enough to take care of most mental health problems. The problem is... it only works for those who do it. And convicing people that these things work is also a big headache. 

[enzyme]

There's no shame in taking prescription medication to alleviate heavy depressive/anxious symptoms.  My personal word of caution would just be to treat them as temporary.  It can be a pain in the ass to come off them the longer you've taken them.

[Michal__]

This might make some mods screech (especially if they're not familiar with some of the ways spiritual development can go), but you should do a meditation retreat (minimum 10 days, 10+h a day, preferably longer). It's likely you'd get an Eckhart Tolle style instant alleviation of 90% suffering that would stay there even after you are not on the retreat.

If that doesn't happen then yeah, I'd get the antidepressants and continue practicing.

But you should be able to assess whether you can handle the fact, that at least some parts of the retreat would be destabilizing.

Dark night is a lot more common than people think. A dead giveaway should be if you first started with very positive experiences, maybe completely spontaneous (doesn't matter if it's spontaneous, it would just make it more obvious).

[Yimpa]

4 hours ago, Salvijus said:

Maybe add simple 5min breathing excercise and Voila!. That should be enough to take care of most mental health problems. The problem is... it only works for those who do it. And convicing people that these things work is also a big headache. 

Very cute statement, but you are very wrong. You have no idea the scope of this issue.

Just think about it. If every therapist told the millions of people going through mental health issues to just “breathe”, then we’ve solved the collective mental health issue, right?

[Salvijus]

29 minutes ago, Yimpa said:

Very cute statement, but you are very wrong. You have no idea the scope of this issue.

Just think about it. If every therapist told the millions of people going through mental health issues to just “breathe”, then we’ve solved the collective mental health issue, right?

I also believe 80% of health problems people have could be solved just by jogging 10mins a day in nature & smiling once in a while

Edited April 21, 2023 by Salvijus

[Yimpa]

2 minutes ago, Salvijus said:

I also believe 80% of health problems people have could be solved just by jogging 10mins a day in nature smiling once in a while

And cancer could be solved by eating more broccoli. 

[vibv]

Depression is real. Real depression CANNOT be solved with breathing exercises or going for a jog...

It can be solved by radical life changes, though. And I mean radical. So radical, that it needs depression to get you to do it. Depression is no joke, it's actually a life-threatening disorder.

[Salvijus]

@vibv depression is a number 1 joke on the planet

Edited April 21, 2023 by Salvijus

[Yimpa]

We need to make a clear distinction between someone experiencing feelings of depression and someone who has a mood disorder (e.g. major depressive disorder).

In order words, you someone can experience feelings of depression, but not have a mood disorder. 

[Salvijus]

@Yimpa there's no difference between the two. 

[Yimpa]

11 minutes ago, Salvijus said:

@Yimpa there's no difference between the two. 

Of course. 

Depending on your state of consciousness 

[Salvijus]

@Yimpa  no no, that's not what i meant. Depression is simply depression. There're different degrees of it tho. For some reason one level of depression gets labeled as a disease and a mild depression is not. But in essenese there's no difference between the two. Just difference in intensity and duration

Edited April 21, 2023 by Salvijus

[Salvijus]

39 minutes ago, Yimpa said:

And cancer could be solved by eating more broccoli. 

Broccoli sure is amazing

[Salvijus]

 

@M A J I

[puporing]

judging by your writing it could be that you are actually more spiritually gifted.. you actually can be a very awake person and suffer deeply - and those two things are tied to the fact that you quite easily discern Truth from illusion which is what this world is mainly based in, and that you are probably forced to participate in illusion to some degree to survive or to have any human contact.

you can remind yourself that this is a temporary experience.. align the way you live your life the best you can with Truth, find people that align with your core values, etc. 

anti-depressants wise, I've taken them at the worst of it, it helped, but I didn't do it the doctor's way, I just used it whenever I felt the need to but use your best judgment on that.

also... even if you fully awaken it may not take away all the depression, it can help you know exactly why you are suffering at any given moment, have faith that God's plan with you will work out, that your true self is invulnerable. but yes to survive in this world depression still depends much on your basic life circumstances, coping strategies/supports, what you manage to cultivate (eg relationships, friendships..etc).

Edited April 22, 2023 by puporing

[M A J I]

53 minutes ago, Salvijus said:

 

@M A J I

You are right. Its not worth it, after all its an online forums.