Anxiety & Depression Pt 2
What can be done about it?
Loneliness
Life goes through many stages. Knowing when to move on can definitely be a factor in preventing loneliness. My kids moved away to college. What do you do with your life when your life was all about the children? Move on. You work at a job for 35 years. It's all you know. You refuse to retire because you can't imagine what you will do without the job and the relationships you've built over the years. What do you do? Move on. Your husband wakes up one morning and tells you he no longer wants to be married. He's met someone else – online. You've been married for years. You have children. You thought - this is it - I'm secure. What do you do? Move on. I'm not making light of any of these situations as they are all very serious. I'm simply saying if you stay where you were left you will forfeit your chance of any real happiness.
Bitterness and Hostility
These two just make a person downright ugly. They're very hard to miss. When a person is bitter you know it. They're not just bitter some of the time – they're bitter all the time; I mean 24/7. If you happen to be this way, please understand that this condition does to the soul and spirit what termites do to wood. These two will eat away at you to the point where you can't even stand yourself. So, whatever is making you bitter address it. And if you don't know you're bitter just observe the affect you have on others.
Unforgiveness
We live in a world of selfishness and unfairness. We all have things we find hard even impossible to forgive people for. What I discovered over the years is unforgiveness has failed to accomplish the goal I expected it would. That goal of unforgiveness was to make the offender feel guilty, ashamed, and apologetic. It just didn't happen. All it did was keep my mind at the scene of the crime long after the offense was committed. Ultimately, time moved on without me and I became more and more a faded memory in the mind of the offender. It’s always best to forgive and move on.
Shame and embarrassment
There are things in life we do to ourselves and to others that can cause use to feel ashamed and embarrassed so much so that we can hardly bear the weight of it. Each time we see someone or something that reminds us of what we've done we relive the experience all over again. I've found that it just doesn't do any good to beat yourself up. It's best to find the courage to ask forgiveness and set things straight.
Abuse and Violence
We can all understand and except that there is violence and abuse in the world, but when it's in our very home it is a living hell. You feel unloved, unsafe, insecure and often blame yourself for what is happening. People who grow up this way can end up carrying this experience through life. No one has the right to make another person’s life miserable, yet it happens every day. If this is you, you need not feel ashamed. You did nothing wrong. None of it is your fault. Get together with people you trust who can really help. Your life is valuable – reclaim your worth.
Pride
None of the above mentioned has the power to cloud judgment and cause us to do things that are contrary to what we know is right more the pride. It's that little person on the inside that makes it difficult for us to apologize. It's that person that tells us to put ourselves first. When pride gets in the way it's really in the way. It steps aside for no one. It grows and just doesn't stop until we put it under subjection. Pride has ruined many relationships and continues to do so. There's no room for this kind of pride in your life. It's not easy to show humility but it most certainly is worth it to you and to the person you must show humility.
All of the above situations will deplete your life and inhibit you from living comfortably with yourself. Life is too short to allow anyone or anything to rob you of its pleasures. These are all very subtle in their infancy but can lead to very serious conditions.