On Depression & Letting Go of Old Habits

If you are feeling depressed, your body is telling you that there is something wrong with the way you're treating it. Depression is the symptom, not the cause, of the disease. I think that depression stems from the irrational beliefs you might have, usually regarding what you're supposed to be, as opposed to what you currently are.
Those irrational beliefs may follow many different patterns, but here is some of them:

• People treat me like [the way they do] because I'm ....(insert derogatory word here).... If I were more .......... then I would be successful and loved.
• I'm never good enough at what I'm doing. I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing anyway. Thus, I have nothing to offer to other people and I understand if they don't want to be around me or make fun of me. I need to be more ........... to deserve other people's love and attention.
  
• I'm actually intelligent, funny and fun to be around but I cannot really show my true self because I'm .....(insert derogatory word here).... If I can manage to .....(insert obsession here).... then I will be able to show my radiant, true self.
  

It's not always easy to change those irrational beliefs, or let go of them, because you have internalized them as your premises on which your every value judgment is based. They have accompanied you all your life, became your friends, and you cannot predict what your life would be like without them. That's why it's so hard to let go of bad habits and old thinking patterns. You fear the change; you fear the prospect of success and happiness for a change.
You make yourself vulnerable without an excuse to hide behind after every assumed failure. You open yourself to risks, remove the shield that protects you from the vicissitudes of life. You start living again, in the world, as opposed to in your head.

I'm in favor of maintaining a positive attitude when dealing with this however. I believe that it is possible to make your new beliefs and thinking patterns habitual just like the same way you have made yourself accustomed to thinking irrationally. This process may not make you gain money, power or reputation, but it will certainly make you gain strength and peace of mind.

What would make me really happy right now is learning how to post book links with pictures on this blog, for a change...