The Depression Thing
It&#x27;s anecdotal, but I&#x27;ve found my cure for depression: it&#x27;s called Stoicism. I hear it&#x27;s been useful to people for a couple thousand years, and is pretty much &#x27;confirmed&#x27; by modern cognitive psychology.<p>I experienced depression on and off for about 20 years, between 12ish and 34 (2016). Then shit really hit the fan, the perfect storm so to speak, and I was shattered to the core of my being and my values. Honestly it felt as though dying would pretty much be a non-event (although I&#x27;m not suicidal so it wasn&#x27;t really an option, but survival instincts kicked in at some point and were all that prompted me to feed once in a while each week for a couple months; it took half a year before I even wanted to get better, to cope).<p>Then I read &quot;The Obstacle Is The Way&quot; by Ryan Holiday. This book pretty much changed my life. I guess it came at just the right time.<p>I underwent a sort of &#x27;quantum change&#x27; as some psychologists call it: a profound, meaningful, lasting and massive change of my core personality and values, even thought processes and emotional responses. I am me, I mean I do recognize myself and so do my friends and family, but I am also a truly different being, it&#x27;s like my biology has changed and my mind with it, or the other way around, idk. People confirm that I do look different, in the eyes, in what they feel around me. I certainly feel like my old self was flawed beyond salvation and has died on a psychological level. I feel like I salvaged as little as possible and proceeded on reinventing myself. It is still an ongoing process, although slowly stabilizing (it will be a year in December).<p>Overall I am now able to create from scratch all the joy and motivation I always longed for, to accept reality easily in ways that keep surprising me, and to remain positive (or neutral) in most circumstances. Nothing&#x27;s perfect and that&#x27;s good to me. I still have habits to master (dwelling on past circumstances that provoked this major episode last year), but it&#x27;s night and day with what I used to be.<p>Considering what I went through before this change, and during it, I consider myself lucky, even blessed on some level (atheist here, with some scientific awe for existence and the cosmos).<p>Feel free to ask for more details and suggestions, I&#x27;d be happy to oblige, otherwise you know the book. Best of hope to everyone.