A Depression Quiz: Feeling Powerless and Hopeless?
This depression quiz helps you understand if you are suffering from a common problem called reality.
Out of best intentions, people put on a brave smiley face. They pretend that they are not disillusioned and world-weary. Most of the time, they don't even know they are pretending.
We are told "fake it til ya make it", be optimistic, think positive thoughts, "smile and the world smiles with you", don't plug into fear or you will attract what you are afraid of. Etc., etc, etc.
This well-intentioned thinking is a trap. It misses the mark.
First, we believe that how we really feel is wrong. Along with that, we are convinced that there are big parts of ourselves that are unlovable.
Second, we become adept at denying and repressing how we feel.
Third, we don't develop the skill of listening to ourselves. Or develop the needed skills of relaxing, identifying what is needed, learning how to ask for help, discovering hidden inner resources, and growing confidence in our abilities to cope.
Fourth, there is a pervasive, unquestioned lack of trust---lack of trust in your self, your feelings, your responses, and in the process that life is taking you through.
Fifth, and maybe the most damaging, is that real and painful feelings get left to fester, they go underground, and the opportunity to learn and grow, to meet our needs, and to love and embrace our humanity are missed.
Sixth, we teach by example that this thwarted, unhealed, and inauthentic way of being is necessary and desirable.
And last but not least, there is massive resistance to what is. The energy expended becomes a denial of unmet needs, a focus on changing your current, fundamental truth.
This all adds up to overwhelming powerlessness and hopelessness that is grounded in your very experience of self and of life.
It's important to know when you are feeling powerless and hopeless
...because the only way to heal it is to feel it.
The only way to get OVER it is to get though it and the only way to get through it is to get INTO it...
breathe into it, give birth to it, dance with it, get adept at facing it,
gain confidence in your abilities to have a positive, powerful influence on your experience of life.
Surprisingly, the most important reason to acknowledge "negative" feelings is to prevent getting stuck in them. Wisdom and maturity lie just on the other side of facing them and accepting their truths.
I worked with an opera singer who thought her fear was "pathetic". She avoided feeling fear. Whenever she felt fear, she saw herself as a failure. She was afraid of fear.
Once she accepted fear as part of her journey and made friends with it...once she faced it and felt it, everything changed for her. Her fullness of sound and life dreams opened wide.
Facing and feeling her fear keeps her vibrant and real. She has faced the worst and now she knows she can face anything. Surrendering to her fear is creating the fearlessness she ached for.
Spiritual teachers talk about “staying with our suffering” and developing AWARENESS that anything, when fully accepted and experienced, dissolves.
Before you take the depression quiz, ask yourself:
Can I stay with my feelings long enough to ACCEPT whatever the pain may be?
Can I make friends with ALL my feelings?
Do I give myself gentle consolation?
Do I see and feel that we are all in this together?
Is there A COMPASSION in my heart?
Being truthful with the depression quiz is to step into maturity. To mature is to know that you have the strength to feel the pain, to do real grieving, to get help, and to accept pain as PART of life. Life is neither paradise nor suffering.
The depression quiz is simple. Just give true and false responses and then count how many are true. At least after you do this, no one can accuse you of being in denial. (de Nile is NOT just a river in Egypt)!
