The big week is here!

Photo by Nong on Unsplash

Depression workshop week is here! And that means that this Thursday (technically my Friday since I’m in China), I will ACTUALLY do something that I have wanted to do for years.

Years and years and years and years.

Years!

And what is it? What is the thing that I’ve wanted to do?

Share helpful and hopeful tidbits that will (fingers crossed) help other depression sufferers find a path out of depression.

Because finding a path out of depression is, in my opinion, the single most interesting thing that I have done in my life.

Do you know that after someone has 5 episodes of depression, their chances of having another depressive episode are 90%?

It’s way lower for your first episode. If you are someone who is experiencing your first episode of depression, then I urge you to seriously contemplate investing heavily in exploring root cause resolution NOW and not later.

Because when you’re only on your first episode of depression, your odds of this being a single episode and not a chronic malady are at the highest.

But with each episode you experience, your odds of experiencing more episodes increase. And increase. And increase.

That’s why overcoming depression is the most interesting thing I’ve done. Because when I overcame depression, I had already experienced way more than 5 episodes. By the time I received my permission slip to stop trying things that weren’t working and start trusting my inner guidance, I was up to having 3-4 episodes per year.

3 to 4 depressive episodes per year!

Do you know how hard it is to plan your life when you’re not sure if you’re going to be your bright and bubbly self a month from now or if you’ll perhaps be the version of yourself that can barely get out of bed and basically doesn’t care about anything? Not your career, not your relationships, not your hygiene or your ambitions or your overwhelming laundry pile. Depression leaches away your energy and when you don’t have energy, you don’t have the ability to care. That’s why one of the main symptoms of depression is apathy.

“Hmm, will I be able to be a guest lecturer for you starting next semester? Well, non-depressed Keely would knock it out of the park. But next semester is too far away for me to know if I’ll be depressed Keely or non-depressed Keely when you need me to show up.”

Depression dominated my life. There were the painful down cycles (the depressive episodes) and then the stress of “okay, how long of a reprieve am I going to get before the next episode ruins my life for a few months?”

Liz Gilbert knows a writer who can only bank on having one productive day per month because her depression is too all-consuming every other day.

This musing is getting a little rambly and perhaps manic-y, but I only have 30 minutes to write and publish this morning, and I want to reflect on this topic.

The depression workshop – it starts this week. And I am so wildly excited to share what made it possible to beat the odds. To go from being someone who was 90% likely to experience another depressive episode to not experiencing a single depressive episode in at least 5 years. To go from someone who had 3-4 depressive episodes per year to being someone who is just a regular ol’ human. Sure, I have descents into the doldrums and when life is hard I get tired and sleep extra – but I don’t live in fear of a depressive episode creeping in and pulling the rug out from under me.

And do you know what the whole workshop series is basically about? Reclaiming your personal power. Because that is the core theme of shamanism, and shamanism was huge in helping me overcome depression.

My hypothesis about why I got trapped in chronic cycles of depression is that I was telling myself a story that made me the victim of my circumstances. A story that made me helpless. A story that made me feel disempowered and weak.

But I’m not disempowered and weak. I wasn’t then, and I’m certainly not now.

What I am is someone who needed to start telling herself a different story. A story that motivated and inspired me. A story that gave me the hope I needed to start believing that ending my chronic cycles was possible.

And that’s the story I’m going to share in the workshop. It’s a little late to join this go-around, but I plan to host the same 4 series workshop in October. If you want in, please send me a note so that I can email out information when it’s ready.

Also, if you are the parent, aunt, mentor, elder, or grand-something of someone who is experiencing their first episode of depression, please consider gifting them 5 sessions with me. This is an area where I have a lot of expertise, and I’d really like to try to help them not get stuck in chronic cycles of depression.

Love,

Keely

Morning Musings is a delight-first writing practice where I make a cup of coffee, dance around my house a little bit, then put my fingers on the keyboard and see what comes up.

Some folks find these musings helpful. They say that my willingness to share my unpolished insides helps them feel a little lighter. If you know anyone who might like this musing, please share it freely.