Misery's Advice

Today I feel like shit. I have no interesting ideas to think, no intentions to laugh, nor to talk to anybody... yes, I am depressed today. Usually, this depression is followed by anger, frustration, sadness, and so forth. A complete set of emotions that are labeled as self-hatred or self-destructive emotions. However, I know that these emotions are telling me something. Under a different perspective these emotions are more like triggers and catalysts rather than self-hatred or destructive.

I am sure that the frustration, depression and sadness are telling me to DO something. The anger, and the impatience ask me to GO somewhere. In other words, these feelings are urging me to CHANGE my situation, to take some action.

I used to hate myself when I was angry, I usually tried to suppress my anger, and I found more pain, and desperation. Then, I decided to decipher my anger. I used to get carried away by my frustration until my self-hatred became self-pity, which is a lot of wasted energy. Through out my experiences I found out that it is possible to use this energy on my own benefit, by pinpointing the focus of the frustration and acting about feasible solutions. I started by deciding not to hate the hate, or cry the sadness. I mean before looking for a ways to ease the suffer (and taking the risk of falling into a vicious cycle) I looked for the reason or reasons of these emotions.

Zeroing the root of the depression usually allows me to prepare an strategy to change the circumstances and factors that depressed me in first place. It sounds easy but it takes a lot of courage to unveil the reasons of any depression, sometimes the reasons involves people that you love or not, sometimes it involves a lot of pain. It usually helps me to keep in mind that all these emotions (depression, sadness, anger, pain, etc.) are expressions of the same energy: life.

It is perfectly possible to live through any of these emotions and find the reasons. In fact, while I am crying, while I am hating, I try to discover the roots of these emotions. It is important to live the emotions, but don't let them take control over you. I usually try to find a way out of the emotions without denying the emotions themselves. Therefore, if I am sad, I try to cry. If I am angry I look for something in which I can take my anger. I try not to lose the perspective and lost myself into sadness/anger/frustration. In my case, I usually work my mind at the background of that emotions. For all the time I am crying or raging I am also trying to find the reasons, to find the understanding, and consequently take action. Once I have a possible solution the sadness/anger/frustration is over.

I am sure that everybody has a different approach. However, Misery's advice is the same: DO something, GO somewhere, FIX whatever is wrong, TAKE ACTION and CHANGE the situation.

Willie Siu

Essays
What Am I Doing?	Faith and Certainty	Misery's Advice
Approval Sickness	Good Pride, Bad Pride	The Believer In Me
	Self

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