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#9192By sean on Saturday, February 18, 2006 - 9:35 am

We have lost the ability to surrender ourselves to something greater than ourselves?

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#9194By Carlan on Monday, February 20, 2006 - 1:48 pm

I don’t think that most of the world’s populations are either unhappy or depressed. I think that most people whether they are rich or poor or ordinary or extraordinary are relatively speaking happy and psychologically contented. However, I do think that there are many of us that are unhappy and depressed and are living our lives in misery and pain.

Sean, each of us is capable, if we choose, to surrender ourselves to “something greater than ourselves”, however, does it make good sense for us to do such a thing is, to me, the greater question. I am unsure why anyone would want to surrender him or herself to anything that I can think of completely and dumbly. I think to do such a thing is very foolish, indeed. The people that do ‘surrender’ themselves are leaving themselves vulnerable to deception and ignorance. They follow blindly and they soon discover after some little while that they can no longer see for themselves. They soon find that they can no longer see things for what they are and they soon find that they are no longer in control of their own lives but are instead only living the lives dictated to them by controlling others that are either ignorant themselves or are control freaks of the worst kind.

I think to be more happier than we are right now it is best for us to allow our dreams and our hopes and our desires to be seen for what they are and then hurry on with our own hard work and our own sweat and tears and create the lives we all want for our loved ones and for ourselves. I think that we must get up every morning and think of how is it that we can make something better and how we can make something good happen for someone somewhere and, perhaps, that will be good for ourselves, as well. It can be a very small thing or it can be quite a large thing but whatever it is we think to do we must try very, very hard to do it and do it as quickly as we can.

Just a note of some passing interest having to do with this thread: there is a small boy that delivers my newspaper to my door nearly every morning and he looks in my door window at me and we smile at one another. He runs off and climbs into his mother’s van and I go off and do whatever it is that I do. I think in my mind that he is smiling to himself and I am doing the same thing. I think that we are both made a little happier because of our exchange of smiles. I know for sure his smile makes me a bit happier, anyway.

Smile at someone, today, and see if that smile does not come right back at you!

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#9197By crossquad on Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 5:06 am

Greetings:

....sin takes its toll.Demons feast on it.

by(e)carg

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#9255By abhimanyu on Saturday, April 15, 2006 - 12:11 pm

In my personal opinion the world is so unhappy and depressed because nowdays people have become materialistic that they have lost touch with humanity. Everywhere people want to have lots of money and want to possess everything that the other person has.Money is the cause of unhappiness in the world. I think helping other people will give you more happiness and peace than that of running behind money. Spread love and happiness around you. LIFE IS VERY SHORT TO BE UNHAPPY

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#9258By crossquad on Sunday, April 16, 2006 - 3:57 am

Greetings:

The Lord has set up a process where the mind gets
well.One,need tribulation to work up lots of
experience,this begets patience,which begets hope.The
hope that healing will come.The setup is,the hope of
healing is what brings on the healing,why,faith is
exalted.Faith is what gets the Lord's attention to
act.

by(e)carg

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#9261By Carlan on Sunday, April 16, 2006 - 1:34 pm

Abhimanyu, I think that many of the people of our world today are unhappy and depressed because of the same reasons that our ancestors were unhappy and depressed back in their day and for the same reasons that our children and their children will be unhappy and depressed in their days to come. I think those reasons are all manifested and manufactured from out of our own humanness. I think as humans we all want and we all need things to various degrees and, in order, to fulfill those wants and those needs we do and we say what we each believe we need to do and to say to gain those wants and those needs by utilizing the mind and the body and the environ that we were born with or born into.

People are survivors and being such we will do what we consider necessary to assure our survival and our children’s survival, as best as we know how. We will embellish, we will sabotage, we will cover up, we will deny, we will lie, we will cheat, we will steal, we will kill, we will ravage, we will surrender, we will pillage if and when we think or that we believe our wellness or our children’s wellness is at stake.

I think it is our nature to want to control others and I think that it is in our nature to not to want anyone to control us, too. I think that we like to tell others how they should live and I think that we hate to have someone tell us how we should live. I think that as to acquiring property that someone a long time ago said it best when he or she said, “I am not greedy all I want to own is the property next to mine!”

The seven or more deadly sins are still in action today as they were yesterday and as they will be tomorrow!

Be happy or at least be glad that these sins are not presently knocking at your door just now!

Life is not short life continues on into infinity but human life is minuscule in relation to timelessness so one should live life as best as he or she can while he or she can and that is for sure.

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#9483By Jester on Friday, February 16, 2007 - 2:34 pm

You can never loose the opportunity to choose....Freewill is the cornerstone of life, real life. To say we loose the opportunity to surrender to something greater than ourselves is to have already lost....For in the surrender is the death...in the retention of choice is life and the ability to choose to become better by choosing to rely on the Creator to make you better when you have sincerely "surrendered" your will to love itself. To save your life is to loose it....To loose yourself to God is to save it indeed.

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#9512By Carlan on Thursday, April 12, 2007 - 1:30 pm

Jester, could you define freewill for me? And while you are at it could you tell me how freewill is the cornerstone of life that is real life? What is real life and where does it begin and where does it end? Surrender what to what will gain us something or gain us nothing I don’t get it. What do you mean? If I surrender my previous freewill to God would I be giving up my ability to have a freewill? Would that mean that instead of living my life with out my ‘cornerstone’ that my cornerstone would be gone and I would now live my life as God as my cornerstone and my freewill would no longer exist?

To save your life is to lose it…you don’t say now how does that work? I think that you are just parroting words and phrases that other religious nuts and zealots have expounded over the centuries that made no sense then and make no sense now. God is God! God does not help you nor does God hurt you! God does not love you nor does God hate you! God does not care about you or me one way or another way that is not God’s way that is all our human way. We love and hate one another! We want to help and we want to hurt one another! We care about people and we don’t care about people! We want to find cures and we want to find better ways of living life and we want to stop wars and we want to stop the suffering and the murdering going on in the world because we are human and that is how some of us think.

God is God and we are humans and God began us and back into that God we are destined to return!

What I am saying is that if any of us want to change evil to good in this world we better get up and start doing what each of us needs to be doing to get that enormous job done because waiting for God to do it is going to work just as it hasn’t worked so far!

I would say our life is structured. We can change our life. Our life is like a piece of paper, you draw what you want. I see people , some of them live in villages and stay away from technology. I travel around the world, and live with technology. I speak 3 languages. When I see those people, I tell myself, if you moved to an other country, if you had taken a step elsewhere, if you had done something, you could have been better. Life is so precious, life is something that can end so quickly ( suicide) or change so quickly ( moving, learning elsewhere). Don't you see? Personally I would say people are depressed and unhappy because this is not what they want, they want better. They can have better. They need to motivate themselves and get moving. "Your drawing ,your life". It's like a game ( a serious one of course), you will have ups ( bonus?) and downs ( desastrous) but life is meant to go on. Choose your life, get to the end, be happy. You can achieve what you want. Go for it. Don't stand there, every second counts. Dont waste time being not happy. Your just going through a "down", so what? An "up" might come any time now. If we all didn't make it through a "down" then why are we still here ???

I would say our life is structured. We can change our life. Our life is like a piece of paper, you draw what you want. I see people , some of them live in villages and stay away from technology. I travel around the world, and live with technology. I speak 3 languages. When I see those people, I tell myself, if you moved to an other country, if you had taken a step elsewhere, if you had done something, you could have been better. Life is so precious, life is something that can end so quickly ( suicide) or change so quickly ( moving, learning elsewhere). Don't you see? Personally I would say people are depressed and unhappy because this is not what they want, they want better. They can have better. They need to motivate themselves and get moving. "Your drawing ,your life". It's like a game ( a serious one of course), you will have ups ( bonus?) and downs ( desastrous) but life is meant to go on. Choose your life, get to the end, be happy. You can achieve what you want. Go for it. Don't stand there, every second counts. Dont waste time being not happy. Your just going through a "down", so what? An "up" might come any time now. If we all didn't make it through a "down" then why are we still here ???
avril- your words are idealistic no one can determine where there born what geans they have brain power, poor or rich your words may reach .000001%of people that can hear it most people die befor10- than 80 so ther is no message for them, most people that can,t think outsde there oun experences .and use i more than once only see themselfs , this is aspose to be thinkers all i see is people staying on same plane as everyone ulse in world ,remember follow no one or you will become where that person is - read no man thoughts or you will think like that man , and i mean humans only

Warnick, you seem to be locked in to repeating yourself. 'More people die before 10 than live pass 80 and there is no message for them. Most people cannot think outside of themselves and they can only see themselves. They all think on the same plane as everyone else'.

Then, you tell us, do not read any man’s thoughts or we will think just like that man does think. Well, if we did not read someone’s thoughts (human thoughts only) how would we have been able to read your thoughts here or anyone’s thoughts anywhere? Are we to believe that you are an alien being? I do not believe in aliens!

I think that it is okay to read another man’s thoughts. In fact, I think that that is essential for the most of us to do, in order, to mature our minds to its full potential. However, I also think that after reading those written thoughts that we must filter them through our own learned knowledge base where we can get rid of those thoughts that do not suit us and we can incorporate those thoughts that we believe may help us to get to that place where we choose to live.

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Warnick, you are rather difficult to understand but so am I. As I said before I do not believe in any other form of intelligent life form exist anywhere outside of this world we call earth. So, I do not believe that you are any kind of being except a human being like the rest of us here.

I cannot say if you are nuts or not because I, personally, think that we are all nuts. Some of us are just a little less nuttier than some others of us, is all. After all we have to be a little bit nuts just to put in our normal day. You know when you think of all the things lurking out there just waiting to kill us or cripple us or make us sick or take something of ours away from us like taking our ability to earn our living or waiting to take our eyesight or our hearing or our happiness away. Deadly germs are everywhere! Accidents waiting to happen to us are everywhere we turn! Things that might fall on us are falling everywhere! Murderers and villains of all sorts are everywhere just waiting for us to leave our guard down! Vehicles just waiting to wreck our lives! Food poisoning! Lead paint poisoning! Bombs going off! Bullets flying through the air! Animals biting us! Slips and slides just waiting out there to cause us injuries! Meteors falling from who knows where! Tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, and earthquakes happening all around us! Not to mention terrorists and freedom fighters and gangs of all kinds that just do not like us and want to do bodily harm to us are everywhere! Insanity is, too, everywhere! The tax collector is everywhere! Big brother and Big sister are always tripping us up! So, you see why I think that we are all a little or a lot nuts, don’t you?

Warnick, you, certainly, visited a lot of sites (385) all right and you still have not, as yet, found the one fellow or the one gal that you feel you can share what it is you have to share with them? Well, all that I can say, is that new sites are being generated everyday and new people are going to all of those sites everyday too and with all of that activity and if you persist long enough I think you will someday find that one person that you are looking for. I sure do hope you find them soon. Good Luck!

In my personal opinion depression comes from a broken spirit at a young age.
Worthlessness, no purpose, feeling unloved and that there is no hope in living anylonger.
Warnick you said it..."more people die before the age of 10 than live past 80, there is no message. (spiritual death before age 10, depression and no message of hope in one's life.)

We turn to certain elements that promise that good feeling for just a little while, for just a little while I can feel free, I can feel wonderful. I can remember drinking alone and as soon as that buzz hit, I thought to myself.."Why can't I feel this good all the time?"

All those elements (overeating, drugs, ciggerettes, alcohol, first guy that looked my way) that I chose to put into myself, to escape..were only lies created to keep me from feeling joy all the time.

I also think that it is because in my case I chose not to surrender to something greater than myself. Living in SEPERATION was all I knew how to do.

That something greater is UNITY...and I BELIEVE it is possible to overcome depression with LOVE. Love and accepting ourself and others as ourself..and knowing we are truly ONE...with the LORD. WE are GOOD and WORTHY and can pull our chair up to the "TABLE"..and receive EVERLASTING JOY with the spiritual family of those who are already feasting. Everyone has a place there, even me.

Those are a few of my thoughts on depression. I appreciate everyone's insight.

Blessings,
Sirena

Sirena, you are certainly entitled to your opinion about the causes and the effects of depression because I think that some kinds of depression are answered by what you present to us here. However, my depression was defined as clinical depression and what that means I do not have a clue but what depression was to me was it had nothing to do with low self-esteem or lost faith in anything or some element of loss joy or worthlessness. It had everything to do with not being able to function in my normal way because of not caring about anything or anybody. The things and the people that I loved and I thought that I could never let go of, I let those things and those people go with out so much as a whimper. I did care about my wife and my son and my relatives and friends but I, certainly, did not care about them like I did before the depression struck. I would just go through the motions of hugging and talking but believe me I was not there. I would lie down and sleep most of the day away without caring whether the lawn got cut or if I got a haircut or if any food was on the table or not. I saw life as something that was not worth any effort of mine to live. Why do something or say something or answer to anything or hope for anything when in the end nothing was all that there would ever be anyway? Shear hopelessness filled my mind and my body just kept growing ever thinner. I would walk for hours around and around in one room just trying to tire myself completely out so that I would be less anxious and more sleepy. I felt that if I could sleep forever that that would be just perfect for me.

After a year of going to therapy groups and seeing therapist and psychologist and psychiatrist and after taking Zoloft (which for me was my wonder pill) I, eventually, came back to living my life. However, like an alcoholic I feel that I am never more than a small step away from falling into that depressive pit because when I fell in it the first time I never saw it coming.

I feel that it, the clinical depression pit, is waiting just around some bend in the road or just over the next horizon for any one of us and once we fall in, believe me, it is a very bad nightmare. I hope that all of you can avoid this awful and unforgiving pitfall but if you cannot and if you can remember me and if you can make yourself do it, please, write to me and I will try to help you out in some way.

Sirena, I appreciate your insights, as well. Please, have a very nice day!

Carlan,

You say you were able to let go of people in your life without a whimper.
I can relate to that very well, I had the ability to become an ice cube..Not literally..LOL. (talk about shapeshifting, another topic..LOL)... I tried medication but I didn't like the way it made me feel so numb, I am a very emotional person, I need to feel. So I sought other methods and I am so glad that I did because the methods I use have been miraculous in my opinion, I am still working hard everyday though, I don't think that we can stop..it's an ongoing process..Healing inside out requires consistancy.

I think that it is up to the individual experiencing the depression, my sister chose medication and swares that she could not survive without it and she is successful in her career and seems to be satisfied with her results except for the $120.00 pharmacy bill every month. That is the only complaint I have heard from her on the subject. I respect her decisions.

Have a good one.

We are people - to say that the people TODAY are unhappy , depressed and all that its unfair - people were always like that since they were granted the ability to think !!!

People need to be unhappy , they need to have troubles , we are thinking machines - and as for a higher authority watching over us ? let`s take the creation myth - God created us all - but the question I would make ...is "why? "
to make us happy and live long ? check the Holy Bible- god put hit belivers through constant testing - pain - suffering - making them act - react - think , turning to God and dedicating him our lives cause we can`t take the pain present in the world ain`t a answer , he created us to think and giving him a show to watch , not admiting that its childish after a solid reading of the bible ,and esspecially of the testaments,there are indeed many learning there - but there isn`t a paragraph where they say all the wold on earth is happy - that`s in heaven.

This is how we are supposed to be - in a constant strugle for survival - take the concept of happynes , your are happy ...for one day , one year , u stay home , have sex , drink , watch movies - laugh and all that - in 1 month i`ll be sick of it - PEOPLE NEED CHALLENGES

If u are unhappy if cause u choose to be - cause u choose to ignore the problems - cause u choose not to think - to solve to survive - u give up - that`s depresion for me - giving up

Unhappy in love - that`s another topic in my opinion - but that`s hormons - in 6 month you get over it ( experienced myself ) .

The only think we can say for sure - is that the mankind has gone in a slope , a downfall - the technologie , the services - im[prove more and more - are we are left with nothing to fight for - there u get depression , high rate of suicide ,people standing in their homes - and doing nothing - that`s the unhappy that u discus here - but ...why a man unhappy ...if he stays home , getting fat ...watching TV , and doing nothing ? - isn`t that the concept that the most of the far east country consider happynes ? the poor country ? they fight for that - US reached that - they are fat , depressing people that the system feeds , they are unhappy cause they are denied the fight for survival,they are easy to manipulate - and there we get to another topic - the mind control teory and others.

So in my opinion this subject is simple in essence - people as any other creature on earth need to fight for survival in order to have satisfaction , so when he comes home,he comes tired but happy , so after 50 years of work , he can retire and be a good grandfather - is as simple as this

But also u can make millions of side stories and topics and extend this one - but that depends of the concept of happynes that u are looking for.

Haha thanks. Your right. Just so you know Im only 14 :) So not a very experienced person

Avril, fourteen is young but in fourteen years a person can experience quite a lot.

Sirena, I was able to let go some people out of my life without a whimper because those people were going whether I wanted them to go or not and I had to go on without them.

I know about brain numbing medication too and I did not like the way those medications made me feel which was mostly listless and sleepy.

I agree the healing process is inside out and does require consistency and hard work and I also think the healing process is outside in, as well, because I think that mental and physical healing must also come from those people and things that are constantly about us. If those things and those people are the things and the people that we find appealing and gratifying to our eyes and ears and our touch then those things may allow a healing source from the outside in. However, like the meds that make us feel awful and bad from the inside those people and things that surround us if they only provide us with struggle and frustration and tired-dialogue and meaningless sayings will cause us to feel bad and only add to our already depressed mood.

Believe me, one hundred and twenty dollars a month is cheap even at ten times that amount is cheap when depression puts its greedy fingers around your chest and squeezes you until you feel like you want to have someone kill you or you want to kill yourself. Yeah, $120.00 dollars is a cheap fix if you ask me. It is good that you did and do respect your sister’s decision in this matter because I think that respect helps her to cope better with her problem.

Attik, I think that we do need challenges and problems and goals to help us to become all that we can become but too many challenges and too many problems and too many goals can make us go over the top at some point, too. I like just to have enough problems to keep me thinking of possible solutions and I like only enough challenges to keep my mind and my body fit and responsive and I like goals that are most easily in my body’s and my mind’s reach and the rest let for the other guy and gal to wrestle.

I feel that mankind is not on any downward slope but is always on a level surface with all other living creatures. I see mankind developing better technologies and better chemistry and better productivity than ever before. I do not see this trend going anywhere but onward and upward. People, well, let us just say that people will always be people like the people that were around yesterday and like the people today and like the people that will be around tomorrow. People will always be people because that is what they and we were created to be. We cause problems and we solve problems.

I think that when the problems end is when we better be looking for that big bang everyone keeps talking about in the scientific world because I think then there will be no further need for any of us including you and me.

Oh, when I was in the psychiatric hospital I did notice that there were patients there with every skin color and every eye color and they were men and they were women and they were tall and short and they were rich and poor and they were skinny and fat and they were smart and dumb and they were young and old and they had good jobs and poor jobs. Frankly, if it were not for the locked doors at night I would not have known if I were in a mental hospital or if I were in the local Holiday Inn.

I think to do a good day’s work for a good day’s pay is very rewarding, indeed, however, in no way do or did I want to keep doing that good day’s work for that good day’s pay for someone else for five or fifty years. No, I wanted to always work toward that day when I no longer had to put in that good day’s work for someone else but I wanted to eventually get to that day where I only put in that good day’s work for myself and my family and let those other people do that good day’s work for that other fellow’s good pay. I, finally, got there and as I said before it was and is wonderful because I am free. Being a grandfather, well, all that I can say about that is ‘It is just great!’

Avril, I started with you and I will finish with you. I know that you have a lot of things to do with your time, fun things and peer things and all of that, but I do hope that you find some few minutes in your day to read a little of what we old folks do say here because I think that some of what people say here makes good sense and some of that could be very valuable to you as you grow older.

Joy to everyone!

carlan- after reading this post we can see why no one can get through to you mental illness is a life long----------------