107. Humble Joy

Rabbi Schneerson couldnt have expressed his view with more wisdom when responding to the "nurse and medical research" person. I believe very strongly that its the pharmaceutical industries who "convince" people they are ill by creating fear via their advertising on every channel & boy, do these adverts come at you fast & furiously. My son & I get so irritated & are shocked at how little of a movie we can watch because every break (& there are many) is throwing medication down our throats with such awful side effects that we wonder why anyone would want to take medication at all.

Get to the root of the problem! We're all blessed with strong, powerful & beautiful minds that we simply dont use. The pharmaceutical industry are the drug dealers! They put my son of 9yrs on Vicodin when he broke his little finger soon after arriving to the US. I had never heard of Vicodin & would never have allowed him to take these if I knew how dangerous these were!

Today he is fighting heroin addiction!

Given that I am a giving individual as my career is nursing and medical research, I totally disagree with your commentary/printing on "much of depression stems from haughtiness" Whoever wrote this, is ignorant to the inner-workings of our mind. Depression is Not mind over matter or does it go away with one giving up their "haughtiness" It is a disease process that occurs in 12 million Americans alone, not to mention millions more around the world. It is a biological, situational, chemical, brain/mind altering thief that robs one of many moments of true happiness. When Major Depressive Disorder hits, it is NOT the patients fault as implied with haughtiness. Perhaps removal of this statement will keep Jews coming to your site. I doubt it, when one finds a discriminatory statement or act, one typically does not repeat.

I wholeheartedly agree. Religion can only help (or destroy) so much. Trained professionals are there for a reason.

Those that say it is mind over matter about Clinical Depression are just WRONG! Seek professional help. I really feel that is the only way to help ensure success with this disease.

Believing it when people like that talk about mind over matter like that. That I feel like yeah, I can snap out of easily. Yet when I feel that depressed, I feel like it'll NEVER get better and I find myself once again angry at the "spiritual gurus" that lifted me up.

I also agree with the comments from the reader from Valpo, IN.
I am very very close to an individual who has lead a very productive life until 5 years ago when her depression hit. She has not worked in all that time and is on disability. She has had 14 ECT sessions. You don't burn parts of your brain because you are haughty. You do that after years of unsuccessful therapy and unsuccessful drug treatments. It is ignorance to think that those with depression can just "snap out of it".
In addition, I am sure that the Rebbe knew and Tzvi must agree that since G-d is the orchestrater of all things, and he gave us various emotions, we ARE to feel them. They belong to us.
Depression is not saddness, nor is it haughtiness. Depression is a disease that is heartbreaking to the one who is ill and to those around them.

With anonymous from Valpo, Indiana. You can't just say that Depression stems from what we don't have. If it were only so easy to see in ourselves who we really are, then we WOULDN'T be so depressed. I do agree that depression and other mental health problems stem from physical and chemical imbalances in the body.

Mind over matter is easy, in theory. I can't stand when a so called "spiritual guru" says that the mind is a powerful thing and that we can will ourselves to happy or sad or that, with training, we can meditate in the Himalayas during a blizzard. IT'S NOT THAT EASY! If you keep preaching that, people WILL get angry at you and walk away.

One needs to be humble to understand his circumstances and see within himself things which need to be improved upon. He needs to know for example where he falls short and what he needs to do to improve. We are deep into our exile. So deep that we do not understand the the depth of it. We struggle to make sense of our present day circumstances and look forward to our reunification with Israel the land and of Israel the people. At the uppermost head of this reunification is the longing to be with and serve the creator as in the days before the exile. Joy can truly be achieved when we see and understand who we really are beneath the sheets of emotion which are heaped upon us in our exile and peer through the confusion at our true selves. This can be done if we are humble enough to see that we are not the sum of our life experiences but rather vessels that contain our souls and we have all the tools we need if we would pick them up and use them. What then is holding us back? Our exile.

IMO, I don't think "much" depression comes from haughtiness but from low self esteem, chemical imbalances among other life events. I think it's pretty haughty to presume what causes depression in 'much' of the people who suffer from it.
How can one be full of pride and arrogance when they feel undeserving of love, even from themselves... that whatever transgression they have done or has been done to them they are convinced they deserved it. Most of the people I know don't believe they are better than anyone else whether it be to suffer or succeed. Depression is a serious illness not some passing state of mind.