Is there hope for depression?

What is hope and is it the same as ambition? Maybe we can discover what hope can mean when we look where it is lacking; in depression. How does hope disappear when dealing with depression?     Existential hope lacks in depression.   A lack of hope isn’t just a symptom of depression, it seems …

What is self-compassion?

What is self-compassion? Self-compassion is not very different of feeling compassion towards others. Dr Kristin Neff [1] describes its components.   1. Recognizing suffering. First you need to recognize suffering. This first step is quite difficult for me as I was raised to ‘work through it’ and to ‘keep my chin up’. The question I …

Are you depressed again? How to spot a relapse.

How can we spot a recurrent depressive episode in Major Depressive Disorder? In this series about recovery we’ve covered the 5 domains of recovery last week. They are managing your symptoms and increasing an active position in the existential, social, functional and physical areas of your life. We can think about recovery in terms of …

How I found my dream … dog.

As you all know by now I do like dogs. I adore them and wanted one for a long long time. As my life takes some interesting turns, I’ll finally get the opportunity to get one. Why a rescue dog? Because I can’t get behind breeding dogs for pure fun or profits while so many …

Recovery from depression, how does it look like?

  Once my cocktail of medication started to work and I worked hard in therapy, I started to feel better at the beginning of this year. I thought I’ve started my walk in the park and that everything would clear up and would fall into its place.   I knew that recovery is supposed to …