Do you feel the unexpected weight that guilt brings with depression?
Do you feel there was something you should have done or said to the one suffering?
Depression comes in all shapes and sizes and can be fueled by multiple factors in life. Maybe you just lost your job, or just no longer enjoy your career choice. Perhaps you are spending more time at work and missing moments with your family or suffered a miscarriage. Did you come home unscathed while a brother in arms lost a limb after you both were hit by an IUD. Depression can affect anyone for any reason. What most people fail to consider is the guilt that comes with the disease of depression. This guilt affects those that you leave behind and anyone that is in your life. Guilt can find its way into anyone’s mind.
Guilt, however, does not physically exist. It is not tangible. Guilt is a cancerous thought process that eats away at you. It is created in your own mind. It can be all consuming and you may not be able to see past it until you can release yourself from it. Finding your way through the guilt to the light on the other side will be a path specific only to your own battles and victories.
It may be finally pursuing that passion that had been pushed aside for so long, starting a foundation in honor of that loved one lost. Choosing to spend more time with family and surrounding yourself with people who love and encourage you. Whichever it is, it will pull you out of the darkness and help you see the light again in life.
I found myself engulfed in this depression and guilt unable to use my own advice to pull myself out. I stepped away from my mission in life to try to find the path out and resulted in the guilt being multiplied. My guilt grew in magnitude when I thought about the eight thousand veterans we lost that year, and realized that by stepping away from my mission, my inaction may have contributed to some of those deaths. But the reality is that not a single person pointed a finger at me in blame. My feelings came from that other factor that we often don’t look at when depression is upon us. Self imposed guilt. Until I was able to release myself from this guilt, was I able to see that my personal experiences could be put forward and help those struggling just as I did.
You are not alone. Release yourself from that guilt. Show the world that you have something to offer.