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Escaping Depression Through Staying Unattached
By Anton Borodko
When we become depressed, we often fail to realize it happened for a reason. Although in some cases that reason may be strictly biological, in most cases we grow depressed because of our wrong attitude. It happened to me as well. I was hit with depression when I was only a teenager, but these days, after I finally analyzed what happened in my life, I can surely tell what the reason to my depression was. Attachment. Attachment to studies in my case, but it can be really anything. You can grow too attached to your work, your friends, your family, your hobby - and whatever else that exists in your life. Many people are attached to money. They are so afraid to lose their possessions and status that they ruin their lives trying to gather more and more of things they consider important. Buddhism warns us against attachment. Ideally, one should not have any worldly desires, but I consider this view slightly exaggerated. I think (and many Buddhists share that point of view) that there should be a healthy balance between spiritual and material. There's nothing wrong with having a house and food to eat, the problem is many people constantly want more. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you should stop caring about anything in your life. Some people try to do it - they imitate that state by "staying cool". They pretend to be calm, but in reality they are just hiding their emotions. Attachment is not about caring, attachment is about caring too much. For example, if you're dating somebody it's perfectly OK to like that person. However, if you let that person become everything for you, if you truly think that you would die without him or her, then those relations will bring you nothing but suffering. In my previous articles I talked about imposed expectations. Many times people like your parents literally force you to grow attached to something because they think you should really be worried about it. They can't stand to see that you treat things like your studies lightly, and they believe that by making you attached to your college they will help you to graduate with good marks. That very well may be, but such attachment will ruin many other aspects of your life, so try not to care too much. Suprisingly, you will see that once you stop being too attached to something you will actually become better in it. It happens because your mind stops being "blocked" by that very thing you're attached to, and once you regain perspective you will immediately see what mistakes you've made and how you can fix them. |
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I am trying to simplify my life to become less attached to material things.
What a fascinating inversion of Buddhist ideas into a form that may well be more relevant today than the original, which kinda goes: 1 - By understanding intellectually and then performing spiritual practice with the right attitude 2 a - you may lessen Attachment - which will surely reduce suffering (of which Depression is one manifestation) & 2 b - and you may also open the doors to Compassion and see how you were, and others are, stuck on the Wheel Of Karma The old way stresses Spiritual practice - your way stresses the easing of emotional pain - interesting!
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