So you know how no matter how many times you seem to whack off the limbs your depression, it just keeps growing back? Like your misery is some sort of starfish on metaphorical steroids? Or an infection that resists all efforts to cure it?

It is important to deal with your day to day misery and find ways to push back on the blah. It is also important to all the while, search for the underlying causes of your misery and upon identifying them, determine ways to handle them as well.

Because depression tends to have root causes. Often there are obvious external contributing factors, like death, poverty, disease. But then there are the cases that so often don’t make any sense. People who are well-fed, well-loved, well-taken care of, and yet still so utterly miserable.

Thing is, misery doesn’t come from nowhere. So typically in those cases, an individual has internalized damage from past external stresses. Maybe you’re well-fed now, but grew up without any food and can’t forget that fear of hunger. Maybe you’re loved now, but there were times when people close to you hurt you and never apologized or took responsibility.

You may not know or remember the reason why you’re so damaged. Still, there is one, and if you can find it, and address it, then you increase the likelihood that you can consistently treat that misery disease of yours.

So find a root solution to your depression. Determine what originally caused the fear and mistrust that persist in your heart, and seek out ways to alleviate that pain. If you don’t know how, that’s okay. There are plenty of other miserable or formerly miserable people in the world who can tell you their gory stories. String together a couple of their narratives to find one that fits you, and you’re good to go.