Depression: ways of dealing with it

Originally Posted by eriol

Hey, could you give me some suggestion how to deal with depression caused by frustation that you cant achieve something because of your limitation?

Honestly I've been suffering such feeling for a long time. I always feel depressed for little things, like I cant be number one, like I keep pending my japanese exam and feel that everyone will step forward into the future and leave me alone behind back. It's really disturbing now. I feel like I'm the world's worst idiot.

I cant help it. I want to avoid such feeling.

I had these same feelings of frustration when I was in college until one professor said something to me that really enlightened me. I had always done very well in school prior to the time. Many viewed me as a genius and as someone wise. When I was in a place where I was average or less than average compared to others, it was truly a humbling experience.

The professor who I had talked to had told me of his Graduate school experiences. He went to Grad school in MIT and he was a very educated and intelligent individual. The thing was, everyone there was also very intelligent. He told me of how many undergrads could not deal well with their academics in the first few years. Many many of these students were the best of their best, top students in their high school classes. They were number 1. Then they went to a place where everyone else was number 1. Suddenly, the majority of them went from being the best to being average... from all A+'s their whole lives to getting B's and C's that they've never seen. It's something that is very painful to deal with.

No matter your expertise or skill, there is always someone out there who is better. There is no true best at anything. Every person has their faults and it is those faults that allow others to be better than them in certain aspects.

The funny thing is, after all that humility that I went through, now I feel my ambition burning again where I am. You realize that the majority of the people in the world aren't brilliant and/or hard-working... you suddenly get your confidence back again. It may not seem like it now as you are exposed to many who are intelligent and hard-working but the world is vast.



On the main subject though, I found that reading philosophy can be uplifting for the spirit and general questioning of yourself and the world around you can help at times as well.

Jam it back in, in the dark.