Dear Jeyamohan,
What is it that actually makes us depressed?
There is, of course, chronic depression, which is an illness and needs to be understood and treated as such. But I feel that there is another kind of depression that emerges from the way we live our lives. Much of our unhappiness may come from a sense of purposelessness—from not knowing what to do with our time, our abilities, and our inner energy.
Perhaps the greatest problem is having nothing to do creatively.
When a person has no meaningful work, no intellectual engagement, no artistic pursuit, and no sense of contributing something to the world, life can slowly become empty. The mind begins to turn inward and repeatedly circles around its own anxieties, disappointments and frustrations. In that sense, inactivity is not merely the absence of work; it can become an absence of meaning.
Creative activity, on the other hand, gives a person a direction. It creates a relationship with the world. Whether it is writing, reading, painting, teaching, gardening, making something with one’s hands, or simply learning something new, the act of creation brings us out of ourselves. It gives shape to our time and, more importantly, gives us a reason to get up each morning.
I have often felt that a meaningful life does not necessarily require great achievements. What matters is having something that we can engage with deeply and sincerely. A person who has such an engagement may still experience sorrow, failure and loneliness, but these things need not become a permanent emptiness.
Perhaps, therefore, one way of looking at depression in ordinary life is to ask not only, “What is wrong with me?” but also, “What meaningful thing am I doing with my life?”
This is something I have been thinking about recently.
With regards,
Mahalingam
