I will be painfully honest and say that I don’t know a whole lot about depression. I have been guilty of believing that people just need to lift themselves up and out of it. I do still believe that to a certain extent but after extensive research I now know that that is sometimes easier said then done. I have family members and friends that suffer from depression that ranges from mild to severe to everything in between. I am acquainted with people who suffer (functioning) bi-polar and those that show signs of several disorders. I recently read a book about shadow syndromes.   Shadow syndromes are people that display signs of several different disorders and often go unnoticed or even undiagnosed or misdiagnosed by doctors because they are high functioning members of society. I encourage anyone who struggles with some form of depression or mental disorder or has someone close to you who suffers (therefore you suffer as well) to check your local library for info. To sit back and judge is very easy. To take the time to learn about depression may help you live better or understand the ones you love better. I came across the below writing the other day and I think it is brilliant so I wanted to share it with all of you. Just remember you cannot love away depression, but learning to cope and understand is a great form of love. I love you all, more than mashed potatoes.

“Bucket of Shit” written by Unknown & Adapted by Robin Mohilner

We all come into this world with two things:

A bucket of shit AND a shovel.

What matters in life is not what causes the shit in our buckets.

What matters is what we do with the shit we have.

Now we have some options for what we can do with our shit and our shovel:

1.) We can spend our life digging through the shit to figure out what it is and where it came from.

The shit won’t change. It will still be shit. But we have every right to sift through our shit and smell it for as long as we want.

2.) We can use our shovel to take our shit and put it in other people’s buckets.

Then we get to say, “I have no shit! This is your shit!”

‎3.) We can stick our shovels into other people’s bucket of shit and use our shovel to carry their shit into our bucket.

Doing this will allow us to take responsibility for everyone elses’ shit.

Everything will be our fault. We will stink and feel bad.

(This is what we do when we take things personally, by the way)

‎4.) We can use our own shovel to protect our bucket of shit to keep other people’s shit out of our bucket and keep ourselves from giving other people the shit that belongs to us.

Now when it comes to the shit itself…we have some options….

We can hide the shit from the world and pretend that we don’t have shit.

We can go around being stinky and unkind to each other.

OR

We can use the shit as fertilizer and plant the things that we desire to grow in our lives.

What you do with your shovel and bucket of shit is up to you.

xo

Michelle