In message
<fe14dbf3-9745-4dd1-b856-3a47513c8d02@i3g2000hsf.googlegroups.com>,
gnosiswithinu@hotmail.com writes

On Dec 4 2007, 12:52 pm,

I finally found out why do I think about suicide sometimes.
According to experts: "The major clinical morbidity of bipolar
disorder is chronic depression. Yet this depression, which is
resistant to our best pharmacological treatments, may represent
something else. We suggest it may involve existential despair, as a
consequence of the losses incurred by this illness."

Also experts say "that many bipolar patients may not have clinical
depression viewed as an endogenous disease entity, but rather they
may
be suffering from clinical "despair," as defined by the
existentialist
philosophers Soren Kierkegaard (Kierkegaard, 1989) and Karl Jaspers
(Jaspers, 1998). Patients may suffer, too, from a complete loss of
hope for the future and a loss of any grounding in the world. "

Anybody feels the same?

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I could not agree more: It was Jung who said that "all neurosis is a
substitute for legitimate suffering" In some esoteric teachings, it
is mentioned the difference between imaginary suffering and real
suffering. The reason we suffer-real or imagined- is because we are
unaware of the degree in which the machinations of our ego deceives
in so may ways and in a very profound way. Our ignorance of this, in
addition to our unexamined belief system is a major contributing
factor in all form of depression. I believe this has not been
addressed with the attention it deserves.

I'd also say that, as our lives unfold, we fail to learn from our
experiences in life. As an example, and from my own experience,
unrequited love put me in a state of mind that I could have never
fathomed.- it was, to me, a living nightmare. My therapist asked me
if I wanted drugs. I refused. Mainly because I knew that what I did
was self-created. I went into abdominal sobbing for days. I would go
to sleep crying and I'd wake up crying. I dreaded waking up..... For
the very first time in my life, I felt worthless and the one I loved
was as far from me as the planets.

On reflection, and as painful as it was, it had to happen. It was the
only way for me to realize that what I thought was love, was not love
at all. It was more about control, being needy, lack of self esteem,
and the Pygmalion complex. I had absolutely no idea that I could be
this way, but I was. I discovered too that what I went through is all
too human-so I was in good company! lol...But I had to mourn this in
a genuine way and I did this by allowing myself to sincerely admit I
made a mistake: I loved someone too much. I was told by a Buddhist
monk that I gave so much love that I had nothing left for myself. So
true.

What astonishes me even after10 years of this experience, is that I
had a dream about my beloved just yesterday. Yeah, it put me in a bit
of a funk, but it eventually passed away. It astonishes me to no end
as to how my feelings about her still affect me. Then again, it's not
about her, but MY FEELINGS about her. This experience "woke me up" so
to speak. It matured me in ways that I would have never learned in
all the years in college.

We learn from suffering; we're suppose to. But many people don't .So
they end up repeating their suffering or become bitter and/or
depressed as they get older. Nowadays, what do they do?...... give me
a pill, they say, for my pain!! ...for what.. the pain of life?

Our educational system fails miserably in teaching us what in means
to be MORE human--oppose to MORE THAN human. And this is what
Kierkegaard and Jaspers were talking about. Unfortunately, the only
way to know this is to sincerely honor our feelings no matter how we
may feel of the outcome.

Ignorant little sod, aren't you?