Not too long ago I wrote an article about depression and my experience dealing with it. However, in that article, I focused mainly on just getting through the depression and not going beyond and talking about what happens after you're no longer depressed.

So for this go around, I want to share the aftermath of depression and how you can work to slowly building yourself back up.

First of all, dealing with depression is a battle; from the moment it begins to enter your life and even after all the symptoms have gone away.

In a perfect world, I would like to say that once you've climbed out of the pits of despair and you never thought you would see the light of day, that everything would be wonderful rays of sunshine. I'd like to tell you that you'd never look back on the hell you just went through and you were going to happy again forever. Ha. Ha Ha...wouldn't that be nice?

The reality of it is, you've just been knocked down; you're bruised, and parts of you are broken. You are not just going to spring back together like a slinky. It's going to take some time. And, I'll tell you, it's going to be kind of difficult.

Being depressed makes you do all sorts of things you wouldn't normally do and it can keep you from doing the things you loved. Depression slowly creeps in and paralyzes you in the middle of your normal, everyday life. A new routine is created and when the depression lingers long enough--and the routine becomes too comfortable for liking. But you're not going to do anything about it because "Hey, you're depressed."

But once you have defeated this darkness and overcome every possible thing that brought you down, you come out a stronger human. Your soul awakens once more, and the warrior spirit inside is a fiery force to be reckoned with.

Now that those chains have been broken, it's time to mend and build yourself back up. Undoing that routine you got sucked in though is difficult. Those poor habits are hard to break; nothing can be done or undone overnight.

When you begin feeling somewhat like yourself again, you start doing the things you love. Getting outside, going hiking, getting gains from the gym, whatever it was that brought you joy before your depression is now put back on the agenda. And after not doing those things for a period of time, it feels so exhilarating to be doing them once again!

But, not every day can be filled with leisure. You still gotta do what you gotta do to get by, and that's when those thoughts start popping back up into your head. You've just come down from a high of feeling refreshed and alive again, and everything has gone back to normal. It's so easy to slip back into a state of being depressed because that was all you've known for a while. Sometimes, boredom sets in and your mind and body become stagnant again. You might put God on the back burner because you think you don't need him anymore and everything is okay, or maybe something happens that made you kinda sad or upset. Suddenly, you feel yourself sinking in and begin to suffocate.

But that's your warning. Feeling the suffocation, feeling the fear of being depressed again is what keeps yourself from fully submerging and giving into the darkness. And since you've become stronger, you can fight it. Resist the temptation of allowing yourself to be depressed. Do something about it and overcome whatever it is that is staring you in the face. And always, always, always keep God first.

As time passes, those feelings of depression seem to slip away back into the dark where they came from. And since you now know the triggers and that defeating depression is possible, it doesn't seem to be an issue anymore.

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Life happens, things get in the way, and not everything works out according to your plan. But that's okay because God has your back. His plan is unimaginably better than our own. With God by your side, all things are possible and you're going to be okay.

Blessings