For Those Times When G-d’s Sunshine is Hidden, and You Despair
Depression is a real biological disease that results in terms of days lost from work, worldwide, a number that is only second to spinal conditions. Grief from the passing of a loved one is natural, but biological depression is an illness. There are medicines and procedures that you can use to move towards lessening of a depression, the simplest of which is getting enough natural light (or blue light from a special unit) in the early morning. If you think that you are depressed, you need to see your psychiatrist if you have one, or your primary-care physician.
What about spiritual malaise? It comes to all pessimists by habit, and even to optimists at times. I do not know a religion better than I know Judaism to be able to state whether there is a season to be depressed, but I know in Judaism that the fast days commemorating our so-painful losses harness for many people that impulse. On the festival days, one is commanded to rejoice, and the plentiful meals and singing--and sometimes dancing--make it possible to have a respite from spiritual malaise. It is possible to—and may be advantageous for you to—join your lot with a group whose customs aim at being happy in G-d’s world, such as I have found in Lubavitch Chabad.
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