Clinical Depression: Shakespeare’s Macbeth And Gratitude
Clinical depression is usually treated with drugs. But there is only one lasting antidote.
It may be great drama when Shakespeare’s Macbeth moans
…Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
…creeps in this petty pace from day to day
…and all our yesterdays have lighted fools
…the way to dusty death
But it is really the most beautiful description ever written of clinical depression. If clinicians want a working understanding of depression they need not read the many books on the subject…they have only to feel the rhythm of Macbeth’s descriptive words.
The rhythm of the words…as well as the words themselves… captures that feeling many people have — mild to severe hopelessness.
People who experience life as Macbeth did spend their days flying just under the radar that searches the sky of their lives to locate happiness and joy…friendship and love… wealth and abundance. They miss it all…living as they do under a cloud cover…which is as good a metaphor as any for clinical depression.
But what if we ‘edited’ Shakespeare and wrote this…
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
- …bursts upon me like rain in the desert
- …to make my life bloom with
- …abundant beauty to delight my eye
- …abundant love to overflow my heart
- …abundant joy to expand my soul
- …with shouts of gratitude —
- …Thank you! and Thank you! and Thank you! —
- …exclaiming at the speed of sound
- …through the universe past the stars and beyond
- …to echo in the vaults of heaven itself
Now wouldn’t that be a life worth living?
And it is within everyone’s grasp…but it cannot be given to you by someone else. You…and only you…have the power to create such a life.
And when the time comes to leave this blessed place for destinations unknown…Instead of a dusty death…imagine yourself celebrating for your time here and looking forward with curiosity and excitement to whatever new life beckons you.
All manifestations of unhappiness…whether you call it depression or something else…have one noticeable thing in common. Gratitude is missing. It is missing in people’s lives and often in their prayer.
But one thing is certain…people who live in gratitude are not depressed…they are joyous.
Gratitude is a habit and so is depression.
One cancels the other so that gratitude and clinical depression cannot abide together in the same mind and heart.
Thomas Drummond, Ph.D. is trained in clinical, developmental and neuropsychology. He has worked with the problems of clergy and religious of the catholic church for more than 20 years. Most of their boundary problems occurred to alleviate depression and unhappiness. But what was missing in their lives was the habit of gratitude. Learn more at http://www.boundaries-for-effective-ministry.org
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