I'm Still Human: Understanding Depression With Kindness (Expanded Edition - 2021)

Be mindful of false kindness
Sometimes kindness can be
misunderstood, applied wrongly and thus not
helpful in dealing with depression. Kindness
in coping with depression doesn’t mean:
1. Allowing ourselves to abuse alcohol or illicit drugs
(e.g. cannabis, heroin, amphetamine) to drown the depressive pain.
Even though it’s understandable, this is not self-kindness – it’s selfdestruction.
A better way would be getting professional help for
depression.
2. Self pity – repeatedly ruminating over how terrible life is
(‘poor me syndrome’). It’s done mainly to seek attention without
any willingness to do anything to make life better. A better way is to
take charge of our lives and make practical changes for
improvement.
3. Blaming everyone and demanding the world to change. This
is not self-love – it’s self-centeredness. This kind of expectation will
only cause more disappointment and interpersonal conflicts. A
better way would be to gradually adjust our attitude and behavior
to build a better world.
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