| It may seem Pollyannaish to view depression as a gift. | | | | around, it might have noticed the other window offered |
| The gift of depression is its ability to wake you up and | | | | an easy escape into freedom. |
| make you do something different and change your life. | | | | Depression, which often leads to a withdrawal of life |
| Fly Metaphor | | | | energy from current life situations, may be a gift in |
| One time I saw a fly inside a car banging its head over | | | | reorienting you to finding an alternative strategy for |
| and over again against a car window. It seemed as if it | | | | your life's problems. Unlike the fly, you can turn around |
| would injure itself as it repeatedly tried to escape the | | | | and re-evaluate your situation. |
| car by flying into the window, bouncing back and trying | | | | Navigation Metaphor |
| again. The irony was that the window on the other | | | | When a plane flies across the country it is given a |
| side of the car was open, and all it had to do was stop | | | | navigation system to help it stay on its flight path so it |
| trying to move forward, turn around, and fly out the | | | | will get where it is supposed to go and so it will not |
| other side. Similarly, there are times when if you force | | | | interfere with other airplanes in flight. If the plane |
| yourself to try to move forward and overcome | | | | deviates even slightly off of its trajectory, the |
| obstacles by sheer force of will you may cause | | | | navigation system alerts the pilot and the corrective |
| yourself great injury, to no avail. There are times when | | | | changes are made so that airplane stays on course. |
| the most effective strategy is to stop in your tracks | | | | Similarly, depression can be a signal alerting you to the |
| and to contemplate your situation rather than bulldozing | | | | fact that you have gone off course. |
| ahead. For example, if the fly had stopped and turned | | | | |