Practical Ways For A BO Sufferer To Cure Their Depression

1. Admit that you are powerless over your BO, and that your life has become unmanageable. If you know about any 12 Step Program, you know that it is this paradoxical admission that is the first step to getting your life back.

Admitting that you are powerless over your BO releases you from the constant cycle of wanting to try every new magic pill or regimen that you hear about. It allows you to let go. It releases you from the self-hatred you feel when someone makes a comment about you. It allows you to give that issue to God so that He can restore you to sanity. For stubborn people like us BO sufferers, it usually takes 20 years and $20,000 before we understand this. We want control over this problem so bad...we are willing to do anything. If we only understood that letting go of control is the way we can find peace. We desperately want hope. If only we understood that losing all hope is freedom.

This sounds totally contradictory and backwards, but could it be that all of our wanting of solutions and controlling of our BO is actually hurting us and not helping us? What if you let go and let God? What if you let go of wanting "acceptance" from the world? What if you let go of trying to control people's reactions toward you?

Also, talking (on the phone or face-to-face) frankly about your BO condition to another BO sufferer is something that everyone MUST do. This is such a fearful thing to do if you have never done it, but when you do it, you feel a huge weight lifted. Everyone I have talked to has told me this and I have experienced it myself.

2. Get involved in other people's lives. You can, at the very least, send a personal e-mail to every person who posts on this board (and all the boards) by clicking on their name. Take time out of your day to e-mail someone who suffers with this condition. You don't know how much a simple gesture like this can impact a person's day.

3. Start a new conference call or start a new meet-up. I was not the first person to start a conference call and I hope I won't be the last. Use whatever talents you have to bring us together, whether by phone or in person. One person from our group can start a whole movement. One person could change every one of us. Why haven't you stepped up? What's stopping you?

4. Exercise. Make those endorphins work for you....haha. And go outside when you exercise, so you can get sunlight. It is called light therapy. Some people pay thousands for expensive gadgets, but just getting some sun and some exercise can really brighten your mood.

5. Allow yourself to be accepted by people who want to accept you. One thing I have learned by being on these boards for many, many years is that the people who are intentionally isolating themselves are always the most depressed and suicidal. This is of course to be expected. People were not put on this earth to live in isolation. Isolation destroys a person's soul and mind. People need people, and as a BO sufferer, we need to have other BO sufferers in our lives who know exactly what we are going through.


These are just a few practical steps that have worked for me. Everyone, from people on this board to my family, has talked about what a different person I am becoming...even with a BO condition. I'm not saying I am completely cured or I don't have bad days, but if do the things on this list, I start to develop in to the man that I need to be for my kids and everyone else.



Cabel
502-356-1527