Stoicism: Cure for Depression?

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The Stoicism ideology has existed since the Roman Dynasty ruled the world. Romans Stoic such as Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus, a former slave that became Stoic philosophy teacher. But what is the connection between Stoicism and depression?

What Is Stoicism Definition?

To answer that question, we must know the basis of it. Based on Stoicism is an idea that our life goal is to be in sync with nature as the whole cosmos, including other humans too. So, Stoicism's definition more and less is the endurance of hardship and pain without showing our feelings and also without complaint.

One of Epictetus Stoicism's ideologies is to show us how to implement those ideas. He mentions that there are things that are beyond our control and things that are under our control. To avoid depression, we have to realize that if some things aren't under our control, then do not waste your energy on those things. We can focus on what we can control.

For instance, we can control our mind not to go shopping anymore, we can stop those urges. But we can't stop feeling down when we get insulted, our feelings are usually reflected by that insult. So, what we can do is just accept it and move on. There is no use to dwell on that insult.

Does that answer the question what is Stoicism? Continue reading this article. If you want to know more. Philosophy is fun to know, don't you think so?

Stoicism Quote

The idea to distinguish the controllable feeling and not is also strengthened by the Stoicism quote by Epictetus about the source of human suffering. He said that what troubled our feelings is not the matter itself, but it's their judgment on that matter. In other words, it is said that our mind can affect our feelings. If you are suffering because of something, you can decide what to do, if it is something you can't control then stop thinking about it, but if it is something you can control, try hard to control the feelings in order not to suffer anymore.

We can think that life in sync with nature means we realize that those difficult people that make us suffer could be the same as us, someone who is struggling to handle our suffering. They have their trouble, the same as we have our trouble.

For modern days, you can say that we should expect less about something, so if things are not as we expected, we can accept it and not feel too down and suffer. Realizing that some things are beyond our control means we have to accept that including the feeling we felt regarding those matters. Like being insulted, we can choose to feel down or just accept the insult while considering that person probably has suffered too in their life.

So, can Stoicism be declared as the cure for depression? Probably for some people, it is, but not for everyone. Stop feeling depressed too much and learn to be in sync with nature, including those difficult people in your life.