Indulging depression

Last August, there was a post to the Naturalistic Pagans email list about how to respond to being depressed.  The suggestion was attributed to The Depression Book by Cheri Huber.  The idea was to eat chocolate cake and watch depressing movies. 

I think maybe I'll try that next time I get depressed.  Not the cake and movies, but the idea of indulging my feelings rather than banishing them.  Indulging is what I usually do anyhow, to a certain extent, but I should try embracing the indulgence, rather than telling myself that I should do something that would cheer me up, like exercise.  Indulging does seem to work.  After some time, I hit bottom, and then I'm fine.  Maybe the more I indulge my depression, the sooner I'll hit bottom and recover.

At least for me, that's the kind of depression that I get.  It's normally something that just comes for one evening, and then it's gone the next morning.  For someone who has a more chronic situation, perhaps they wouldn't have that experience of hitting bottom and then bouncing back.

It doesn't have to be just depression.  Any time there's something I'm trying to banish, instead, I can listen to it.  For example, I hate the whole employment thing.  I do make progress on trying to figure out different ways of earning a living, but at the same time, I'm always feeling I should be doing more.  In this case, the thing that I'm trying to banish is the fear that I'm not doing enough, and the fear that because I never do enough, I'll always be stuck in the same place.  Indulgence would mean wallowing in self-loathing for not doing enough.  After that wallowing, maybe I would realize that I'm doing the best I can, or maybe I would be motivated to do more.  Either way, maybe I could come to some acceptance.