Society, family, friends, co-workers push us to stay active, in the game, always going. That’s not good under the best of circumstances, but when one is suffering from depression, it’s even worse. Depression is an illness and like with all illnesses, we need time to heal.

Sondra Rose Marie, I’ve battled depression most of my life and no one — not my GP, not my psychologist — told me to rest so I could heal. I went and went and went, never allowing myself the space to just be and relax and heal.

Depression is exhausting. We forget that or don’t acknowledge it in the first place.

This may sound odd, but one of my favorite times in my life was almost three years ago when I had shingles. Yes, shingles. I was, for the first time in my life, told to STOP and REST. My doctor said to sleep as many hours a day as I could. In the depths of depression, he didn’t tell me that. My clients told me to stay home and rest. My husband asked nothing of me. I was allowed to rest with no guilt. It was glorious.

Isn’t it sad that a woman accumulates more than 60 years of living before she is given permission to rest?

And, now, I am back on the treadmill of life, even busier than before. And, there are times, I almost long for a recurrence of shingles. Isn’t that tragic?