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