I see the function of psychoactive drugs (barring an organic imbalance) as giving a person the stimulus and energy needed to get up and act. if they can get you moving and into therapy or some kind of action (excercize) they can be dropped at that point (for people without an ongoing organic imbalance).

I think the key is to recognize situational depression before one sinks to the point where they are unable to act. use your mars or lose your access to it.

I just thought of something else, re: yesterday’s post:

I have enough problems, I should not be expected to accomodate a rapist! ::laughs::

Yep, come into my house and I will shoot you fast as I can – Sorry, but I just can’t afford another problem.

for some reason I’m envisioning the “landshark” from old SNL skits:

landshark: “candy-gram!”
Elsa P.: ::BOOM::

I wonder if I was not clear. I was responding to Togi’s observation re: human beings were not meant or made to be passive and I think she is right.

In my era kids did run around all day rather than sit around all day the way they do now. It is a pure fact that exercise releases endorphins and there are many, many kids who have virtually no experience with these sensations. They simply see no benefit to walking or running when you can ride and there are obvious consequences to not just the individual but the society.

I was raised with a work ethic and find myself more and more outcast and out of step all the time. It is another reason to be depressed, I suppose but I just don’t want to give in.

Whenever I get depressed, it’s existential in nature – I put it down to my 8th and 12th house planets, as well as my Saturn/Uranus square (the Uranus-NN-conjunction on the MC is struggling to find its proper [sic] expression!;). My 9th house Mars is fine; I’m a perpetual student, lust for academics only and travel abroad whenever money allows:)

I guess what I meant to say with all that rambling is that very few people are teaching kids to use their mars. they don’t use it long enough and their brain chemistry drops. the natural way out is to use their mars but they don’t know how.

It’s interesting you say that satori. My Dad really wanted to teach us kids our Mars. He really, really did.
But he was unwilling to “supervise” it, so to speak. So he’d refuse to intervene, thinking we were “working it out” and instead someone bigger was beating a smaller person.
I trust that what he was doing, though. He taught us, too, that there can be strength drawn from walking away (he has Taurus Moon/Mars conjunction).

The upside for my sister and I who were subject to physical abuse is that we are unwilling to be silent when we are being mistreated. We had it when we were powerless and we are NOT powerless anymore.

That’s a wonderful feeling

Oh man I struggle with this one all the time – and usually end up winning. I think I’m probably rare in that, though – got that organic thing working and a couple of my doctors wouldn’t see me any more when I got off my antidepressants.

I figured maybe I am crazy by their standards, but I’m good by mine and what’s more important here? *chuckle*

I’m gonna go take a walk now. My poor Cancer Mars needs all the help I can give it! *chuckle*

And no, Elsa, you should not accommodate a rapist! Doesn’t anyone say these things aloud to see how they sound? Shoot the motherfucker.

“Shoot the motherfucker.”

Right, Shannon and I’ll go you on step further (as outlined on my outrageous video) – when I do, I am not going to give it a moment’s pause.

I was talking to Ben last night re: the violence in Mexico / drug cartels. He lives on the border, see and I used to.

Yesterday there was news of a guy who claims (probably rightly) to have dissolved 200 bodies in lye for the drug runners. Ben said they are “grabbing these young girls off the streets, killing them and having sex with their corpses.” That is a gay man talkin’, he’s not stupid.

We have no border with Mexico… police are being cut back, crime is going to thrive, the level of violence has escalated beyond belief so betting you are going to be able to lie still for your rape and have that be that may be a serious delusion.

I am torn on this one. My daughter was put on medication for anxiety, and I resisted for a very long time, but it had reached the point that she was spending her entire day trying to compose herself. She is now on a very low dosage, and her psychiatrist and I are weaning her off, to see if she perhaps was going through a severe hormonal thing at the time, and really that is the only way I will find out if she still needs medication. She has been doing very well lately, and I am keeping my fingers crossed.

I also have resisted medication for myself, but sometimes I wonder if I should give it a try. I tend to obsess, and I can really let myself get lost in it, not to mention I can have pretty good panic attacks. I also work out as much as possible, avoid alcohol (really, I just cannot engage in any drugs, alcohol, etc., it is just poison to me). I have been in therapy, found it helped some, but at the moment I stopped going, because I felt I hit a wall with it. Just adding my experiences with all this here.

Hi Kashmiri – my daughter is in the autistic spectrum. She does express herself verbally, but her vocabulary is limited, and it is near impossible for her to tell me “why” she is upset, etc. She was spending her days literally wringing her hands, and crying, and doing the breathing exercises that were taught to her to calm herself down, but the poor kid’s day had just become revolved around that. This did coincide with her getting her first period, and I just think her hormones were running rampant. She is now on a very low dosage of Lexapro, and like I said, I have been weaning her off, and my hope is of course, that she will not have to be put back on. But I cannot let her go back to being ruled by anxiety, because she has been so happy these past few years, and so eager to engage in the world. So, that is my dilemma.

Elsa thank you for this post. Thank you.

I am also dealing with Mars stuff (no sex? the 12th house is taking it out in other ways and I’m Mars in 12th house Capricorn) and have been put on a mood stabilizer. Which has been making me have suicidal thoughts (and I have so much Jupiter, I mean what the fuck? I think it’s stabilizing my Jupiter happiness ad lowering it). So they put me on beta blockers. But I was just going to ask how you guys satisfy your Mars. I feel like I have to be exercising every minute of every day. Or talking a lot. Or writing. What do you guys do to satisfy your Mars? How can you tell it’s getting out of control? I was going to ask this on the board.

Sorry I repeated myself.

Dorothy– crippling anxiety is in my opinion a judicious cause to medicate. it sounds like you’re very conscientious about making those decisions. I also don’t think it’s anyone’s right to judge the choices an individual makes for themselves and their family. I think about these things more from a sociological standpoint.

I’ve been helped by medication, for sure.

Oh, and I realize it’s out of control when I start going to the pub and smoking too many cigarettes.
If I’m not making art the lazy drunken Neptune haze looks for too appealing, lol

Oh man, Elsa your daughter passed away?

Diana – no.

I think it all boils down to quality of life. If you can’t move due to extreme depression, how are you gonna get to the gym?? Thank god there is medication to help people who have depression, wheather it is clinical or situational. It can help you get out of the hole.

I do agree that being active definitely helps your mind,emotions, and your physical well being. Sometimes that is not enough, if it was we would all be like Tom Cruise, haha.

Well, Diana, the news is not good and my heart sinks too.

Do you notice how some women direct most of their their mars energy into compulsive housecleaning? It’s so self defeating because you never really scratch that itch. 10 minutes later and all that work is for nothing. I argue with my girlfriends to stop nagging their men to be housecleaners. Let them be men. So you have a messy house? Who the frig cares? What is this compulsion with controlling every corner of your environment to such an extent? Is this how you want to live your best life? They all hate me of course because I’m right. Ha Ha.

Elsa — my condolences for having Saturn transiting your moon. It’s no fun. Welcome to Saturn in so many ways. I had a clinical depression during this transit and did not take medication. I was running but then I stress fractured my foot (bones — Saturn). Exercise helped, but it’s just going to have to run it’s (long)course. I did have a lot of cool dreams, though. On the other side there was courage (Mars) at knowing what I could survive. Any major loss deserves to be mourned, but it is possible to do without drugs. It took about a year and a half. Of course, if it hurts too much, you know there are alternatives. Saturn rewards patience and fortitude.

How are you supposed to deal with it when your body is fragile and can’t exercise without pain?