Depression Got You Feeling Like A Loser?

Do you hate your home? Is it not as nice as you wish it were? No swimming pool in the backyard, no three-car garage? Or three cars to put in it for that matter?

He was born under a bearskin in a shed with no door, no window and just three walls in the bitter cold of winter with snow blowing in everywhere. Most of us wouldn't have kept our dogs in it.

Do your relatives embarrass you? Do you hate it when your friends have to meet your family or when you have to spend time with them at holidays or family reunions?

His mother was illegitimate and illiterate and his father was rough, uneducated and abusive to boot. His grandmother bore a child out of wedlock and was charged with fornication on a number of occasions.

What about your wardrobe? Do you wish for the latest fashions, but can't really afford that designer dress or suit you really, really want?

His clothes were ill fitting and dirty. His pants were sometimes held up by a piece of twine and his pants came halfway up to his knees, because he was so tall.

Depressed about your personal appearance? Wish you could afford those Botox injections or that hair transplant?

His hair stood out in various places on his head. Deep wrinkles and dark circles were under his eyes way before his time from the trials he had to face in his lifetime. He was tall and skinny and gawky looking throughout his life.

Depressed about your job? Didn't get that promotion you wanted? Salary not enough to support your family and the lifestyle you'd like to have?

At the height of his career, he only made $25,000 a year. He suffered numerous failures at business and several times found himself deeply in debt.

Unlucky in love? Love life not what it should be? Marriage not what you expected?

The love of his life died before they were able to marry. He was so distraught he threatened to kill himself. He was turned down a few years later when he summoned the courage to propose to someone else and was then bullied into a loveless marriage with a woman with serious mental issues who hurt his career and made him miserable the rest of his life.

Depressed? Feel like the world is against you? Ran out of your prescription for Cymbalta or Prozac?

He suffered from clinical depression so deep that several times he threatened to end his life. He went hours talking to no one and mumbling to himself. This before a time when there was no diagnosis and no medication.

Feeling like a loser? Do you think your life has no purpose? Have you gotten so far down you can't see how to get up? Can you see no way to improve not only your own life, but also improve the lives of others?

He could and did. He was born in poverty, suffered failure and hardship, had his heart broken to the point of suicide. But he was self taught and had a calling to serve despite a horrible undiagnosed mental illness we now know as depression that plagued him his entire life. He overcame all that and he still became the 16th President of the United States.

He was Abraham Lincoln.

Still feel like a loser?