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To get the best out of Ditch the Black Dog on Substack, please read this post. Any questions, please ask! I’m here to help.

I’m Maria Gaian - writer, ecotherapist and intuitive Gaian witch, specializing in the holistic, and I guess you could say, metaphysical, management of depression.

I’m a midlife, neurodivergent, abuse survivor and I’ve suffered from depression for years. It used to feel like it was built into my DNA somehow. I didn’t believe I could ever feel healthy, happy and whole, but I was wrong.

My own personal suffering (and I’ll tell you all about that in future posts) led me to reading, researching and trying everything I could to help myself to ‘ditch the black dog’, as Winston Churchill so aptly named depression.

As you can probably tell from the way I describe myself, I’m not your typical coach or therapist. Oooh noo!

I’m not a guru, I don’t have all the answers. I describe myself as a mental wellness mentor, a person who has walked in the darkness and managed to escape back into the light through a mix of modern neuroscience based tools, lifestyle changes, sacred activism and a healthy dollop of Mother Nature’s magick. I help people to ditch the black dog of depression and unleash their passion for life!

Bear with me if you’re wondering what multiverse of metaphysical mayhem you just fell into, cos I promise you that there’s method in my madness.

It could be just what you need to feel healthy, happy and whole again.

And if you’re already a believer in magick, then welcome!

Let’s continue, shall we?

There are few key things that I’ve learned over the last few years of studying, researching and certifying in several healing modalities.

These discoveries form the foundations of my work helping wounded Souls to feel healthy, happy and whole.

If you become a subscriber to the Ditch the Black Dog Substack, I’ll regularly send you goodies explaining more about my (sometimes controversial*) views and how you can start to ditch the black dog of depression as soon as possible.

So what have I learned from all my research and experience into depression?

First of all: -

Focusing on curing one symptom doesn’t heal the underlying cause of the illness.

That’s a bit like giving a person with a knife stuck in their head a painkiller, but never actually removing the weapon and healing the wound!

The person will keep needing medication to block out the pain, but the wound will never heal until the knife is removed and the wound is cleaned and stitched and treated for infection.

To get rid of the feelings of depression, we need to root out the cause.

🐺 Your parents or guardians suffered from depression and they inadvertently taught you to be depressed, too.

🐺 You experienced trauma, witnessed a traumatic event, or maybe you were a victim of a violent crime;

🐺 Feeling abandoned by a parent or guardian, maybe at birth, after divorce or after coming out;

🐺 Neglect, abuse, rejection, grief, loss;

🐺 Loneliness, feeling like you don’t fit in, or can’t connect with other people;

🐺 Feeling like you can’t have what you want, or have to hide who you are from others;

🐺 Guilt, shame, feelings of failure, being unable to let go of the past, or forgive yourself for a mistake you think you made.

🐺 Chronic illness, disability, terminal illness, lifechanging injuries;

🐺 Hormonal imbalances during the menstrual cycle, post giving birth, fertility treatment and during perimenopause and menopause. It can be a side effect of hormones taken as part of gender affirming care, although this is rarer.

🐺 Taking medication that has depression listed as a side effect.

🐺 Insecurity. Not being able to meet the basic needs of your family, not knowing where the next dime is coming from, or if you’ll eat today, is a leading cause of stress and depression. In that state of panic it’s desperately hard to figure out how you can change things.

🐺 Huge life changes - empty nest, divorce, leaving home, job loss etc;

🐺 Feeling unsafe, unheard, treated unfairly or judged because of the color of your skin, your gender, sexuality, religion, culture etc.

🐺 Outside issues that we feel powerless to solve. Many of us have feelings of hopelessness and helplessness when we look at the destruction of Mother Nature. Or the political landscape where profits are being put way before people or the planet. Let’s be honest, it’s impossible to look at the state of the planet and not feel depressed.

And lets not forget one of the main causes of depression during the cost of living crisis.

🐺 Money. Specifically, the lack of it.

You may feel depressed because of one of the abovementioned things, but most likely, you’ve suffered a number of those wounds in your life so far.

And though the symptoms may be similar, the wounds that cause us to feel depressed are unique to each of us.

Because of this we need something more than a ‘one size fits all’ approach to managing depression.

(That’s if you’re lucky enough to be able to access help these days when 1 in 4 of us are suffering from depression, especially in a post Covid/Trumpian world. )

The medical profession are struggling to cope with the tsunami of people that need help with their mental health.

Finding out why each individual might be depressed, and you’ve just read many of the possible causes above, then being able to give them a practical and personalized plan of action isn’t something medics have the time, or resources, to do.

So, a prescription is usually the answer, with a referral to a counselor or therapist who wants you to talk about your feelings for the next hundred years or so.

Once your hour is up, that’s it.

No more time to talk about your debt, your landlord who refuses to fix your leaky roof, or ways you could rekindle your tired relationship with your partner. And very few therapists talk about the societal and cultural reasons for depression. Neither do they help you to make a practical plan to change your situation.

*My experiences, and those of the people I’ve spoken to and worked with, have left me cynical about endless talk therapy and long term use of antidepressants to ‘cure’ depression. I believe one method reinforces your pain and the other masks it!

Don’t get me wrong, antidepressants and talk therapy have their place in the treatment of depression, especially if you’re in what I call Crisis Mode. (I’ll go into the stages of depression in a further post. We’ve got a LOT to cover!)

We need to start by healing the wound, or wounds, that are causing the symptoms of depression and it’s best pal, anxiety.

This can be done in a variety of ways that I’ll go into more in my Substack content. Make sure you subscribe!

Once the wounds heal we think we’re ok. Hurray, we‘re ‘cured’!

But as you probably know, it’s not as easy as that. Once we’ve had a bout of depression, it seems likely that we’ll be predisposed to another one.

These typically manifest as limiting beliefs, fears, and negative thought patterns that we struggle to break.

If these mental scars bother us enough, they can lead to self sabotaging behaviours.

Things like: -

🐺 addictions to sex, shopping, food, drugs; alcohol etc, in the vain hope that they’ll fill the painful void inside your Soul, but they never do;

🐺 denying who you truly are because you’re afraid of yet another rejection;

🐺 constantly ending up in harmful, toxic and abusive relationships;

🐺 ruining relationships with people that are good for you because you’re waiting for them to reject or abandon you. And you need to avoid that at all costs;

🐺 ending a business or career before you become successful, or get noticed;

🐺 not being able to make or keep money;

🐺 never being able to reach your true potential;

🐺 putting up with second, third, or fourth best, instead of having what you deserve;

And guess what? These things all lead to the re-opening of the wound and the whole damn cycle of depression starts again.

Here’s where things are going to get sticky. Have you been nodding your head, agreeing with most of what I’ve said so far, thinking it all makes sense?

Well now I’m going to talk about some things that you might not understand or feel comfortable with, and that’s ok.

Stay in the space with me, and keep an open mind and an open heart. Cos it might sound ‘woo woo’ and you could be thinking that I’m a mad old crone, but this stuff works.

I work with Gaian Magick™ to help people to heal the emotional wounds and banish the psychological blocks that keep them trapped in the prison of depression.

And I can help you, too.

By releasing these wounds and blocks you become free to create a life that feels healthy, happy and whole.

Sounds a bit ‘woo woo’ I know, but believe me, it can work like a charm!

Check out my post if you're feeling cynical:

The Gaian Path™ promotes bringing connection, community, collaboration and contribution into your life.

You might be wondering what the heck this is all about, but these things are VITAL to us on our journey to surviving depression!

The Gaian Path™ is holistic, incorporating every aspect of you, your heart, mind, body, Soul and your connections to Spirit and the world around you into your healing journey.

When we do this, the result is that we not only heal ourselves, but we contribute to the healing of other Souls, too, through sacred activism.

And boy does this planet need some collective healing! 

So if you would like to learn more about The Gaian Path™ and get support and help on your journey to surviving depression, please subscribe.

In the past, I’ve offered my services at the going rate, but not anymore.

I offer a lot of free and low cost support because I know that the people who need help the most often don’t have the resources to get it.

I’m on a personal mission to help a thousand Souls to ditch the black dog of depression by the end of the decade.

It hurts me to see children growing up depressed because their parents suffer from depression. Seeing people feeling so hopeless and helpless that they can’t see a way out, or imagine a brighter future for themselves is heart-breaking.

We need to work together as a community to break the cycles of depression and create societal, cultural and lifestyle changes that are positive for both our individual and our collective mental health and wellness.

Doing this will have a knock on effect on the world as a whole.

Cos when we heal, the world heals and when the world heals, we will all heal.

• regular articles about depression and it’s fun little side kick anxiety;

• small practical things you can do that can make a big difference to how you feel;

• support to help you find your own personal pathway to successfully managing depression.

• a behind the scenes look at how I use Gaian Magick, Ecotherapy, practical lifestyle changes, sacred activism and modern therapy and coaching tools to manage my mental health;

• access to a safe, inclusive community of people who all understand how bloody awful living with the black dog of depression can be;

• and so much more!

See below for more details.

All I ask is that you keep an open heart and an open mind, especially when things get a little magickal. What have you got to lose, except for the black dog of depression?

See below for what you get when you become a free or paid subscriber.

🐺 Regular newsletter sent to your email with book, shop, and event updates.

🐺 Articles and podcast episodes.

🐺 Resources, reviews and recommendations including therapies, books, recipes, activities and more.

By paying for a subscription, first of all you’re showing your support for my work which seeks to shake up the ways that we currently treat depression.

Secondly, your contribution allows me to support more depressed people who may not normally be able to access help.  If you do have the resources to support this important work, please do. You could contribute to changing someone else’s life, even if you don’t know it!

For only $7 a month, you get all of the free benefits. PLUS: -

🐺 Taster Sessions & Previews of Products and Services.

🐺 Exclusive Offers & Discounts, including first refusal on retreats and events at the Gaian Oasis.

🐺 First refusal on events at the Gaian Oasis.

and you’ll get free Gaian Pathfinder Sessions - a week of support to help you ditch the black dog of depression and create a life you’re excited to wake up for.

I want to take this opportunity to thank you for funding my work and helping me to support people who are struggling financially to get the help they so desperately need. I appreciate your generosity at a time when so many of us are struggling to keep our heads above water. May Gaia bless you with everything you dream of.