Hello Steemit Friends,
I just want to share with everyone here the story of how gardening and fostering animals helped cure my brothers severe depression. I feel its a great way of letting others know that this form of therapy one can overcome such illness.
How Depression Started
I remember my brother in his mid 20's when everything went south. He was dumped. He lost his best friend and found himself unemployed. Things gradually gone out of control from there. Depression settled in and he turned to the bottles as source of escape.
Signs Of Depression
For more than 10 years my brother relies entirely of his wife financial support. He watches television all day and sometimes he listens to the radio like there's no tomorrow. Finding a job is no longer in his interest and doing what he usually do like volunteering work or socializing with friends were put on sidelines. Then so my brother was completely in his darkest and wicked soul.
Surviving The Crisis
Depression is a serious matter and should not be taken lightly. People who experience it go through a very rough time and some people don't recover. As for my brother, with the help and support of the entire family, he slowly got back and took a diversion in the form of gardening. As simple as it may seem it has done wonders for him. Not only did he started gardening, he got back to his old hobby of taking care of animals, birds especially. After a few months of doing these activities, significant improvements on his behavior were observed. He was more positive in life, like somehow, he regained a sense of purpose in taking care of his pets and maintaining his garden.
He looks so much happier now.
