Reading While Depressed

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I was getting errors while trying to search for it, so my apologies if this really is a repeat post.

Are you able to read when depressed, for yourself or other people? I go through periods of severe depression and I have to force myself to not pick up the cards because they will be very negative, and I'm pretty sure it's all my mental state. The 9 of Swords usually gets thrown at me first thing in these situations. I haven't even tried reading for anyone else like this because I know I'd be distracted. Anyway, I was wondering if this is happens to anyone else. It's kind of a funny thing, because I know that usually I like to turn to tarot for clarity, but in this type of situation it seems like it just muddles things further. Then again, I'm not sure if all the negative cards are just a reflection of my mental state or things really are that bad (logically I think the former, but maybe I'm actually an optimist? LOL)

It's probably different for everyone. I actually took up Tarot during period of severe depression and I can honestly say its what played a huge part in getting me through. I worked through Mary Greers book Tarot for yourself and I learnt a lot about myself. For me this period was very therapeutic and the cards although honest with me were a great help, I found I could work through what why and how with them. I certainly didn;t find them overly negative, yes I got the Tower a lot, and the 8 of swords but there were very reflective of my situation and the fact that I was drowning in self pity and not helping myself - making this link allowed me to actually help myself out of it.

Readings for others wasn't affected my depression, I read for a lot of people on here trying to learn and the readings were not depressive or negative unless it was relevant for that person..

In a phrase: I don't. I'm antsy enough about the potential for less-than-happy cards that if I were to get a bunch of those when I was feeling down, I'd be even downer. And yes, the cards definitely can reflect your own mental state. To me that equals a double whammy.

If I did insist on using cards at such a time, I would use them for study, not for readings. Sometimes even a good study session can give you insight into your own situation, without having to take the form of a random draw or of a spread.

And I don't do predictive readings for myself anymore anyway, and haven't in some years. I stick to analytical ones.

I don't read when I'm feeling depressed, generally. Sometimes I will pull a card for a mood booster or start flipping through a deck to study the cards as a distraction, but not proper readings. I find I need a clear head to do a reading.

When I'm depressed, I find it's much much more helpful to exercise/clean/write/talk/get out of the house/etc than to do a reading. Usually I need to get out of my head, not more into it.

Reading while depressed, if you are reading to help yourself out of it will probably open up things you might not want to face, but need to. It may not make you less depressed, but it might also provide the ladder to help yourself climb out of it.

When me and my man split up, I was horribly depressed, but it did help me see where our relationship was and why and helped me make it through and actually gave some really good advice, and eventually we worked it out.

After my brother died, I could no more read tarot than I could anything else, I couldn't even read a book and have it make sense, it took a good 6 months and making myself pick up the cards again and lots of patience with myself. My brain and my heart simply were not capable and in a frozen, numb state where it was too hard to make anything make sense.

For the most part though, if I'm depressed and blah, my brain goes into lazy mode and refuses to work, it sees pictures on paper and has no inclination to make sense of anything.

Thank you all for your responses. I feel I need to clarify though that when I say depression, I mean the disease, a depressive episode, that is chemical and not necessarily the result of some traumatic external event. Like I've had people very close to me die, and have been heavy in grief and sad, but it's not the same as when I say I'm "depressed". Depression isn't rational. It can be hormonal a lot of the time, but it's not based on anything external happening (though obviously that can exacerbate things), whereas something like a break-up or a death can cause very intensely sad feelings for any healthy individual, which is quite a bit different. And I guess I'm kind of answering my own question, because like vee said, it's better to get out of one's head when it's like that than to get deeper into it.

I was going to suggest that it might be clinical depression, in which case it can be quite dangerous, but I was afraid it might have offended you. It is a medical condition, so please consult a physician, if that's possible. The disorder had fatal consequences for a very dear friend of mine.

LRichard said:

I was going to suggest that it might be clinical depression, in which case it can be quite dangerous, but I was afraid it might have offended you. It is a medical condition, so please consult a physician, if that's possible. The disorder had fatal consequences for a very dear friend of mine.

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No offense taken, it's nothing to be ashamed of. It's something I've been dealing with for many years, also while under the care of a physician. I appreciate your concern though, and I am sorry about your friend.

I think it's okay, but I also think you have to be careful. Because sometimes I think we read what we want to see, and when one is having a depressive episode things can seem worse than they really are.



(Severe clinical depression runs in both my family and my husband's - so I am very familiar with the disease.)

I usually can't because I'm too afraid of which cards could come up.
Often in such cases I just don't care enough to read, or know, or bother at all.