Identity is what you do, not what you "are"

I am always disheartened when I hear people say things like "I am depressed" or "I am claustrophobic" or whatever.

"I am" is a deceptively powerful thing.  It's the name of the almighty in the Torah, if you want a religious foundation; psychologically, one creates identity with the words "I am".  So whether you believe that you are an extension/expression of Source (God, spirit, Yahweh, Allah, whatever) or simply a chemical stew held together by electrical impulses - pluses, minuses, etc. - whatever you focus on, you become.  Even quantum theory understands this - the act of observation changes the observed.

So someone who says "I am depressed" will never be anything else.  Someone who says "I feel depressed" has not identified themselves as walking depression, but rather someone currently experiencing depression.  Big difference.  (That same person could choose to keep themselves busy as well, since to be "depressed" is to lack motion.)  To someone who "is claustrophobic", they are, in fact, merely thinking claustrophobic thoughts - but they've created an identity around it.  Nobody *is* claustrophobic, really.  There are just some that process confined spaces as a problem.

While the commonplace mind may dismiss this as semantics, there is no question that mood affects chemistry, and identity (or perception of such) affects mood.  A stressful mindset creates acid in the system, which does not magically disappear when you suddenly feel better.  That chemical residue still resides in the system, still metabolizes into the body, still accumulates.  To detox, one must do so emotionally as well.  The process of fixing the body after a lifetime of toxic mindsets and misguided notions of "identity" can be a long one.  But it has to begin with "I am".

I am health.  I am love.  I am peace.

What you think I am is your business, not mine.