Something for everybody here since it applies to all kinds of emotions. Depression is something I do not know much about. Seen it from outside and I still can't get into the shoes of the people who feel so. But controlled by emotion I am all too often. Even if I have the theory and the principles to combat it, it is often stronger.
I am thinking of a Zen excerpt from a story which said that allowing the offense to stay in our mind we experience it thousandfold. If somebody calls me **** on the street and I begin thinking about it, the word bounces in my mind all through my inner rage and this way I call myself **** many more times again. Not easy to learn to let go. And I mean useless and irrelevant things, not actual threats.
I think we are all controlled by emotion, but I think we have a lot more power if we can recognize it early, before the point of no return. I think it improves with training though.
When it comes to the bouncing around the mind - I think we are all on the obsessive compulsive spectrum and things like being called a **** skew our position, as it attacks our identity. It is why identity is the perfect place to target in order to control individuals and the masses they make up.
Interesting how such things were entwined with religious philosophy which had the power to protect one from certain weaknesses of the spirit. Like Pride being one of the sins to avoid. I think it is the weak point of identity. Integrity being the strong side of the continuum.
I just remembered this hymn by one G. K. Chesterton:
Oh, God of Earth and Altar Bow Down And Hear Our Cry
Our Earthly Rulers Falter, Our People Drift And Die
The Walls Of Gold Consume Us, The Swords Of Scorn Divide
Take Not Thy Thunder From Us But Take Away Our Pride
It's not less than one-year-old, it's much closer to 100-year-old.
For the most part, the core tenets of religions are largely the same and quite valuable. It is all the rest that is the issue.
While we think we have evolved because of technological advances, we are much the same as we ever were.