Working in my basement as a software developer was once my dream come true. That was, at least, until my basement started flooding during a storm and I barely saved my computer from frying in time. As you know, computers and water don’t mix well. I had no idea how to solve this basement flooding problem until I did what I’m best at and hit up the computer. I researched and researched online and now, after getting the solutions I need, my basement isn’t flooding anymore. How? Perimeter drains!

While researching perimeter drains and how they stop basement flooding I also realized they’re the perfect metaphor for how I feel, because having my basement flood wasn’t the only reason I don’t feel like I’m living my dream anymore. As you may have deduced from my last few posts, especially the poem I wrote, I haven’t been in the best of moods lately. I’ve actually been fairly depressed to be honest. I’ll save exactly why I’ve been depressed for a later post, but to summarize I’ll just say I’ve been sub-contracting for another software company and have been doing boring work that I’m not passionate about instead of developing my own video games like I always dreamed of.

Like perimeter drains, which stop stormwater from flowing against the foundations of your home by managing waterflow, I feel like I’m protecting my mind against depressing thoughts by installing mental firewalls to stop bad thoughts from seeping into my brain. If this metaphor doesn’t make sense yet, I don’t blame you. Please allow me to elaborate:

At first, when depressing thoughts were flooding into my head like rainwater, the basement flood situation only made things worse. After saving my computer from water damage just in time, I had no idea where to begin. I nearly gave up and thought about getting a new job that wasn’t so stressful, something labor orientated rather than sitting on the computer all day. I’m so glad I didn’t give up though. All it took was the brief moment to say to myself, “Okay, let’s just look at how I can solve this problem.” I ended up finding this perimeter drains Victoria BC company website where I read and read and learned everything I needed to know to understand why basement floods occur and how to fix/prevent them. The company already came and solved my basement flooding problem, and while watching them install the perimeter drains is when I realized what I needed to do to fix the other metaphorical flood that was causing my depression. I realized perimeter drains are the perfect metaphor for the mental firewalls I needed to install in my mind.

This isn’t the first time I’ve done some metaphorical thinking on the blog. Way back in 2020, I used software as a metaphor for consciousness. The situation is the same here, except I’m using perimeter drains as a metaphor for the mental firewalls I installed in my mind to protect against negative thoughts, and it’s been working wonderfully. Like I mentioned before, perimeter drains stop stormwater from damaging your home’s foundations, and the mental firewalls I have in place (more on that soon) act in the same exact way to stop negative thoughts from damaging my mind and state of mood.

But what exactly are the mental firewalls I installed? This article on Quora does a great job at explaining what I’m talking about, although they call it a “psychological firewall”. And that’s exactly what it is. To quote, it says “Psychological firewalls are intended to create an inner barrier between our emotional needs and those of the outer world. These mental barriers are created to prevent us from absorbing anything negative or excessive that could overwhelm us emotionally.” Now do you see why a perimeter drain is the perfect metaphor for this? Just like how my mental firewall protects my mind from flowing negative energy in the outside world trying to penetrate into my inside world, a perimeter drain protects my foundation from damaging storm water trying to flow into my basement. And to be more precise, the exact firewall I installed in my mind are mental habits like mantras and reminders that send off alerts whenever I catch myself thinking negatively.

When I catch myself thinking something like “Today is going to be another boring day” my mental firewall sends off an alert, I catch myself in the act of thinking negatively, and correct it by thinking something like “Today is going to be whatever I make it, and today I feel like enjoying the work I’m good at, by providing a service for my employer.”

I personally believe that depression is largely caused by our own mental habits. But I have to remind myself of this often, very often, because when I forget how powerful my own thoughts are I can catch myself thinking very negatively. As soon as my mental firewalls force myself to think positively, just like a perimeter drain forces storm water away, I suddenly feel much better, and all flooding stops so to speak. Instead of letting unwanted thoughts flow into my mind, my mental firewall protects me, and my mind becomes peaceful again, like a dry basement.

So, at the end of the day, maybe it was a good thing my basement flooded. If this never happened, I may still be depressed in my basement instead of sharing this awesome metaphor with my blog readers. If you’re dealing with depression, too, I hope this metaphor can help you see the importance of setting up mental firewalls, because without them your mind can become flooded with negative thoughts. I wish all the best to you, and thank you for visiting. Maybe now that I’m not so depressed I’ll start to post here more frequently again!