” Many depressed people will say “I don’t know why I am depressed. It just happened suddenly, like a black cloud coming down.” They say this because they do not want to look at the terrible events which threatened to destroy the way they saw themselves and their world. These events might not seem very significant to other people, but to the person concerned, they are very important. It is not the events in themselves which make them important, frightening, or overwhelming, but the meaning we give to these events.

We live in the world of meaning   which we have created. Indeed, as individuals, we are our world of meaning. This is why, when we discover a serious discrepancy between what we thought reality was and what it actually is, we feel that our very self is being overwhelmed, is shattering, and disappearing.

With this sense that our self is being annihilated comes the greatest fear, the worst fear  we can know. It is greater than  the fear of death. We can face death courageously when we feel that some important part of us – our soul or spirit, or our children, or work, or just the  certainty that people will remember us – will continue on. But when we feel that it will be as if we never existed, then we will feel the utmost terror.”

SOURCE: Copyright(c) Quoted from the   FOREWORD(c) , Dorothy Rowe. Page 12.   Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition. (2011)  Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.

COMMENT

So often I hear persons say that they don’t have a clue why they are depressed. “My feelings of sadness just suddenly hit me.”  “My sadness just came out of the blue.”  Feelings as devastating as depression don’t just happen. There is a reason why we feel so isolated and alone.  Do you know that thoughts  over time can produce feelings, which produce moods, moods which ultimately can cause us to behave  in ways that are surprisingly foreign to our normal way of feeling. And if we continue to dwell on shameful, guilt laden and painful feelings,  these have to have repercussions on the way we feel.

Dorothy tells us that our experience of depression is a defense. The defense, depression, gives us a “slow motion” way of living. Our thoughts slow down, our ability to get out of bed and do what needs to be done gradually becomes impossible. A mental paralysis is the “new normal” where we can no longer navigate the simplest matters that once were automatic for our thoughts, feelings and behavior. To put it simply “we are stuck.”

What are your thoughts about all of this? I would love to hear from you.

Hugh

In our ongoing discussion of the ecology of the depression experience, and looking at the personal, biological and environmental factors that are each part of the whole, we can make some observations about how to overcome this human and life threatening reality.

Environmentally, we have seen the post-industrial society, at least here in America, become a nation of diminished size of families (1 in 4 Americans now live alone), fewer family farms and more persons living in isolated and disconnected environments. It appears that we all are moving away from that wholesome community form of life toward an individualistic and Selfie generation. The “we” society is gradually turning into the “me” generation.

To quote David Karp (Speaking of Sadness, Pg. 195.), he states that “The estimated 11 to 15 million people suffering from depression and the million more with anxiety disorders are the victims of a society that has lost sight of what I now see as a shared sociological and spiritual message. It is that our individual emotional health and the health of society are inseparable. If we do not nourish society by realizing our individual responsibilities to it, we pay the price in terms of individual illness. In this way, those millions pained by affective disorder are part of a dialectical process in which the extent of collective suffering eventually creates an urge to change the social structures that have made so many of us ill. During this current moment of cultural discontent we may be better able to appreciate the spiritual message that all of us are connected to and responsible for each other. Although we can never return to the small, intimate communities of the nineteenth century, such a communitarian vision is the necessary starting place for efforts at social reconnection and thereby the creation of a more generally happy society.”

In another place Karp contends that “we may be at a juncture where we are ready as a culture to see the wisdom in the spiritual idea that our individual well-being is inseparable from that seamless web of connections…”

At our Depressed Anonymous group fellowship meetings it is evident how the “we” trumps the “me” at every turn and how the “we” of the fellowship produces, not only spiritual recovery from isolation and being disconnected, it also provides the tools in which a community of people who care about each other is built.

Won’t you care to join in this community building adventure? Search our website menu to find if your community has a Depressed Anonymous meeting. You can also read the personal stories of those who made the choice of a “we” life over the disconnected and isolated “me” life in Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition.

See our guide Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition.(2011) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville.

To continue our important discussion about depression and its effect on the ecology of the human person, it is imperative that you and I continue to examine each of the three pillars or legs that make up the interactive systems of depression.

Once we admit that we are depressed (we discover the parts such as feeling worse in the morning, a physical slowing down much like dark molasses, an inner anxiety and hollowness. We also experience a need to sleep more or not sleep at all , excessive guilt or shame, weight loss and crying spells, feelings of worthlessness, suicidal thinking). We now begin to look more closely at what is happening to us, and become aware that there are systems that are always interacting in the human body. We have already enumerated the major three systems: the personality factors, the biological factors and the environmental factors.

It is imperative that we now take a closer look at the biological factors that are attributed to the reality that we call depression. Some persons don’t espouse the common belief that the cause of depression is a chemical imbalance. Some others claim that there is no such thing as a chemical imbalance causing a depression. These same folks believe that we have overmedicalized a normal and natural human experience. It’s like the fight or flight syndrome that primitive humans experienced ages ago. They could either run away from a man eating lion or they could stand and fight. Today, we can go round and round in our mental sphere and by continued rumination with our fearful life cycling thoughts find ourselves physically worn out by shooting more and more adrenal fluids into our blood stream. Thinking such unpleasant thoughts over time has to wear down the human body, much like the Chinese torture of a single drop of water continuously falling on the head of a captured enemy. I think what scientists mean when they deny that chemicals are the cause of depression is that they know that by just telling oneself that I am a bad person does not make that person depressed.

Here is an interesting view from a sociologist, David Karp, in his research book, Speaking of Sadness.

“Psychiatric illness in the United States, with its heavily scientific bias, largely presumes biochemical pathology as the ultimate source of depressive disorders everywhere. Such a view is sustained despite the existence of “impressive date that there is no such thing as depression that occurs solely from biological causes.” To be sure, it would be equally plausible to say that real world experiences produce depression by altering biochemistry and thus stand first in the hierarchy of depression causes.

Right now, though, it would be as presumptuous to make this claim as it is of American medicine to claim biology as the absolute foundation of depressive disorders. The truth is that there is no way to claim the greater significance of either way to untangle the intersection of cultural and biological factors and consequently, no sure way to claim the greater significance of either nature or nurture in causing depression. Despite this epistemological problem, the role of culture and the contribution of social science in understanding the role of culture and the contribution of social science in understanding the course of illness remain very much at the margins of American Medical training and practice.”

So finally we know that when a psychiatrist reaches for the prescription pad that he/she is dealing with only part of the personal depression experience. It is just as important to know something of one’s life history to date, what were his early childhood feelings and relationships like, and did the parents present the world to him/her as a safe place to discover, or was it best for this child not to venture out to far away from what was familiar and safe.

Next time we want to share more of how culture can affect the thoughts, ideas and feelings embedded in that culture. We can ask ourselves how does our present culture promote community or isolation. And remember, isolation and being disconnected from others is a critical factor in one becoming and staying depressed.

To learn more on how to get connected and stay undepressed please avail yourself of the HOME STUDY PROGRAM of Depressed Anonymous. If you are depressed you c an very well determine if you are depressed and then if you are what measures to take to free yourself from isolation and pain.

VISIT THE STORE and read about the HOME STUDY PROGRAM and how it is well positioned to give you not only a positive view of a plan on how to overcome depression but also a Workbook where you will gradually find answers in yourself for personal freedom from depression.

“Depression is so often a refuge from having to live out our life. And it is only when we feel that we can live with a fair degree of unpredictableness in our lives that we move out of our isolation into the real world. So often our depression hides behind a mask of superficial friendliness — with people never aware of the deep pain that we feel inside. The risk is in moving out of isolation into contact with other depressed people. We know now that it is the expression of our feelings that gets us free. It is in the telling and the admission of our powerlessness over our depression that makes us move ever so slowly out of the deep pit of darkness and sadness. So often when we are able to make amends, we feel that part of the prison wall begins to crumble and we begin to see the light of day. We discover a way out! We find that our forgiveness of others frees and brings us more into step into the peace of serenity. Getting free is in saying that we alone are responsible for our compulsive retreat from life when we run up against some stressful situation. And the more we study and hear about the addictive personalities and behavior. the more we learn about ourselves and how we have anaesthetized ourselves against any possible feeling of pain, hurt or anger by our sadness and keeping to ourselves.”

SOURCE: Copyright (c) Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition (2011) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Pages 85-86.

A COMMENT:

Yesterday I talked about the three pillars of the depression experience. I believe that the analogy of the tripod with its three legs can serve the purpose of this discussion. Besides personal factors and the biological factors there is the environmental factor. If we want to embrace an ecological perspective in reference to depression then it is best to look at each of the aforementioned legs that support an understanding of one’s depression. With these three pillars and an understanding of each, and with a fleshing out of the effect depression has upon our personal being, our physical reality and our relationship with our unique environment, we are able to determine what are the causes and what solutions are needed to restore a balance to these inter related systems of the human person.

An author, shares with us the environmental factors that may cause a person to succumb to a deep melancholy. He notes that a “greater probability of depressive disturbances has been described when adverse external factors exist, such as a history of traumatic events, recent stressing events, the premature death of a family relative, an inadequate upbringing provided by parents, poverty, malnutrition, medical illnesses, a family or personal history of negative emotional episodes, and insufficient social support. All those environmental factors which form a part of the biography of the individual, have an effect on him or her by creating a vulnerability to stress. In the same way it has been demonstrated that the appearance of depressive episodes occur when there is an increase in stressing events.” (Dr. Salvador Cervera- Enguix. )

No surprise here. It is important to know that what happens to us, has a direct impact on our personality and our biological self.

So, when we become a member of the fellowship of Depressed Anonymous we begin by looking at these three areas of our lives mentioned above and by use of the Steps begin to live with serenity and hope. Without a doubt this process of dealing with our depression and all the issues that surround it, gradually provide a growth for uas like a well watered garden.