Causes of Depression

• Heredity
• Physiology
• Psychological conditions
• Medical conditions
• Substance abuse
• Emotional experiences and Traumas

The first five causes all require medical intervention and supervision, however my personal recommendation is that you supplement any medical intervention with a program of E.F.T.

However, for many people who do not have a pre-existing medical condition, that is they have lived normal lives, until they develop the symptoms of depression, the causes are predominately lifestyle and stress related, that is - reactive or acquired depression.

It is these reactive causes of depression which I wish to address - the growing epidemic of the 21st. century.

Note : If you arrived at this page from a search, then please note that this site is devoted to Becoming Master of Your Life, that is, recognizing our problems and learning how to correct them ourselves.

When we suffer great disappointments, abuse, grief, and loss, recovery is normal over a period of time. See - Stages of Grief , however, repetitive occurrences of these emotional injuries and sadnesses build up and become permanent.

Just as a physical injury can leave physical scars, so does an emotional injury.

The onset of depression is not necessarily immediate, in fact it can occur many years after the emotional injury.

Eventually an accumulation of untreated emotional injuries leads to the symptoms of depression , which is an effect caused by a hormone imbalance in the functioning of the brain, which is a physical condition and why we cannot snap ourselves out of it.

In the interests of keeping this explanation of reactive causes of depression strictly non-technical, I shall explain it this way :

There is an interface - a two way system - between our mind and our brain.

Our brain is the physical organ in which our mind resides.

Our mind of course is our thinking processes.

The thinking process is facilitated by the electro-chemical functions of the physical brain.

In turn, our thoughts control the release of chemicals (hormones), which cause the way we feel.

Thus our feelings are a physical reaction to our thoughts.

If we think happy, we feel happy. If we think sad we feel sad.

We have a sense of humor and a sense of pathos.

All caused by our thoughts affecting the way we feel.

Our feelings in turn re-enforce our happy or sad feelings and thus we have emotions, both positive and negative.

Now, when everything is "normal", this feedback system creates a balance between our thoughts and feelings. However, when this feedback system is for some reason damaged, the link between thoughts and feelings breaks down.

Imagine for a moment, a happy situation, or of a favorite joke, you feel the emotion resulting from the thought.

Now imagine thinking of the same happy situation - and no emotion results.

You would be depressed - literally. You would have lost the ability to make yourself feel happy - or anything else for that matter.

That would be mild depression.

Now imagine if your negative emotions, see List of Negative Emotions, were switched on permanently, and no amount of positive thinking, cheery input, good luck or whatever had the slightest effect on the way you feel.

Now you would be depressed.

Each person describes their depression differently, ranging from feeling flat or feeling down, (melancholia), right through to unbearable sorrow.

When the causes of depression are from life experiences ie. traumas, disappointments and grief, we can do something about it. Dealing with and releasing ourselves from the shackles of the past is primarily what Personal Development is all about.

When clinical depression symptoms are present you have what is basically a physical condition in which your brain is preventing your mind from functioning properly.

Whilst there is no single magic wand targeting depression, a multi-pronged approach which includes such diverse things as diet, exercise, meditation, affirmations and Emotional Freedom Technique can roll back the causes of depression.

The bottom line is that you have to do something positive and build on it.

However, one must appreciate that when a person is depressed, they simply can't be bothered, or are virtually unable to initiate a change of any sort - that is one of the self sustaining feelings of depression.

Some how you simply must make a starting point or at least ask for help in doing so.

The easiest starting point is to embark upon a course of affirmations to both self-talk yourself into a better frame of mind, and to ask for help.

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