The Causes of Depression

There are a number of causes of depression and these can include:

• Heredity
• Physiology
• Psychological conditions
• Medical conditions
• Substance abuse
• Life experiences and Traumas
• Unrelenting Stress

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

If nothing else E.F.T., Affirmations and Mind Power will at least give you a real sense that you can do something to help yourself.

Many people do not have a pre-existing medical condition, that is they have lived relatively normal lives, until they develop the causes 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.

The unrelenting stress of many modern lifestyles, take their toll on the functioning of our brain. Whilst some stress can be beneficial, being stimulation and excitement, enough is enough, and if our minds do not get respite from continual over-stimulation and negative input, the brain defends itself and becomes less and less sensitive, leading to depression.

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 Be Master of Your Life 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 and of course ant anti-depressant regime recommended by your physician, 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.

At the same time take a walk or embark on any form of exercise which you can manage. You might have to literally drag yourself about, but it is stimulating your body and mind.

Very often depression result in one or more of our needs not being met.

Beyond our basic physical needs of food, shelter and sleep, we have other needs which are just as important to our well being.

We can be warm, well fed and safe, yet still be miserable or depressed.

We have emotional needs which are just as important to our well being as our physical needs, it's just that often they are not recognised as such.

Emotional Needs

• Love.
• Affection.
• Sharing.
• Support.
• Being part of a group.
• Recognition.

These are all vital to our well being.

When we lack any one of these for a short time the effect on us is not immediate, nor would we necessarily recognise any negative efffects.

However, when we are lacking any one of these emotional needs over a long period of time, the cumulative effect can be devastating.

If you recognise that any of these emotional needs are not being met in your life, and this is the case for a great many people, then we have causes of depression, but we also have something we can change in our life to alieviate the situation.

So many people out there will tell you that "I don't know why I could be depressed", yet just a cursory glance at their life reveals at least one of their emotional needs are completely lacking, which probrably means that they are also in denial of any of their causes of depression.

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