What is clinical depression?
The first month of 2011 has come and gone and statistics show that January is the most depressing month, in that more people will seek help for depression than at any other time of the year. As it happens, I have been more than usually busy with depressed clients since the New Year came on; a fact which prompts me to write this article.
First, let’s be clear about what clinical depression really is.
In my view, many of the people who are diagnosed by their GP as having depression are not, in fact, clinically depressed at all. Instead, they could be sad, despondent, fed up with life, or unhappy. This is one reason why anti-depressants don’t work for many. Anti-depressant drugs such as the SSRIs – which increase the amount of serotonin in circulation in the brain – will only work, obviously, if the patient has serotonin depletion in the first place, which may only be the case if they actually have clinical depression.
Whether you are depressed, sad, fed up, or unhappy, this article may still apply to you.
The four main sources of depression
1. Fusion with anxious, or depressing thoughts
If you are a habitual worrier, perfectionist, or guilt-tripper then, on a daily basis, your body will become accustomed to high anxiety levels. Since Bodymind cannot tolerate over-arousal for too long, it will seek to reduce the problem by damping down the system. Typically, this means reducing serotonin (which elevates mood), which leads to the symptoms of clinical depression. In this respect it has been estimated that over 70% of depressed people also have high anxiety levels.
The solution is to defuse from unhelpful thoughts.
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