What Depression Is... And What It Isn't
This first step is truly the foundation of everything else in the process of emotional healing. You have to know what you're dealing with, in order to combat it effectively. A true premise of understanding is the foundation of empowering attitudes and action, that can lead to the desired results of healing, peace, and wellbeing. In contrast, a false premise of understanding can lead to ineffective, time-consuming, even debilitating results.
Here is a comparison of what depression is... and what it isn't:
What Depression Is: |
What Depression Isn't: |
| A condition created and sustained by multiple causal factors, customized to the individual. | The result of a single cause (such as "bad genes," "chemical imbalance in the brain," or "bad parenting.") |
| A condition affected by (and affecting) emotional, spiritual, social, and physical dimensions of life. | An exclusively biological affliction, needing only pharmaceutical intervention to correct. |
| A condition influenced by the choices, actions, and attitudes of the individual over time. | A random catastrophe over which the individual has no influence or control (being "acted upon.") |
| A temporary condition - if you learn effective strategies for resolving its underlying causes. | A permanent condition - unless you assume it's permanent, and neglect change-oriented strategies. |
Having a correct understanding of what depression is... and what it isn't... is crucial in selecting a treatment plan to address it. What you believe always precedes and affects what you do - and what results you get. Beliefs about depression are no different.
Those who believe depression is the result of a "single cause," (such as "chemical imbalance") - who believe it to be "exclusively biological" in origin, a "random catastrophe" they have no control of, and a "permanent condition" they must expect to endure longterm - tend to choose strategies that "manage symptoms" but do not address underlying causes. These individuals may suffer for decades, or even for a lifetime, without relief. They do not expect to get better - and sadly, they are all too often proved correct in this assumption. The impact of this depressing lifestyle may pass from generation to generation - without significant change or relief.
Meanwhile, those who believe depression is the result of multiple causal factors, affecting emotional, spiritual, social, and physical dimensions of life - a condition influenced (for good or bad) by their own choices, actions and attitudes - a temporary condition which can be overcome, mastered, and healed from - these are the individuals who can come out of even devastating episodes of depression, and pass a happier inheritance on to the generations that follow them. They learn to pursue an active, intentionally-chosen course; and do the work required, step by step, to first understand - and then replace - the factors that have contributed to their depression. In the process, not only do they overcome today's depression - they lay the groundwork for preventing tomorrow's depression, through increasing their resiliency and coping skills today.
A central purpose for this website is providing resources for people to obtain effective, reliable information about depression and how to overcome it. Over recent decades, through ever-present media channels funded by commercial interests, thousands of people have been "educated" about depression in ways that may keep them locked in belief systems that inhibit, rather than promote, actual recovery from depression. This website, in contrast, is intended to help increase awareness of quieter, less commercially profitable, but ultimately more effective and long-term strategies that can be helpful in overcoming depression - rather than just "managing its symptoms."
Healing is available, if you follow the steps that lead to it. Let us proceed, then, to...
Step Two - Understanding the Causes of Your Depression.
