[Neurons] 2017 Neurons #53 This Thing Called "Depression"

Mon Dec 4 05:57:56 EST 2017

From: L. Michael Hall

2017 Neurons #53

December 4, 2017

This Thing Called "Depression" #1

THIS THING CALLED "DEPRESSION"

We are now heading into the Christmas season and all of the holidays from
Thanksgiving to New Years.  For many this is the season to be jolly, however
for others, 'tis the season to be depressed.  At least this has been one of
the regular characteristics of the holiday seasons for many years in the US.
Given that and given the large percentage of the population here and around
the world that suffer from "depression," I thought this might be a good time
to talk about this thing that we call "depression."

A first distinction is that all depression is not the same.  There are
actually many different experiences which are called "depression."  In fact,
the term is over-used and all too often is used in far too trivial contexts.
So let's begin here.

First of all, the term "depression" does not refer merely to feeling sad,
disappointed, or discouraged.  It is far more than any one of those
experiences, although it frequently (perhaps primarily arises from one of
these states).  The clinical term depression refers to a very abnormal state
and one that is no longer just a mental state, but one involving one's body,
emotions, neuro-chemistry, etc.  And depression, unlike the healthy and
useful emotions of feeling sad, disappointed, or discouraged, is an
unhealthy and dangerous state.

Let's start with sadness.  In the primary state of sadness, you register a
sense of grief due to a recognition of loss.  In fact, the emotions of grief
and sadness help us deal with our sense of loss.  So, if you have
experienced a real loss-you have lost a loved one, a treasured position, a
relationship, a project, your health, etc., then the grief enables you to
come to terms with things and re-focus your energies.  An actual loss means
that something valuable and important is no longer present or available.  So
your mental and emotional investments (your ego-investments) in it are gone.
How you defined yourself or even identified yourself in terms of that
person, object, or position is also gone.  And you feel the less for it.
You may be asking yourself, "Who am I now?"

The grief and sadness enables you to register the loss and then to focus and
reinvest your energies into something else.  The emotional intensity of the
sadness generally relates to how important the loss was to you.  It gets
your attention so you can release it, alter your ideas about it, change your
expectations, and put your energies into something as a replacement.

Depression differs from loss in that you are now de-pressing yourself, your
energies, your hopes, your dreams, your wants, etc. and as you push these
things down you reduce your appetite, exercise, sleep, sexual desires,
desires to work, to contribute.  In a word, you are avoiding the challenge
of staying in the vitality of life.  Depression is not merely being sad, it
is more.  Often it is a way to cope with sadness.  It could be being sad
about being sad, a meta-sadness that is now turning your energies against
yourself.  It could be shaming or guilt-ing yourself for some aspect of the
loss.  It could be that you are "turning your anger inward" against your
self- that was Sigmund Freud's analysis of depression.  Or it could be a
dozen other meta-state configurations.

There are actually many ways to generate a depression meta-state wherein you
press down ("de-press") your energies, hopes, passions, resilience, and
resources.  In this all "depression" is not  the same.  There are many
configuration- all of which is a misuse of your meta-responses to yourself.

Using the Matrix Model as a way to model personality, you can see how
"depression" can show up in each of the dimensions of the Matrix.  A person
could feel down and discouraged in so many ways.

           In the Meaning Dimension where you make and experience positive
meanings, you may be creating boredom, futility, emptiness, meaninglessness.

           In the Intention dimension that concerns your intentions,
motivations, and agendas for living, you may be experiencing the loss of
hope, direction and purpose.

           In the Self dimension, you may be experiencing you value as a
person as conditional, inadequate, flawed, and worthless.

           In the Power dimension that involves your powers, skills,
competencies, and resources, you may be experiencing your powers as weak,
limited, controlled, and determined.

           In the Others dimension, you may be experiencing feeling
unloved, rejected, unwanted, even despised relationally.

           In the Time dimension, you may be experiencing yourself as stuck
in the past, fated by past events, impulsive in the moment, etc.

           In the World dimension, you may be experiencing a loss of an
important role, status, or position.

Depression has been called "the common cold" of mental and emotional
disorders.  When a person truly becomes depressed, he depresses his
energies, activities, hopes, sense of meaning, etc.  No wonder depression is
also one of the most dreaded states.  As a very unpleasant state, it then
feds many other self-destructive behaviors.

In many of these cases, the problem is really not "depression."  People are
using that term far too loosely.  Instead of depression, many are suffering
from discouragement, lack of motivation, a wide range of fears, anxiety,
fatigue, burnout, and so on.  They confuse their "down" feelings with
depression.  Many times the real problem is that they don't have a big and
exciting challenge in their lives.  There's not sufficient meaning and
meaningfulness.  It could also be that they are playing life too safe, too
small, and/or too perfect.  Or they could be expecting absolute success with
no problems and they could be wanting it now without any effort. 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

               Neuro-Semantics Executive Director 

               Neuro-Semantics International

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

               1 970-523-7877 

                    Dr. Hall's email:
<mailto:meta at acsol.net\hich\af31506\dbch\af31505\loch\f31506> meta at acsol.net

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