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Therapy for Depression & Grief
Feeling sad or down is completely normal. We all have periods of highs and lows. Important events can affect us in deep ways and it's perfectly healthy to experience situational episodes of sadness, reflection, and grief to contemplate our direction/purpose and response to big changes in our life.
Sometimes we can get stuck in the lows. If feeling down lasts several weeks or gets in the way of you living your life, then it's called Depression. Depression is characterized by changes in appetite, moving very slowly or being fidgety, sleep disturbances, concentration problems, feeling bad about yourself, loss of enjoyment in pleasant activities, or having thoughts that you are better off dead. It's not necessary to have all of the symptoms to be diagnosed with depression, although these symptoms usually cluster together. When enough symptoms occur together, it is called a Major Depressive Episode.
Depression is surprisingly common. Approximately 25% of women and 12% of men will experience a Major Depressive Episode at least one time in their lives. Many times depression can co-exist with other conditions, such as addiction, trauma, or anxiety disorders. Depression is a complex condition and can be caused by many things, but is known to be more common in first degree relatives.
Depression can perpetuate itself. For example, depression can cause changes in our thoughts or behaviors which further worsens depression. Someone who is depressed may temporarily lose their ability to feel pleasure (called anhedonia) give up participating in pleasant activities, which can lead to feeling more depressed. Someone who is depressed can become withdrawn and avoid social engagements with friends or family members until eventually, friends or family members stop calling, thus making the person feel more isolated.
Here are a list of physical, behavioral, cognitive, emotional, spiritual, and community/environmental factors which can either be caused by or cause depression.
EMOTIONAL RESPONSES ASSOCIATED WITH DEPRESSION
COMMUNITY/SOCIETY/ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH DEPRESSION
SPIRITUAL/EXISTENTIAL CONDITIONS ASSOCIATED WITH DEPRESSION
Sometimes we can get stuck in the lows. If feeling down lasts several weeks or gets in the way of you living your life, then it's called Depression. Depression is characterized by changes in appetite, moving very slowly or being fidgety, sleep disturbances, concentration problems, feeling bad about yourself, loss of enjoyment in pleasant activities, or having thoughts that you are better off dead. It's not necessary to have all of the symptoms to be diagnosed with depression, although these symptoms usually cluster together. When enough symptoms occur together, it is called a Major Depressive Episode.
Depression is surprisingly common. Approximately 25% of women and 12% of men will experience a Major Depressive Episode at least one time in their lives. Many times depression can co-exist with other conditions, such as addiction, trauma, or anxiety disorders. Depression is a complex condition and can be caused by many things, but is known to be more common in first degree relatives.
Depression can perpetuate itself. For example, depression can cause changes in our thoughts or behaviors which further worsens depression. Someone who is depressed may temporarily lose their ability to feel pleasure (called anhedonia) give up participating in pleasant activities, which can lead to feeling more depressed. Someone who is depressed can become withdrawn and avoid social engagements with friends or family members until eventually, friends or family members stop calling, thus making the person feel more isolated.
Here are a list of physical, behavioral, cognitive, emotional, spiritual, and community/environmental factors which can either be caused by or cause depression.
- Disconnection (e.g. I am alone)
- Abandonment/Instability (e.g. Others will reject me/People are not reliable)
- Mistrust/Abuse (e.g. Others will betray me or let me down)
- Defectiveness/Shame (e.g. I am a bad person, there is something wrong with me)
- Dependence/Incompetence (e.g. I am not capable to solve my own problems)
- Vulnerability to harm/illness (e.g. I am a sick person, I am unable to cope with stress)
- Enmeshment with others/ Excessive people pleasing (e.g. I need others to like me)
- Subjugation of needs (e.g. Other people's needs are more important than mine)
- Inhibition of anger and aggression (e.g. I'm not allowed to feel angry, my feelings don't matter)
- Unrelenting Standards/Hypercriticalness (e.g. I need to be perfect)
EMOTIONAL RESPONSES ASSOCIATED WITH DEPRESSION
- Inadequate language for identifying & expressing emotions
- Inability to self-validate, nurture oneself
- The presence of secondary emotions (e.g. anger)
- Tendency to avoid one's emotions
- Perceptions that emotion are dangerous
- Inability to grieve, process loss & trauma
- Low awareness of physiological expressions of emotions
COMMUNITY/SOCIETY/ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH DEPRESSION
- Lack of awareness of the impact on political, economic, or social events, injustices or hardships
- Exposure to discrimination/prejudice/systemic biases (e.g. Racism, ageism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, classism)
- Inability to establish a cultural identity
- Inadequate rewards in the environment
- Lack of resources (e.g., financial)
- Loss of past rewarding activities
- Rewards are not contingent or contiguous
- Exposure to averse situations
- Feeling isolated or disengaged from a community
- Absence of meaningful activities (e.g. Volunteering/Mentoring)
- Previous failures with efforts to get help or healthcare system
- Situations where the environment punishes the individual for efforts to change OR reinforces negative behavior patterns (e.g. getting attention for being a bully, or affection for being in the role of a sick person)
SPIRITUAL/EXISTENTIAL CONDITIONS ASSOCIATED WITH DEPRESSION
- Absence of participation in value-based activities (integrity, honesty, working hard, fun)
- Absence of belief in something greater than oneself
- Hopelessness about the world or future
- Poor awareness or understanding of moral/ethical development
- Inability to feel cohesion with the world around us
- Inability to practice self- and other- compassion
- Lack of participation in kindness & expressions of gratitude
- Inability to practice patience when frustrated
- Limited meta-cognitive abilities (ability to examine one’s own thoughts)
- Awareness & reflection of universal themes of death, isolation, responsibility, choice, freedom