Depression is like running a race up to your knees in molasses. It's exhausting - every step of the way. At its worst, it involves suicidal thinking. If you are depressed read this section very carefully. Depression is one of those things that become so familiar that they seem normal. Hear this: The natural human state is happiness and vitality. Human beings are like a cork. A cork can be held under water, but when you take the weight off, it bounces to the surface immediately. We humans are like that too.
Depression is largely the result of mental pollution - faulty beliefs and thinking errors. This view is subject to some disagreement from the medical community, but I have to say that I have come across exactly zero depressed people who were not able to alleviate some of their depression by tackling their thinking, regularly and persistently. Some eliminated most of it. This is the truth.
The medical view is that depression is caused by wonky levels of certain neurotransmitters. Whoa! Heavy term. Neurotransmitters are biochemicals that help transmit signals across the tiny spaces (synapses) between your nerve cells. Medical researchers say that some depressed people have low levels of a neurotransmitter called serotonin. Anti-depressant medication boosts the serotonin levels - and does a few other things as well. However, medication doesn't do doodley about the habituated thinking that also causes depression. And thinking can generate depression - all by itself. Medication may assist you in thinking more constructively. It may give you some elbow room if you are being overwhelmed my depression-creating thinking.
There may be a physical basis for some depression, but in every such instance, there are also thinking patterns which create depression - thinking patterns which can handle the job with or without wonky neurotransmitters. If you suffer from depression, it is worth your while to weed your mental set of as much of this mental pollution as you can. Thinking patterns are a significant factor - you can count on it.
Depression-creating thinking is habit forming. You know that all ready. Sorting it out and thinking your way through it will be most successful when you make a daily habit of disputing the depression-causing beliefs - even when you are not depressed. In fact, it is a good idea to do the work when you are not depressed as well as when you are depressed.
that in mind. According to psychologist Paul Hauck, three types of depression-causing thinking are:
1. Self-Blame 2. Self-Pity 3. Other-Pity
Self-blame happens when you think that something about you, usually something you did, is so terrible that you become worthless in your own eyes. Self-blame is being convinced that, I'm a worthless piece of garbage, or something to that effect. Depression results when this unquestioned notion about yourself generates repetitive thinking - self-propaganda.
Remember that some of these crooked ways of self-rating started when you were a mentally vulnerable child - unable to think abstractly. You had, at that point in your life, no way of understanding that it is impossible for any human being to behave perfectly. Self-blaming makes this harebrained assumption. This belief sits behind the misery of some very depressed people. So, something you have done is so imperfect that you have rated yourself into the cellar. Behold the emotion-shaping power of your thinking.
Secondly, you may have performed the following feat of illogical thinking: Because of a handful of very imperfect moments, I am a complete write-off. Recall that this is the same bogus logic that would conclude that I am a total pimple because I have a pimple on my nose.
way out.
Self-pity, also known as the pity-parlour, is the act of singing the repetitive refrains of: "Poor me. Everything about me and my life is so terrible. Nothing goes right. Everything goes wrong. Poor me. I'm helpless. No one loves me." Behind these habituated thoughts lurk beliefs/position statements that really beg a good working over.
Pity-parlouring is guaranteed to produce depression. That's its job. Remember, it is not things that happen on the outside of you that shape emotional energies into depression. Only thoughts can do that for you. Thoughts can be inaccurate.
Pity-parlour thinking poses constant, automatic arguments which promote depression. Automatic, habituated arguments are not known for their enlightenment or their accuracy, but for their inaccuracy and absolutistic positions: "I can't stand this. It always bad. Nothing ever goes right." I'm getting depressed just typing this. I know these lines. Once upon a time, I wrote an entire chapter in the book: "Recreational Pity-Parlouring Made Simple."
Pity for others is the third main type of thinking that leads to depression. Pity for others is not the same as respecting others or being attuned with their experience. That's empathy.
Pity for others is this kind of thinking: "She is having such a bad time, that I cannot be happy. If I care about her, then I'll have to be sad too. If I don't get sad, then I don't really care about her. What's happening to her is so terrible that I can't stand it."