What is Depression?
Depression is a complex and misunderstood diagnosis. It is commonly used to describe symptoms ranging from sadness to feelings of wanting to hurt oneself, and everything in between. In this section I will describe the range of symptoms we refer to as depression, where they come from, and how therapy can help alleviate them.
Many people with symptoms of mild depression don't usually know it. They might say they are unmotivated, confused, or aimless. They might notice that they don't have the energy or passion they once had, that they don't enjoy things the way they used to, or that life just doesn't seem as rich as it did before. Some people have felt this way for so long that they can't remember feeling different. They have a vague sense they are in a rut, but think "maybe this is just what life feels like as you get older" or something of the kind. They may feel that their work is boring, and their relationships don't hold much interest for them either.
This may sound like I'm describing a lot of people. Mild to moderate depression is quite common, and most people who don't qualify for a diagnosis in the strict sense suffer from symptoms of depression at one time or another. These symptoms, while "normal" (i.e. most people have them) don't mean there is nothing to be done about them.
Isn't this just life?
Well, yes and no. As I said, it is "normal" for people to have these feelings at one time or another. The problems come when depressive symptoms stick around for a while and slowly but surely creep in to affect various areas of one's life. People with such symptoms often try various methods including self-help books, talking to friends at length, vacations, moving, shopping, or even taking drugs to try to bring joy back into their life.
Complex Roots
No two people are alike. The same thing is true for depression. Depression can have many causes. It can result from a trauma, loss, difficult childhood, (an incredibly broad idea that I will expound on later), health problems, or other experiences. For example, many people suffer from anxiety for so long that they feel hopeless (a symptom of depression) which leads to lack of motivation, loss of interest in activities, and sometimes even thoughts of hurting or killing themselves. If the anxiety had been addressed first, they may not have developed the depression.
Many people have been suffering from a low-level of depression since childhood. Suffering during childhood is where some of the serious "knots" are created. I cannot describe here the extensive range of scenarios that can lead to depression stemming from childhood, but will give a couple examples to work from.
First example: A boy grows up with a father who has a very short temper. The boy is afraid of his father and looks for ways that he can try to stay safe and prevent his father from getting angry. With his little kid mind, he assumes that he is somehow causing his father's anger, and he surmises that if he simply pleases his father in every way he can and tries to be the perfect kid, his father will not get angry.
This boy develops the unconscious habit of trying to be perfect. There is a problem. No one is perfect, and his idea of perfection is avoiding whatever his father didn't like. So what does he do with all the parts of him that don't fit into that model. He has no choice but to push them down, or repress them, because that's what kids do.
Fast forward 30 years. The boy has become a man who doesn't know what he wants in life, doesn't seem to enjoy much, but is a very responsible father and husband. He developed the habit keeping his own desires off the table, so much so that he is now depressed. The layers that you can see here are like an onion. On the inside, we have the fear of his father when he would get angry, the response of trying to be perfect, and the repression of his own desires, this system locked away in the back of his mind and the outside layer is a man who feels pride in being a good father and husband, but doesn't really know himself. This is one example of what may happen in childhood to call depression. If you add other variables, such as a depressed mother, or a family history of substance abuse, and you can see how we can have a very complex onion.
Psychoanalytic therapy is about uncovering these complex layers and allowing that man to express himself freely again.
I should add that every emotional disorder has a biological/genetic component, or loading. After all, they occur in the brain. However, this is not to say that if your parent has it then you will automatically develop it. The most useful model for understanding the relationship is one in which there appear to be genes which act to increase the chances that certain symptoms will arise IF the significant stressors arise to provide the environment for it. One way to think of this is to think of how our bodies are more prone to getting a cold virus when we are stressed. We can fight off the virus with our natural body defenses until the stresses overwhelm us- e.g. we are cold, wet, and sleep deprived.
East Bay Office:
John A. Lundin, Psy.D. Psychologist
445 Bellevue Suite 202
Oakland, CA 94610
San Francisco Office:
John A. Lundin, Psy.D., Psychologist
1774 Union St. Suite 2
San Francisco, CA 94123
License# PSY19824
Office phone: 510-495-5228
Email me