Warm Horizon

Depression the Illness Discussed

Depression is a condition whereby blood chemistry, mood, energy level, and sense of competence are significantly affected. Persons afflicted severely with this condition are without doubt ill.

With this condition comes a sense of loss or lack that can so dominate the sense of self that in extreme cases persons find themselves completely unable to function. Symptoms generally include lack of energy, difficulty concentrating, lack of interest, inability to experience pleasure, weakness, and despair. A sense of failure and worthlessness is also usually prevalent and gives way to the feeling of having lost one’s previous abilities.

With all of this, perhaps it is not surprising that

Thus, a growing sense of peril seems to gnaw at their very souls as their symptoms increase in intensity—sometimes to unbearable extremes.

With the continuing feeling that one’s life is draining away comes a sense of futility or hopelessness that likewise commonly gives way to a sense of urgency and desperation. Therefore, it is no small wonder that many sufferers of severe depression develop suicidal thoughts and urges. The sense of losing oneself beyond the possible point of rediscovery is hard to take. And combined with the ever-present and suffocating emotional weight, sufferers sometimes fear that they are losing their ability to breathe sufficiently.

While the symptoms of depression described above are generally common to all depressives, there are also common complaints that vary among persons with depression. Insomnia or hypersomnia, lack of appetite or overeating, crying spells or inability to cry, impulsive anger or withdrawal, anxiety/panic episodes, and complaints of nausea, pain, or muscle fatigue are reported by some sufferers. And some individuals become disoriented and/or psychotic (losing touch with reality) in response to severe depression. Persons with one or more of these problems in their symptomatology naturally will present more complex treatment problems, but nothing psychiatrists are unaccustomed to treating.

Alteration in blood chemistry is generally the basis on which doctors explain depression for their patients—that the depressed person has “a chemical imbalance” that affects the brain, causing the depressive effect. Thus, it is more appropriately referred to as an imbalance in brain chemistry.

Doctors prescribe antidepressant medications with the goal of restoring brain chemistry to its normal proportions. It sounds simpler than it is, so anyone with depressive symptoms will be best served by being evaluated by a psychiatrist so that full and proper treatment can be formulated.

What are these chemical changes? It is not the intention of this program to focus heavily on technical information since it is of little use for—and generally beyond the scope of—our purpose. But some notable chemical changes brought about by the brain in those who become depressed occur in combinations of the following hormonal discrepancies:

What stimulates these chemical imbalances? Depression can usually be traced to some form of loss—actual or anticipated. The death of a significant other or parent or family member, anticipated loss of life to terminal illness, loss of a job (especially for men), change of residence, loss of one’s ability to function fully, financial loss, and various major personal failures are common precipitants of depression. But there are also cases of depression for which no precipitant can be identified. In those cases most likely something symbolic or beneath conscious awareness has precipitated the depression.

However, it is vital that we recognize that it is our response, whether or not we detect it, to such losses or “disappointments” that actually initiates our depressive episode. And it is the consistent renewal of that response that drives the snowball effect that over time results in severe, debilitating depression.