Warm Horizon Chapter Ten
The following statement pertains to this chapter: Pain and inflammation have strong relevance to depression. We noted that pain (usually chronic) of some type is very common with depression. We also noted that severity of pain is commonly proportional to severity of depression and that antidepressant medication will often result in greater decreases in pain level than will painkillers. We reached further conclusion that the sensitivity of the body’s inflammatory response is heightened when we are depressed. And the association of pain, allergic symptoms, immune (or autoimmune) responses, and chronic fatigue to an activated inflammatory response was made. Thus, we can conclude that inflammation-related conditions associated with depression are evidence that the body’s alarm mode is activated when we become depressed. And we can easily associate this alarm response with fear. But we experience fear on occasion without activating these inflammation-related responses. Therefore,we can now knowingly conclude that the heightened bodily response capability associated with depression is reflective of the biochemical effect of early childhood fear—when fear of unacceptability equates to fear of simultaneous loss of source and world. These bodily responses are activated in the same biochemistry-altering manner, and for the same reason, as is the alteration of depression-related hormones such as noradrenaline, serotonin, and dopamine. ... The chapter also addresses the difficulty and distress pertaining to late-life depression and encourages affected persons to consider how they might deal effectively with it.