Depression is a Wake-Up Call from your Soul By Enrico Cheli
Approximately one in every ten Americans takes an antidepressant. This ratio is more than double among women, especially those in their 40s and 50s. Although the most widespread, this treatment is not the best. Patients are forced to become drug dependent for years and sometimes life due to side effects. Antidepressants act only on curing the symptoms, not solving the causes. Counseling and psy- chotherapy can lead to the identifi cation and resolution of the trig- gers of depression. However, there are limitations as well, including a higher initial cost than drugs and a level of effectiveness that is not always optimal. The higher cost is not an issue if the treatment is ef- fective. Effectiveness is a real problem since most traditional psycho- logical treatments are only decisive in 20-40% of cases (signifi cantly increasing if integrated/holistic approaches are applied).
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The Evolutionary Signifi cance of Depression From a holistic point of view, every disease (especially if
chronic) is a message whose purpose is to inform our consciousness that something in our life is not going in the right direction. Depend- ing on the type of disease, this “something” can relate to diet, life- style, relationships, work, identity, etc. Depression is an emotional disease; it is not about feeding the body, but rather, the soul. In fact, depression can be considered a form of chronic sorrow, informing us that something in our lives makes us sad. Some examples could be: unsatisfactory work, an excess of duties, lack of a life purpose, loneliness, poor relationship with one’s partner or with oneself, etc. In a painful way, depression exists to encourage our evolution, mak- ing us become aware of what should be changed in our lives, and pushing us to do so.
Although not all depressions are so simple, helping the patient
understand what makes them sad is one of the main objectives of holistic psychotherapy. Why do so many people have to wait to get sick from depression to understand that something is wrong in their lives? Why do they not listen to the initial signs of sadness and wait until it becomes chronic? And further, why once they receive the message, do they fail to grasp its meaning? Some socio-cultural and other psychological characteristics are at fault.
The Socio-Cultural Causes of Sadness/Depression As mentioned above, depression is a chronic sadness. This emotion is connected to frustration, the inability to meet one’s own
32 Natural Nutmeg - December 2015
epression is one of the most common psychopathological disorders of our time. Like many other mental disorders, the most widely used form of therapy is pharmacological.
needs, especially relational. Why is it so widespread, especially in countries where most of the population has money, freedom, and opportunity in abundance? The answer is simple: these resources are used in the wrong way, pursuing false needs and goals that, once achieved, give no real gratifi cation. This illusion depends mainly on the excessive importance given by society to the materialistic values of having money, power, social success, and consumerism. These values come at the expense of having love, friendship, good relationships, personal development, and spirituality. This excessive importance leads many individuals to invest all of their resources and expectations, leaving them disappointed, sad, and hopeless. This is depression.
Another question arises: After the fi rst disappointment, why do people continue on the same road? It depends mainly on insuf- fi cient emotional self-awareness. Individuals can prevent, per- ceive, and interpret the messages their soul sends to consciousness through sadness and other emotions. The fact that neither schools nor the universities are involved in the cultivation and development of awareness shows how much it is neglected in our society. The majority of depressed people are not aware that they are lacking important nutrients. Some of the people, activities, and rewards they consider to be desirable and benefi cial in reality, are not.
The Intrapsychic Factors Related to Depression Depression does not depend only on sociocultural causes. The illusion of misleading goals and intrapsychic factors come into play as: defense/self-deception mechanisms (as explained by psycho- analysis); erroneous beliefs (as evidenced by cognitive therapy); dysfunctional scripts inherited from one’s own family or self-made (as remarked by transactional analysis); the tendency to frequently think of sad memories in the past or of future negative scenarios (as outlined by ancient eastern psychologies). In these cases and many others, the goal of psychological treatment is not only to help the individual to become aware of his false goals. Psychological treat- ment also helps identify and change intrapsychic factors that make individuals dependent, preventing them from breaking free of the illusion.
The holistic perspective considers socio-cultural and intrapsy-
chic factors as interconnected. Unfortunately, most psychotherapists and counselors do not know this perspective (or do not agree with it), tending to focus only on the intrapsychic factors. Rather than the whole range being managed, only those that are recognized by
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