Depression

Depression is competing with Anxiety as the number one mental health problem with the fastest increase in rates of depression among young people.

To be deeply depressed is just about the most awful feeling we can experience, apart from sheer terror. It can disable anyone. But the topic is surrounded by false ideas: Depression, as experienced by the vast majority of sufferers, is not a biological illness; neither is it ‘anger turned inward’; it is not a ‘chemical imbalance in the brain’ and it is not usefully divided into ‘clinical depression’, ‘post-natal depression’ and ordinary ‘depression’; and is not, in most cases, hard to come out of.

The term ‘endogenous depression’ is used to describe a low mood that is purely the result of biological factors, such as a brain disorder or neurological dysfunction affecting serotonin, dopamine or other neurotransmitters. Such specific brain damage is very rare.

The good news is that we know what causes depression, how to treat it and more importantly, how to prevent its reoccurrence. With a clearer understanding of what depression is it can be lifted quickly and effectively.

When people’s innate physical and emotional needs are not being met, instead of dealing with the situation, they begin to worry about it, misusing their imagination.  All depressed people worry. This increases the amount of dreaming they do upsetting the balance between recuperative sleep and dream sleep. Consequently, this imbalance between energy burning dream sleep and refreshing recuperative sleep causes us to wake up feeling tired and unmotivated. Things that used to cause enjoyment are no longer of interest. This makes us worry even more, feeling that something must be wrong and so the cycle of depression is maintained.

Human Givens therapy works with the fundamental truth that people do not develop depression if their emotional needs are met.

Understanding the physiological processes, stopping the negative emotional introspections and lowering the high emotional arousal experienced by people who are depressed are the first steps in feeling more in control of our lives. Building on this understanding, individuals can quickly make improvements to the way they feel and significant recovery can often be achieved in a matter of weeks.