What Are The Main Causes Of Depression?
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Before you can figure out how to treat or cure your depression, you need to pinpoint the causes of depression. Just identifying the cause of any problem is often half the battle. Because if you know what caused the problem, it's much easier to figure out how to fix it.
Inherited From Your Parents
There was a famous study done in 2006 by an international team of scientists, led by Rockefeller University researchers, that identified a gene called "p11." This "depression gene" plays a role in controlling the neurotransmitter "serotonin" in your brain. If this gene is not working right, you may have a serotonin deficiency and thus be prone to depression.
But if your p11 gene causes your serotonin levels to be below normal, you won't necessarily get depression. You will, however, be more prone to be depressed but it's not a given. Because depression is caused by a complex mixture of psychological causes and physical causes at the same time.
Let's take a fictional character "Joan" as an example: Her p11 gene is bad, but she's not depressed and never has been. But now - six months after the death of her husband, she still can't get out of bed until 2pm, her home has not been cleaned for many weeks, and she hasn't gotten out of the house to see friends or family. She's not in mourning but clinically depressed. (Joan will probably respond well to a "Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor" like "Prozac.")
But it's important to note that this will not, for example, bring back their deceased loved one--which was the "precipitating event" that launched them into depression. This is why it's always best to treat depression with cognitive therapies (a fancy way of saying 'talking with a trained therapist' ), as well as with medicine like Prozac.
What's another option to deal with this type of depression? Self help. Reading a step-by-step plan on overcoming depression. (More later...)
Traumatic Or Stressful Event
Sometimes a single stressful event (as in the above example) can send someone into depression--even though their serotonin levels are normal. Or a combination of stressful events can cause some people to get depressed...
When I was just 16, I was so depressed that I tried to kill myself by driving my car as fast as it would go into trees lining a two-lane highway. (You will not believe I survived when you read my story.) But my suicide attempt was the culmination of a couple years of stress that included flunking school, getting in trouble with the law, girlfriend breaking up with me, and wrecking my car.
To survive something like that was an amazing series of incredibly lucky events--you've gotta read about it to really appreciate it. This marked a huge turning point in my life and I just knew I had to come up with a formula for beating depression ASAP.
It's Rarely Just One Stressful Event
Using divorce as an example - even though divorce describes a single event, the divorcee goes thru multiple stressful events at the same time:
- Loss of a relationship: It was supposed to be "...to death do us part."
- Financial security gives way to financial worry.
- Loss of a higher standard of living: The nice car is replaced by a crappy one, nice home replaced by a fleabag apartment.
- Loss of contact with your own children...no need to explain the huge stress this is.
- Moving even though you didn't want to move.
... There are probably other things, but you get the idea.
Taught To 'Enjoy' Depression
It sounds counter-intuitive, but for some people depression feels 'right' to them...sort of. They thrive on the drama of big emotional events. It's like they thrive off the negativity like most other people thrive of being extremely happy. They feel that the importance of an event justifies being sad for a long time, so they do their best to be what they consider 'appropriately sad.'
When in reality, they are embracing depression for two reasons: It enables them to escape daily responsibilities and it gets them the personal attention they crave from caretakers and friends (who would otherwise basically ignore them).
One theory is that they are "taught" this behavior as toddlers and young kids:
If your parents rarely paid attention to you unless you cried, you learned that "the squeaky wheel gets the grease," as the old saying goes; as long as you were in distress, people paid attention to you and comforted you.
About the Author
Find out which causes of depression may be affecting you right now. Also download your complimentary report, "How To Tell If It's Clinical Depression And Not Just The Blues." But most important, you'll find out how to cure your depression permanently.
Article Source: Articlelogy.com
Word Count: 805
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