Dealing Daily with Depression

This month’s issue of Psychology Today has a great article on dealing with depression entitled “Good Morning, Heartache”. I think the key take-away concept is that, because depression has a variety of causes even in one individual, the long-term treatment of depression requires a variety of tools.

The article describes the need for some combination of lifestyle changes, adjustments to thinking patterns, specific therapeutic techniques, and/or medications. What’s extremely helpful is that the article in just a few pages describes several peoples’ very different experiences with coping with their depression. By pointing out that several different areas must be addressed, it gives suggestions for a variety of tools to add to whatever is currently being used.

One small paragraph in a side-bar titled “Combination Therapy Still Best” is extremely important, in my opinion. It says,

[Besides genetics and biochemistry,] stress also plays a role, especially in early life. Prolonged childhood stress, such as neglect or abuse, may influence neurochemistry and the responsiveness of the body’s alarm system, setting the stage for depression in adulthood.

This is another way of saying that prolonged stress in childhood, also known as trauma, literally alters brain chemistry (and perhaps brain structures as well). That’s the bad news. The great news is that therapy, by helping change our thoughts and habits, changes our neuronal connections in the brain, and that is a big part of what can make for tremendous improvement in mood.

If you enjoy reading these examples, there are two books you may want to check out as well. The first is “Darkness Visible” by William Styron, and the other is “The Noonday Demon” by Andrew Solomon. They are both fascinating studies of the authors’ own battles with depression. To hear how it feels from someone who really knows how to use words to convey experience is life-changing; validating for the person who suffers from depression, eye-opening for family members and friends. I recommend them highly.

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Tagged as: Depression, Mood, trauma