Now that we have some clarification on what the illness of depression is doing surrounding Depression’s goals and strategies, let’s get some clarification on how the depression achieves this depletion process.
In order to deplete the 5-Wells of the Soul the Depression must find ways to consume psychological energy from each of the 5-wells. Depression achieves this goal by impacting the depressed individual’s sense of linear progress towards worthiness and specifically the justification for one’s existence. This is a global and organic human goal to justify and secure one’s worthiness and existence. The Depression’s strategy uses pre-existing thinking systems operating in the human mind that surround the science of conditional acceptance. Conditional acceptance is founded upon the notion that I will accept myself if I do this…don’t do that…become better at that…become my best self, which is to say that I am really not good enough until I do these particular things to earn my worthiness. The Depression uses the psychology of conditional acceptance to lead the depressed individual to the place where they begin to question the very foundation of life, self-acceptance. If the Depression can get the individual to question one’s sense of worthiness and one’s reasons for existing, then the individual’s life becomes null and void. The Depression achieves this by driving home the suggestion that no measure of effort nor achievement will bring the individual closer to the destination of self-acceptance. If there is a case in which an individual may have discovered some level of self-acceptance the Depression finds ways to erode the self-acceptance while facilitating the suggestion that the self-acceptance cannot be restored and in fact never existed at all. The Depression generates this sense of futility by using the 2-primary thinking system platforms that form the infra-structure of the human mind including the Core-Belief Platform and the Compensatory-Belief Platform.
Core-Beliefs
The core belief platform consists of identity and worth beliefs that we have adopted from significant others throughout our developmental years. Whether negative or positive these core beliefs eventually become a system of beliefs from which we seek to claim independence. This is true because we eventually discover free will and our natural psychological need to define ourselves. The core belief system is constructed with identity and worth definitions that gather and accumulate like trees in a forest. These identity and worth definition trees were assigned to us by others who from our youthful point of view were authorities on our purpose and worth. Having little choice, we believed in their conclusions about ourselves with the blind faith of a child, a child who is now defined by the trees in the forest.
One day we all discover that we wish we did have a choice, we wish we could claim independence from those authorities who define us. Maybe, we think, it is time to rebel against those authority definitions or if I embrace those characterizations maybe it is time to make those meanings my own. How, we might wonder, do I free my sense of self and my acceptance of myself from these conditions set forth by these authorities. If only there were a friendly neighborhood Belief-Mart where I could go and purchase my own set of beliefs. If only I could find beliefs that could compensate for any deficits in my core belief system while at the same time compensating for the fact that my core beliefs hold identity and worth definitions that are not my own. That’s it, that’s what I need a compensatory thinking system.
Compensatory-Beliefs
The psychology of compensatory thinking systems surrounds the belief that we can free ourselves from our core belief definitions. This belief proposes that this independence can be achieved by proving that we are better or different from the core belief definition. This proof comes in the form of a compensatory thinking system that is adopted by individuals in the singular pursuit of core belief independence. This system of thought compensates by improving core-belief deficits and/or by altering pre-determined identity and worth definitions. The compensatory thinking system is employed to generate alterations and/or improvements that will give us the freedom to re-define ourselves. These are systems of thought that often demand Herculean standards of achievement and productivity. These achievement and productivity demands are engaged to generate excessive expectations in areas such as work levels, perfectionism standards, performance excellence, correctness constancy, cleanliness consistency, persistent order, righteousness security, pursuing reward and silent suffering. These excessive standards of effort and excellence push back against core belief definitions giving us the impression that we have overcome our core-beliefs. In the midst of our efforting however, we become servants to our compensatory masters. We wake up one day to find that there seems to be no way to get off this compensatory treadmill, which is to say that the compensatory machine that we once employed is now employing us. This suggests that while our compensatory systems serve us by deflecting our core beliefs, the system also enslaves us with its demands.
How does Depression use the pre-existing Core Belief Thinking System and Compensatory Thinking System against the depressed individual?
The Core Belief Thinking System is a specific system of thought that contains definitions about our identity and our worth. Each of these definitions hold a common thread in that those meanings that we collected surrounding the value and purpose of our individual being came from an external source. At the time we internalized those definitions we believed that external source to be a qualified authority on the meanings of our identity and our worth. Over time this collection of core beliefs became a thinking system filled with negative and/or positive beliefs about the meaning of our soul. These beliefs are confining because they become barriers to seeing the truth about our unique purpose and worth. While positive core beliefs systems do exist, most core belief thinking systems hold beliefs that surround the notion that we are not good enough. These negative core beliefs consume psychological energy more quickly and at greater measures than neutral or positive core beliefs. It is important to note however that positive core beliefs will also consume psychological energy. This is true because the positive core beliefs set up standards that become somewhat confining or demanding such as the core belief, you are such a good girl. This definition may lead the girl down a path of trying to be good all the time. It may also lead the girl to hold a fear of being bad, exaggerating moments of real or imagined guilt. Thus, our primary goal with our core belief thinking system is to free ourselves from those definitions. We seek independence from those characterizations that seem to haunt us no matter how hard we try to overcome or outrun them. As we work to win our independence from these core beliefs, we are at a deeper level also seeking the same freedom from those authoritative voices that imposed those beliefs upon us.
When core beliefs run through our mind, paying visits to us throughout our day we spend energy to push back, to fight them off. If we do not resist the core belief, we lose even more energy, experiencing psychological energy losses from each well of the soul. We lose hope energy because the hand-me-down definition has already defined our future. We lose purpose energy because our path in life has been determined by another without our say so. We lose will-power energy because a greater will has dominated our daily choices, keeping us from discovering a will of our own. We lose worth energy because nothing that we have can really be called our own as it all seems tainted by the authoritative perceptions of another. We lose resourcefulness energy because we are dependent on the resources of another. If we do not push back on our core beliefs, these definitions are then free to drain all the energy from the 5-wells of the soul. So, we fight back, we fight for our independence by using the compensatory thinking system.
Given this information on the core belief and compensatory thinking systems we can see that the Depression has a pre-existing system of thought within our minds that can be used to drain the 5-Wells of the Soul. The Depression does not need to make up negative thoughts or beliefs as they already exist within the mind in these 2-thinking systems. We might say that when the virus of Depression gets into the hard drive it uses the pre-existing software to get the program to destroy itself.
The Depression uses the core beliefs against the individual by both exaggerating the, you’re not good enough belief, and by increasing the frequency of that belief’s visits throughout the day. The Depression uses amplified versions of the pre-existing core beliefs and then uses external events to support the overstated definition. Something as simple as dropping a glass that shatters on the floor will be exaggerated by the depression and connected to your core belief that defines you as a failure. Depression also adds a finality to the core belief definition suggesting that it is fixed and irreparable. Depression attempts to solidify that there is no way out of the core belief definition, and you are doomed to be confined to that characterization. It wants you to believe that there is no point in fighting those, deficit determined definitions.
The Depression uses the compensatory beliefs against the individual by both exaggerating a sense of failure surrounding effectively fighting off a core belief definition as in (you did not work hard enough) and undermining the method of compensating as fruitless and unproductive as in (what you are doing will not make a difference anyway). For example, the Depression may take the core belief you are ugly and exaggerate it. You are compelled to fight back, so you choose to compensate by making improvements on your physical appearance. The Depression then takes your compensatory method of working to pursue physical appearance perfection and begins to undermine that method. The Depression undermines the compensatory method by suggesting that getting your hair done once a week is not enough you should have gotten it done 3x’s per week, but you failed to do so. This makes you work even harder on your appearance often to the point of exhaustion, yet you still seem to be no closer to effectively fighting off ugly. Secondly, the Depression suggests that even if you had gotten your hair done 5x’s a week you would still be ugly because it is your face that is the ugly part of you not your hair. This thinking authoritatively suggested by the Depression undermines your compensatory logic making this path of compensatory effort useless. You tend to believe in the Depression’s authority because it is so much like the original authority that suggested you are ugly in the first place. The Depression does this by impersonating the original voice of authority. The primary goal of the Depression surrounding weakening and destabilizing your compensatory thinking system is to take away your control over pushing back against your core belief system. The Compensatory Thinking System provides layers of compensatory protection around the 5-wells of the soul giving the impression that compensatory efforts are the only thing protecting the wells from the energy consuming nature of the core beliefs. Once the Depression achieves this goal of removing the compensatory layers the core beliefs are free to drain the wells dry eventually destroying even the infrastructure of the wells. At the point of losing compensatory control individuals experience significant increases in the symptoms of their depression as the Depression accelerates. As the Depression spikes suicidal intent and planning go into overdrive. The Depression is at this point only a step away from achieving its ultimate goal of self-destruction.
Why does Depression seem to generate increased levels of anxiety?
The Depression’s process of eroding the compensatory layers of protection around the 5-Wells of The Soul leads to significant increases in anxiety. This is true because the system that is tasked with the preservation of psychological energy is being threatened. In the absence of the compensatory layers the core beliefs begin to consume the psychological energy at an accelerated rate. This produces increased levels of adrenalin in the blood stream as the psychological energy is critical to the mind’s ability to maintain survival. The Depression’s global destabilization of the mind’s infrastructure then results in anxiety measures that reach panic attack levels. These fight, freeze, or flight levels of alarm are generated due to the psycho-physiological principle that the body cannot live without the mind. In the final moments up to the complete dissolution of the compensatory layers of protection there is a flurry of anxiety and panic as the body joins in the minds cry for help. It is after the loss of the protective layers and towards the end of the Depression’s draining of the last of drop of psychological energy that there arrives a strange calm before the suicide storm. It is in these moments that the depressed individual walks with a new resolve towards the self-destruct button. The anxiety is gone, the fighting is over, the struggling has resigned, and the Depression has won. The relief and even the comfort of this resolve is strangely immeasurable to the Depressed individual who welcomes this end to their suffering. It is an end that the individual finds to be both soothingly logical while at the same time disturbingly pathological.
In summary we might note how the psychological science of Depression involves a complex strategy that is both alarmingly effective and disturbingly persistent. This science is on the other hand empowering when we consider the aid of an awareness that could help us stay one step ahead of Depression’s tactical process. This knowledge could serve as a powerful treatment tool surrounding enabling the depressed individual’s ability to treat the Depression virus as well as the depressive symptom. Let’s look now at the third dimension of Depression the depressed mood.
What is known about the science of the Depressed mood?
The third dimension of Depression surrounds the feelings and emotions that accompany the mood of Depression. Contrary to what we might think the prevailing mood of Depression is less about the feelings of sadness and more about the affect of apathy. Considering the 3- levels of mood which include affect, feelings, and emotions it is the affect level that tends to hold us in mood states for longer periods of time. Affect is raw emotional energy swirling in an underground lake in the psyche. This hidden reservoir of potency takes shape in those early days of life, those early days, even before our language centers have formed. Once the language centers become active, we are able to give a name and a frame to this energy that brings such vibrant color and quality to our life. Upon the activation of those language centers the affect transforms into what we call feelings. Feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and helplessness are examples of feelings that contribute to the depressed mood. These internal feelings are then expressed or released into the external universe transforming the energy a third time to form what we call emotions. The emotions tend to confirm our inner feelings by demonstrating emotional expressions like frequent frowning, crying spells, or lethargy which is walking as if you are weighed down. As these depressed feelings and emotions confine the depressed individual to this depressed mood the affect becomes flat as if the lake of raw emotional energy has lost its color and potency. This is the Depression’s goal to confine the depressed individual to an apathetic state of consciousness that leaves the individual feeling listless and indifferent towards life. This apathetic mood leads to sedentary behavior restricting the depressed individual to prolonged periods of inactivity which serve to accelerate the depression and its cycle of depletion. Once the sedentary behavior takes hold and the depressed individual begins to isolate and withdraw the Depression uses internal forces like sloth and inertia to continue its process of degenerating the mind to the point of paralysis, a state of consciousness otherwise known as catatonia.
What is the best treatment for Depression?
The most effective treatment for Depression would treat all 3-dimensions of Depression including the biology-psychology-mood. Generally, the Biochemistry of depression is treated with a variety of psycho tropic medication. It may be difficult for individuals to find the medication that works best which means that there may be a period of trail and error before the ideal med and the optimal dosage is found. The biochemistry of treatment resistant Depression is sometimes treated with ECT, TMS, or Spravata. There continue to be new treatment options for treating the Depressed brain, but trial and error still seem to be required to find the most effective treatment route for each individual.
The Psychology of Depression is treated with psychotherapy and specifically addresses Depression’s use of negative self-talk including suicidal ideation. There are depressed individuals who might be unaware of the 3- dimensions of Depression and they may tend to believe that all they needs is the medication to do the trick. Relying on medication however to do all the work to cover all 3-of the dimensions impacted by depression maybe risky due to the psychological and mood dimensions going unchecked. Psychotherapy gives the depressed individual skills to push back against the negative self-talk while at the same time empowering the individual with knowledge about how Depression strategies work.
The Depressed Mood is treated with exercise, self-care specific activities, recreational activity, creative activity, music activities, and some form of positive social activity. The above types of activities push the brain into alternative neural pathways. Even the act of getting up off the couch, going outside and walking 1x around your home pushes back on Depression’s gravity and its goal to confine you to a state of apathy and inertia.
Depressed individuals who treat all 3- dimensions of the Depression stand a better chance of regulating the illness and managing those symptoms that have such enormous impact on quality of life.
Larry Marshall is a Licensed Professional Counselor at Greenway Therapy . Learn more about him on his BIO page.
