According to a May 2013 Gallup report, 29% of adults in the U.S. have been diagnosed with depression at some point in their lives. But what is more noteworthy is the increase in the percentage of people who have experienced depression: since 2015, the rate went up nearly 10%. In addition, the number of people who are currently being treated for depression has reached almost 18%, which is an increase of 8 percent in 8 years. In other words: nearly one out of every 5 Americans is currently being treated for depression.
As with many (if not all) mental and physical diseases, the more our health system focuses on treating depression, the more prevalent depression becomes. This could be due to two factors. The first is that the medical community does not actually understand the root cause of depression. Instead, researchers will often find symptoms which they hypothesize to be the root cause (such as chemical imbalances) and search for ways to treat those issues. A second factor is that – due to the fact that we have a for-profit health care system – many researchers are focused on treatments that are the most profitable instead of the most effective.
The Root Cause of Depression
For people walking the spiritual path, one of the major challenges is that the greatest spiritual teachings seem entirely too simplistic. For example, the entire goal of life could be summed up in one phrase: to remember that your true nature is unconditional love. However, most people are not satisfied with such simplicity, and so entire books and libraries are filled with spiritual teachings which all relate back to this single idea.
When it comes to depression, the root cause (that results in all other physical, mental, and emotional symptoms) is that the depressed person believes their life should be different than the way it currently is. (Note that this includes the common belief that all “things” – such as politics – should be different than the way they currently are.) Although it might be tempting to call this a psychological issue, it is fundamentally a spiritual issue because it involves a (false) belief. The false belief of: “my life should not be this way.” And where does this false believe come from? It comes from a consumer-driven society.
Unlike any other time in history, our lives are bombarded with advertisements which use psychological techniques to make us believe that we need certain things in order to be happy. What this results in should be obvious: a society that is unhappy because people don’t have everything that we falsely believe is necessary for happiness. And it explains why – in our current society – the rate of depression continues to increase. Successfully treating depression must therefore include the spiritual level: releasing the false beliefs regarding what is necessary for happiness.
How Depression Occurs
In holistic medicine, it is recognized that beliefs lead to thoughts, and thoughts lead to emotions. Therefore, our emotional well-being is ultimately the result of our belief systems. For example, the following are false beliefs regarding happiness:
- I need a lot of money to be happy.
- I need a lover to be happy.
- I need a healthy relationship to be happy.
- I need people to accept me as who I am to be happy.
Each of these beliefs directly affects how we think about any given situation. For example, if you believe a healthy relationship is needed for happiness, you will focus on what is wrong with the relationship (which is supposedly preventing you from being happy). This results in thinking such as:
- My partner doesn’t treat me right.
- My partner needs to change.
- I need to find somebody else.
Each of these thoughts will produce an emotional reaction, such as anger, frustration, sadness, and feelings of victimization. The more we focus on these thoughts, the more we will feel negative emotions, which reinforces the idea that we are not happy.
The Path to Depression
When people believe that their external circumstances are causing their unhappiness, one of two things generally occur:
- They change their circumstances.
- They are (initially) too scared to change anything. This is common for situations related to relationships and jobs/careers.
Once a change has occurred, the person will still be unhappy because the source of the problem is a false belief (that something external is necessary for happiness). At this point, one of two things will occur. The person will either:
- change their circumstances once again (and again).
- deceive themselves into believing they must be happy now.
It is the second instance that will lead to depression. In this situation, a person who is still feeling unhappy denies the unhappiness by thinking “I must be happy now because I got the job/relationship/thing that I wanted.” The individual will then suppress all feelings of unhappiness by refusing to feel and express them.
However, this strategy backfires because by refusing to feel our “negative” emotions, we become unable to feel our positive emotions. I.e., it is not possible to experience one side of polarity without the other. In order to see a light, there must be darkness. In order to feel happy, we must also feel sadness. When we get to a state in which we can no longer feel any emotions because we have blocked the negative ones, we feel “lifeless.” This is the experience that is known as depression.
Major Depressive Episodes
At the fundamental level, emotions are energy and energy moves. If we don’t allow these emotions to move through us and express through us, they will build up inside of us. For some people, this will cause anger management issues. I.e., every now and again we simply can’t hold those emotions back any longer and we explode. We “lose it” momentarily. And then we get ashamed of ourselves and vow not to lose it again. Until the next time it happens.
In the meantime, how do we ignore those emotions? By addictions. We watch TV, play video games, waste time on our smartphones, get upset over politics, eat or stop eating, become obsessed with sex and porn, and take drugs. We do anything we can to show those emotions who the boss is by ignoring them. Note that these addictions serve a dual purpose: (1) to suppress our emotional pain and (2) make us feel “alive” again.
Regardless of how much we try to ignore our emotions, the end result is certain. Our will power cannot “prop up the dam” forever, and sooner or later that dam will burst and the emotions will come pouring out. This sudden burst of negative emotions, which is extremely painful and can potentially lead to suicide, is the cause of major depressive episodes.
People who experience major depressive episodes often turn to the medical community for treatment. While these treatments can help a person “survive” these painful episodes, the root cause of the problem remains. Thus, after the major depressive episodes have passed, a person will still fall back into a state of “lifeless” depression until healing has finally occurred at the spiritual level.