What Will I Do Tomorrow?

Probing Depression

by Dr. Barbara Condron

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THERE’S NO MEANING

Depression is probably the most common of all major mental illnesses. It is the most life threatening one. In depression, the threat to life is in the individual’s own hands-the threat of suicide. At least one out of every twenty people suffer from severe depression and the number suffering from milder forms of depression is far greater.

Depression is by no means a new creation. This condition has probably afflicted man since the beginning of reasoning man, or the time man began creating conscious goals and sometimes failed to attain them. All of us have felt depressed at one time or another, and these periods can be evaluated from mild to severe forms of depression. One way of grading depression is to evaluate the intensity of suffering experienced by the individual.

There are two cardinal aspects of depression which require attention. First, depressed individuals can see no reason for doing anything. They have no zest for life, there is no meaning. The second aspect to this emptiness occurs when a sensation of existential death is created bringing a desire for destruction. Depressed people actually do not rationally desire death, rather they feel driven from a powerful outer force to kill themselves. To avoid agonizing whether life is or is not worth living, depressed individuals press all their energy and intellectual resourcefulness into an effective means of suicide.

The subjective experience of the depressed individual is painful. Depression does hurt, not only the mental and emotional attitude but the physical body as well. It is difficult for most to empathize with the mental state of a depressed person. The inner emotional turmoil is often alien to the individual utilizing the conscious mind in his everyday activities, so there is a lack of understanding of the depressed state.

The complaint of most depressed persons is simply that they feel depressed, or hopeless, or miserable. This attitude often contains a logical corollary reflecting the inability to integrate the emotional energy with the conscious mind. Typical statements may include, “There is no point to making plans for the future. I don’t care what happens to me or anyone else.” It is this sense of futility and hopelessness which magnifies the attitude of being out of control. Ironically, the altered reasoning processes in the conscious mind ultimately substantiate this uncontrolled emotional attitude. It is at this point that the individual contemplates suicide.

A depressed person’s behavior stems directly from his feeling of despondence. You may encounter someone whom you have admired for their talents and accomplishments, yet this individual may protest that it is all a facade - that he lacks the abilities and anything he has accomplished is merely a game which he or she has exerted upon the world. Nothing you say seems to change his or her position. In fact if you argue, expressing their virtues, the person will become more depressed. At first they may seem a bit overconscientious in chastising themselves over past mistakes. However, soon the individual will be reluctant to make new decisions with the conscious mind, from a feeling that whatever is chosen is invariably wrong. Some will mock themselves insisting that since they do everything wrong they would make a good counselor. If people would pay attention to their advice then they would succeed by doing the exact opposite.