Depression: Hopelessness and Self-Loathing
Depression can be a disabling disorder that feels like a deep, dark hole from which there is no escape. Clinical depression is more than feeling "down" or "blue," which all of us experience at times. Rather, a clinically depressed person exhibits or experiences a variety of emotional, cognitive, physical, and behavioral symptoms such as sadness, tearfulness, fatigue, poor concentration, insomnia, over-sleeping, loss of appetite, over-eating, loss of interest in things previously enjoyed, irritability, anger, agitation, lethargy, suicidal thoughts, or feelings of guilt, hopelessness, or worthlessness for more than just a few days.
Depression is not difficult to diagnose, but determining the causes of depression can be tricky. Is it purely genetic or biochemical? Is it purely situational or reactive? Or is it a combination of genetic and situational factors?
Treatment may involve antidepressant medications, counseling, or both. A variety of antidepressant medications work to correct a chemical imbalance in the brain that affects mood. The chemical imbalance may have been caused by genetics, a medical illness that affects brain chemistry, head trauma, substance abuse, or chronic exposure to a depressing environment (such as growing up in an abusive household, living in an abusive marriage, or experiencing a succession of overwhelming losses), or any combination of the above. Antidepressant medications usually give some relief within a month, but the process may involve a trial-and-error period until your doctor determines the right medication and dosage.
Certain patterns of thinking seem to fuel depression. These patterns are often a reaction to chronic situational circumstances such as growing up in an alcoholic, abusive, or highly dysfunctional family environment or being in an abusive relationship. The most common patterns of thinking that fuel depression are hopelessness and self-loathing.
Hopelessness is a pattern of thinking where individuals believe they are trapped in misery with no expectation of things ever getting better.
Self-loathing is a pattern of thinking where individuals believe they are bad, worthless, evil, unsuccessful, unlovable, and/or incompetent.
Both patterns of thinking are common reactions to childhood abuse, trauma, neglect, or overwhelming loss where no substantial adult support was available to help these children deal with their painful situations. Thus, these children are forced to cope alone, as best as their immature minds can, sometimes with disastrous results, such as relying on drugs, alcohol, gangs, crime, promiscuous sex, and other self-destructive behaviors. Very often these children grow into adults who do not know how to take care of themselves emotionally, physically, spiritually, or in relationships. Thus, these patterns of thinking emerge as a reaction to the original pain (the childhood trauma or dysfunction) and then persevere into adulthood when these individuals struggle, often unsuccessfully, to find their places in relationships and in the world.
Interestingly, research has shown that individuals diagnosed with depression do not always exhibit these destructive patterns of thinking (that is, hopelessness and self-loathing). In fact, when persons who have a history of depression are not particularly depressed, their patterns of thinking are not significantly different from persons who have a history of depression are not particularly depressed, their patterns of thinking are not significantly different from persons who have never been clinically depressed. So how can we explain this?
Оразование и карьера
Школа
НаименованиеДетская музыкальная школа № 12 им. С. С. Прокофьева