Healing from Depression is Bio-Psycho-Social-Spiritual

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Depression is Bio-Psycho-Social-Spiritual. 
Biologically, chemicals shift in the brain. This is where medications act, to return biology to its normal flow.
Psychologically, depression is guided by inner beliefs that get shaped during key periods of development. 
Socially, depression becomes intertwined with social roles. 
Spiritually, depression is affected by a sense of meaning and purpose in the world. 

There is often a focus on treating the biology of depression, when the psycho-social-spiritual is sometimes central to the path out. 

Depression can shape identity and social roles when it begins (as it so often does) in the late teen years or early twenties, while identity is being shaped. Young people may be completely incapacitated by their depression identity: “I am a depressed person.” 
     Depression becomes what my inner voice tells me I “am.” 
     Depression is my role in society. 
     Depression is my identity and my purpose in the greater whole. 

Getting depressed as one of the first acts of adulthood can lead to a failure to take on traditional adult roles. Depression may lead to dropping out of college, or quitting early career building jobs. Depression may lead to staying in the family home with parents and feeling incapable of building an independent life. Depression may become the explanation for failure to launch into adulthood. And then it becomes an inescapable bind. 

Here are statements uttered by twenty-somethings with depression:

  • “My depression became my identity. At this point, it’s who I am.”

  • “I know that if I get better, if I give up my depression, I’m going to feel like I don’t know who I am anymore.”

  • “If I’m not depressed, then how else do I explain my failure in life?”

  • “If I’m not depressed anymore, it feels like I’m saying that my depression was never real. I fought to get my family to understand that my depression was a real illness.”

  • “If my depression improves even a little bit, my parents push me to get a job too quickly, and I will get depressed again.”

  • “My depression is all I know.”

  • “Because of depression, I cut out all my friends.”

While antidepressant medications may help with the biology of depression, getting help for the bio-psycho-social aspects become just as critical to restore well-being. Other than a person with depression, who else can you be now? What are the roles you can work toward? What will be your purpose in the future?

Depression may be an important part of your story, but it doesn’t have to encompass your identity.

Posted on November 11, 2019 by Melissa Deuter.