Paced Healing for Depression
WHO estimates that 5% of the global population is living in a state of depression (2023). This is the approximate equivalent of 400million people. (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/depression).
Signs of Major (Unipolar) Depression
Sufferers of depression experience feelings of sadness, hopelessness and worthlessness. A general negativity about world and the self can be overwhelming and pervasive. It can be difficult to even imagine feeling happiness or pleasure (anhedonia) especially from activities once enjoyed. One can feel anti-social, irritable, and short-tempered. Energy levels are low, there is a lack of motivation, sleep disturbances arise as do appetite disturbances. Strong feelings of guilt can also accompany depression. Fixations on negative thoughts, and patterns of negative thinking are much easier to create than positive ones.
The Neuropharmacology of Depression
Depression is thought involve imbalances of the dopaminergic (dopamine) serotonergic (serotonin) and adrenergic (epinephrine/norepinephrine) neurological systems. Imbalances in these neurotransmitters and their primary circuits correlate with extreme difficulty in carrying out activities or feeling the positive states that these neurotransmitters correspond with.
Dopamine in Depression
Dopamine correlates with concentration, initiating tasks, and experiencing feelings of motivation and success. The lack of pleasure, motivation, and poor concentration experienced by individuals in a state of unipolar depression are thought to be the result of low dopamine levels.
Serotonin in Depression
Serotonin correlates with feeling gratitude and contentment. The feelings of guilt and negative rumination, self-talk, and projecting negative imagination into the past and future correspond with serotonin impairment.
Adrenaline in Depression
Epinephrine and norepinephrine (aka adrenaline and noradrenaline) levels are low in people experiencing a unipolar depression, and thought to account for the fatigue and exhaustion states. These hormones are also associated with sympathetic arousal of the autonomic nervous system (ie fight or flight states that are triggered when we perceive threat).
What Causes Depression?
Research regarding the cause and treatments for depression is varied, and demonstrates that biological, genetic, epigenetic, psycho-social, individual psychological factors are involved in the onset of a single episode, or recurring episodes of major (unipolar) depression.
The modern mind is bombarded with negative messages on a daily basis. Many individuals are accumulating stress that can result in post-traumatic stress. Mental resources are continuously depleted, often without a good source to replenish them.
More energy is expended on coping with stress, solving problems, and achieving goals - or else ruminating negatively about the past or future. The importance of ‘doing things’ is often prioritized over a healthy state of being, and many people live in an automatic state of readiness for the next problem, which corresponds with the activation of the stress response - aka “fight-or-flight”
The Relationship between Post-Traumatic Stress, PTSD, cPTSD, and Depression
Academic research has demonstrated that episodes of extreme stress that remain psychologically unresolved (ie post traumatic stress) increase the likelihood of an individual experiencing an episode of major (unipolar) depression, and experiencing ongoing post traumatic stress when faced with new challenges . The likelihood of depression significantly decreases when the post traumatic stress is healed, achieving post-traumatic growth and enabling a natural resilience to future stressors.
Many people living in a state of depression are often struggling with unhealed emotional wounds, major stress from the past, or living in a blended state of managing stressful situations while in pseudo-states of depression (functional freeze).
We often feed the cycle of recurring stress when we unknowingly use unhealthy coping strategies to create some sense of control over life. For example avoidance, distraction, addictive behaviour, suppression, risky behaviour, social isolation, bulldozing ourselves… can all feed the cycle of stress, and cause feelings of futility, which is a hallmark experience in a depressive state, along with the feeling that everything has gone ‘dark.’ Mental, emotional, and physical resources are depleted to the point of ‘burnout.’ The result is the impression that one has no control over life, and feelings of despair, alienation and meaninglessness follow. If this cycle does not stop, the result ultimately is depression.
Physiological markers of depression include increased cortisol and resulting systemic inflammation. This is indicative of a heightened sympathetic nervous arousal (fight or flight activation).
Unhealed states of post-traumatic stress can underpin states of depression, making the underling wounding the focal point for healing work. Healing the underlying emotional wounding, and releasing the underpinned traumatic stress, may go a ways further to healing depression than addressing the symptoms alone.
Can Depression be Healed?
Although there is a common symptom picture to depression, this does not mean that the same treatment is required by every individual. The right approach, or combination of approaches can be very individual.
Many options and methods are available for healing depression. Pharmacological methods involve the use of medication that influences the neurochemistry of the brain, under the guidance and support of a psychiatrist.
Psychotherapeutic methods are also used to heal depression, and range from cognitive behavioural methods to past life regression therapies.
Ajahuasca, and other plant medicine journeys are also undertaken with the goal of healing depression.
Lifestyle approaches and adjunctive care can also be helpful, including nutritional support, lifestyle adjustments (for example reducing social isolation, animal therapy, meditation, breathework, sleep hygiene, forest bathing, diet). Acupuncture, osteopathy, cranio-sacral therapy are examples of of alternative medicine practices that can be explored as well.
Psychotherapy for Depression
Psychotherapeutic methods can include cognitive behavioural therapies, which focus on changing thought patterns. Working with the mind helps, and can in turn influence the nervous system to shift.
When depression is held in place by emotional wounding, a psychotherapeutic approach that includes inner child work, energy psychology, and somatic therapy can be very beneficial. Working with the unhealed emotional wound that underlies depression, can be a relief to sufferers of this condition, who might otherwise feel blamed, exhausted, or helpless to shift their state and symptoms.
Every experience of relief and release of post traumatic stress, contributes to an increasing state of resilience against future episodes and relief from the current states of futility and conditioned helplessness. In other words, it helps to feel that you can cause positive shifts.
Meditation for Depression
It might sound boring, but when you find the right technique for you (and please consider creating a personalized grab-bag), meditation can be a powerful tool for shifting, and in some cases even permanently shifting, the painful states.
Mindfulness meditation has gained significant notoriety and evidence as a successful method for healing depression. It can also help to practice breathe work techniques than induce particular brain waves states, and in particular help the practitioner ‘get out’ of beta brain waves states, as well as provide the experience of agency over the feelings of futility that accompany a depression.
Longtime meditators have also been shown to have protective structural changes in certain brain regions. Other types of meditation can shift brainwave states and functional neurology into states that correspond with a balanced neurophysiology, and even release trauma energy from the soma.
Disclaimer: All information obtained from Rachel Anenberg or anything written or said by her, is to be taken solely as advisory in nature. Rachel Anenberg will not be held personally, legally, or financially liable for any action taken based upon their advice. The opinions expressed in this article are based on the research, studies, professional and personal experiences of the author. Rachel Anenberg does not claim to be a doctor or provider of medical advice. The principles and techniques taught in this book are based on the personal and professional experience of the author as a clairvoyant healer and psychotherapist. This article is not intended as a replacement for facilitated therapies or medical advice. Anyone using the information in this article acknowledges that they have read and understand the details of this disclaimer. By utilising the techniques in this book, the participant takes full responsibility for the way they utilise and exercise the information in this article.
