The
World Health Organization estimates that by 2020, depression will be
the second largest issue in ill health worldwide. Clinical depression is
defined as a persistent depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure
for at least two weeks along with a number of other physical and
psychological symptoms. These could include poor sleep, loss of
appetite, a sense of hopelessness and others. Studies have now found
that the more often a person experiences depression, the more likely
they will be to experience it again (70-80% chance of relapse for people
who have suffered two or more episodes).But depression doesn’t usually occur alone and is often mixed with other issues such as anxiety and panic. So what do we do, medicate, meditate, both?
The Psychiatric field has found medications that increase the flow of certain neurotransmitters in the brain that can help relieve these feelings of depression. However, because of the relapse rate, the American Psychiatric Administration had to come up with three phases of treatment with medications, acute, continuation, and maintenance. Acute medication treatment was aimed at relieving symptoms during a depressive episode. Continuation treatment was for prescribing medication for 6 months after the episode had passed and maintenance was to prescribe for up to 3 years.
So what’s the problem here? What happens after 3 years? What about the people whom medication doesn’t agree with or unable to take?
Medication was not meant to be a permanent solution to mental health issues because they don’t target the supposed causes of the episode itself, but more to help relieve symptoms for a period of time so people who are suffering could cultivate the stability and skills to support themselves moving forward. Medication can be a wonderful support; however, it’s important to also cultivate the skills to work with the potential relapse of depression moving forward.
There is a more effective long term strategy.
Whether you take medication or not, you can learn a new way of relating to distress; rather than avoiding it, you can learn to approach it and live in the midst of it. We can learn to be grateful during the good times and graceful during the more difficult times. This ability to cultivate the skill of surfing the difficult emotions that arise has profound consequences for what follows.
When we spend our time hating and cursing the distress it’s as if we are sending negative energy into a blob of negative energy. The negativity we’re sending is food for that blob and it only grows. We don’t realize that the way we are relating to our depression, adds to it. It’s difficult to grasp this concept if we’re in the depression and that is why this approach is best when the episode is lifting or has lifted. Here is where medication can be supportive.
What we practice and repeat in life becomes automatic, that’s just the way our brains work.
What would be different if we practiced and repeated doing the exact opposite from what our brains want to do when difficulties arise? Here’s a picture I’ve shown before from The Now Effect that is an example of a simple yet effective practice:
“If all you did was put your hand on your heart and wish yourself well it would be a moment well spent.” ~ The Now Effect
“Don’t turn away. Keep your gaze on the bandaged place, that’s where the light enters.”Mindfulness is a practical approach in learning how to keep your gaze on the bandaged place, because ‘the how’ really matters. We want to dress the vulnerability with a kind, warm, supportive and curious attention, but this is not something most of us have learned how to do, but it is a skill that all of us are able to learn.
Working with mindfulness and meditation in this way is only one approach toward depression that is showing encouraging results in studies for preventing depressive relapse. However, there may be other ways that are supportive to you.
As always, please share your thoughts and stories below as your interaction here provides a living wisdom for us all to benefit from.
Depressed woman photo available from Shutterstock
Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D. is author of The Now Effect, co-author of A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook, Foreword by Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Mindfulness Meditations for the Anxious Traveler: Quick Exercises to Calm Your Mind, the Mindful Solutions audio series, and the Mindfulness at Work™ program currently being adopted in multiple multinational corporations. Join The Now Effect Community for free Daily Now Moments, Weekly Updates and tips and free access to a Live Monthly Online Event with Elisha Goldstein, PhD. He is a clinical psychologist in private practice in West Los Angeles.
