I think your comment bridges the gap for me between the “bodily condition” and “life’s condition” aspects. Your description matches my experience: prolonged period of increasing stress, followed by a tipping point marked by cessation of sleep, followed by basic inability to function, medical intervention, and a gradual recovery period of several months.
So, once I had crossed a critical line, yes, it certainly became a physical problem (of brain state, brain chemistry, hormonal state) that I could not think my way out of without a lot of help, and a lot of changes. But for me, the interesting part has always been the life causes. Again, I do not say that this is the same for everybody, but I have always viewed the resulting symptoms as a natural reaction to an unsustainable life/mind configuration.
Highly relevant factors seem to include: prolonged systematic frustration, real or perceived powerlessness, low status, failure, poorly maintained relationships, loneliness and isolation. Many of these are modulated by attitude—e.g the more desperately one wants something, the greater the reaction to failing to get it. My own episodes have centered around jobs, status, and an (at times) impoverished social life. My desires, behaviors, ways of thinking, and (to a lesser extent) circumstances have been the only causes, as far as I can see. My social difficulties are very strongly related to intelligence and rationality, in case that’s of interest to anyone here.
So perhaps those who are truly clinically depressed are experiencing the body’s response to stress, frustration, and failure, but without the causes to trigger it (a misfire)? Or perhaps they have a lower threshold for the triggers?
Lara,
I think your comment bridges the gap for me between the “bodily condition” and “life’s condition” aspects. Your description matches my experience: prolonged period of increasing stress, followed by a tipping point marked by cessation of sleep, followed by basic inability to function, medical intervention, and a gradual recovery period of several months.
So, once I had crossed a critical line, yes, it certainly became a physical problem (of brain state, brain chemistry, hormonal state) that I could not think my way out of without a lot of help, and a lot of changes. But for me, the interesting part has always been the life causes. Again, I do not say that this is the same for everybody, but I have always viewed the resulting symptoms as a natural reaction to an unsustainable life/mind configuration.
Highly relevant factors seem to include: prolonged systematic frustration, real or perceived powerlessness, low status, failure, poorly maintained relationships, loneliness and isolation. Many of these are modulated by attitude—e.g the more desperately one wants something, the greater the reaction to failing to get it. My own episodes have centered around jobs, status, and an (at times) impoverished social life. My desires, behaviors, ways of thinking, and (to a lesser extent) circumstances have been the only causes, as far as I can see. My social difficulties are very strongly related to intelligence and rationality, in case that’s of interest to anyone here.
So perhaps those who are truly clinically depressed are experiencing the body’s response to stress, frustration, and failure, but without the causes to trigger it (a misfire)? Or perhaps they have a lower threshold for the triggers?