Spiritual Implications of Depression

Depression encompasses a broad range of experiences from normal passive sadness, known as the blues, to a recurrent debilitating illness known as major depressive disorder. Depression is by far the most common psychiatric disorder as well as the most treatable. Each year more than 100 million people worldwide become depressed and by the year 2020 depression will be ranked as the number one debilitating disease (Marano, 1999).

Depression appears to be on the rise. One reason depression has been on the increase is that our society has become so “fixated” with the pursuit of happiness that people become angry and impatient with any unhappiness at all (Pearsall, 1998). Pearsall suggests that statistics are on the increase because our brains are getting better at facing reality, the environment, violence, an unstable economy, and unfairness in the world, reality is far more difficult to ignore.

Depression is not only fairly common and on the increase, it can be very serious. The misery can be so constant, so great and so perpetual that one wants to die to escape the pain. In the U.S. one person every minute attempts suicide, one person every 24 minutes succeeds. Surveys have found that 20% of the U.S. population has depressive symptoms. Depression affects women more than men. Research has established that an estimated 1 out of 5 people (about 1 in 10 for males and 1 in 4 for females) will suffer from depression sometime in their lives.

People can contribute to pain and illness in their bodies by avoiding wounds that might have happened in the past. They may constantly distort their own energy field into a habitual defense system building into more pain and illness. The more a person succeeds in trying to avoid pain and anger, the more their positive feelings are held in, they run a risk of numbing their feelings. This can eventually take a toll on their bodies and can possibly further layering the pain deeper into the spiritual core of themselves (Brennan, 1993).

A lack of spirituality can contribute to depression. Author James Walker, who has written several books and journals on spirituality and depression states that spirituality, or lack of a spiritual belief system, can play a role in depression. Walker states in his book Body and Soul; Gestalt Therapy and Religious Experience; “Through society’s overemphasis, we have succeeded in damaging, if not crushing completely, the spirit which characterizes human existence” (Walker, J. 1971 P. 151). He further concludes that the lack of ones loss of “soulness” ones spirit can be damaged or destroyed. Walker is referring to the belief that one needs to be in touch with their spiritual selves in order to feel whole with themselves. This belief system corresponds with what I’ve always believed in when dealing with depression; without soulness there is no wholeness.

Carl Jung viewed depression as a loss of energy and enjoyment. He also viewed it as regression into a symbolic "womb" associated with an unconscious state described as "psychic death," which was often accompanied by "loss of soul". The depressed individual experiences a feeling of total meaninglessness and inner emptiness, a condition that Viktor Frankl, who developed his psychology of meaning while he was an inmate at Auschwitz camp during the Holocaust, referred to as the "existential vacuum" (Rosen, 1993).

Scientific investigation and subjective definitions of depression all have data to confirm findings, however, even with scientific knowledge and research, depression remains on the increase. In the quest for the scientific links to depression, have we ignored research and discoveries of non-traditional causes of depression?

There are many psychologists, healers and clinicians who have discovered other possible speculations for depression. For example, Caroline Myss, a medical intuitive, author and healer, suggests that it is possible that depression stem from toxic (negative) energy. She further suggests that depression can be a symptom that tells people all is not well (Myss, 1996). Adodea Judith, author and healer, believes that depression is a deficient third chakra.  Adodea indicates that depression is caused by the "three demons" that dwell in the third chakra, fear, guilt, and shame (Judith, 1996).

Deepak Chopra, author, doctor and healer proposes that depression is the non-flow of energy (Chopra, 1992). Alternative practitioners and holistic professionals such as Dr Andrew Weil indicates that other factors including diet and nutrition, lifestyle, and vitamin deficiencies need to be addressed when dealing with depression. Healer and teacher Judith Cohen once told me "If there is an issue it’s in the tissue." The validity of that statement parallels what a variety of alternative practitioners believe in, that it is possible to store emotions in our tissues (cellular memory).

In American civilization, it is suggested that depression is in someway shameful, except for the “brief” exception of grief after the loss of a loved one. To a person not afflicted by depression, a depressed person appears to be lazy and giving up. In fact the Roman Catholic Church considered sadness and sorrow to be symptoms of tristitia, one of the cardinal sins (Rosen, 1993). Therefore, depressed people are pushed by culture to view themselves as afflicted, suffering, or evil. Our society spends a great deal of time and energy denying and concealing depression instead of understanding and accepting it.

When talking with a family member of depressed individual, a family member stated; “If they would just read a bible verse when they feel this way, they would snap out of it.” or “no one else in this family is depressed, they are just wanting attention (T. Woods 1999).

With attitudes and beliefs like these a depressed person can feel diseased and embarrassed by their condition. In fact, one of the largest concerns with people who suffer from depression is that many people feel that depression is a darkness, which makes them feel as if they had a “dark side.” This can make depressed people feel defective, abnormal, crazy, and dysfunctional, which are cognitive distortions. In order to understand depression and the cognitive distortions, it is important to understand the balance and spiritual implications of depression. The example of the yin and yang to explore these distortions of self was utilized.

The yin yang represents the negative and positive principles of the universal life. The yin component is black (depression) and stands for structure. The yang component is white, (cheerful) and stands for movement. The yin and yang are independent. Each one is an element of the other and they are contained within each other representing balance. Within this symbol there is a relationship between the two, they need one another in order to be whole. Yin and Yang are contained within each other, just like depression and euphoria are contained within an individual. The yin is feminine, darkness, moon, shadow, hell, static, earth, flat, space, receiving, passion, West, North and right. 

The yang is masculine, light, sun, brightness, movement, releasing, heaven, time, East, South and left (Legeze, 1975). When the principles of the yin and yang are explained to the people with depression, many are able to grasp onto the concept that in order to feel happiness and be in the light, they must also be able to experience sadness and experience the dark. Many depressed clients who examined this philosophy are able to redirect their initial negative thoughts (schemes) about depression, and became more willing to investigate their depressive states without feeling as if they had a dark side, but rather to look at the implications of balance, and wholeness.

By taking a more holistic approach to depression they can begin to develop hope in a hopeless state of mind. People who take a spiritual and holistic approach to their depression often times can begin to understand that depression, though it is unpleasant, has a purpose and an important path for growth.