Depression One: What Causes Depression?

Simply put depression is caused by the denial of upsetting emotions often coupled with feelings of hopelessness about something. For example, if you have had a loss such as a death of a dear one and you have not allowed yourself to grieve then you will experience depression. If you had some difficulty in childhood and the damage done to you has not been healed then you may experience depression. If you have been disappointed about something like the loss of a job or a failed relationship and you have not faced and expressed your feelings about it then you will experience depression. Recently a client came to see me who had not slept more than three hours a night in six months. His hands were shaking and he was desperate for sleep. It was easy for me to see that he was seriously depressed about something. When he told me that his wife had died six months ago he began to cry. “Why did God take her? What did she do to deserve this? What kind of a God would do this?” As he cried bitter tears and expressed his despair he was automatically healing himself. Toward the end of the session he told me that since his wife’s death he had tried to keep from crying, thinking that was the right thing to do. The next morning he called me and told me that he had slept for eight hours that night. His willingness to express his true emotions helped free him from his depression and allowed him to sleep.