►Learn About Depression

What is depression?

In a simple definition depression is being disconnected from one’s well-being. Being depressed is caused by a poor emotional state of mind.  

What are the symptoms of depression?

It may be easier to answer the question by explaining that depression has the opposite symptoms of someone who has their well-being; happy, content, at peace with themselves and others, has the ability to clearly see reality and can call upon a greater power to receive wisdom and insight when it is needed.

A person who has lost or displaced their well-being can become depressed and then these symptoms may appear; low-mood, sadness, can’t see a bright future, let alone any future. They can be physically affected and become bedridden, often times seen in the fetal position. Their outlook on life is one of doom and gloom. They talk in a negative vain about themselves and sometimes others. They may blame themselves of their plight and often times place blame for their poor emotional state on the events of their environment.

What is well-being?

According to Pransky & Associates, “Well-being is more than simply the opposite of mental illness; in fact, it is the antidote. A person suffering from mental illness or emotional distress may become disconnected from his/her well-being, but the fact remains that well-being can never be lost or damaged. Well-being is an inborn and inalienable human resource.”

"Every person has the ability to access his/her own well-being at any moment, regardless of his/her circumstances. Proper treatment involves helping one realize their well-being and understand how it becomes obscured. As a result, a troubled person discovers a higher quality of life that provides a stronger immunity to psychological distress.'

"Mental illness and suffering take many forms, exist with varying degrees of intensity, and appear to have various causes. The factors and the length of time people have suffered a mental illness do not affect their ability to find their well-being nor do they affect his/her ability to live a happy and productive life."

What causes emotions?

According to Dr. George Pransky, people generally handle emotion in one of two ways:

• They indulge their emotions and ride an uncomfortable roller coaster.
   

• They run away from them and become distracted and hardened.

However, there is a powerful third alternative: realize that emotions are only thoughts. This view is a sharp departure from the current thinking of most therapists and marriage counselors.

How is depression cured?

Let’s briefly explore a few important items.

THE NEGATIVE EMOTIONS MYTH

Don’t negative emotions have to be expressed to clear the air?

THE GRAIN OF TRUTH

You want to be aware that you are in a negative frame of mind.

A HEALING HEART AND MIND

According to Dr. Pransky, “Unpleasant or negative emotions are thoughts that contaminate the natural good feelings that exist” inside a person. If you eliminate your negative thoughts, you will experience greater warmth and love toward yourself and others. Many current therapists recognize the importance of getting rid of negative thoughts and uncomfortable feelings. But how? Most therapists are under the mistaken impression that expressing these negative thoughts and emotions is the best way to eliminate them. Therapists call this catharsis, “the discharge of pent-up emotions”.

But even advocates of this theory admit catharsis will not permanently remove an emotion. At best, it will act as a “steam valve.” The same emotion will return as soon as it is triggered by a new event or circumstance.

The only way to eliminate the harmful effects of negative emotions is through understanding. Once you understand what negative emotions are and what they mean, your emotional states will have a positive effect on your life. From Dr. Pransky, we learn the following realizations that can offset negative emotions:

• Negative emotions are just thoughts; they have no life of their own. When a thought is not in your mind, it does not exist.
   

• Negative emotions only rear their ugly heads when we are in a troubled state of mind. When we are feeling magnanimous, we experience positive thoughts.
   

• You will see that the same event or person provokes different feelings when your state of mind changes. You might see a car as a “clunker” if you’re in a bad mood-and a “classic” in a good mood. You might view the same person as “stingy” from a low state of mind and “thrifty” from a higher one.

The easiest way to rid your mind of negative emotions and thus depression is to dismiss them as you would any distracting thought. If you were enjoying your eighty-dollar seats at the opera and began wondering whether to put new seat covers in your car, you would dismiss the thought. There’s no way you’d let it interfere with your enjoyment of the opera. If you were enjoying being with your wife and suddenly remembered she forgot to put gas in the car, you might banish that thought to keep it from interfering with your evening at home.

We constantly can and do dismiss thoughts we deem extraneous and nonproductive. It is only our misguided judgment (i.e. loss of well-being) about what is extraneous and unproductive that supports the presence of negative thoughts in a depressed state of mind. 

Dr. Pransky says, “Emotions serve one purpose in life: they are a mood indicator. A person’s lower mood is usually caused by the lower their emotions are. Negative emotions such as anger and regret are personal reactions to life. They arise when our level of understanding is low. The blacker the emotion, the more personally or subjectively we are reacting to life. Conversely, when we see life with perspective we experience pleasant, positive feelings. Our perceptions are more dispassionate. By using our emotions as a gauge, we can accurately assess how much to trust our perceptions at any given moment.”