{"id":9370,"date":"2020-03-08T13:00:12","date_gmt":"2020-03-08T13:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wassilizafiris.nl\/?p=9370"},"modified":"2021-06-08T12:07:42","modified_gmt":"2021-06-08T12:07:42","slug":"is-depression-a-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wassilizafiris.nl\/en\/is-depression-a-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Depression a Disease?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is Depression a Disease?<\/h3>\n

Are you aware that 340 million people worldwide\u00a0<\/b>suffer from depression<\/b><\/span><\/a>? That 1 in 5 people has had a depressive episode? Do you know what that means? That every 5th person you know has or has had, a depression! The numbers are staggering, but even though the problem is as common as the flu, it is still a taboo. We don\u2019t want to talk about it.<\/b><\/p>\n

We all know why that is, don\u2019t we? Modern science tells us that\u00a0depression is a disease<\/span><\/a>, a disease of the brain and that this disease says something about who we are: weak, vulnerable, not as strong as the rest, worthless. Who would want to talk about that?! But what if the \u2018common\u2019 knowledge as we know it isn\u2019t fully accurate?<\/p>\n

Is Depression a Disease? Researching Depression<\/b><\/h3>\n

In 2007 I embarked on a modeling research project trying to map the inner experience of depression. I wanted to do that because I realized that we had two ways of talking about depression: 1. From the medical perspective: Depression as a disease.<\/p>\n

2. From the symptomatic perspective where depression is described as an accumulation of symptoms: feeling meaningless<\/span><\/a>; eating more or less food; somber feelings and so forth.<\/p>\n

As much as that these descriptions are interesting, they told me nothing about what a depressed person experiences \u2018on the inside\u2019. And specifically, the experience on the inside interested me because I assumed that this \u2018experience\u2019 would lead me to the solution of the problem.<\/p>\n

I spoke to hundreds of people with depressing thoughts and feelings. I also asked hundreds more whoever had somber thoughts and feelings how they experienced their depressed state, and after a while, some specific patterns started to emerge.<\/p>\n

Is Depression a Disease? From the Causes of Depression to the Experience of Depression.<\/b><\/h3>\n

I noticed specific Causes that triggered depressive episodes. Causes that I could not find anywhere in the common literature. Causes related to setback; to a shift in self-image; to loneliness. And these causes change the inner experience of who you are, what to expect, and your place in the world.<\/p>\n

I started to notice that all of my depressed clients talked specifically about how their feelings of loneliness were not related to anybody being with them in the \u2018real\u2019 world. That even when all their loved ones were around in the \u2018real\u2019 world, they still experienced a deep sense of loneliness. As if they did not experience any close connections.<\/p>\n

I noticed that all of my clients talked about darkness as if they were talking metaphorically about some dark experience. They all spoke about the future as if it did not exist anymore. They all spoke about how their experiences became meaningless as if nothing held meaning anymore.<\/p>\n

Most of them talked about wanting to achieve big wonderful goals and how simple it should be to attain them like, \u2018I just want to be happy\u2019. But they failed every time. They talked about how they felt separated from the world around them as if there was a barrier between them and the world.<\/p>\n

They talked about being and feeling disconnected as if they existed separate from the world. They spoke about helplessness as if they could not influence any of it. They talked about the past and loss of future perspective as if they lost their sense of time\u2026<\/p>\n

What do most People with Depression Experience?<\/b><\/h3>\n