Dr. Margaret Wehrenberg is a clinical psychologist in Naperville, Illinois. She is the author of six books on the treatment of anxiety and depression published by W.W. Norton, including, “The Ten Best-Ever Depression Management Techniques: Understanding How Your Brain Makes You Depressed and What You Can Do to Change It” and “Anxiety + Depression: Effective Treatment of the Big Two Co-Occurring Disorders.” An international trainer of mental health professionals, Dr. Wehrenberg coaches people with anxiety via the internet and phone. She’s a frequent contributor to the award-winning magazine Psychotherapy Networker and blogs on depression for Psychology Today.
Dan:
What is the difference between sadness and depression , and why do people confuse the two so often?
Dr. Wehrenberg:
Because depression comprises sadness, sadness is a response to a specific situation in which we usually have some loss—the loss of self-esteem, a loss of a loved one, the loss of a desired goal. Depression is more about the energy – whether it’s mental energy or physical energy – to make an effective response. So, sadness is an appropriate and transient emotion, but depression sticks around and affects all of our daily behaviors and interactions.
Dan:
What causes depression? Sadness, as you say, is an appropriate response to loss. What is depression a reaction to? What are the causes of depression?
Dr. Wehrenberg:
Throughout my career, I’ve developed the idea that there are four potential causes of depression. This comes from working with people for forty years and reading a lot of research.
The first part is genetics. You are born with a brain that is going to tend toward depression because of the function of neurotransmitters in your brain. It’s a genetic predisposition towards depression. With poor self-care and poor nutrition, you may end up stimulating or starting that feeling of low energy and interest in the world around you. Then, if you pull back from the world around you, you begin to have fewer experiences that keep you interested in the world.
Another possible and probable cause is with people experiencing situational stress that goes on and on. That could be the stress of not being able to earn enough money, and you’ve got two jobs, and kids, and a life filled with stress. It could be the stress that comes on while caring for someone in your family circle who’s got a disability or a chronic illness that increases with severity over time. So, you’re stuck in stress, and you deplete yourself. And you can become depressed.