Depression as "Personality Habit"

"The inner cause is invariably found in stress from deeply held, unresolved feelings or traumas that get depressed or pushed down, in an attempt to push them away . . . Causes may include pressure from overbearing parents to achieve success, shame arising from sexual abuse, guilt from a longing to express violent or aggressive tendencies, or feelings of worthlessness leading to an inability to cope."
Debbie Shapiro, Your Body Speaks Your Mind

David Viscott, M.D.:

The Process of Depression:

1. A person is hurt by someone or something, but internalizes the hurt instead of expressing it.
2. The hurt turns into anger.
3. Anger unexpressed is directed iinward as guilt.
4. The energy used in rerouting the anger inward and confining it in emotional debt uses up emotional reserves. This depletion of energy is the depression.

The more firmly establisehd this pattern of concealing emotions becomes, the deeper and longer-lasting the depression.

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