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Causes of Depression...Have We Explored Them All?Other causes of depression can include trauma, chronic illness, certain medications (antidepressants), or a chemical imbalance. Chemical Imbalance Theory If you've had a chance to look around my site you've probably discovered my opinion on antidepressants and the chemical imbalance theory. A chemical imbalance is believed to be one of the most popular causes of depression. Whether it is an actual cause of depression, no one knows. Its Up To Us I personally suffered from depression for years. And as shocking as this is about to sound…I blame myself. I don't blame myself in the sort of way that I should have known better, but rather that I so easily believed what I was told and allowed myself to then further enter a dark hole that was so difficult to escape from. It took years for me to come out of my depression. I suffered many ups and downs and many failed attempts to get my life back. But I am finally here, able to talk about my condition, and use my experience to help others. Saying I blame myself sounds harsh, even in my own mind it stings a little. But the truth is, as difficult as it is to digest, I allowed myself to become depressed, and after I finally came to that realization, I allowed myself to heal. Now everyone has their own initial cause for depression, and some of us are more susceptible to the condition than others. Don't get me wrong, I definitely didn't wake up one day and decide I wanted to be depressed. And once I was in a state of depression, I certainly wasn't consciously intending to stay there for as long as I did. In fact I was constantly trying to heal. As I said before, I had failed attempt after failed attempt before I finally weathered the storm out.
So my initial causes of depression may have been an excess amount of stress, a traumatic event, and genetics. My recurring causes of depression were a little different. After feeling myself slip into a state of depression I did things like research depression symptoms on the internet. I then would self diagnose - bad idea. I was going through a difficult time so of course all of the symptoms of depression lined up with what I was feeling. I then translated that into "I'm suffering from depression.". Because there was a label for what I was feeling and because there was a "no fault of my own" excuse for it (a chemical imbalance), I - already feeling depressed - gave in to what I was reading. Once my doctor diagnosed me with depression it was even further downhill from there. I took this diagnosis and his explanation that this was not my fault, and that I was born with a chemical imbalance, and I allowed myself to become that condition without hope for recovery. Why? It wasn't my fault. I was born with this. This is who I am. He wrote me a prescription for an antidepressant and that later got added to the list of my recurring causes of depression. The antidepressant helped me initially but it wasn't long before I'd entered a state of mind I'd never seen before. I thought I was depressed before but the antidepressant took me to a whole new level of depression.
Now when I had a good day I wasn't proud of myself, I looked at it as a handicap. After I got off of antidepressants, for fear of my life, I turned to a supplement, St. Johns Wort, to help ween me off of the addiction and because I believed I had to have something in order to sustain a normal mood. I do not recommend anyone comes off of antidepressants without the assistance of their doctor. It can be very dangerous. The St Johns Wort actually helped me. It eased the pain of coming off of my 2nd round of antidepressants. You can get it in the form of a capsule or also tea. There are regular tea bags and tea that is for bedtime to help you relax. Here are a few of my favorites!
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