Depression is a label given by professionals and laypeople to explain a whole host of symptoms ranging from low mood, loss or increase in appetite, disinterest in anything around them and sadness to more chronic things like inability to get out of bed, fulfil basic self-care or seeming dissociation from life itself. The focus is often to lift mood – whether through medication and/or counselling but it can be enormously hard for people to transcend their pain.
With something so hard to shift, there is something mightily powerful keeping it in place. Strange since the depressed person seems to lack energy or interest – there doesn’t seem to be a lot of energy around it at all. In working with hundreds of clients labelled or believing they are depressed, I have found that ‘anger’ often underpins depression. Anger which is unresolved or not expressed towards its source. It becomes ‘anger turned inward’. This means the de-pressed person is then held down under its weight. And what is anger? One way to look at anger is when something we value is violated. So if you feel depressed, ask yourself ‘What am angry about?’ If nothing comes immediately to mind, it might have deeper roots and require skillful assistance to help you access painful associations that you have avoided. Your depression is likely to be a valuable clue to facing what is really going to get you unstuck.