Take our Depression Test

Find a therapist to overcome depression

Depression is likely not caused by serotonin imbalance.

It is often a natural autonomic nervous system response to threat, stuck due to lack of a safe environment.

Many aspects of body, mind, relationships, and environment may need to be worked with in therapy.

Work is needed beyond the scope of therapy to create a more supportive and safer environment for us all.

What do we know about depression? We can list its symptoms, such as low mood, low energy, slowing of thought and movement, loss of concentration, and loss of pleasure and interest in activities. There is also a disruption of our patterns of appetite and sleep, and negative, hopeless, and, at worst, suicidal thoughts. We lose the ability and desire to socialize with others.

But what exactly is depression? Based on 30 years of clinical work, I am convinced that depression is a normal and understandable biological response to threat which has become “stuck.”

Our human nervous system responds to danger and life-threat not just with fight, flight, or freeze responses (fear-arousal), but also with fear-collapse—a sudden shutdown of energy production throughout the body. These two aspects of our fear system can be best understood by looking at the context in which they evolved. When a predator attacks its prey, the prey goes into fear-arousal—running or fighting to help it escape. However, if this response fails, an older threat response shuts down the body and the prey collapses, as we can see when a cat catches a mouse.

This fear-collapse—the same biological mechanism as a faint[1], but without full loss of consciousness—stops the predator’s attack. This can lead to a window of........

© Psychology Today