How Depression Helps Us

Depression is not a disease, not a mental illness. It is our brain’s way of adapting to an emotional loss of connection with something that we need to survive. If we can “depress” that need, we can live without the connection. For many people, that loss of connection refers to a parent who was either physically or emotionally absent, but it can also be the loss of connection with something that brought joy, or a sense of pride (a job, a home, a relationship).

Maté insists that depression isn’t a pathology, it is actually a coping mechanism to alleviate the grief and rage, which aren’t socially acceptable.This makes sense because a depressed person is more accepted in our society than one who is full of rage.

Can you link your depression to a loss of any kind? Did you “depress” or bottle up/push down your grief and rage over this loss? Feel free to reach out to me on this platform via private message, for help in dealing with this issue.