A person who suffers from endogenous depression will often exhibit similar symptoms as someone suffering from any other type of depression. The person could appear anxious, have a change in sleeping patterns, a change in eating habits, show fatigue, have low self-esteem and even sudden mood changes.

How is endogenous depression treated? Being as this type of depression does not appear to have any cause, it can be difficult to give treatment at first. Of course, consulting an online therapist about the condition would be recommended as they can are trained to help people work through their depression, regardless of the cause. If someone believes they are depressed, there is the option of consulting an online therapist through online therapy. This way, the person can ask questions and receive advice from the comfort of their own home online. Online counseling is a little new, but it is becoming more popular all the time and more people are choosing the counseling online option because it is within their comfort zone. Telephone counseling is another option and is about the same as what the online therapy offers. While both of these options are available and could offer some answers or useful advice, going in to see a therapist or counselor in person would probably benefit the person more. When an online therapist uses webcam therapy, they can talk to the patient, they can read a person’s actions and expressions to help them make a proper diagnosis. When an online counselor determines their patient is suffering from endogenous depression, they can decide on what type of therapy the patient will need in order to work through their depression. Sometimes it is medicinal with regular visits to the counselor, other times it could be the regular visits without the medicinal therapy. It depends on what the therapist thinks would be best for the patient and it also depends on how serious the depression is.

Like any other type of depression, endogenous depression is treatable. While treatments may not seem to work at first, they will over time. It is important for anyone who wishes to work through their depression to be open and honest with their therapist so that the therapist can have a clear understanding about what the patient needs. With the proper information, the therapist can be sure to choose the right medication and/or other treatments that would best work in the patient’s favor. Depression is not something to ignore or shy away from getting help for. If anyone thinks they might be suffering from depression, they need to consult a therapist so they can get the help they need.

Dr. Jennifer Baxt, DMFT, NCC,DCC is the owner of CompleteCounselingSolutions.com which offers a variety of online counseling services. If you would like to know more about Jennifer or any of our online therapists, visit our website.

Most of us admit that from time to time that we are depressed. We have low energy, are aggravated with ourselves and others, have problems getting motivated and feel sad and listless. There are many legitimate reasons to be depressed in our high stress, demanding, fast-paced, often alienating contemporary world.

Clinical depression is different. It is a psychophysiological state that is characterized by some of the following symptoms and behaviors:deep sadness, insomnia, problems with concentration, low motivation, fatigue, a sense of isolation, and emotional irritability. The experience of clinical depression is deep and disruptive to our relationships, our work and our lives.

Anger is “a feeling of displeasure resulting from injury, mistreatment, opposition, etc., and usually showing itself in a desire to fight back at the supposed cause of this feeling.” Anger is specific to a particular issue and is generally time limited. Rage travels a different trajectory. Rage is an intense volatile, unrestrained anger that appears to have no redress.

The roots of depression and rage begin to fuel in early childhood. Infants and children who are emotionally and/or physically deprived, neglected and abused, believe that no one cares about them because they are unwanted, worthless, or defective. In many instances the child turns himself inside out to become the perfect little person that the disturbed parent expects him to be. In order to fulfill parental demands, the child unconsciously disregards the core of his authenticity, the real self. The child is forced to live behind a false self that is acceptable to the parent to avoid abandonment and abuse. This false identity that the small child is forced to play to survive, returns to consciousness and is acted out in the parallel dance of depression and rage.

Out of the depression that is enervating and immobilizing, unexpressed unconscious rage that has been waiting at the bottom of a pool of conflicting emotions, rises to the surface and depression and rage coalesce to create a psychologically toxic mixture.

When depression persistently intrudes on an individual’s personal and professional life, it is vital that he/she seek professional psychological consultation. There are a variety of effective ways to treat depression today. Depending on its severity, some individuals benefit from different forms of psychotherapy, including psychoanalytic psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. Other patients require the advice of a psychiatrist who is an expert in psychopharmacological medications. The new serotonin re-uptake anti-depressants have shown to be very effective in treating many patients suffering from clinical depression. Treatment requires patience and cooperation between psychiatrist and patient. Finding the exact medication and dosage may take some time. The knowledge, understanding and empathy of the therapist is essential to successful treatment together with the cooperation and positive attitude of the patient.

Linda Martinez-Lewi holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and is a licensed marriage family therapist. She has extensive clinical training in narcissistic and borderline disorders. Dr. Linda Martinez-Lewi is the author of the book “Freeing Yourself From the Narcissist in Your Life.”

Dr. Martinez-Lewi has worked for many years with patients experiencing psychological problems as a result of personal and professional relationships with narcissistic personality disorders. She has clinical experience treating patients suffering from childhood trauma, anxiety disorders, and depression.

Dr. Martinez-Lewi has been interviewed on numerous radio talk shows throughout the country.

Visit her website at: http://www.thenarcissistinyourlife.com.

There have been two notable deaths of high profile Australian actors due too Depression. All too often we here the word “Melancholy” associated with depression, today depression is discussed more out in the open. A long time ago, depression was not discussed; I suppose people were just put away when the doctors could not deal with the mental health of a patient. The press is great today because they have the ability to discuss topics, also the internet if it is used appropriately we can research many topics, hidden away from the world before.

Depression today has the label of a “Serious Medical Illness” the needs to be treated, caused by an imbalance of brain chemicals, along with other factors. It is normal to feel, shock, anger, sadness, even other emotions, when you are diagnosed with depression. By reading this, you will no doubt guess I have been diagnosed with depression. Huge amounts of people do not realize depression can run in families for generations, which is an important of depression. The stress and trauma, in your life, financial problems, loss of a loved one, break up of a relationship, loosing your job, starting a new job, or even getting married. People that have low self-esteem have a greater chance of suffering with a mild form of depression called dysthymia. For a long time I have been on medication and with the help of my Doctor and Physcologist, I am able to write about depression.

Physical conditions play an important part in the causes of depression, heart disease, and cancer, HIV can contribute to depression because of the physical weakness bought on by these conditions. In some cases, depression bought on by the medication used to treat these medical conditions.

Anxiety disorder, Schizophrenia, eating disorder, and especially substance abuse often appear along side depression in many cases.

When you learn that you have depression, it can be very frustrating, because recovery takes time. There are steps you can take along the road to recovery, stay motivated. Many times, I said to myself, “Stay home, you do not have to go for a walk, it is too cold, or you do not have enough time.” Now I kick myself into gear in the morning and go for my walk, because I have two little cross breed “Chihuahua’s” that love a walk in the park. They are my reason to get going each day, my encouragement to continue with learning how to put my feelings down on paper, writing short stories.

Depression affects your family relationships, the person with depression just cannot turn on and off their emotions just for their partner or children. You have too be able to discuss your feelings with your family, and let them know it is not them. Support is important; it comes in many different forms. Friends, and family, self-encouragement is what I found as my savior. The desire to try many different things that I had not tried before in my short life. Putting my feelings down on paper, reading something I had put on the shelf because I could not concentrate. It does not hurt too sing your own praises to help with encouragement. Do not let depression beat you because life is too precious, to curl up and die. I found life again, sometimes it is hard too stay on top but when I feel low I kick myself into gear and go for a walk with my dogs. You must clear your head to stay on top of your feelings.

If someone you know is diagnosed with depression let him or her, know you are there for him or her to listen. Encourage them to stick with the treatment because it does not go away in three or four days. It hangs around for a while but the main thing is just be there for them and listen.

I am Barb Haynes author/scribbler, I wrote this article because I have suffered with depression bought on by many different reasons and would like to give some ideas to people out there that we can help ourselves and beat depression.

There have been two notable deaths of high profile Australian actors due too Depression. All too often we here the word “Melancholy” associated with depression, today depression is discussed more out in the open. A long time ago, depression was not discussed; I suppose people were just put away when the doctors could not deal with the mental health of a patient. The press is great today because they have the ability to discuss topics, also the internet if it is used appropriately we can research many topics, hidden away from the world before.

Depression today has the label of a “Serious Medical Illness” the needs to be treated, caused by an imbalance of brain chemicals, along with other factors. It is normal to feel, shock, anger, sadness, even other emotions, when you are diagnosed with depression. By reading this, you will no doubt guess I have been diagnosed with depression. Huge amounts of people do not realize depression can run in families for generations, which is an important of depression. The stress and trauma, in your life, financial problems, loss of a loved one, break up of a relationship, loosing your job, starting a new job, or even getting married. People that have low self-esteem have a greater chance of suffering with a mild form of depression called dysthymia. For a long time I have been on medication and with the help of my Doctor and Physcologist, I am able to write about depression.

Physical conditions play an important part in the causes of depression, heart disease, and cancer, HIV can contribute to depression because of the physical weakness bought on by these conditions. In some cases, depression bought on by the medication used to treat these medical conditions.

Anxiety disorder, Schizophrenia, eating disorder, and especially substance abuse often appear along side depression in many cases.

When you learn that you have depression, it can be very frustrating, because recovery takes time. There are steps you can take along the road to recovery, stay motivated. Many times, I said to myself, “Stay home, you do not have to go for a walk, it is too cold, or you do not have enough time.” Now I kick myself into gear in the morning and go for my walk, because I have two little cross breed “Chihuahua’s” that love a walk in the park. They are my reason to get going each day, my encouragement to continue with learning how to put my feelings down on paper, writing short stories.

Depression affects your family relationships, the person with depression just cannot turn on and off their emotions just for their partner or children. You have too be able to discuss your feelings with your family, and let them know it is not them. Support is important; it comes in many different forms. Friends, and family, self-encouragement is what I found as my savior. The desire to try many different things that I had not tried before in my short life. Putting my feelings down on paper, reading something I had put on the shelf because I could not concentrate. It does not hurt too sing your own praises to help with encouragement. Do not let depression beat you because life is too precious, to curl up and die. I found life again, sometimes it is hard too stay on top but when I feel low I kick myself into gear and go for a walk with my dogs. You must clear your head to stay on top of your feelings.

If someone you know is diagnosed with depression let him or her, know you are there for him or her to listen. Encourage them to stick with the treatment because it does not go away in three or four days. It hangs around for a while but the main thing is just be there for them and listen.

I am Barb Haynes author/scribbler, I wrote this article because I have suffered with depression bought on by many different reasons and would like to give some ideas to people out there that we can help ourselves and beat depression.

Dr. Michael Berk and colleagues, in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, evaluated the mood symptoms of individuals with bipolar disorder, half of whom received placebo and half of whom received NAC, as an add-on therapy to their usual treatment. Over the 24 weeks of the study, NAC was well tolerated, and induced a marked and significant improvement in depressive symptoms. Ashley Bush, M.D., Ph.D., the article’s corresponding author, further explains: “Glutathione is the brain’s primary antioxidant defense, and there is evidence of increased oxidative stress in bipolar disorder. Therefore, we studied the potential benefit of NAC treatment in bipolar disorder and found that it impressively remedied residual depressive symptoms.”

John H. Krystal, M.D., Editor of Biological Psychiatry and affiliated with both Yale University School of Medicine and the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, comments: “The preliminary evidence of efficacy of NAC is very interesting. This study might suggest a number of novel approaches to treating depression. In subsequent efforts to replicate this preliminary finding, it will be important to determine how much NAC reaches the brain after oral administration.” As noted by both the authors and Dr. Krystal, additional studies will be necessary to further evaluate and replicate these findings. However, as Dr. Berk observes, “Brain glutathione metabolism appears to be a valuable new treatment target for psychiatric disorders, and we hope the impressive results of this study opens up a new treatment option.”

Elsevier.com
Radarweg 29
Amsterdam.

Scientists also discovered that the brain’s ability to grow new brain cells may have an impact on depression, and it may be possible to treat depression by stimulating neurogenesis in the specific area of the brain that is linked to depression.

Related posts:
Suicide Prevention And Antidepressants.

[...]In numerous short-term randomized clinical trials (RCTs) of antidepressants for depression in children and adolescents (<19 years), antidepressants are found to be associated with a slightly higher proportion (0.7%) of patients reporting suicidal ideation or a suicide attempt than control patients receiving placebo (Bridge et al., 2007). It is important to note that there are no completed suicides in these studies. Adults treated with SSRI antidepressants in randomized clinical trials have a similar risk of either non-fatal self harm or suicidal thoughts than those on placebo (Gunnell et al., 2005 & 2006). It is undisputable that at least among children and adolescents, antidepressants have some potential of causing harm to a small subgroup of vulnerable patients, at least in the beginning of treatment. However, there are several reasons why such trials are likely to create a distorted view of the total balance of benefits and harms of antidepressants:[...]

Currently, the most common treatments for depression are drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs. SSRI’s stimulate a chemical in the brain called serotonin which may cause many unpleasant side effects and many patients continue to have symptoms of depression when taking these drugs.

A company called BrainCells Inc. is currently studying an investigational new way to treat depression called BCI-540. It is the first drug ever studied for its ability to stimulate neurogenesis in the area of the brain associated with depression.

“We have shown that BCI-540 directly impacts neurogenesis without affecting serotonin levels in the brain,” said Carrolee Barlow, M.D., Ph.D., chief scientific officer at BrainCells, Inc. “This may provide patients with advantages over currently available medications.”

Dr. Barlow believes that studying the link between neurogenesis and depression may yield a new way to treat people who suffer from depression. Recently, BrainCells announced that it is conducting a clinical trial of BCI-540 throughout Canada.

Related posts:
Antidepressants Tied to Gastrointestinal Bleeding.

[...]It found that 5.3 percent of the people with such bleeding were taking SSRIs, while 3.0 percent of the people who did not have such bleeding were taking SSRIs. In addition, 1.1 percent of the people who were had bleeding were taking Effexor, compared to 0.3 percent of those who did not have bleeding.

The risk was even higher in people taking SSRIs and other drugs harmful to the GI tract such as pain relievers known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs.[...]

According to Health Canada and Statistics Canada, approximately eight percent of adult Canadians will experience a major depression at some point in their lives, and around five percent will experience depression in a given year. Depression continues to be Canada’s fastest-rising diagnosis.

Common symptoms of depression include feeling worthless, helpless or hopeless, sleeping more or less than usual, eating more or less than usual, overwhelming feelings of sadness or grief and loss of energy. If you or a loved one is being treated for depression or you think you may be suffering from depression.

Source: NewsCanada.

The study, published in the September issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry, also reveals that higher volumes of antidepressants are prescribed by general practices in economically deprived areas, and by practices serving areas with a high prevalence of chronic illness.

Researchers from King’s College London set out to explore the relationship between physical illness, social deprivation, ethnicity, practice characteristics and the volume of antidepressants prescribed in primary care.

They used data derived from the Quality and Outcomes Framework, a system established in 2004 which gives financial incentives to GPs for achieving certain performance targets. Prescribing data for antidepressant medicines were collected from national Prescribing Analyses and CosT data for 2004-2005. Ethnicity and deprivation data were provided by the Informatics Collaboratory of the Social Sciences.

Analysis showed that the greatest predictors of the volume of antidepressants prescribed were social deprivation, the prevalence of chronic illness (asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and epilepsy) and ethnic density.

Overall, socio-economic status, ethnic density, asthma, COPD and epilepsy explained 44% of the variance in the volume of antidepressants prescribed.

The researchers claim that more antidepressants are prescribed in socio-economically deprived areas because of higher levels of depression in these areas.

Chronic illness is also associated with higher rates of depression, which may account for the increased volumes of prescriptions in practices with a higher prevalence of these illnesses.

Surprisingly, the way that GP surgeries are organised and run did not seem to influence prescribing volumes. The researchers had predicted that practices where appointments last at least 10 minutes, and those which have a lower number of patients per GP, would prescribe higher volumes of antidepressants because cases of depression are more likely to be recognised. However, organisational factors appeared to have little influence on the volumes of antidepressants prescribed.

The study’s authors say that further research is now needed to determine the clinical impact of these variations in antidepressant prescribing.

Source: Royal College of Psychiatrists.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists is the professional and educational body for psychiatrists in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. We promote mental health by:

1. Setting standards and promoting excellence in mental health care
2. Improving understanding through research and education
3. Leading, representing, training and supporting psychiatrists
4. Working with patients, carers and their organisations

Three articles in this issue make a substantial contribution to our understanding both of how depression is transmitted from parents to children and of approaches to treating depression. Tully et al present one of a series of reports from an etiological study: the Sibling Interaction and Behavior Study (SIBS) is a finely crafted adoption study designed to weigh environmental versus genetic theories on the transmission of psychopathology from parents to children. The results provide important support for environmental theories of transmission of mothers’, but not fathers’, psychopathology to children. These results have immediate treatment implications. Two treatment studies are a fortunate complement to the Tully et al. etiological study: a report from the interpersonal psychotherapy for depressed mothers treatment project by Swartz et al and a report from the STAR*D-Child project by Pilowsky et al. Results of the STAR*D study, a nonrandomized effectiveness study, suggest that if a mother’s depression is successfully treated, her children will also show clinical improvement. Results of the study of interpersonal psychotherapy for depressed mothers adds additional heft: mothers were randomized to a treatment and a control condition, and the children of the treated mothers showed clinical improvement. Both studies reinforce the SIBS findings: environmental mechanisms are important in the relationship between maternal depression and child psychopathology.

We have accepted for some time that genetic factors account, in part, for the transmission of major depressive disorders from parents to children. Although authors of recent studies have guessed that genetic factors account for about 40% of the variance in adult depression, the role of genes in accounting for parent-to-child transmission is probably less. Genes that influence depressive symptoms in childhood, at least in girls, are different from those that influence the same symptoms in midadolescence and, presumably, later in development. Clinical researchers have also proposed environmental mechanisms for transmission. The most crucial data favoring this hypothesis are from studies showing that parental depression decreases the warmth and increases the negativity of parents’ relationships with their children, and these parenting difficulties have then been linked to psychopathology in their children. However, recent data from genetically informed studies raise questions about the interpretation of these findings: genetic factors in the child evoke parental warmth and negativity, and to a large extent, these same genetic factors increase the child’s liability to depression. Thus, the association between parental depression, parenting qualities, and children’s depressive disorders could be accounted for by genes common to all three. To complicate matters further, a third route of transmission is strongly suggested by human and animal studies: fetal exposure. One proposed mechanism is that the fetus of a depressed or anxious mother is exposed to high levels of maternal cortisol, which then “programs” the fetus’s hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Data suggest, for example, that adolescents whose mothers were anxious during pregnancy have an increased liability to depression, a liability that is mediated by the adolescents’ abnormal cortisol patterns: elevated cortisol levels without normal diurnal variation.

Thus, given a growing number of plausible explanations for mother-child transmission of depression, we need research designs to weigh these alternatives, as illustrated by the three articles in this issue. The adoption design examines the effect of environmental mechanisms by controlling the effects of genetics and prenatal exposure, which cannot account for similarities between adoptive mothers and their children. The randomized controlled clinical trial can be considered another powerful tool because it functions as a true experiment. The study of interpersonal psychotherapy for depressed mothers controls the “environmental exposure” of the child by reducing depressive symptoms in the experimental group but not in the control group. The STAR*D study, although not a true experiment, used statistical analysis to suggest that reductions in mothers’ symptoms preceded changes in their children, a finding that supports the experimental evidence from the study of interpersonal psychotherapy for depressed mothers. Thus, these studies add up. The treatment researchers arrived on the scene, necessarily, after many children of depressed mothers had become ill themselves. The studies thus provide powerful evidence of the role of maternal depression in the maintenance of child psychopathology by environmental mechanisms. The adoption study provides strong and novel evidence of a substantial role of maternal depression in initiating child depression and other psychopathology, again by environmental mechanisms. Future studies will now have to take a closer look at specific environmental mechanisms that account for the findings from these studies. Likely mediators are the effects of maternal depression on mothers’ parenting and marital difficulties, the mother’s role in shaping her children’s ties to peers and school, and the effects on children of the stigma and misunderstanding that are still associated with severe psychiatric illness.

All three research projects, however, share a limitation. Each leaves open the question of the child’s effects on parents: Can a child’s psychopathology evoke psychopathology in a parent or affect a parent’s response to treatment? There is ample evidence that heritable child characteristics have a major impact on the behavior of their parents toward them and even on how much their parents argue about them, and one adoption study suggests that these effects might extend to influencing parents’ psychopathology. In addition, recent longitudinal studies suggest, for example, that a boy’s antisocial behavior may have sizable impact on his mother’s subsequent depressive symptoms, particularly at the boy’s transition to first grade and, later in development, during his transition into adolescence. Moreover, recent preliminary evidence suggests that successful treatment of the child may also reduce parental depressive symptoms. All these studies should lead to some caution about one-way effects of parental symptoms on their children, as suggested by the three studies here.

The clinical reader can draw four lessons from these studies. First, they provide strong evidence that depression is a family matter. The division of our field into adult and child psychiatry often works against best treatment practices. Clinicians treating depressed adult parents should routinely consider the effects of parental depression on their patients’ children. Interpersonal psychotherapy for depressed mothers is an important advance and might, after further research, become a standard part of mental health training programs focusing on adults. Clinicians must extend their focus on family to marriage. For example, the STAR*D-Child team has reported evidence suggesting that the benefits a child receives from pharmacological treatment of their mothers was greater in two-parent households than in single-mother households. This extends the literature on the role of marital problems in reducing favorable responses to both psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy of depression. Likewise, clinicians caring for children need to take the family perspective—as a large number already do—by extending treatment to parental psychopathology and marital difficulties when needed.

Second, within this family perspective, the clinician has exceptional opportunities not only for more precise clinical assessment and improved treatment but also for prevention. These studies, and many others, clarify the fact that maternal depression is a potent but malleable risk factor for child psychopathology, and there is reason to believe that early detection of depression in mothers, along with short-term support for their children, may prevent the development of disorders before they begin.

Third, clinical trials of antidepressants or of psychotherapy with patients who are parents should include, when possible, assessments of both the marriage and the children. It is astonishing that our field has gone for almost half a century, after the first randomized controlled trials of the pharmacotherapy of major depression, without inquiring about the effects of these treatments on the children. We are still waiting. (As noted, the STAR*D effectiveness study did not randomize its subjects.)

Fourth, these studies encourage us to teach ourselves and our trainees about psychopathology from a developmental and family perspective. Many will want to be part of the unfolding story of the many family routes to depression: through genetic influences, through fetal exposure, and through the multiple social impacts of parental depression. The fundamental excitement of this research, both for understanding and for comprehensive prevention and treatment, lies in the interplay among these factors as children grow into adulthood.

Two studies are discussed that were carried out across several hospitals in the Netherlands that will help us to understand the intriguing relation between depression and heart disease. 2,466 heart attack patients were assessed on depression and clinical characteristics during hospitalization and followed for more than 2.5 years. The results of these two studies show that it is important to distinguish between depression subtypes based on whether they are first-ever or recurrent, as these subtypes differ in cardiotoxicity and response to antidepressive treatment.

Moreover, those depressions may differ in symptomatology, and some symptoms may be more cardiotoxic than others. These two studies indicate that especially somatic and incident depressions are associated with poor prognosis in cardiac patients, which is very different from the ‘typical’ psychiatric depression that is usually characterised by cognitive and recurrent depressive symtoms. These results could lead to new treatment strategies to prevent future cardiac events, which may be quite different than those described in current guidelines for depression in the general population and could lead to more specific and effective treatments.

Authors:
Dr. Elisabeth Martens
e.j.martens@uvt.nl

Notes:

This press release accompanies both a presentation and an ESC press conference given at the ESC Congress 2008. Written by the investigator himself/herself, this press release does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Society of Cardiology.

The discussion began when a doctor addressed the bind that depression creates for the patient. “When depression is stigmatized as illness and weakness, a double-bind is created; if we admit to depression, we will be stigmatized by others; if we feel it but do not admit it, we stigmatize ourselves, internalizing the social judgment…The only remaining choice may be truly sick behavior-to experience no emotion at all.”

At this point the wise man interjected the question, “Is depression the root problem-or a symptom of another problem?”

Another clinician responded, “That’s a good question when you think about it because what sane person could live in this world and not be a little crazy or depressed?”

The wise man declared, “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

“That’s the truest sign of insanity-insane people are always sure that they’re just fine. It’s only the sane people who are willing to admit they’re crazy,” said yet another clinician.

“Another consideration is that depression is made up of the two human emotions, anger and sadness over a loss. The anger one feels with themselves is aimed at the utter helplessness one experiences and a self-deprecating judgment about that helplessness. The sadness is rooted in the loss of the self and the inherent hopelessness that accompanies that loss,” offered another doctor.

A member of the group addressed the wise man, “How do you, who is untrained in these matters see it? Please answer the question you posed regarding whether depression is the root problem or just a symptom.”

The wise man responded, “That will become clear when we begin to ask the real questions. Questions like the ones that obtrude upon your consciousness whether you like it or not, the ones that make your mind start vibrating like a jackhammer, the questions that you come to terms with only to discover that they are still there. The real questions refuse to be placated. They barge into your life at the times when it seems most important that they stay away. They are the questions asked most frequently and answered most inadequately, the ones that reveal their true natures slowly, reluctantly, most often against your will. So, it seems to appear that depression may well be a symptom to some degree, and as you experts can also attest-a chemical imbalance on other occasions.”

A doctor followed up by saying, “So, problems or real questions are, shall we say, the intellectual function of problems, so as to lead men to think; in which case depression is a small price to pay if it induces us to think about the cause of the disorder, confusion and insecurity which are the outstanding traits of our social life.” The wise man said, “That is precisely it. Depression often settles itself on the hearts of some of the world’s greatest thinkers and wise men because they are willing to battle it out with the real questions to discover the truth of a thing at any price. That price is often, depression.”

Successful entrepreneur, V.P. Mosser is the creator of the Learn the Lessons Series, the Life’s Journey publication and numerous thought provoking articles. To learn more and receive free chapters or issues, visit http://www.learnthelessons.com