Definition of Depression The Imbalanced Emotions Model

In our first definition of depression we shared how emotional abuse can lead to depression and anxiety. In that situation if we feel enough pain and experience enough neglect and lack of nurturement, it can lead to our getting away from our emotions altogether.

We can in effect switch off our feelings and become a reptile, living cerebrally. That is the Standard Emotional Abuse Model.

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The second is the Imbalanced Emotions Model, which we will talk about briefly here. While both models can have the exact same symptoms in the same degrees, they are two different breeds of cat.

Some of us may not have experienced emotional abuse or neglect as children, but we still have depression, anxiety or stress extreme enough to be life damaging and incapacitating. In some cases we may experience depression in very adequate settings, which is very confusing.

This confusion can even make us feel guilty, because we assume that we have no reason not to be happy.

Simply put, in this model, depression is something undetected in our present environment that affects us emotionally such a too dark, or wind, or disturbing colors on our walls, need for a chemical in our brain, that throws our whole life into chaos. When we are this far out of balance we cannot function effectively in any areas of our life as a result.

We do not need to experience emotional abuse to have depression, anxiety or extreme cases of stress. Our onset of depression may have happened in good homes, or started as an adult in relatively comfortable settings. If there is anything unique about this type of depression it is that its causation can come from anywhere in our environment.

When we have a disease whose only symptom is emotional stress and emptiness, which makes us hold everything in our world in suspicion. That is like having a crime, and everyone in the entire city is a suspect. This is the dilemma with the imbalanced emotions model.

However with good depression tests, we can start eliminating suspects. When we make our own self evaluation, we will see where to begin. We can administer our own depression self test to get an idea to what degree we are suffering, a necessary part of our therapy.

Feeling bad from a bad event is different than feeling bad all the time, when the cause is unknown, which is life damaging and that is true depression. The common characteristic of both models of depression is that it is similar to a snow avalanche in the mountains.

In a snow avalanche we have a precipitating factor, the cause, which breaks the snow loose at the top. With depression we have the original cause or situation which starts our emotional spiral downward into disarray. We respond to a feeling with ever increasing self-damaging behaviors.

In an avalanche, the falling snow breaks loose more snow below it, and the weight increases logarithmically. When we feel unmotivated, and experience extended sadness, and feel unable to cope with life’s activities around us, we begin to act in ways that are not in our best interest.

It is these resulting bad choices and isolationistic new behaviors that further affect our emotions, adding to our lack of ability to participate in life emotionally. After a while, the original cause, and the neglect we do to ourselves afterwards, and the resultant withdrawal from nurturement increases our emptiness exponentially.

At this point there are physical causes, medical causes and social causes from isolation all contributing to our distress. This out of control imbalance leaves us overwhelmed and completely hopeless. The final straw comes when our relationships are weakened by all this, none of which we understand.

Our current causes may be from many factors, a need for medication originally, and then additional causes add to it such as lack of proper sleep, nutrition, not drinking enough water, as well as social issues such as underemployment.

Latter additional causes may be lack of intimacy skills causing degrading relationships and eroding financial matters.

This may cause a collapse of our life into addictions as well as severe withdrawal. Overwhelmed sufferers are ill equipped to deal with this collapsed life condition, and family members may not be skilled enough to understand and be supportive, or not available.

All of this creates the final break loose of snow when the sufferer questions their self esteem and their worth and relationship to God. The final phase is to assume God is doing it to them as punishment. If severe enough our depression, anxiety, anger or stress will soon become a moral and spiritual matter as we begin to see it in that context.

Definition of Depression: Physical and medical causes create emotional imbalance

While emotional abuse was not an original cause, the effects are the same, which is emotional trauma. There is no abuser, but circumstances act as one, and the sufferer is indeed the victim of emotional abuse, none the less.

When we admit we have depression, need help from others, and can see it for what it is, we can begin to unravel this tangled mess. Instead of looking for hidden feelings of pain from our emotional abuser, in the imbalanced emotions model, we are looking for physical causes in our everyday life activities today.

With good depression tests, we can start eliminating suspects. When we make a self evaluation depression test, we will see where to begin. We can administer our own depression self test to get an idea to what degree we are suffering, and start eliminating suspects.

This practice can also help us become more comfortable with our feelings, rather than see them as a weakness to our character. Our feelings are the cause of our pain and emptiness, and they can be our road home, as well. Our feelings can tell us what is bothering us, if we learn to listen to them, more on that later.

Where do we begin? With the imbalanced emotions model, we start with what we know. We start listing and sorting things, like our emotions, our feelings, or the lack thereof. We start listing and sorting things that bother us from things we like and we want.

We also do this with our daily life behaviors, sorting them into good choices and behaviors and bad choices and behaviors. We begin by making a list of the obvious first, and as we think about things further, we will discover and add to our lists more subtle things that we admit bother us and things we do bad to ourselves.

We will just as thoroughly add to our list all of the good things we are doing for ourselves already, such as standing up for our rights with others, and not smoking or drinking too much coffee. We must give ourselves a great big pat on the back for doing those things.

This positive first step is very important because the skill of creating good feelings within us needs to be activated and developed. Practice the ‘giving yourself a pat on the back’ part a lot, until you feel comfortable doing it and it becomes natural to you.