Comments on: two views of depression

By: Madeleine, Couples Counsellor, London

Madeleine, Couples Counsellor, London — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 22:37:44 +0000

Hi Isabella and All,

Sorry, I am somewhat of a latecomer to your post – but very much appreciate it!
Very worthwhile to hold both concepts , including the tension between them. Your post and the comments made me think of Perls’ chairwork: let’s give each individual’s “Illness/Beast/Distorted Coping Mechanism” a voice and hear what it has to say about what if feels its role is in our life, how it may try to “help” us…
Thanks for this.

By: Electrician Elwood

Electrician Elwood — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 11:40:36 +0000

But many gents are drinking alcohol as a way of relieving their depression……

By: Hero

Hero — Fri, 28 May 2010 08:33:30 +0000

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By: 9 Ways To Deal With Job Search Depression | JobMob

9 Ways To Deal With Job Search Depression | JobMob — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:48:24 +0000

[...] like to lean on the words of a fellow blogger, Emma McCreary, who commented on an article of mine, Two Views Of Depression, a little while ago and see how we can use her ideas to help with job search [...]

By: The many faces of depression « Coming Out of the Trees (excerpts from my therapy journal)

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:59:41 +0000

[...] in this one (Two Views of Depression), Isabella Mori proposes the idea that depression is a space within ourselves that needs to be [...]

By: Emma McCreary

Emma McCreary — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 07:59:23 +0000

@merri ellen – yup, that makes sense to me. Seems like probably a lot of mental “diseases” started as coping mechanisms. In my healing work, I’ve found many of my “problems” started that way, including overweight and sugar addiction. When I finally could find compassion for myself, forgive my body, for choosing to gain weight to protect me or to cope with the pain, then the weight was easy to shed.

I believe it’s the welcoming back of these parts of our body/mind into our heart that creates the final healing. Of course there is behavioral stuff too, like training myself to really taste my food and not just shove it in my mouth. =) But at the end, it was compassion towards myself that helped me lose the weight. Slightly unrelated to depression, but I think the principles of healing are applicable.

By: merri ellen - cure depression writings

merri ellen - cure depression writings — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 04:45:19 +0000

Interesting post.

Something definitely clicked inside me when I discovered that I couldn’t rely on my doctor to help me. I had to start doing research myself. Once I named what I had – depression – then I could search out a solution.

Whether it was a disease for me or a coping mechanism – hmmm. I wonder if those two theories are actually stages. Meaning, stage 1 is a coping mechanism and then if left with no recovery plan, over time and perhaps at a certain point of intensity, it can become a disease (stage 2) reaching the need for shock treatment, for example.

merri ellen – cure depression writings’s last blog post..Aug 28, Brian

By: shimon

shimon — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:34:05 +0000

you say: “we often spend lots of time helping people dig themselves out of guilt”
you are right -but the idea is that the man can write the problem in paper , then he can understand better his situation.
its very good thing to make it.

By: isabella mori

isabella mori — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:18:08 +0000

there is an interesting article about this here, looking at it from the point of view of judaism.

By: Emma

Emma — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:17:55 +0000

@Evan.
Hmm. You know, thinking about it, the phrase “power imbalance” isn’t a phrase I can clearly connect to an experience I’ve had.

What I do observe is there is an imbalance in that we spend every session talking about me. Not her. Whereas in a “genuine friendship” it would go both ways. So it’s a one-sided friendship, which means it really isn’t a friendship. So I do see a clear difference between the two. In friendship, there is mutuality. In therapy there is not, or if there is, it’s a different kind of mutuality. Each party shows up, but for different reasons.

What I have experienced as most healing in my therapy relationship is that my therapist accepts me completely as I am. She has no agenda. Even though she is ostensibly there to help me, she is not demanding that I feel helped. This seems to be an essential component to me. Nothing is expected of me. I show up because I want to, because I choose to, but there are no demands, nothing that the therapist needs from me. She shows up entirely for me, to meet my needs, and not be about her needs. Because of that, for an hour a week, I get to experience the unconditional giving that was missing for me as a child. As far as I can tell, this is what helped me to heal an essential trust that was broken or wounded as a child.

It was the very fact that she didn’t need me to be her friend, or be anything, and that she was there for me without expectation, that let me really trust her, and therefore be able to do the work of therapy with her. That unconditionality repaired an essential trust that was broken a long time ago. I think that unconditional presence has an alchemical property that heals over time.

That unconditionality is not something that is present in many friendships. But perhaps a friendship based on that would indeed be healing as well.

Emma’s last blog post..Aliveness vs Contrivance: Authenticity and Noise in the Rush for Blogging Popularity