DailyOM: Depression is on the rise worldwide. Why is it so prevalent?
Eric: Well, is it depression — some medical-sounding, biological-sounding thing — or good old fashioned sadness and despair? In this course, I want to try to spell out what is going on here and help you get a better sense of what depression is and what it is not. I'm guessing that you get sad some amount of the time and that you would like to know what to do about those bouts of the blues. If they are "really" depressed, they ought to be handled in certain ways. If they are not "really" depression, but sadness, then they ought to be handled in other ways.
By the end of the course, I hope that you will have become practiced at not morphing every bit of sadness into a depression in need of treatment. The more you can refrain from leaping to naming what ails you "depression," the better your chances of finding homespun solutions to your painful problems. We will begin at the beginning and try to make sense of the following question: "Is it something called 'depression' that is on the rise worldwide, or are more and more people unhappy with their lot and despairing about their chances?"
DailyOM: How is this course different from other programs about depression?
Eric: Our starting point in this course is not the usual starting point in a discussion about depression. We will start elsewhere. Usually, depression is characterized as an illness or as a biological, psychological, social, or spiritual disorder. We will start at a different place by asserting that the thing called "depression" is human sadness in one or more of three areas: sadness about the self, sadness about one's circumstances, and sadness about life itself. It's no longer possible to feel sad and blue without someone wanting to call that "depression."
For the longest time, human beings made the sensible distinction between feeling sad for reasons (say, because they were jobless or homeless), and feeling sad for "no reason," a state traditionally called melancholia. It has become increasingly difficult for people to consider that sadness might be a very normal reaction to unpleasant facts and circumstances. Cultural forces have transformed a great deal of normal sadness into the "mental illness" of depression.
DailyOM: What does ECBT mean? How does it help people suffering from depression?
Eric: Many studies have shown that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is quite effective in the treatment of all sorts of ailments and rather more effective than other sorts of therapy. By focusing on improving your thoughts and changing your behaviors, you reduce your symptoms and you feel better. Existential cognitive-behavior therapy or ECBT adds a new, important dimension to the traditional model. In ECBT, you focus on making these changes and improvements in the context of meaning, value, and purpose.
In an ECBT context, you are improving your thoughts and changing your behaviors not just to relieve your symptoms or to feel better but also to take charge of the meaning in your life. The ideas of "making meaning" and "life purpose" are added to the mix. This existential component has been the missing link in traditional CBT therapy. A focus on meaning adds a depth and richness that CBT has always lacked. The wise, goal-oriented emphasis of CBT is not changed by this new emphasis, but the goal now is a self-created meaningful life and not the mere relief of symptoms. This is a game-changing improvement.
In addition to feeling less depressed and anxious by virtue of improving your self-talk and altering your behaviors, you feel positively motivated to live life as the creator of your meaning and as the hero of your own story. You decide not only to rid yourself of symptoms, you decide to matter. This decision to matter is a special announcement in the realm of meaning that signals your intention to take personal responsibility for your thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and efforts. This crucial step and this singular focus distinguish ECBT from traditional CBT therapies.
DailyOM: We all experience sadness, and even some level of depression. How can we practice accepting our sadness as a natural part of life? When should we seek help?
Eric: We are obliged to accept that life is a process. We have a longing and a craving for life to "finally settle down" and "finally become comprehensible." Surely, we don't have to repeat our mistakes, make new whopping mistakes, stand before life not knowing what to do next, or experience serious doubts and anxieties, do we? Unfortunately, we do. Life can't settle down and become comprehensible in the ways that we crave. Tomorrow I may lose a parent or a child — that may change everything. Tomorrow I may start on something more ambitious than anything I have ever tackled before, something with a steep learning curve — of course I am likely to doubt, grow anxious, and make mistakes! We want something like a guarantee out of life: if I reach a certain age or take enough workshops I can finally stand in a place of certitude. But life only allows for process, not certitude. When you accept that you still have more mistakes to make, your next mistake need not be accompanied by sadness.
You create your meaning. I get to decide what will make me feel righteous and happy, and you get to decide what will make you feel righteous and happy. You can turn the meaning that was waiting to be made into the meaning of your life. You let go of wondering what the universe wants of you, you let go of the fear that nothing matters, and you announce that you will make life mean exactly what you intend it to mean.
The instant that you realize that meaning is not provided (as traditional belief systems teach) and that it is not absent (as nihilists feel), a new world of potential opens up for you. You suddenly have the opportunity to pursue personally relevant activities and the philosophical and psychological pillars to support those pursuits. You have aimed yourself in a brilliant direction: in the direction of your own creation. So much sadness evaporates in that instant!
DailyOM: Thank you, Eric. He brings decades of knowledge and experience to this course, which not only educates, but also teaches proven tools and practices that you can use for a lifetime. Get to the heart of your sadness — and find your joy and meaning again. Until next time, be well.
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