From the author: Depression is a warning of danger. She makes us understand that we can no longer live the way we lived before. And this understanding is the first step towards healing and the beginning of a new life. Depression or life Depression is a warning about danger. She makes us understand that we can no longer live the way we lived before. And this understanding is the first step towards healing and starting a new life. Here you can watch a video on the problem of depression on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG1eRHg3A4Qhttps://youtu. be/mGgOYag_QHg “The world has ceased to interest me. Everything I do makes no sense. I have the feeling that all people are fenced off from me by a glass barrier. I seem to see them, but I don’t feel them at all and don’t want to feel them. It seems to me that if someone wants to break the glass, they will cause me unbearable pain. It’s better to be here, without them, this is the only way I feel protected, this is the only way I have enough strength for such a life. I want to sleep all the time, but I’m scared at the thought that I’ll spend my whole life sleeping.” This is just one of the descriptions of depressive conditions that I constantly come into contact with in my consulting psychological practice. What is depression and how to deal with it? Every person is familiar with its manifestations to one degree or another. A crisis of meaninglessness, the bitterness of loss, a feeling of personal inadequacy, fears, illnesses - all this can overtake at any moment and shake the supports of existence. Plunging into a depressive state, a person loses contact with life; of the two alternatives “to be or not to be,” he seems to make a choice in favor of “not to be,” since a depressive existence is essentially not true life. As Austrian psychologist Alfried Längle writes: “Depression is a complex relationship with life. All people are given life, but it is not close to everyone. For some, it is very far away and they need to go there to pick it up. It's painful and unpleasant. Nevertheless, there is life for everyone... but saying “Yes” to life is not at all so easy.” The girl discussed above broke up with her loved one, what was significant to her was destroyed. The created world has devalued what used to be of great importance (interests, friends, aspirations). He displaced everything that had previously been the foundation of life; it was on him - on this world with a loved one - that all bets were made. But it turned out to be a castle on shifting sand, after the destruction of which there was no foundation left on which to maintain balance. The loss of the most significant value led to the loss of authentic life. According to Langle: “At the beginning of any depression, a common cause is discovered, namely, a violation of the experience of value.” Manifestations of depression First of all, a depressed person plunges into apathy and loses interest in what is happening. There is very little strength left to live, carry out usual activities, and communicate with others. The world becomes narrow and limited only by what needs to be done to maintain its existence. A person feels meaninglessness, emptiness and despair; anxiety states often arise, which are suppressed with medications. At the bodily level, in a state of depression there is a loss of strength, excessive drowsiness, while at the same time, anxiety states are accompanied by insomnia at night. In any depression there is a feeling of hopelessness, to a greater or lesser extent there is despondency - a deep feeling that a “good life” will never exist again. will come. To be depressed means to experience the feeling that you will never be able to experience the fullness of life again. Thus, the search for a depressed person leads to an insoluble, desperate question: “Is this life worth continuing? For what?" Sooner or later a person finds himself at the point of no return, when he says to himself: “no, such a life is not worth continuing.” And the only way out of this situation (I am not considering people withsuicidal tendencies) there will be “resurrection”, spiritual rebirth, remembering oneself, gaining connections with the world. The path of returning to authentic life is difficult to walk alone. At this moment, a person needs the help of a professional psychologist. Causes of depression Paradoxically, the function of depression is to protect the human psyche from complete exhaustion. A severance of connections with the world occurs when there is no strength left for the surrounding reality and through depression a person begins to save the small remaining resources. When life does not live up to our expectations and we do not get what we expected, a feeling of “scarcity” may arise, which leads to a state of depression. We can distinguish three main types of “deficiency” that lead to a depressive state: Scarce life Scarce relationships Scarce physical resources We can talk about “deficit life” in the case when a person grows up in a dysfunctional environment, does not receive love and warmth from loved ones, and loses those significant to him early of people. When there are not enough opportunities to realize your goals. A long-term feeling of scarcity in life leads a person to the feeling that he is deprived of something; for example, this feeling is often the cause of depression for people raised in a boarding school. Diseases that cause disability lead to the same consequences. If a person is forced to part with life’s values ​​before he has lived “full” of them, then he may develop a feeling of “emotional hunger,” leading to depression. Often, due to the experience of deep grievances, a person erects barriers in relationships with people. “Deficit relationships” are, in most cases, preceded by an initial hurtful situation involving others. In this case, a person’s attitude to life can be expressed by the words “the world is not good because people are bad.” Such a feeling can arise as a result of violence, betrayal, rejection by significant people, deprivation of the child of physical contact and tenderness. Another reason for depressive states lies in the person himself. It is associated with his physical weakness and constant exhaustion (“lack of physical resources”). This physical weakness can be caused both by the presence of physical limitations (disability, illness) and by psychogenic factors, for example, a person is exhausted due to constant stress in conditions of unresolved conflicts with other people or as a result of his own failures, his own slowness. In these cases, the life force is blocked, it runs out again and again. People in this group of depression are characterized by a constant feeling of weakness, which does not allow them to fully live their lives. According to Langle: “Their life is energy saving, life in a reduced form.” People experiencing depression due to their own failures are accompanied by a feeling of guilt, inner emptiness and devaluation of their own actions, which is also the cause of physical exhaustion. Numerous studies show that women are susceptible to depression much more often than men. On average, the number of women suffering from depression is three times that of men. In addition to the above reasons, which are common to both men and women, there are exclusively female types of depression. This is largely due to an imbalance of hormonal levels during menstruation, after childbirth, during menopause. Prevention of depression It is possible to avoid depression with a responsible attitude towards yourself and your own life. Mental hygiene includes: - Care for your strength. Prevention consists of closely monitoring areas of exhaustion and paying attention to which areas of life are experiencing the greatest loss of strength. Often these moments are accompanied by stress or overload. Life at a normal pace, adequate workload, absence of conflict situations, rest - all this ensures the preservation of strength and protects against depressive states. - Caring for valuables. To maintain vitality, it is important to pay attention to those areas that