The 5 Psychological Causes Of Depression, And Their Symptoms
Depressive disorders They form one of the most popular diagnostic categories. There are many people who, when feeling psychologically unwell, say they are “depressed” and who, in general, use this concept as if it served to describe the simple discomfort that goes beyond physical pain.
However, sadness and depression are far from the same. The second is a disorder that must be diagnosed and that, in part, does not depend on the situations we are experiencing in our work, family context or leisure time.
There are many factors that can lead to developing this type of disorder; from the biochemical imbalances of the nervous system to which genetics predispose us, to past learning and the way of evoking memories that have to do with our life path. Below we will focus on this second type of reasons, psychological causes of depression.
It is clear that all psychological causes are also biological in a certain sense. Ultimately, in order not to be, we would have to accept that our mind is something separate from the body, an idea completely discarded by science and that only corresponds to philosophical dualism.
However, when we refer to the fact that there are psychological causes of depression, we are talking about a type of pathological root that, although it occurs within the human organism, not only depends on the simple expression of genes and innate characteristics, but to understand it we must consider the way in which interaction with the environment influences this biology.
Thus, the fact of having seen many close friends and family members die during childhood is something that can only occur if we have a nervous system capable of processing these experiences and assuming them as highly stressful and traumatic moments, but at the same time there is a component that It has to do with what happens in the environment outside of oneself. Unlike imbalances in neurotransmitter production levels that have genetic causes, in this case our life experiences matter.
So… what are these psychological causes of depression? Below we will see the main ones.
1. Pessimistic bias
There are ways of interpreting reality that lead us to constantly carry out a pessimistic reading of the facts. For example, if we believe that all our apparent achievements are the product of luck and that all our failures are the consequence of innate characteristics that will always be in us and we cannot change, this contributes to us being more exposed to bad experiences.
These are, therefore, facts that have to do with our attribution style (the way in which we develop explanations about what happens), but also with the way in which we establish predictions about what is going to happen to us.
2. Lack of stimulation
One of the characteristics of depression is that under its effects people they become lacking initiative and, in many cases, they are not even able to experience pleasure (a phenomenon known as anhedonia). This has led some researchers to hypothesize that one of the psychological causes of depression is the lack of positive reinforcement (something like rewards for carrying out actions), after having gone through a period in which the person has become accustomed to them.
For example, if upon finishing university we find that we no longer have an exciting project that motivates us and gives us small rewards on a daily basis, it is possible that we will have problems finding new motivations and that, after a while, This leads us to emotional stagnation.
3. Attention management problems
This psychological cause of depression is closely linked to the first, and has to do with the tendency of our attention to always focus on those events that make us feel bad. In certain contexts, people can learn to focus all your attention on what is painful sad or that produces hopelessness, as if there was a feeling of morbid fascination for them. In this way, little by little the content of our thoughts becomes fixed in unpleasant experiences.
Furthermore, this partial vision of reality means that we live in a very distorted world that, furthermore, does not change when facts send us signals that the world is not as dark a place as we believe. As we will have learned to focus our attention on the worst also these contradictory facts will be unconsciously manipulated so that they fit into our vision of reality, as happened, for example, in the case of the youtuber Marina Joyce.
4. Traumas linked to the past
Traumatic experiences, especially those that have to do with events that occurred during childhood (a life stage in which we are especially sensitive to experiences) can leave a mark that is difficult to erase and that, over time, generates a reaction. in a chain that leads us to depression.
For example, having accidentally killed a pet can leave self-esteem very damaged create an aversion to the possibility of creating new emotional ties and make those traumatic memories appear as intrusive images at any time, making the appearance of depressive symptoms more likely. The same could happen, for example, in cases of sexual abuse during childhood.
However, it should be noted that everything depends on the way in which these memories and situations are interpreted, since these experiences, by themselves, do not have to trigger depression in a deterministic way.
5. Tendency toward obsessive thinking
The need to make our lives fit perfectly with certain mental schemes It is a characteristic of an obsessive thinking style that, in addition to leading to constant perfectionism, can increase the risk of experiencing depression. The reason is that life hardly fits these expectations of perfection.
