Undoing Depression

Depression becomes for us a set of habits, behaviors, thought processes, assumptions, and feelings that seems very much like our core self; you can’t give those up without something to replace them and without expecting some anxiety along the way. Recovery from depression is like recovery from heart disease or alcoholism. The good heart patient knows that medication isn’t enough; lifelong habits of diet and exercise, how one deals with stress, must change. The recovering alcoholic knows that abstinence is not enough; ways of thinking, relating to others, and dealing with emotions have to change.

Except for a few lucky people who get the best care the first time around, for most people there’s a low-grade dysthymia always there in the background that wasn’t there before — unless we undertake a serious rehabilitation program.