Changing Your Mindset:

Is Depression the Cause OR Is Depression a Symptom?

When my son was depressed, it was easy to recognize. He could check off almost everything on the depression symptom checklist. It was very easy to identify and the doctors did not hesitate to diagnose him with Major Depressive Disorder.  But did that really help? 

He now had a label but who really cared. We just wanted him to get better and fast!

At the same time that he had depression he also had severe back acne and some on his chest.  The doctor said, “We have something to fix that but he can’t take it until we get rid of the depression.”  I thought, how ironic, you want to give him a medication to get rid of the depression, than another medication (Accutane) for the acne that can cause depression.  

The acne kept nagging at me.  The acne was causing some of his self consciousness and depression. He  didn’t want any of his team mates to see him without a shirt when they were in the locker room after hockey practice. If his friends used a hot tub, he always wore a shirt in.  

In the end, while the acne was contributing to his depression it was not the root cause.  

We did go to see a dermatologist.  To make him feel even worse, she told him how severe his acne was, proceeded to take pictures and told him he would have scarring for life.  She then wrote a script for oral and topical antibiotics and told us that he would need both for three years.  She also said that his diet had nothing to do with his acne and he could eat all the pizza and ice cream he wanted.  

Again, I had that nagging in me. This was not the answer to his acne. This was not the way to get him to feel less self conscious and help ease the depression. 

In the end the depression and the acne were linked and had the same root causes.  I did find out how the two were connected.  His depression and his acne were both signs of an underlying problem in his body.  Thankfully, I never did fill that script because had I done that, put him on these drugs for three years, I would have made his root cause much worse and I shudder to think what the end result may have been.  

What is going on in your body?  What signs and symptoms do you have of depression?

What other things are going on in your body?  Are you having anxiety, trouble concentrating, skin issues, joint pain, gut issues?

What else is going on for you besides “depression”?

What if instead of these being symptoms of depression, depression is instead added to this list of symptoms?

 Did I lose you?

Let’s look at it this way. 

While many think of depression as a mental illness and a diagnosis, what if depression is instead a symptom of an underlying health issue?  What if your lack of motivation and your lack of enjoyment in the things you used to love is instead a sign from your body to address an underlying cause for the way you are feeling.  

When you go to the doctor and tell him your symptoms of feeling unhappy, no motivation, no desire to get out of bed or to make a meal or to see friends, he often, will diagnose you with depression. 

That is fine because now you have a label to what you are feeling.  But did he ask what is causing all these symptoms under the umbrella of depression? Probably not because in most (not all) doctor’s minds, depression is a mental health illness that needs talk therapy and medication.  

And most doctors don’t have the time to ask you a long list of questions nor may they even know the right questions to ask. 

But let’s reframe depression.  Our bodies are these amazing machines that are always trying to give us clues and signals to what it needs to function optimally and to have balance. The body is always striving for balance. 

There was a study done on toddlers in 1939 in which they put various foods in front of them, everything from bananas to water, potatoes, beef, bone jelly, chicken, carrots, grains and more.  In total these toddlers had 34 different food options and they could eat whatever they wanted and as much as they wanted.

The results were astonishing.  Instead of grabbing the sweeter foods, they consumed more protein rich foods during growth spurts and more carbs and fats during times of peak activity.  After an outbreak of mono, these toddlers ate more carrots, beef, and beets.  One child with a severe vitamin D deficiency drank cod liver oil (all on his own!)  How did these children know which foods their body needed? 

Easy, they listened! 

Often, we are so busy, so stressed out, or we listen to our apps and fit bit that we forget to listen to our body. Your body, if you tune in, be mindful, will tell you what it needs!  But we have gotten so far away from listening to ourselves and instead listen to what everyone else says. 

When I was a distance runner, I never wore a watch and could run hours this way. I worked with a coach for a short time period and he asked me what my “times” were for my runs. He was amazed that I did not know and told me to go buy a “runners watch” and start keeping track.

In the end, this was the worst thing I could have done and ended up with an injury that required surgery and a long rehab process. It may have happened any way but the point I want to make is that I stopped listening to my body and started to listen to the watch. Prior to that, if I felt good, I pushed myself, if I felt tired that day, I went a little slower or cut my run a bit short. But with the watch I kept trying to keep a pace, beat my times, run fast when I was tired, etc.…

I stopped listening to my body. 

It is the same with depression. What cues from your body have you been ignoring. Have you been pushing some emotions under the rug, or are you always trying to please everyone else, or do you have an image you need to keep up, have you been stressed but you don’t give yourself a break, have you needed rest, but you have no time to sleep more. Has your body been achy, or tired, or have you had gut issues, bowel issues or skin issues, have you felt more anxious lately or had brain fog or inability to concentrate? 

These are clues not symptoms! And they all can be related to your depression.   Your depression may be a piece of some of the things I just mentioned. 

It is time to look deeper than the depression and see what lies beneath it.   

Your depression did not happen overnight. You weren’t this happy, energetic motivated person one day and then suddenly you were this person who can’t get out of bed and face another day.  This happened gradually, a slow decline until it got to where you are now. 

There were clues, but it is so easy for us to just wave them away, bury emotions deep inside, ignore symptoms, think “this will pass”, until it gets so bad it cannot be ignored any longer. 

It is okay!  Your body is still giving you clues and we can work together to get to the bottom of it so that you can get back to the way you were feeling before and who knows, maybe even feel better! Give me a call 303-522-0381 to schedule an appointment so we can get to the bottom of your depression.