The 5 Factors of Depression

Filed Under Overcome Depression | Sep 24, MDT 10:58 am

Five Factors of Depression The ancient Greeks used to divide people into four temperaments: phlegmatic, sanguine, melancholic, and choleric. We’ve come a long way since then. We no longer fit into little neat categories, and things are now decidedly more complicated. Genetics has now replaced the temperaments, and there are far more than four genes to contend with.

Everyone has a different genetic profile, and these profiles are a bit like canvases on which mental states are painted. The genetic qualities of the canvas determines how certain colors — like the dark hues of depression and anxiety, or the warm tones of happiness — are expressed in a person’s life. Some people have canvases that favor darker colors, other people have canvases which favor lighter colors.

Your personal biology, your unique blend of genes, provides you with the form and quality of your canvas. However, environmental factors will bend, twist, break, and mend this canvas into different shapes. It’s this combination of nurture and nature that will ultimately determine the quality of your experiences.

Depression will be painted differently depending on the canvas it finds itself on. There is no single image of depression. That’s one of the reasons why different drugs work differently on different people. Despite the symptomatic similarities that depressed people share, each case is unique, because each canvas is unique.

Let’s consider five factors that will help determine the nature of your depression. These five factors can also shed light on different mental states, like happiness, anxiety, and anger. Each of them twists your canvas in a different direction, leaving you with different experiences.

1. Genetic factors

The genes you inherit play a large role in determining the experiences you have. Some genes that may play a role in regulating depression are 5-HTT, monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene, and COMT. In time, we’ll have a fuller understanding of these genetic variables.

It will be years before we have an understanding of how our genes combine to create our human experiences. Despite the existence of genetic profiling services like 23andme.com, we are still a long way off to understanding the very building blocks which predispose us to conditions like depression. For this reason, though genetic factors are perhaps the most important in causing depression, they are also currently the least understood.

2. Relational factors

The people in your life and the way you interact with them can play a large role in the quality of your experiences. We’ve already covered how people can explicitly elicit memories which alter your behavior in subtle ways. We have yet to cover how these memories can be elicited by more indirect manners. Sometimes, all it takes for someone to change your behavior is their presence. Most of us have met men and women who become radically different around specific people.

The experiences we’ve shared with a person, the unspoken rules that regulate our interactions with them, even their pheromones can help determine the way we feel.

For these reasons, it’s important to be mindful of who you surround yourself with. You do not want to spend time with toxic people. You may even want to reconsider surrounding yourself with people who make you lose control — no matter how much you enjoy their company, if you’re not in the drivers seat, if you’re not firmly in control of your own experiences, you can find yourself in some very unpleasant situations.

Many people become depressed as a result of the people in their lives. Perhaps they’re surrounded by negativity. Perhaps they’re in an abusive relationship. Perhaps they’ve just suffered loss and are having trouble coping with it. Perhaps their social anxiety makes it impossible for them to create healthy relationship, contributing to a sense of isolation and loneliness.

Many relational factors can contribute to depression. On their own, they are unlikely to cause depression, but when combined with other factors, they can push you towards that dark abyss of hopelessness.

3. Physical Factors

Your body is a sacred temple, and it requires a great deal of balance in order for you to feel at your optimum. If you don’t take care of your body, it may choose to rebel against you by sucking you dry of your energy, your hope, your ability to cope with the miseries of life.

Your diet is instrumental to your well-being. Certain foods can contribute to low vitality. If you don’t exert control over the food you put into your body, you may lose control of the thoughts and feelings which arise in your mind. Gandhi may have been right when he said that the control of the palate was essential to the control of the mind — so if you feel your thoughts have taken on a life of their own, you may want to exercise some restraint over your diet.

Sloth and inactivity are also contributors to depression. Though “voluntary exercise” may not help with depression, a healthy and active lifestyle does.

The rhythms of your body are also important to be aware of. Your feelings aren’t constant, they move in accordance with various factors. You have daily high points and low points. Knowing your own circadian rhythm (largely genetic in nature) can help you understand how your feelings might fluctuate through-out the day. Eating certain foods at certain times, seeing certain people at certain times, all of these can influence your emotional and mental states. Your bodily rhythms play an important role in determining your mental and physical health.

Other physical factors that can lead to depression include medical conditions, debilitating illnesses, and giving birth. Anything that changes our bodies, that upsets its balance, can make our lives a little bleaker.

4. Environmental Factors

A recent study suggested that culture may play a role in depression. The values of our environment influence us in ways we aren’t always aware of. It’s something to keep in mind. Other environmental factors to be aware include the weather, pollution, noise, even the scenery.

The world shapes us in ways that are hard to fathom. A beautiful environment is much more conductive to a beautiful mindset then an environment full of grief and ugliness.

5. Internal Factors

Internal factors involve the way we use our mind, the things we choose to focus on and to dwell upon. Most people have very little control over their internal processes. Cognitive behavioral therapy, for example, grew out of a need to teach people how to control their minds so as to not fall victim to certain mental traps.

We all speak to ourselves in our heads, we all see things in very specific ways, and few of us are aware of how potent these internal actions are. The words we use, the tones we use when speaking them, the pictures we imagine, the thoughts we have, and the thoughts we don’t have. These all contribute to our mental state.

Few people have ever taken the time to properly examine the way they represent the world to themselves. They’ve never asked themselves if they could change the tone of the voice they use when thinking. For example, people who have weak, soft, squeaky internal chatter are less likely to be confident than people who speak to themselves in loud, boisterous tones.

The memories, dreams, and fantasies that people dwell on also contribute greatly to the way people live in the present. When people focus only on the negative, when they focus on failure, weakness, and hopelessness that will have serious, unfortunate consequences on their mental health.

Internal factors then, are focused on what people think and how people think.

On Their Own, These Factors Won’t Lead To Depression

People are more likely to experience depression when several of these factors are in play. On their own, they’re unlikely to be potent enough to break a person down, but when they act in concert with one another things can get messy.

Attacking a single factor is often enough to break the hold of depression. It can set off a cascade effect, causing other aspects of your life to improve. For example, changing your environment to a more positive one might push you to take better care of your health and the benefits might carry over to your relationships. Feeling more positive, you may find yourself less likely to focus on things that bring you down. However, this isn’t guaranteed. Often times, you’ll have to focus your efforts on fixing several things at once.

We all have to be aware of the different factors which contribute to depression. There are no single causes here. In order to treat the condition, we have to be thorough. Since no two depressions are exactly alike, each case needs a unique solution.