Exercise To Identify Hidden Causes Of Depression

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Often, identifying the true causes of a depressive state is difficult, since the memories associated with them can be so painful that they are repressed into the unconscious, and consciousness helpfully slips other explanations. However, when working with a negative psychological state, it is very important to hit exactly the target - the core of the source of this state - and destroy it.

In order to identify the real causes of depression in the most effective and safe way and to achieve the fastest improvement in the condition, I use methods of emotional-figurative therapy, including the wonderful diagnostic exercise "Journey to a Gloomy Land", created by N. D. Linde.

I'll tell you about it using the example of working with my client Dina, 25 years old (name changed, permission to publish received). Dina complains of apathy, low mood, emotional fluctuations and says that she has been experiencing such a state for a very long time. Her young man insisted on turning to a psychologist, who understood that such a low mood background was not normal, while Dina herself had almost come to terms with the fact that she would be like this for the rest of her life, since antidepressants repeatedly prescribed by doctors did not bring significant relief.

I ask Dina to introduce: “You, in the company of kind and cheerful friends, went on a campaign to a gloomy country. Everything, everything that comes along the way there is very dark. If you meet some gloomy object or gloomy living creature, you and your cheerful friends surround it from all sides and study. You can talk to him or do something for him in order to eventually disenchant him. You can mentally take the place of this subject and understand what he thinks and feels. When you solve his secret, you will need to make him cheerful and happy."

The first thing that Dina met in a gloomy country was a huge cloud, which caused a feeling of complete hopelessness and hopelessness. Imagining herself in the place of a cloud, the girl said that she was simply bursting with unspoken tears, because her mother did not pay attention to her at all, and also forbade crying, because you can cry only if someone died (unfortunately, clients often talk about such an attitude in the family).

Dina said that in their family there was generally a ban on the expression of emotions: it was also impossible to laugh loudly, so as not to disturb the parents, who were always busy and to all Dina's requests to play with her they said: “Go play it yourself!”.

Then I use the rain contemplation technique invented by N. D. Linda to let the tears not cry. It is very effective when working with clients who, for various reasons, find it difficult to express their emotions. It has been raining in Dina's country for a very long time - too many unshed tears have accumulated.

The rain continued to drizzle, but Dina decided to continue the journey and met a small frozen bunny on the way, which looked at the ice statue with sad eyes. Imagining herself in the place of a bunny, the girl said that he dreams of only one thing - to be hugged tightly, and most of all he expects hugs from this inaccessible statue. Dina said that she would very much like to draw this, but refused colored pencils, explaining that in a gloomy country there is no place for color.

Then I ask the girl to imagine herself in the place of the statue, and Dina says that she immediately felt very sad and cold. However, when she looked at the bunny from the place of the statue, she felt love and tenderness for him, but at the same time strong constraint, as if she was deprived of the opportunity to express her feelings, because she was not taught this. Dina recalls how her mother told me that her own mother (Dina's grandmother), who survived the war, was always very harsh and restrained.

Then we say to the statue (the projection of the mother in Dina's unconscious): “I allow you to be alive too, to feel, to freely express your feelings!”, And the statue becomes Dina's young mother - at the age when Dina was little. The bunny turns into a little girl, and she and her mother rush to hug each other.

Suddenly it turns out that the rain has ended, and the cloud has turned into the sun. Dina said that she felt much better, and she also realized that her mother really loved her, she simply did not know how to express her feelings. Dina finally burst into tears, and there were tears of relief.

In the following meetings, we continued to work with the means of emotional-image therapy. Now Dina feels well: her apathy and depression have completely disappeared, and her mood swings have significantly decreased.