The Real Causes of Depression - © Dr. Brian Sheen – March 2004

There is an old saying that if you continue to tell a lie often enough people begin to accept this as a truth. Perhaps the greatest lie being told today is “depression is caused by chemical imbalance of the seratonin levels in the brain”. “Yes this is a lie despite the millions who take antidepressants everyday! It is merely a hypothesis promoted by pharmaceutical companies who seek to profit and doctors who have similar vested interests. Startling isn’t it? Listen closely to exactly what is often repeated in a Zoloft commercial - and I quote “although there is no scientific evidence proving that chemical imbalance causes depression”. Understand chemical imbalance is a symptom not a cause! Of course, taking drugs can alter symptoms - we all know this - but saying anti-depressants are the answer and should be taken by anyone feeling depressed to cure it is as ridiculous! Consider this example: You’re probably observed a wallflower at a party, shy and withdrawn, not having fun and off in a corner. They then have a few drinks of alcohol and then come to life, lose their inhibitions and are the life of the party? Should we now deduce that the cause of this person’s withdrawn and depressing personality was caused by a lack of alcohol in their system, and they should be prescribed 3 martinis a day to cure it? Absurd isn’t it (although not to many alcoholics). This is the reasoning behind prescribing antidepressants today. Placebos statistically get similar percentages of results and without any harsh side effects. From these facts we might surmise it’s the belief that taking anti depressants can help combined with the human contact which occurs when someone depressed reaches out for help! I suggest reading Dr. Peter Breggin’s, “Toxic Psychiatry” or Dr. David Cohen’s, “Your Drug May Be Your Problem” or Dr. William Glassner’s “Warning: Psychiatry Can Be Hazardous To Your Health”, to get the scientific research that refutes the misleading claims of the benefits of taking antidepressants.

Now with this out of the way let me describe to you my research that has clearly shown how you can easily overcome depression without medications – one of many case studies. Susan was very depressed when she appeared at my center. Her face was glum, her body language languid and her words dispirited. She related to me how lousy life had been and she was feeling hopeless. Life had little meaning to her and she wondered if she had much of a purpose for living. She felt used by her sister, her friends and former boyfriends- and was exhausted from carrying the load of her family on her back.

“It never seems to let up”, she confessed, “I drag myself to work, go through the motions and then eat all weekend to try and cheer me up. I haven’t had a good relationship in over 3 years and I’ve gained 25 pounds to boot! I feel so unloved and wonder if it pays to continue living.”

As we talked further I learned Susan had been taking prozac for over a year and a half and previously Zoloft for 2 years. They had increased her dosage twice which gave her a temporary boost but even this soon subsided. She had also done 4 years of psychotherapy which also seemed to produce little results.

“If you’re still feeling depressed while taking your antidepressants - why do you continue to take them?” I asked.

“I’m afraid to stop” she cried, “my psychiatrist has repeatedly told me I’d be even worse without them and that I needed them to function.”

Unfortunately I had heard these students too many times before as either the withdrawal effects that occurred from getting off the medications were uncomfortable and caused temporary anxiety (like withdrawing from any addiction)-or the attending doctor themselves filled them with fear due to their own bias or ignorance as to what these medications do (I prefer to think positive about these doctors that they don’t keep their patients on these drugs to have an ongoing income source!)

I looked deeply into Susan’s eyes and let her know I understood her dilemma but was curious; “What brought you here then-you must know I don’t recommend medications except in the most extreme cases, for very short term and then only when combined with proper therapy that opens the subconscious layers of the mind to uncover the actual causes”.

“Exactly” she said “that’s why I’m here I read your book “When Life Becomes Overwhelming” and saw that having gone through depression yourself you understand what I was going through. Coincidentally one of the clients at my spa who had been seeing you told me she got off her anti-depressant medications in 10 weeks and feels great. She told me that by working with you privately and coming to your meditation and ‘A Course in Miracles’ classes she got to the underlying causes of her depression-learned tools to better handle her life and now is feeling good most of the time-I want the same thing for myself. Is it possible?”

“Yes, it’s very possible.” I told her but only if you’re willing to learn new ways of thinking and living your life. You have to understand the way you have been living your life has not been working to produce the peace and happiness you desire. Yet the life you have been living is based upon the choices and decisions you make, learn, and be aware that your decisions are based upon your interpretations of your perceptions which are evaluated by the underlying system of beliefs and thinking you have established. Unless you’re willing to look at the underlying formation of your entire belief system and thinking process and open it for correction to one that can produce a happy and peaceful life nothing will change. “Are you willing to undertake this work?”

Susan didn’t hesitate for a moment and said, “Definitely!”

“Good that’s the first step-but then there’s one more; commitment. Without your conviction to do this inner work you will be deterred at the first roadblock you encounter. You must be determined to see this through; come to sessions and to classes as well as do the assignments I give you between sessions to reinforce and expand the aspect of the transformation we’re working on. I ask for a 6 month commitment although I find the average is 3 months for a 70% or better improvement. You can usually begin to see a nice change after as little as 6 weeks but everyone is different will you make this commitment?”

Susan agreed and for the first time since I’ve met her had a small smile of hope on her face. At this point I smiled back and looked deeply into her eyes and told her, “Remember Susan-you’re so much more than the chemicals in your body-you have a mind and a spiritual consciousness that has great power and ability. At your core is a peaceful and happy spiritual being who has been hidden in layers of junk that has piled up so high you forget you’re true nature.”

Susan enrolled into my foundation classes for A Course in Miracles and Meditation, and begun listening to my Peaceful Living CD package. My goal was to understand how the mind works and to give her tools to help her master the directions in which she gave it. Until we understand the power of our thoughts – the difference between our ego’s wrong mindlessness, versus our Authentic Selves right-mindedness we are lost and confused. When we learn our role as the decision maker who chooses which side of our mind to interpret the constant input we receive we no longer are a victim to the people and events outside us – we become responsible for the feelings and conditions we experience in life and become empowered.

In my sessions and classes I make it very clear how it is the choices we make that determine the life we experience. We make hundreds of decisions each day that either emanates from our fears or from a sense of love and trust; from our guilt and anger or from our peace and innocence. The world we experience inside reflects back our underlying thinking and beliefs. Until this is understood, we believe we are the effects of what happens to us and not the interpreter (decision maker).

In our next session I spent time with Susan going over the timeline of her life experiences. I actually drew this on a marker board from birth to the present so she could clearly see where the significant moments of her life occurred and in what direction her interpretation of it caused her to go. We examined her relationships with her family as we often carry the models of our parents or major caretakers subconsciously in our core memory that forms our underlying belief system and influences the values being held today. Strange isn’t it how decisions made as a little child can determine the choices you make decades later!

As we laid out her timeline, it became very apparent that her feelings of depression began not a few years ago as she had thought, but early on in her childhood. When four years old she decided she was no longer good enough as she felt her father separated from her and spent more time with her little brother. Later at five years old a sister was born and she felt relegated to the role of caretaker for her little sister and was strictly disciplined to ensure she would be a perfect model for her younger sister.

Susan was filled with animosity, as she believed lost her childhood at 5 years old and was expected to act like an adult. This event caused her to take her life very seriously and always felt guilty when she had fun as she decided, “If I have fun I’ll get punished and lose my parents love.” In later sessions we reunited her fragmented inner child and installed new childhood experiences within her timeline using miracle re-patterning and re-scripting.

As we continued drawing Susan’s timeline, we finally came to a point of great emotional distress. Susan begun crying and moaning in great pain as we approached her life at 10 years old. After much comforting and reassurance, Susan related to me she has been sexually abused by an older man at a store one day. She has been tricked into taking off her blouse and letting him touch her in exchange for some candy she couldn’t afford.
Although this was not to come until many sessions later, this act continued for some time as Susan enjoyed the attention this older man gave her. It made her feel pretty and loved, which she didn’t feel at home. Yet as she was from a strict Catholic background, the belief in her self, as a horrible sinner caused feelings of guilt to overwhelm her. It was at this point Susan decided “men could never be trusted and that they only wanted her body.” Susan felt shameful and begun putting on weight to protect her self from men and “cover up” her guilt.

Finishing the timeline took a few sessions for as we hit upon sensitive areas, I utilized a variety of interventions to release her negative energies and traumas, reframe her experiences and literally revive her mind to fill it with the goodness of who she was and the helpful lessons she had learned. Uncovering buried decisions on how she programmed her belief system proved to be a life altering experience. By the fourth week of session she informed me she had completely stopped taking her anti-depressants and was already feeling much better.

Through Neurolinguistic Programming I was able to make needed shifts to return her thinking about men and herself to ones of acceptance and love. Her entire body language began to change, as she no longer saw men as a threat. She begun to lose weight, work out and reclaim her sexuality, as she no longer felt being sexy was dirty. There was an obvious shift in her dressing too as she started to accent her body’s curves instead if hiding them.

After each NLP shift I then made hypnotic induction tapes to reorient her subconsciousness, and made a tape of this to relisten to a couple of times a week.

“It’s hard to believe I’ve been dwelling on these fears for 30 years in my subconscious” she related one day. “All the guilt of my little girl mistakes was sabotaging any relationships I entered. I see so clearly now my ambivalence to wanting to have love but being so afraid what would happen if I made that connection. Worse is, I separated from who I was because of my horrible self-image. I finally understand I can’t be in a loving relationship with another person until I can be in one with myself – how can I share what I don’t have with another!”

Susan made steady progress although she had occasional minor setbacks that always seemed to be connected to her sister. At last, in one session, we confronted this issue and we uncovered huge amounts of anger and blame towards her sister for what Susan believed was not having paid back over $2,000 she lent her a few years back.

Therapeutically, this is called projection – we project on to another the guilt we feel inside ourselves that we refuse to face. By projecting onto another we seek to make ourselves right and them wrong. Like an attorney would in court, we will build a case to support our feelings of guilt and sin. It is a warped way to rationalize our judgments. From the surface it looked like a legitimate beef - a $2000 unpaid debt, but a rule of healing is: “You are never upset for the reasons you think.”

“I understand how you feel Susan” I said “but as you’ve learned in A Course of Miracles – you are never upset for the reasons you think.” She looked at me and agreed.

At this point I began some regressions to uncover similar feelings in her past where she had separated from the love and unity of being with her sister, and what of her own beliefs and actions were beneath it. It wasn’t long before we discovered seeds of guilt in her early childhood when she had left her sister alone when she was supposed to be watching her. She even had taken her sister’s doll once and broke it out of anger. We unearthed her original decision to see separate interests with her sister when she decided her sister ruined her life by being born and made her second-rate in the household.

Of course, I’ve only given you sketches here of what occurred over the course of our work. We utilized Holotrophic Breathwork to open some blocked energy; Circular Breathing, Hellinger Constellations, Core Transformation and even a couple of Past Life Regressions.

After 4 months of work Susan came to me and related an experience of how she had reached a new level in her life. Each moment she now felt blessed and able to express herself in new better ways. She had experienced deep levels of forgiveness and is now very close to her sister, father and mother. She looked at every day as an opportunity to have fun and knew she was responsible for the fun she would have.

Susan now meditated more regularly, did A Course in Miracles lesson nearly every day and listened to one or two of our session tapes each week. She even felt confident to go on a wild adventure overseas to meet some long-lost distant relatives in Italy just for the fun of it.

Our regular sessions have ended and Susan continued to come to class every couple of weeks and see me once a month. More happy, peaceful and balanced – her depression had been transformed into an expression of the joy of life. She no longer dwelled on what was wrong with her self or others, consciously and subconsciously, and let go of the past at all levels. Her spirit and mind solved the problems it had created for itself and now was free to enjoy life.

P.S. It’s been two months since I finished this article and I had the opportunity to meet with Susan after her adventure to Italy. While in Italy she met a handsome, loving romantic Italian attorney who spent a week wining and dining her. As she explained “this is what I had always dreamed of – my wish had come true. I feel so full of love I’m speechless.” We spent a couple of sessions to discover how to now utilize her new feelings and freedom to experience a joyful relationship. Through this process we uncovered some deeper levels of self-hatred that had its source in a past life when sold into slavery to a brothel as a young girl to support her family and stay alive after her village was overtaken in a war. Within a week of this session she received a call from her Italian lover who invited her to come to Italy for 2 weeks to travel the country and that he’d send her an airline ticket as soon as possible. The story continues…

Remember – until we remove the interferences to love in our mind – our heart can never be open to send a signal to other like-minded beings to attract them to you.

Depression is just a form of non-expression of the love you have been created in. Each moment you are depressing yourself from the choices you make they are not honoring your higher self. As you dwell upon what went wrong in the past you think and feel wrongly about who you are – and as like attracts like – this thinking will only attract the “wrong” people into your life. Actually these “wrong” people you attract are perfectly right – as they reflect to you on the outside the thoughts and feelings you have about yourself and others on the inside. When you understand this you can stop depressing the possibilities of this moment and the future by destroying it with your old thinking that the past will forever repeat itself. When you learn to release your old patterns and accept the joyful power of this moment – you will attract to you other like-minded people and things that reflect to you your new inner decision-making. This takes determined work and willingness to face your inner darkness – but when you do – the light comes through and you will feel your love expressions fill your heart and mind.

The Quantum Healing Center – 12 NE 5th Avenue – Delray Beach, FL 33438 – 561 272 3733