-IBIS-1.7.6-
tx
mental/emotional
depression
Psychospiritual Approaches

metaphors and correlations

• A review of studies done over a period of 40 years with more than 4000 psychiatric patients showed that approximately half had major medical illnesses. Approximately half of the physicians referring patients had not diagnosed the patient's physical illnesses. (Locke, 1983, p. 170)
• Associated with suppressed emotions. (Harrison, p. 77)
• Associated with self-directed anger and/or loss. (Epstein, p. 87)
• Respiration may sound weak and indecisive as if they can't decide whether to breathe (live) or not. Associated with sighing. (Harrison, p. 82)
• Aggression that is psychologically repressed leads to depression; it gets turned inward to the point where the transmitter becomes the receiver. Repressed aggression is responsible for guilt-feelings and numerous somatic symptoms with various types of pain. Those who anxiously repress their aggressive impulses simultaneously repress all their energy and activity, become depressed, and thus avoid taking responsibility. Yet despite a refusal to come to active grips with life, depressives merely go on to find themselves confronted with the theme of responsibility via the back door of their own guilt feelings. (Dethlefsen, p. 231-2)
• Impairment of cell-mediated immunity in clinical melancholia. Data indicate that not all person react with the same degrees of depression to stressful events and high and low depressed groups can be differentiated by their immune responses. (Locke, 1983, p. 143)
• Most patients on chlorpromazine (Thorazine@, a phenothiazine antipsychotic drug), develop one or more immunologic abnormalities (63% positive ANA, 40% antibodies to native DNA, 58% antibodies to nucleoprotein, 30% decreased T- lymphocytes, plus elevated serum IgM and development of a lupus-like anticoagulant with long term use. (Locke, 1983, p. 63, 75)
• Incidence and antibody titers to HSV were found significantly higher in patients with psychotic depression compared to normal controls. Furthermore the cell-mediated immunity to HSV in psychotic depression was similar to that observed after an acute HSV infection or recurrence. (Locke, 1983, p. 163)
• Study of HSV, EBV, CMV, and MV (measles) in 68 psychiatric patients and 25 controls with neurological diseases: Antibodies to EBV were highly significant in psychiatric patients with highest titers in the affective disorder group. No significant differences in distribution and titers of antibodies to HSV1, CMV, or MV were found between psychiatric patients and controls. (Locke, 1983, p. 163)
• Antinuclear factor (ANF) was present in serum of 30% of 53 patients admitted to a psychiatric hospital for mental depression. Clinically, ANF positive depression closely resembles manic-depressive psychosis but tends to be more resistant to treatment. (Locke, 1983, p. 164)
• The presence of antinuclear antibody (ANA) was investigated in a group of patients suffering from recurrent affective disorders. There was no increase in ANA in patients treated with lithium, as compared with patients not on lithium, or controls. (The prevalence of ANA in the normal population is 9%). (Locke, 1983, p. 167)
• Possible tuberculin sensitivity. (Locke, 1983, p. 167)
• A study was undertaken to compare IgG, IgA, IgM, IgE, and IgD antibodies in adult alcoholic, depressive, and schizophrenic patients with healthy controls. There was no significant difference observed in the total immunoglobulin results between patients and controls. However, there were significant differences between the groups for allergen specific IgE with the depressive patients exhibiting the greatest number of positive test results. (Locke, 1983, p. 180)
• 50 patients with manic-depressive psychosis, 120 neurotics, and 100 healthy controls underwent the toxoplasmin intradermal test. The highest percentage of reactors was among manic depressive psychotics (67%), and this group showed a higher intensity of reaction. Patients with depressive neurosis accounted for the highest number amongst the neurotics (56%). It is concluded that the percentage of reactors is higher among patients with depressive mental disorders, and also that this percentage increases with mental deterioration in patients. It is further concluded that the greater the severity of the psychiatric disease, the poorer the hygienic habits and the higher the contact with parasites. (Locke, 1983, p. 164)
• Cognitive processes of depressive patients manifest typical state-dependent memory and learning characteristics: able to recall verbal information learned during their depressed state better during their next period of depression; known as 'affect state dependency' which is encoded by endocrine system hormones. (Rossi, 1986, p. 141)
• Beta-adrenergic receptors were studied in vitro in lymphocytes obtained from patients with major affective disorders and controls. Results indicated decreased lymphocyte beta receptor functioning in depression and mania. This decrease may be an index of changes in brain beta receptors in mania and depression, or may simply reflect homeostatic regulation of peripheral beta receptors in response to stress-induced increase in circulating catecholamines. (Locke, 1983, p. 166)
• Trying to be helpful to a patient whose primary process is hopelessness is a dangerous undertaking, based on an inappropriate paradigm and a bad working hypothesis; 'helping' polarizes the secondary process even more, and you create a situation in which the helper must be resisted. If we constantly act like helpers, a vicious and dangerous cycle is possible, as the client never gets to help herself and is constantly in the position of "the depressed one." If we are unclear about the structure of her process, we are bound to take the unoccupied part in her pattern, in this case, the healer who is trying to get her to live. Furthermore, being helpful to a client who is not interested in help is a goal mismatch and is bound to isolate the client even more. (Mindell, 1988, p. 96-99)
process example: "A woman suffering from long standing-depression threatened she wanted to die. Suicide is yet another method of switching out of to one state into another. I told her to do it right there with me. She closed her eyes, began to breathe deeply, and lay down on the floor. After a few minutes she opened her eyes and spoke of a vision of standing in front of the gates of heaven. A great voice yelled at her, saying, 'Get the hell out of here. Go back to life and work instead of being so lazy.' I then knew how to work with her depression. Instead of being sympathetic to her sad story about life, I told her to stop being so lazy and get to work. This brought immediate positive feedback from her. Altered states are full of unlived creativity. I could never have given her that vision or have helped her in any other way. Instead, I had empathized with her and felt badly for her. But for her, dying meant altering her state of consciousness, dropping out of her feelings of sadness and heaviness. From a process point of view, suicide means killing the primary process. By breathing deeply, she killed the primary experience of sadness, and a new message announced itself through vision and voice. Thus alterations in consciousness can be accomplished through accessing secondary processes." (Mindell, 1988, p. 63)
• "Instead of treating depression as if it were something we should overcome, we can also ask what its meaning is. If a depressed and hopeless experience is allowed to come up, then the road is cleared for help. Instead of constantly resisting the processes in front of us, we might stop and admit their presence. Instead of hoping the world will be saved, what if everyone in a community would face all of the depressing and disturbing facts in our lives and risk being depressed by them? This speculation is a form of the hologram theory, a piece of material which carries a particular pattern. The inner personal situation reflects the outer one and vice versa." (Mindell, 1988, p. 100)

Chinese psychophysiology:
Heart ~ Xin houses the Shen (Spirit) and reveals itself through the brightness in the eyes; governs Fire; rules the Xue (Blood) and its vessels and directs the circulation; opens into the tongue and controls speech; and relates to the integration of the organs and the personality.
» Healthy expressions are warmth, vitality, excitement, inner peace, love, and joy.
» Heart Xu (Deficiency) signs include sadness; absence of laughter; depression; fear; anxiety; shortness of breath (Seem, p. 28); cold feeling in the chest and limbs; palpitations; cold sweat; inability to speak; memory failure; nocturnal emissions; and restless sleep.
» The Heart is the Emperor of the bodily realm so that when the Heart is disturbed all the other organs will be disrupted.

Pericardium ~ Xin Bao: Healthy expressions are joy, happiness, and healthy relationships; weakness, dysfunction, and illness are associated with confusion, delirium, nervousness, and psychosis.

San Jiao ~ Triple Warmer regulates the relations among the three regions roughly delimited by the chest, abdomen, and pelvis; influences the supply of Xue (Blood), Qi and Fluids; is the source of Wei (Protective) Qi; and relates to the function of heat regulation.
» Mental signs of Triple Warmer channel disorders include emotional upsets caused by breaking of friendships or family relations; depression; suspicion; anxiety; and poor elimination of harmful thoughts. (Seem, p. 28)

Lung ~ Fei governs the Qi; regulates the rhythm of respiration, the pulse, and all bodily processes; is the home of the Po (Corporeal Soul); and relates to strength and sustainability.
» Healthy expressions are righteousness and courage.
» Weakness, dysfunction, and illness are associated with excessive grief, sadness, worry, and depression. Worry depletes the Lung Qi.
» Lung Xu (Deficiency) signs include cold shoulder and back; changing complexion; inability to sleep (Seem, p. 28); shortness of breath; changes in urine color; rumbling in the bowels with loose bowel movements; pallor; malar flush; chills; sniffles; sneezing; light cough; and sensitivity to cold.

Spleen ~ Pi governs digestion and manifests in the muscle tissues; transforms food into Qi and Xue (Blood); governs the Xue (Blood) and holds it in the vessels; resolves Dampness and Phlegm; and relates to the ability to assimilate, stabilize, and feel balanced and centered.
» Healthy expressions are fairness, openness, deep thinking, and reminiscence.
» Spleen Xu (Deficiency) signs include slightness (deficient "form"); abundant elimination; morning fatigue; cold, wet feet (Seem, p. 28); abdomen taut and distended like a drum; craving for sweets; flatulence; nausea; mild edema; memory failure; heavy feeling in legs; easy bruising; pale lips; loose stools; muscular weakness; and, indirectly, obesity.
» Spleen Shi (Excess) derives from Spleen Xu (Deficiency) as Dampness accumulates. Spleen Shi (Excess) signs include heaviness (excess "form"); large abdomen; great sighing; sadness; obsessions and nightmares (Seem, p. 28); abdominal pain; irregular appetite; stickiness in the mouth and on lips; red lips; chest congestion; fatigue; and constipation.
» The excessive use of the mind in thinking, studying, concentrating, and memorizing over a long period of time tends to weaken the Spleen and may lead to Xue Yu (Blood Stasis). This also includes excessive pensiveness and constant brooding. (Maciocia, p. 241) Likewise, inadequate physical exercise, overexposure to external Dampness, and excess consumption of sweet and/or Cold foods will also deplete the Spleen.

» Mental signs of Stomach channel disorders include depression; death wishes; instability; suicidal tendencies; mentally overwrought; doubt; suspicions; tendency to mania; and slowness at assimilating ideas. (Seem, p. 27)

Liver ~ Gan is the home of the Hun (Ethereal Soul); it relates to decisiveness, control, and the principle of emergence; stores the Xue (Blood); maintains smooth flow of Qi and Xue (Blood); reflects emotional harmony and movement; opens into the eyes; and expresses itself in the nervous system.
» Healthy expressions are kindness, spontaneity, and ease of movement.
» Liver Qi Stagnation reflects and accentuates emotional constraint as the Liver's function of facilitating smooth flow in the body is constricted. Stagnation is associated with frustration, irritability, tension, and feeling stuck. With time this pattern tends to produce a gloomy emotional state of constant resentment, repressed anger or depression, along with tightness in the chest, frequent sighing, abdominal tension or distension, and/or a feeling of a lump in the throat with difficulty in swallowing. (Maciocia, p. 216)

Kidney ~ Shen houses the Zhi (Will); expresses ambition and focus; provides the "Fire of Life" through its Yang aspects and its intimate relationship with the Ming Men, and displays the effects of aging, chronic degenerative processes, and extreme stress; likewise any severe disturbance in the complementary relationship between the Kidney and Heart expresses itself in emotional dys-stress.
» Healthy expressions are gentleness, groundedness, and endurance.
» Kidney Xu (Deficiency) signs include indecisiveness; confused speech; dreams of trees submerged under water; cold feet and legs; abundant sweating (Seem, p. 28); hearing loss; fearfulness; apathy; chronic fatigue; discouragement; scatteredness; lack of will; negativity; impatience; difficult inhalation; low sex drive; lumbago; sciatica; and musculoskeletal irritation and inflammation, especially when worse from touch.
» Intense or prolonged fear depletes the Kidney. Often chronic anxiety may induce Xu (Deficiency) and then Fire within the Kidney. (Maciocia, p. 250) Overwork, parenting, simple aging, and a sedentary or excessively indulgent lifestyle all contribute significantly to Kidney Xu (Deficiency).


therapies

behavior modification:
• Basic strategy to change underlying self-image from loser to winner. On behavioral level, overcome inertia by accomplishing one small task, which begins upward spiral of raised self-esteem and increased motivation. (Fanning, p. 172)
• Eager though psychiatry is to involve depressives in some kind of activity again, most find this threatening. They compulsively avoid anything that fails to meet with general approval, and attempt to hush up their aggressive, destructive urges by living a life that is beyond reproach. (Dethlefsen, p. 231)

imagery:
• bringing back the sun (Chavez)
• casting bright (Chavez)
• double staircase (Chavez)
• frog journey: negativity (Scully)
• Mut and crone journey (Scully)
• parting love (Chavez)
• reparenting (Fanning, p. 180)
• rainbow butterfly (Scully)
• Taueret journey (Scully)
• the new beginning (Chavez)
• timely rain (Chavez)
• beaver dammed (Chavez): liver
(related materia medica listings: imagery for anxiety and depression)

theotherapy:
Adonis, Aphrodite, Artemis, Cronus, Demeter, Dionysus, Erigone, Hera, Heracles, Narcissus, Niobe, Orpheus, Persephone, Polyphemus, Selene, Theseus, Tyro (Lemesurier, p. 93, 113)

hypnotherapy:
• 'affect bridge': 'Go back in time to when you last experienced that emotion.'
When a series of memories is recalled through this affect bridge, one arrives at the forgotten traumatic source of a personality problem that had previously been unavailable to the person. The affect bridge functions as a state-dependent pathway to the endocrine hormone-encoded source of a problem that can now be accessed and reframed therapeutically. (Rossi, 1986, p. 141)

process paradigm: (experientially oriented - an example in 'metaphors')
• What is the symptom preventing me from doing? What is the symptom making me do? (see process interview: psycho/neurological system)

see also:
the shadow and physical symptoms
body reveals: the spirit
subjective inquiry approach
converting a symptom to a signal
state-dependent learning
anxiety and depression
exploratory or mechanistic?
imagery for anxiety and depression
imagery: precautions
imagery: techniques
affirmations: guidelines and precautions
theotherapy
hypnotherapy
process paradigm


footnotes

Bell IR, Markley EJ, King DS, Asher S, Marby D, Kayne H, Greenwald M, Ogar DA, Margen S. Polysymptomatic syndromes and autonomic reactivity to nonfood stressors in individuals with self-reported adverse food reactions. J Am Coll Nutr. 1993 Jun;12(3):227-38.
Abstract: This study compared symptom reports and cardiovascular reactivity of a group of 24 individuals recruited from the community who reported a cognitive or emotional symptom caused by at least one food (food-sensitivity reporters, FSR) vs those of 15 controls (C) without a history of food, chemical, drug, or inhalant sensitivities. The main findings were: 1) FSR indicated sensitivities not only to foods, but also to environmental chemicals, drugs, and natural inhalants, as well as significantly more symptoms than C in multiple systems; 2) more FSR than C noted recent state depression and anxiety, as well as higher trait anxiety on the Bendig form of the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale; 3) however, on multiple regression analysis, not only depression, but also the number of sensitivities (foods, chemicals, drugs, inhalants), accounted for part of the variance in total number of symptoms (38 and 17%, respectively), whereas none of the affective measures accounted for any of the variance in total number of sensitivities over all subjects; 4) after controlling for depression and anxiety, FSR still showed a trend toward poorer performance on a timed mental arithmetic task (p = 0.16); and 5) FSR and C showed opposite patterns of heart rate change to two different stressful tasks (mental arithmetic and isometric exercise) (group by task interaction, p < 0.05). The data are discussed in terms of a time-dependent sensitization (TDS) process that predicts a cross-sensitizing and cross-reactive role for xenobiotic agents (e.g., foods, chemicals, drugs, and inhalants) and for salient psychological stress in the expression of psychophysiological dysfunctions of FSR. As in other chronically ill populations, negative affect in food-sensitive individuals may explain greater symptom reporting, but not necessarily account for the illness itself. For either a food or a psychological stimulus to begin to elicit sensitized responses, e.g., marked physiological differences from C, FSR may require multiple, intermittent exposures spaced over 5-28 days rather than on only 1 day.

Christensen L, Somers S. Comparison of nutrient intake among depressed and nondepressed individuals. Int J Eat Disord. 1996 Jul;20(1):105-109.
Abstract: OBJECTIVE: The study investigated the nutrient intake of depressed and nondepressed subjects. METHOD: Twenty-nine depressed subjects and a matched group of nondepressed subjects completed a 3-day food record. RESULTS: Results revealed that depressed and nondepressed groups consume similar amounts of all nutrients except protein and carbohydrates. Nondepressed subjects consume more protein and depressed subjects consume more carbohydrates. The increase in carbohydrate consumption comes primarily from an increase in sucrose consumption. DISCUSSION: The increased carbohydrate consumption is consistent with the carbohydrate cravings characteristic of the depressed and may relate to the development or maintenance of depression.

Christensen L, Bourgeois A, Cockroft R. Dietary alteration of somatic symptoms and regional brain electrical activity. Biol Psychiatry. 1991 Apr 1;29(7):679-682

King DS. Can allergic exposure provoke psychological symptoms? A double-blind test. Biol Psychiatry. 1981 Jan;16(1):3-19.

King DS. Psychological and behavioral effects of food and chemical exposure in sensitive individuals. Nutr Health. 1984;3(3):137-151. (Review)