Posted by Arthur Gibson on September 29, 2002, at 13:28:29
In reply to Re: Finding ROOT cause... » Arthur Gibson, posted by JaneB on September 29, 2002, at 11:01:14
This reply is for Jane B, and others who may be interested.
Retire to your "safe place."
Let your depression come upon you and weigh you down. Feel the depths of despair, the horror of your worst feelings. Don't think about anything special, just get the FEELING of your depression, don't look for the cause.
Close your eyes.
Now imagine youself in an empty theatre. (Cinema in the UK). The screen is blank but a short film is about to start. Continue to FEEL your depression and watch as the film starts. You will see a visual representaion of what is the ROOT cause of your depression.
You may not be able to make sense of what you see. Just like a dream can be difficult to interpret or understand. So repeat the experiment later and the film will change slightly, or even substantially to help you understand what is the ROOT cause of what you are feeling.
You may get the message first time, or it may take several attempts before the penny drops and you realise what is the ROOT cause of your depression. It will be a piece of dysfunctional thinking. It will be linked to events, like the loss of a loved one or whatever, but it will be the faulty THINKING that is the ROOT problem, not the event.
Depression is caused when one part of the brain fights against another and the two parts do not agree. Each part is convinced that the other is wrong and you have to figure out which is wrong and which is right. Maybe both are wrong.
The you have to fix the problem. This can be very difficult. Often it involves altering circumstances. Changing employment or dropping a lover or whatever. But the change in your dysfunctional THINKING is the thing that will cause the effort to change the situation. In other words, sort out the problem. The faulty thinking will have caused a problem or problems in the real world and these problems have to be fixed, as well as the ROOT thinking problem.
OK, I will tell you my ROOT problem.
My business was going bust and my brain just WOULD NOT accept that this was happening. It seems crazy but this was what was happening. Once I found the ROOT of my problems I decided to let go of my business and start a smaller business that would keep my family fed and housed. Oddly enough, the letting go of my first business freed my mind from the conflict and the depression rapidly lifted. I was then able to rescue my first business and now I have two businesses.
But please understand, it was not my first business going bust that caused my depression. My family and doctor and even I thought that that was the cause, but we were wrong. It was the fact that my brain WOULD NOT ACCEPT that the business was finished that was the ROOT cause of my depression.
Your root cause will be completely different.
My friend divorced her husband and then went into depression. She thought that the divorce had caused her depression, but she was wrong. After trying my method she found that it was the fact that her brain WOULD NOT accept that she had made a MISTAKE in divorcing a perfectly good guy that caused her depression.
Do you see the difference? It was a bit of dysfunctional thinking, not the divorce itself.
Once she accepted that she had made a mistake, her depression started to lift because the conflict in her brain had been resolved.
Another friend lost her job and went into depression. She knew it was the loss of the job that started her depression, but this was NOT the CAUSE. Analysed by my method the ROOT CAUSE turned out to be the fact that her brain WOULD NOT accept the fact that she was dependent on her husband's income. It was a different CAUSE to the obvious one, but once she accepted and reconciled herself to being reliant on her husband, the depression lifted.
I accept that my method will only work for some people. I accept that drugs are great when they work and they did help strengthen me to sort out my problems. But if what I have to offer helps just a few of the people who are struggling with depression, then that is good.
poster:Arthur Gibson
thread:121482
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020922/msgs/121520.html