This page starts a long, step-by-step explanation of the causes, treatments etc. for depression. Although it's long-winded, full of ads, and trying to sell you an idea, the idea itself is quite interesting, and one I've not come across directly before.

Basically, the authour believes that depression is caused by negative thinking, which builds up in a part of the brain as stress. When we dream, the writer believes we re-live this stress as part of a natural process, but being depressed, we build up so much stress that we over-tax the brain and dream too much. Apparently, REM (dream) sleep is not actually restful, and thus we wake up exhausted. The process naturally has a negative feedback loop - the more exhausted we feel, the more depressed we are, and the more negative thoughts we build up for the next night's dreams.

This strikes me as interesting for a number of reasons. First of all, I've noticed that I dream a lot, and this has come up in therapy before. Secondly, I've subscribed for a long time to the theory that dreams are a sort of "garbage disposal" mechanism for the brain, getting rid of stuff that we don't need for everyday survival. This ties in with this theory in the sense that the writer is arguing that we are in effect building up to much garbage during depression.

I haven't actually got to the end of this piece (I did say it was long-winded!) so I'm interested to see what the authour recommends as treatment for this vicious cycle.

Labels: depression, personal