·
1
in 6 men have clinical depression.
·
1
in 5 women also have clinical depression.
·
It
is estimated 1 in 4 teenagers now have clinical depression.
·
Every
person is likely to suffer a form of depression at some time in their life.
·
Only
I in 9 people who have clinical depression seek treatment it.
Yet figures suggest the earlier that
treatment is started, the easier and quicker it is to remedy.
Dr. Martin
Seligman has made a study of depression. His ideas dominate psychology in the USA and
have caused a revolution in the treatment of depression in American in the last
10 years.
Until
Seligman’s research it was widely believed that a person was powerless to
change their circumstances. It was
believed that people are simply programmed to act and respond in certain ways
that can not be changed.
Then one day
his 5 year old daughter taught him a profound lesson. Seligman and his young daughter were out
weeding the garden. He the busy
phycologist was concentrating on the task at hand ... weeding the garden as
quickly as possible. His daughter on the
other hand, was more interested in having fun.
She found delight in pulling the weeds and tossing them in the air and
watching them flutter back to the ground.
In a cranky
tone he reprimanded his daughter for not getting on with the task. Work now.
Play later. His daughter a little upset but with the honesty of a young child finally came back to her father with a question. “You know how I learned not to be whiney by the time I was 5? Well, why can’t you learn not to be grumpy?”
·
This
simple childish question changed modern phycology. It set Seligman learning and studying how to
become happy.
Depression
robs us of happiness but if we can learn how to be happy it can act as a buffer
to prevent depression. If we suffer depression happiness can help make
antidepressant drugs more effective.
Happiness
was not the only buffer Seligman found.
He ended with a list of 13 buffers to stress and depression. The list includes: Courage. Future mindedness. Optimism.
Interpersonal skills. Faith. Work ethic.
Hope. Honesty. Perseverance. Capacity for insight. Forgiveness.
Resilience and happiness.
Before
Seligman’s work an America Psychologists could loose their licences to practice
if they asked about a person’s faith. Seligman
found in his study of happiness that the happiest people are conservative
Christians.
Since Seligman’s
work it is now compulsory for Psychologists to take a spiritual inventory of
all patients. Faith is understood to be
so helpful in the process of prevention and recovery that a Psychologist who
does not do this with each patient they see is now considered negligent if they
do not take this inventory.
It seems
that science and Phycology are only now just discovering what Christians have
always known. We humans are wonderfully
made by God but we made with design limits that can not be exceeded without real
harm to ourselves. We are designed to be healthiest when we are in relationship
with our creator.
