What’s Really at the Root of Chronic Anxiety and Depression?
Often people are able to recognize the presence of anxiety or depression. They can see how their symptoms clearly align with each disorder. They are on edge, worried, and having difficulty sleeping in the case of anxiety, or feeling down, energy depleted, and hopeless in the case of depression. These emotions may be a response to various present-day stressors (loss of a job, reaction to a global pandemic, adjustment to becoming parents), or representative of a biochemical imbalance in the brain (e.g., not having enough serotonin or other neurotransmitters circulating).
However, when these symptoms persist throughout adulthood, they are often representative of underlying feelings and experiences that have not been processed. In many cases, what’s at the root of persistent anxiety and depression in adulthood is untreated adverse experiences (or “trauma”) from earlier in life.
While our culture tends to think of trauma as physical abuse, sexual abuse, or a significant adverse event, such as a mass shooting or war, in reality it comes in many forms (see blog article on Relational Trauma). Because of this narrow definition, when asked “have you experienced trauma?” many people say “no,” only to find out that they were emotionally tortured by their older sibling, their parent was chronically depressed and unavailable, or they were perpetually invalidated or gaslit. Others were unconsciously put in the role of “emotional caretaker” for their parent or indirectly encouraged to ease family conflict by stifling their emotional reactions. Whether or not we classify these experiences as “trauma,” we know that they can have a profound impact on sense-of-self and emotional well-being in adulthood.
What happens when we have emotionally challenging experiences day in and day out for years as children? Feelings of anger, sadness, confusion, and desperation arise. To make sense of these feelings a child requires the presence of a trusted adult, who makes feeling emotions safe through their warm, nurturing, and steady presence. In the absence of that adult, or if the adult who should be providing that safety is the same adult who is unconsciously putting their child in a role of “emotional caregiver,” for example, the child has no such way of dealing with the emotions they’re experiencing. Instead, another method of coping must take over.
Enter anxiety, depression, or both. These methods of coping may take root in childhood. When continued into adulthood, they often serve a very specific purpose: keeping other feelings at bay through numbing and distracting.
When anxious it’s harder to feel suppressed anger in the body from years of being belittled by a parent (see blog article on how anxiety provides protection). When depressed, numbness overrides feelings of sadness about years of emotional neglect.
Treatment that focuses on identifying the root cause and healing from the bottom up has the power to transform chronic anxiety and depression. Chronic anxiety and depression do not have to be life-long conditions. With the right treatment approach and therapist-client fit, the trajectory of chronic anxiety and depression can be altered.
SageWell Health specializes in a depth-approach to treating anxiety and depression. Contact us to schedule a free 15-minute consultation to learn more about what treatment could look like for you.