Common symptoms are a lack of energy, loss of appetite, and libido, a change in sleep patterns and inability to experience pleasure for longer than two weeks. Depression can last months or even years. There are no specific boundaries or lines between a depressed state and clinical depression. (The National Institute of Mental Health, 2018) Common risk factors for depression are a family history of depression, major life changes, trauma, stress, physical illnesses and medication.

Researchers suggest depression is caused by a collection of various factors, such as genetics, biology, environment, and psychology. Today’s statistics show that depression is one of the most common mental disorders and can happen at any age, often starting with high levels of anxiety in childhood. Today modern science labels depression as a mental illness, due to a chemical imbalance from a psychiatric point of view, it’s a lack of serotonin and hormones. In medieval times, melancholia was a concept much broader than depression is considered today, including a combination of sadness, dejection, anger, delusion, obsession, and fear. In the Western world, the ancient Greeks, who thought it was caused by an imbalance of basic bodily fluids, called depression melancholia. With my knowledge of somatic psychotherapy and shamanism, and in connection to mainstream knowledge and methodology, I want to dive into what depression is and how to live with it. In my opinion, depression is an inner mechanism the individual needs, to engage with her will to reconnect with the self, community and surroundings on a deeper level. I think there is a disconnection from the essential self, an inner split into multiple, fractured perspectives, that generates the belief to be seemingly not whole or incomplete, that leads to depression. I believe that a deep disconnection from our surroundings, experienced as isolation, leads to a depressed state of being. Introduction Broken connections lead to depression

Chapter 2: Mapping depression energetically 10.Chapter 1: Different perspectives on depression 2.Introduction: Broken connections lead to depression 1.

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