Depression and the job hunt

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Depression, of course, is not restricted just to the job-hunt. Depression can come at any time in life, and for a multitude of causes. It comes not just to our clients, but to our loved ones, our friends, and even ourselves. Moreover, it can recur, again and again, throughout a person's life. One out of every 20 Americans become depressed every year.

For job hunters, depression is akin to suddenly having to wear a backpack filled with 100 lbs. of stones, while running a marathon. They are already facing a lot of problems, and now they've also got this.

"Help me," is the cry. And we want to, except that the vast majority of us are not mental health professionals. Often, we know only two key words in connection with depression: on the one hand, Prozac, and on the other hand, suicide (the two words are not, of course, intrinsically related, but lie at opposite ends of the spectrum).

At one end, we know about Prozac (and others of that drug class), which must be prescribed by a doctor (e.g., a psychiatrist); we know that it is the modern wonder drug for depression (in some cases).

At the other end, we know about suicide - - we know that suicidal thoughts or words in our client amount to a four-alarm fire bell, warning us to get that client to a doctor (preferably a psychiatric doctor) immediately. Sometimes, there is no second chance.

The rest of our life is spent trying to learn more about depression than just these two words. We are specialists only in the world of work but, keeping our powers of observation acute, and our power of sympathy at its height, we may sometimes be able to help job-hunters with their depression.

Questions About Depression

The questions we have, when helping job-hunters who are in a depression, are usually three:

1. What is depression?
2. How can I help alleviate their depression, or even make it go away?
3. And, if they are stuck with it, how can I help them make the best of it?

We begin with the first: "What is depression?" During the past 50 years, I have seen theories about depression come and go, as through a revolving door. There are always those, in every age, willing to pontificate and claim that depression is this one thing - - whatever "this one thing" may be, at that time.

Currently, at seminars, in learned journals (like, airline magazines) and elsewhere, we run into professionals who assure us depression is purely a genetic disease, inherited from one's parents. Alternatively, we run into professionals who assure us it is purely an emotional disease, the result of legitimate anger, suppressed and turned inward. And we run into professionals who assure us it is the result of a fracture in the person's self-image, the failure to get the things they need if they are to feel good about themselves. And, of course, we run into professionals who assure us it is a purely biological or chemical disease, an absence of serotonin.

Well, they can't all be right. Though they may all be partly right, as John Godfrey Saxe reminds us in his famous poem about the blind men and the elephant:

It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.
The first approached the elephant,
And, happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
"God bless me! But the elephant
Is nothing but a wall."
The second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried: "Ho! What have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me to 'tis might clear
This wonder of an elephant
Is very like a spear!"
The third approached the animal
And, happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
"I see," quoth he, "the elephant
is very like a snake."
The fourth reached out his eager hand,
And felt about the knee:
"What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain," quoth he;
"'Tis clear enough the elephant
Is very like a tree."
The fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said, "E'en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an elephant
Is very like a fan!"
The sixth no sooner had begun
About this beast to grope,
Then, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
"I see," quoth he, "the elephant
Is very like a rope!"
And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!

The problem with the 'Indostan' approach to depression is that once a professional has latched onto his or her favorite unitary explanation of what causes depression, the explanation tends to become a visual strait-jacket, through which all depression is than viewed. In each client's case, things that fit the explanation get noticed; things that don't fit the explanation don't get noticed, or if they are, they are soon dismissed. And so, since " all the evidence supports it, " they grow to be so proud and sure of their pet theory about depression, that they are virtually willing to lay down their life in defense of it. Proud and sure, like the men of Indostan. Blind men, indeed!

Clearly, depression is due to one or more of the following causes:

• Genetic causes, such that depression or the tendency toward depression may be handed down from generation to generation, in a particular family.
• Bodily causes, such as that depression which is a by-product of profound physical illness in the body.
• Chemical causes, such as a shortage of serotonin in the brain, for whatever reason.
• Natural causes (causes from nature), referring to acute sensitivity to things out there, in the universe - - such as acute sensitivity to the moon, the seasons, light, darkness, pollens, etc. (some of these seem to affect the supply of serotonin in the brain, though the connection is not clear).
• Situational causes, such as a reaction to grief, or loss, or any situation that produces a general sense of powerlessness (like, a long, drawn-out job hunt).
• Emotional causes, such as internalized anger (and most especially, anger the person feels they shouldn't have, but do).

What's often overlooked, in analyzing depression, is that all of these things may be connected, like some weird Rube Goldberg machine, where one thing leads to another, and that leads to another, etc. - - jumping from situation to emotion to spirit to mind to do gene to body, to create depression.

Each model of depression may be partly right, if we take into account the connections. For example, the chemical model of depression may be correct in asserting that, in depressed people, there is in the end a shortage of serotonin. But - - big but - - that shortage may have been caused, it in at least some cases, by an emotional factor, such as suppressed anger. And that, in turn, may have been caused by a lack of hope. And that, in turn, may have been caused by some overwhelming sense of powerlessness in the face of making it through the next week. And, finally, there may be a genetic disposition that permits, accelerates, or blocks all of this, in a particular client. Thus, looking for only one cause of depression in a particular client fails to turn up the answer, because the answer lies in the connections.