For the most part, depression (and any associated "imbalance", chemical or otherwise) has roots in trauma from infancy and/or childhood.
"Trauma" is any event sufficiently distressing to cause the experience (or just the emotional portion of the experience) to be blocked from full consciousness. Children and especially infants can be traumatized by events that most adults would shrug off or not even discern.
Such consequential experiences cannot be shrugged off or forgotten; the system is impelled to immediately bring the experience of any threatening event to full consciousness for Darwinian reasons. Yet if the level of pain (emotional or otherwise) is too high to allow for situation-appropriate behavior after integration, especially when there is no way to escape or fix the situation, then repression redirects the experience (or just the emotional component) away from consciousness to improve the chances for survival.
But again: the system is designed, at the deepest level, to bring such events to full consciousness, and to do so with urgency. A traumatic event is a blaring siren telling the organism to DO SOMETHING to escape the danger (of whatever type). So the traumatic experience remains in the system, attempting to gain full consciousness, constantly trying to get noticed and urgently trying to guide behavior in some way that might avoid or neutralize the (old, now long-gone) situation that caused the trauma. Repression prevents the old experience from connecting and thus keeps the siren on constantly, but muted and largely unnoticed -- although symptoms tell the tale. When a person's accumulated repressed trauma is large enough, and/or their defenses are weak enough (temporarily or generally), the malaise of depression is often the result.
The process of repression is what creates neurosis, and the reverberating circuits of repressed experience are what drive inappropriate behavior. The behavior IS appropriate, of course (or as much so as could be conceived at the time), for the situation or event that comprised the trauma, but that situation is NOT what faces the adult in the present.
You can see this dynamic all around you. It is on display throughout the world.
In plain language, neurosis is the repression of feeling. Depression and other inappropriate behavior of almost all types are the direct and inevitable result of that repression.
The remedy for repression of feeling is to feel. To feel the experiences that were buried, and to feel them as the child or infant experienced them in the split second before the mercy of repression shunted experience away from full consciousness.
That remedy is simple yet incredibly difficult. PREVENTION is the only large-scale answer. Treating pregnant mothers, newborns, infants, and children with love and respect is all it takes. A healthy society will never fully emerge without proper treatment of the young.
That isn't news, of course. Wise men and women have been saying such things about the young forever. Jesus was certainly clear on the topic:
Matthew: 18:1 At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
18:2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,
18:3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
18:4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
18:5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.
18:6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
It seems plausible that abused and/or traumatized children would more likely be malnourished than average, and that DOES have an effect on body and brain chemistry. But regardless of nutritional status, trauma has strong effects and there is a LOT of data to support that. Here's a page about the ACE study, for example:
In the early 1990s, Dr. Robert Anda, then an epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), collaborated with Vincent Felitti, MD, at Kaiser Permanente to investigate child abuse as an underlying cause of medical, social, and public health problems. This effort led to a large-scale study funded by the CDC to track the effects of childhood trauma on health throughout the lifespan. Called the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE Study), the findings were reported in more than 70 publications in major medical and public health journals. Data collected from more than 17,000 patients showed that ACEs:
Were common, with 28 percent of study participants reporting physical abuse, 21 percent reporting sexual abuse, and many reporting that they experienced a divorce, parental separation, or having a parent with a mental and/or substance use disorder.
Had a profound negative effect on health and well-being, including significant increases in alcoholism, heart disease, and cancer.
Were a prime factor of past, current and future health behaviors, social problems, and early death in the study population. Examples include an increase in the rates of obesity, drug abuse, smoking, chronic depression, and attempted suicide.
The “ACE Score” Is the number of ACEs a person experienced. The ACE Score serves as a proxy for the level of adversity and has a “dose” relationship to adult health issues: The higher the ACE score, the more likely a person is to experience serious health challenges. Individuals with ACE scores of 4 or more were 12 times more likely to have attempted suicide, 7 times more likely to be alcoholic, and 10 times more likely to have injected street drugs. People with ACE scores of 6 and higher have an almost 20‐year shortening of lifespan.
Treating children with love and respect really IS critically important.
Necessary addition: You're exactly right that no amount of love GIVEN LATER ON will fix neurosis (no matter the symptoms: depression, addiction, whatever).
Can't fix trauma from childhood with warmth and love IN ADULTHOOD. Plenty of people try to do that; sex addiction is an obvious and extreme example.
Old traumatic events MUST be brought to full consciousness to resolve, otherwise they remain, pristine, waiting to BE experienced -- and the system can only handle them in fire-alarm mode because they were, by definition, serious and threatening. THAT is what's being repressed.
Absent bringing the events to full consciousness (actually "becoming as a little child" -- the child that was being traumatized; letting oneself become weak in order to feel pain, draining it OUT of the system so that one can be strong in the present) -- absent that, what is left is trying to strengthen defenses (better nutrition can help) and to strengthen them in ways less damaging -- getting into exercise and sports instead of drinking a lot and getting into fistfights; studying [anything non-toxic] instead of consuming junk media; taking up boxing or martial arts instead of taking old feelings out on the wife or kids.
Just shifting to more positive actions in life can be very effective -- for MANY people, but far from all. Each person is different.
For the most part, depression (and any associated "imbalance", chemical or otherwise) has roots in trauma from infancy and/or childhood.
"Trauma" is any event sufficiently distressing to cause the experience (or just the emotional portion of the experience) to be blocked from full consciousness. Children and especially infants can be traumatized by events that most adults would shrug off or not even discern.
Such consequential experiences cannot be shrugged off or forgotten; the system is impelled to immediately bring the experience of any threatening event to full consciousness for Darwinian reasons. Yet if the level of pain (emotional or otherwise) is too high to allow for situation-appropriate behavior after integration, especially when there is no way to escape or fix the situation, then repression redirects the experience (or just the emotional component) away from consciousness to improve the chances for survival.
But again: the system is designed, at the deepest level, to bring such events to full consciousness, and to do so with urgency. A traumatic event is a blaring siren telling the organism to DO SOMETHING to escape the danger (of whatever type). So the traumatic experience remains in the system, attempting to gain full consciousness, constantly trying to get noticed and urgently trying to guide behavior in some way that might avoid or neutralize the (old, now long-gone) situation that caused the trauma. Repression prevents the old experience from connecting and thus keeps the siren on constantly, but muted and largely unnoticed -- although symptoms tell the tale. When a person's accumulated repressed trauma is large enough, and/or their defenses are weak enough (temporarily or generally), the malaise of depression is often the result.
The process of repression is what creates neurosis, and the reverberating circuits of repressed experience are what drive inappropriate behavior. The behavior IS appropriate, of course (or as much so as could be conceived at the time), for the situation or event that comprised the trauma, but that situation is NOT what faces the adult in the present.
You can see this dynamic all around you. It is on display throughout the world.
In plain language, neurosis is the repression of feeling. Depression and other inappropriate behavior of almost all types are the direct and inevitable result of that repression.
The remedy for repression of feeling is to feel. To feel the experiences that were buried, and to feel them as the child or infant experienced them in the split second before the mercy of repression shunted experience away from full consciousness.
That remedy is simple yet incredibly difficult. PREVENTION is the only large-scale answer. Treating pregnant mothers, newborns, infants, and children with love and respect is all it takes. A healthy society will never fully emerge without proper treatment of the young.
That isn't news, of course. Wise men and women have been saying such things about the young forever. Jesus was certainly clear on the topic:
Matthew: 18:1 At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
18:2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,
18:3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
18:4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
18:5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.
18:6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
That makes sense if the child is fed a nutrtient-depleted diet. Lack of zinc, B's and vitamin D can lead to depression.
It seems plausible that abused and/or traumatized children would more likely be malnourished than average, and that DOES have an effect on body and brain chemistry. But regardless of nutritional status, trauma has strong effects and there is a LOT of data to support that. Here's a page about the ACE study, for example:
https://pinetreeinstitute.org/aces/
Treating children with love and respect really IS critically important.
Check out what iron deficiency does to the brain.
No amount of love will fix some things.
That's true! And no amount of iron, or anything else, can replace love in the life of an infant and child. Trauma cannot be fixed by diet.
Necessary addition: You're exactly right that no amount of love GIVEN LATER ON will fix neurosis (no matter the symptoms: depression, addiction, whatever).
Can't fix trauma from childhood with warmth and love IN ADULTHOOD. Plenty of people try to do that; sex addiction is an obvious and extreme example.
Old traumatic events MUST be brought to full consciousness to resolve, otherwise they remain, pristine, waiting to BE experienced -- and the system can only handle them in fire-alarm mode because they were, by definition, serious and threatening. THAT is what's being repressed.
Absent bringing the events to full consciousness (actually "becoming as a little child" -- the child that was being traumatized; letting oneself become weak in order to feel pain, draining it OUT of the system so that one can be strong in the present) -- absent that, what is left is trying to strengthen defenses (better nutrition can help) and to strengthen them in ways less damaging -- getting into exercise and sports instead of drinking a lot and getting into fistfights; studying [anything non-toxic] instead of consuming junk media; taking up boxing or martial arts instead of taking old feelings out on the wife or kids.
Just shifting to more positive actions in life can be very effective -- for MANY people, but far from all. Each person is different.