Depression is a state of behavioral shutdown. It generally emerges when individual’s patterns of investment fail to meet needs for psychological nourishment. As a consequence, the individual’s negative emotion system is jacked up and positive emotion system dampened, and they have lots of difficulty initiating new activities. Although depression usually makes functional sense, it also often makes things worse, resulting in a vicious cycle of shutdown.
Adjustment based: Sometimes called “situational depression,” this occurs when an individual experiences a significant life event that they cannot adjust to, such as a new school or new work environment or family life following divorce. Nothing feels right in the new setting and the individual longs for a return to the way things were. If the situation changes, mood usually returns to normal
Bipolarity: Characterized by individuals with very different “self-states,” one side that is energetic, enthusiastic, normal, and fine, and another side that feels completely different, bitter, pessimistic, hopeless irritable. May present as “crazy mood swings,” triggered by stress or alcohol use, but often reflect two very different ways of seeing/experiencing the world that the executive self cannot integrate, thus the person vacillates between them.

















