A Note on Anxiety, Depression, and Trauma
At this point, we are all familiar with various uses and meanings of the words Anxiety, Depression, and Trauma. In my practice, I generally hold anxiety and depression as symptoms and trauma as a synonymous with “wounding”.
As such, I don’t see the work as “treating anxiety or depression” so much as exploring and investigating the life circumstances that have left someone fearful, stressed, sad, unmotivated, etc. These emotions and others that fall under the criteria for an anxiety or depression diagnosis are often a natural response to what has happened and is happening externally and internally in one’s life. The work is then to explore why the symptoms and what continues to need attention and healing so that the stress or depressive response is no longer needed.
Trauma comes in so many forms that it would be hard to make a comprehensive list, but the common feature is that it describes a psychic or emotional wound. In response to that wound, and in order to continue surviving we adapt and find strategies to cope that typically work until they don’t. It is frequently the case that clients come in for therapy when the old coping strategies are creating more trouble than they’re helping.
Most of the clients I have worked with exhibit symptoms of anxiety and depression and nearly all of them carry wounding that we attend to in our therapy work. However, I choose to hold the perspective that the work is supporting my fellow humans navigate life and grow into the people we are learning to be instead of fighting the disease of psychological distress. It has been my experience that when the work is successful, the symptoms will diminish naturally as the wounds begin to heal.
