The Hero’s Journey Out of Depression
By Karen R. Rider
Traveling the world to reach those whose darkness is greater than the light that surrounds them, Dr. James Gordon does not view depression only as a disease that we must eradicate. “It’s a sign,” he says, “that we’re stuck and our lives are out of balance. We can restore balance and a person can emerge from depression stronger and wiser.”
The Harvard trained psychiatrist is rare among his peers, most of whom adhere to a medical model of depression. In his book, Unstuck: Your Guide to the Seven Stage Journey Out of Depression, Gordon lights a pathway of hope and healing, for those who are suffering in the desolate depths of the mind and spirit.
The foundation for Gordon’s paradigm for healing depression comes from the work of the great mythologist, Joseph Campbell, who is best known for the ‘hero’s journey’—one of many relevant themes found in legend and myth across cultures. Gordon shows how each of us is the hero of our own story—capable of changing and healing through depression on the journey toward living a joy-filled, balanced life.
The Seven Stage paradigm has been proven to work in hospitals and private practice as well as war-torn nations and areas ravaged by extremes of nature. The paradigm has been successful with everyone—stressed executives, military veterans, parents and teens, and victims of abuse, trauma and natural disaster. Through Global Trauma Relief, spearheaded by Dr. Gordon, remarkable shifts have been seen among people in Gaza and Haiti and with troops returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Additionally, Dr. Gordon continues to work with people and organizations in Israel, Kosovo and post-Katrina Southern Louisiana.
OM Times: The power of this book, Unstuck, is the way you remove the stigma attached to depression. Let’s talk about that and how to use this book.
Gordon: Thank you. Depression, grief, ‘the blues’, comes to many of us at some point in life. It’s okay. It does not mean we are fatally flawed. These times are calling us… how you answer the call is what shapes your life.
Each year, more than 30 million Americans have antidepressant prescriptions written, even though many of them are not clinically depressed. I wanted to share the knowledge, and I hope, wisdom, I have acquired in a book for people who have been depressed and for people who feel stuck in life, who aren’t coping adequately but aren’t “clinically depressed.”
Many very depressed people are still able to focus on something, even a page at a time. I hope the book engages their attention and helps them. Family members can share, even read to, the very depressed person who may not be able to use the book on their own. The book does not have to be read in sequence. Use it as it suits you and your needs right now. The journey is different for each of us.
Om Times: You talk a great deal about movement, literal and symbolic, in healing from depression.
Dr. Gordon: Movement of the body moves the mind and the soul… we begin to free ourselves. We get unstuck. The scientific evidence is important… it shows us what is possible if we can exercise 30 minutes a day a few days a week. But what if you can’t do that? The type, amount and duration of movement will be different for each person. One person may begin with walking to the mailbox and back. Another person will walk one block. Test things for yourself.
Om Times: What is the problem you see with medication as a first-line treatment for depression?
Dr. Gordon: At the beginning of the book, I present the evidence that drugs are not an appropriate first-course of action for depression for most people. Quite definitive meta-analyses of the research literature (unpublished as well as published) show this. I use the science and research to look critically at the conventional white-coat “drug-dispensing, answer dispensing doctor” approach.
People have the capacity to help themselves and physicians need to honor and encourage this. Yoga, meditation, journaling, exercise, movement… you have the capacity, with some guidance and support [from those with knowledge and experience] to act on the answers that you discover from listening, from paying attention. Don’t give up the minute something doesn’t work for you. Keep trying.
Om Times: Why are we still locked into the white-coat model?
Dr. Gordon: Huge marketing campaigns to doctors and to the public convey that pills “cure” the condition. The positive studies get published and the negative studies are suppressed. Once you look at the unpublished data on file at the FDA, you discover these drugs are little, if any better than sugar pills. There is tremendous pressure to get drugs to market. These decisions are shaped by social, economic, political forces.
Moving through and beyond depression involves waking-up to what’s going on around us. Sadly, there are people who have an interest in keeping us dependent on the old medical model. People should question what they see and hear.
Om Times: In Unstuck, you talk about the importance of a guide(s). What do you mean?
Dr. Gordon: The hero or heroine in almost all cultural traditions has a guide to help them make decisions, to examine their lives. Different from an authority figure who gives you direction and you follow, sometimes blindly, a guide helps you discover option and facilitates the steps toward what will be best for you. There’s no self-interest—a guide is concerned about your wellbeing. We, in this society, need to get over the mistaken belief that we have to do it all ourselves. This is about balancing self-care [and self-responsibility] with support.
Om Times: What about the premise that some people are pre-disposed to depression?
Dr. Gordon: Sure, some folks have a predisposition—so what? It may be useful to know you have a predisposition, but only if you use this knowledge as a basis for corrective action. Unless we learn something beneficial from it, we may just allow it to become a reason for taking the drugs. It can also be used as a way to avoid helping ourselves.
One study that is often cited from Duke University that suggests a particular genetic vulnerability is actually now widely disputed. And even if you take the study’s findings at face value, they show that, actually, the vulnerability is to stress, and that the incidence of depression is secondary to how we deal with stress. Many factors contribute to depression, especially loss (a type of stressor), and how we deal with financial setbacks. The key is to use whatever knowledge you have about your history (personal and family) or a so-called “predisposition” and put that to service to move your life forward.
Om Times: How do we do this?
Dr. Gordon: Psychoanalysis can be and has been a beautiful system for understanding one’s life but it can become a block if you keep rehashing the past. It’s more important to know what you need in the [present] moment. Depression pulls you into the past or pushes you to worry about the future. Relaxing into the present and what best serves you, right now, is powerful medicine and creates the calm out of which new, more creative thought and action can come. The techniques offered in the book are ways to move out of the blocked/apprehensive ways of being and into mindful action.
Om Times: Could you give an example?
Dr. Gordon: You’re in a lousy relationship. Can you imagine another way? What does it look like, feel like, sound like? Draw this relationship on paper. Then draw what it would be if it was the way you wanted it to be. What are the differences? Allow your creative unconscious to support you.
Om Times: In your clinical work, what do you consider about how depression manifests in any given patient?
Dr. Gordon: I never overlook biological factors, even though I don’t reach for my prescription pad first. I recommend a nutritional regimen of whole foods and supplements. For many people there are imbalances in the body that affect mood. For example, conventional medical tests don’t pick-up a vitamin or mineral deficiency, heavy metals in the body, inflammatory processes or food sensitivities. A variety of tests can uncover sensitivities that may affect mental state. There are resources in Unstuck that help a reader find the [appropriate] practitioner to make this kind of assessment and develop therapeutic plans.
Om Times: Dr. Gordon, what projects are you involved in, now?
Dr. Gordon: I’m working on writing a new book that looks at how best to support, guide and help bring healing to places and peoples affected by international trauma. In conjunction with the Department of Defense and Veteran’s Affairs, I’m conducting research to study how veteran soldiers of Iraq and Afghanistan respond to our program. At The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (Washington, D.C.), I’m involved in training programs for providers in Mind-Body Medicine, Food as Medicine and Cancer Guides programs.
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Website: http://www.cmbm.org/ The Center for Mind-Body Medicine
Booksite: http://jamesgordonmd.com/unstuck-self-healing-depression.html
