Depression Categories

• Reactive depression: This happens when a loved one dies, natural disasters occur, or major crises happen. The mind naturally adjusts to the new reality, and this type typically recedes with time and self-care. However, it can become chronic if you remain trapped in a high-stress environment (like a warzone).
• Chemical depression: Some people genuinely have conditions where dopamine, oxytocin, or serotonin levels are chemically imbalanced. This can be genetic, trauma-induced, or environmental. While medical intervention can sometimes help manage symptoms short-term, there are many holistic paths to help shift these levels, including food, nutrition, and environmental changes.
• Traumatic depression: CPTSD (Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), for example, causes a physical remodeling of brain structures, where specific lobes become hyper-responsive or under-responsive, leading to cyclical, severe mood alteration. Many individuals with this form are highly masked and may not "look" depressed—including famous artists, comedians, and high-profile figures who "seem to have it all" but carry profound internal pain. This is high-functioning depression: you become so accustomed to carrying the weight that you keep moving forward, even while feeling completely empty.
• Cognitive dissonance depression: By far the most common type. Cognitive Dissonance is the painful friction generated when your actions, relationships, or forced compliance conflict with your core beliefs and values, causing your brain to "fritz out." An extreme example is wanting to be a vegan but working in a slaughterhouse because it is the only job in your village. In EIP family systems, it often manifests as the exhausting daily struggle to pretend everything is fine while your boundaries are violated, leading to self-abandonment. Depression here is actually a protective defense mechanism of the mind designed to lower the stress and anguish of this ongoing internal war.

As depression induced by cognitive dissonance is, in my opinion, by far the most common one, head on over to the Cognitive Dissonance page to read more.