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What Causes Depression | The Key Concept You Must Understand

Depression hits you and you start to look up solutions.

Oh, perfect, you find that you can fix depression with just a pill.

Take an SSRI once a day and you won’t have any more problems.

Then after a while, you’re worse off than you were.  Uh oh, let’s look up natural methods.

Someone tells you to just take 5-htp and everything will be better.  Perfect.

But then you feel groggy and off-center.  Nothing seems to work.

What’s the deal?  What’s going on here?

Secondary Symptoms Versus Root Causes

I get emails all the time from people that are both using prescription drugs and from people that are trying to use amino acids and are frustrated that they are only partially working.

It’ll usually be something like this, “I was told I have a serotonin deficiency and I took Zoloft.  It didn’t work, so I must be doomed forever.”

Or this, “I took 5-htp and it didn’t work.  I was told that it was the cure to depression.  What’s wrong?”

The problem is we are all confused as to where the depression is actually coming from in the first place.

We are focusing on the secondary symptoms of what is going on versus figuring out what is causing those symptoms.  We’re trying to get of the symptom instead of what causes depression to appear in the first place.

For example, I was depressed for 11 years.  I went to the doctors and they told me I had a disease and would need to take antidepressants for the rest of my life.

I took a bunch of different medications, with Celexa being the highlight, and they didn’t work or if they did, they only worked for a short period of time.

Then I read a bunch of books and started trying new things.  I got off the antidepressants using b vitamins, tryptophan and 5-htp, and then I fixed my diet, corrected my vitamin d and magnesium deficiency, and then just like that, the depression was gone.

The doctors saw the “depression” as a “thing” versus a symptom.  Instead of focusing on what causes depression they were focused on the symptoms I was experiencing.

Ask “Why” Multiple Times to Get To The Root Cause

I was suicidal, full of anxiety, low energy, and had a horrible mood. Why?

I had low levels of neurotransmitters in my brain.  Why?

I was deficient in nutrients, minerals, and the building blocks for my brain to produce those neurotransmitters in my body to function.  I was also worn down.  Why?

I had gone through years of stress and trauma, ate horrible food, was having allergic responses to bread, and I was deficient in nutrients.

The solution? Fix my diet by eliminating gluten and limit dairy, eat lots of vegetables and healthy fats/proteins, take vitamin d and magnesium to get my levels into the optimal range, get my serotonin back by supplementing with amino acids, then simply eat healthy, sleep great, exercise, and get tests done every now and then to maintain that state.

The depression was just a symptom of all those factors which were messing up my body.

In reality, the depression is what led me to fix the issue.  If I didn’t experience depression, I may not have noticed there was a problem to begin with.

If you want to fix depression, instead of focusing on putting a bandaid on your symptoms, find out what causes your depression instead to fix it at a deeper level.

What Causes Depression For Each Person is Different!

Some people might read my story and think, “Oh okay, what causes depression is gluten, lack of vegetables, and a vitamin d and magnesium deficiency.  Perfect I’ll go do that.”

That may or may not work, because every person has different things causing their depression. Depression is unique for each person.

It’s also a very common thinking error that when something works for one person, they think it should work for everyone.

For example, one person finds that eating lots of carbs makes her feel better and then proclaims the ultimate diet is to eat bananas and potatoes all day.  Yet, another person genetically doesn’t tolerate carbs very well, and actually he performs better with lots of healthy fats.

The answer isn’t to eat bananas all day, but to test if eating bananas and lots of carbs makes you feel good (or just get your DNA tested).

This commenter already knew that there was no deficiency in magnesium, but took it anyways because someone probably said it was the answer to everything.

No wonder it caused negative effects for him, he wasn’t supposed to be taking it in the first place.

One person might say that smoking marijuana fixed everything for him.

However, if I was to go smoke marijuana myself I would fall down a rabbit hole of despair within 3 days and get wrecked.

Some people get frustrated when some supplements work and some don’t work.

However, this person is actually on the right track!  All the supplements that he took that didn’t work  aren’t related to his root causes. That gives us clues to what he does and doesn’t need. If methyl b12 and magnesium is working, why is that making him feel better and what does that mean to get to the next level of healing?

You should always be asking yourself what causes depression for you.

If you try something and it doesn’t work, that is a good thing.  That means you ruled that out and are one step closer to success.

Everyone has different causes for their depression.  One person might have mineral deficiencies.  One person might have heavy metal toxicity.  One person might be allergic to gluten and eating so crappy for decades that their body can’t function anymore until some kale and spinach gets put in that belly.  Another person might have a chronic Epstein-Barr virus infection, adrenal fatigue, leaky gut, and stress problems.

Each one of those people are going to have very different methods that work for getting better.

Hell, one person might just be a bit low and start taking cold showers or doing cryotherapy to feel better.

Why are we so focused on symptoms, band-aid solutions, proclaiming a one size fit-all approach, and little tricks instead of focusing on the truth about what causes depression?

Fixing Root Causes Takes Work

Let me ask you a question.

What do you think would get more people to opt-in to a program?

If I said, “This One Little Supplement Cured 98.4% of All Depressed People That Took It!” or if I said, “Figure Out Your Depression’s Root Causes with Testing, Get On a Plan To Fix Them, and Beat Your Depression Long-Term by Changing Your Diet, Lifestyle, and Sleep.”

Exactly, the first one.

Is it easier to try to learn a trick or actually do the work? I

Is it easier to be sold “just take this pill” or is it easier to be sold, “Learn what causes depression for you, stop eating junk food and drinking coke, eat a lot of vegetables, get 8-9 hours of sleep, get a bunch of testing done to rule out deficiencies?”

Easy and quick solutions sell a lot because our brains are hardwired to be lazy and do the least amount possible to get a desired result. You wouldn’t want to walk to your friend’s house in 4 1/2 hours when you could drive there in 28 minutes would you?

That’s why when we hear of a pill that can cure everyone, we want to take it.  Our brain thinks, “Oh wow, that’s easy and won’t use too much energy so I can use that energy elsewhere for survival instead.”

Along with the myth that depression is simply a chemical imbalance and the push for antidepressants everywhere, people are confused as to what depression really is and how to actually fix it.

People usually only find my site after they take antidepressants for a while and realize they are still having a hard time.

It’s simple.  If someone needs vitamin d and to fix their adrenal glands, anything other than correcting their vitamin d deficiency and getting their cortisol secretion on track will fix their depression.

It’s just harder to figure out what causes depression for you and implement the solution than it is to feel a symptom and get something quick that will just help the symptom.

How To Actually Fix Your Depression

Let’s say your house is filling up full of smoke because of a fire in the living room.  This is causing you to choke and cough.

Taking a quick pill or looking for the quick solution is like focusing on the smoke and opening the windows so that you aren’t coughing anymore.

Focusing on what causes depression and fixing the root causes is like hitting the fire with a fire extinguisher so that there is no smoke production to begin with.

You must be focused on what causes depression for you and know that you have to figure that out to have depression relief long-term.

You must focus on your own personal physiology and figure out what works best for you instead of assuming one solution is the answer for everyone.

Once you adopt this mentality, everything will change for you and you’ll start to see depression for what it really is.

If I start to feel bad, instead of thinking, “Oh no! Depression has gotten a hold of me!” I instead think, “Hmm… what is happening that is making me feel that way?” Figure out what that is, and then fix it.

Let me know in the comments what you’ve done to figure out what causes depression for you and if you have any questions.