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William, I agree in part with your analysis of cd, but I have to disagree with it being mainly due to unrealistic family or personal expectations. It is too simple to say that families are responsible or that it is a *learned * thing. It is more likely biological if the use of an antidepressant can help one feel like night and day. Research has shown that it tends to run in families and is more apt to occur in women than in men. If similar expectations are placed on children in a family, yet one accepts these differently, it doesnt cause cd as a life long condition. I believe it adds to the ongoing cd that is present but most likely unrecognized. The cd is still there no matter how good or how poorly one does.. it is hidden from sight and only you know that it is waitng to appear again at any given moment. ----- Original Message ----- From: William Harshaw <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2000 5:09 AM Subject: Clinical Depression > I have had clinical depression, although it wasn't so bad as to be > disabling. You may very well say, "Then you did not have CD" Perhaps > not. It related to my PD and would be classed as endogenous. > > CD of the exogenous variety is endemic in my wife's family. Her mother, > brother, and one, possibly two of her sisters, two of four nieces, one of > three nephews and our daughter are all subject to CD. My wife, Esther, has > bouts of CD. > > With CD manifesting itself in families, one wonders if it might be a learned > behaviour > > I believe that CD is caused by standards for an individual being set too > high, whether by the individual or some external source, to possibly attain. > When the standards are not met, the individual is subjected to criticism and > ridicule, either self-imposed or externally, leading to feelings of > inadequacy, self revulsion which grow exponentially and synergistically to > include all aspects of performance, not just the area centred out for > criticism. > > The road back is long and treacherous, because no one likes to admit being a > failure, either in their own eyes or those of others. Robert Browning's > aphorism "Your reach should exceed your grasp, else what's a heaven for" and > many others like it encapsulate the primacy of ambition and success in > society today. > > An individual with CD often has to scale back his standards and goals to > ones which are realistically attainable. This can be particularly difficult > if the standards have been implicit and relative rather than explicit and > absolute. This is where professional help is necessary to guide the > afflicted on a safe route. >