Depression As a Spiritual Journey

by Sorrell, Stephanie

• ISBN13: 9781846942235
• ISBN10: 1846942233
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-10-30
• Publisher: Natl Book Network

Summary

Depression as a Spiritual Journey is the first book to address depression as a spiritual journey in the context of medication and counselling. It serves as an invitation to reframe depression in a new way. Many people resist embracing medication as part of the healing process. Others confuse emotional and mental dis-ease.

Author Biography

Stephanie Sorrell has an MA in Applied Psychosynthesis Psychology. She has worked as editor for New Vision in Chichester for 7 years and also was a spiritual counsellor for some years. Her poetry has been published in gift books worldwide. She is also author of Trusting the Process and The River that Knows the Way. Currently, she works as a Clinical Support Worker at a general hospital in Cumbria.

Table of Contents

Dedication	p. viii
Acknowledgement	p. x
Foreword	p. 1
Introduction	p. 3
Asking the Right Questions	p. 13
What is Depression?	p. 15
Depression as an Illness of Being	p. 19
Moderate to Major Depression	p. 23
Seasonal Affective Disorder	p. 27
Bipolar Disorder	p. 29
Dark Night of the Soul and Creative Depression	p. 34
Loss of Spiritual Connection	p. 34
Depression as a Spiritual Journey	p. 36
The Meaning of Suffering	p. 42
The Three Levels of Suffering	p. 44
Suffering through the Lens of the Major Religions	p. 46
Suffering as Service	p. 49
Persephone and the Underworld	p. 52
The Story	p. 54
Will and Choice	p. 56
Unpacking the Myth	p. 58
A Moral Compass	p. 66
The Light in the Darkness	p. 67
Tools on the Journey	p. 69
Medical Intervention	p. 69
My Own Experience	p. 70
The Healing Field	p. 71
Serotonin and Depression	p. 73
Neurotransmitters and the Role of Neurons	p. 76
Depression and the Brain	p. 79
Glial Cells - the Clue	p. 80
Antidepressants	p. 81
Side Effects	p. 88
Why Medication doesn't Always Work	p. 89
What to do when Medication does Work	p. 90
The Difficulty in Accepting Medication	p. 91
The Roots of Psychology	p. 99
Psychodynamic Therapy	p. 102
Cognitive Behavior Therapy	p. 107
Humanistic Counseling	p. 112
Transpersonal Psychoiogy	p. 114
Jungian Analytical Therapy	p. 317
Post Jungians and Creative Depression	p. 124
Jung and Assagioli	p. 124
My Journey into Psychosynthesis	p. 127
Psychiatrist, Mountaineer and Mystic	p. 131
As Above, so Below	p. 133
Going Deeper	p. 137
Sea Journey as Metaphor	p. 138
The Odyssey	p. 140
Spiritual Emergency to Spiritual Emergence	p. 144
Stanislav Grof, A Psychiatrist with Insight	p. 149
A Psychotic Episode or Spiritual Emergency	p. 154
Spiritual Emergency and the Dark Night of the Soul	p. 157
Distinctions between the Self and the Superconscious	p. 164
Distinctions between Mystical Experience and Schizophrenia	p. 164
Spiritual and Global Emergency Today	p. 165
The Dark Night of the Soul	p. 167
Teresa of Avila	p. 169
St John of the Cross	p. 176
Grace	p. 178
Defining the Dark Night	p. 180
Dark Night of the Senses	p. 181
Dark Night of the Spirit	p. 186
Depression and the Dark Night of the Soul	p. 191
Treasure and Creative Darkness	p. 197
Creativity as Process	p. 204
How to be with someone who is Depressed	p. 215
Understanding Suicide	p. 223
"I Have Lost my Angel."	p. 223
Shame	p. 224
Suicide in the Young	p. 225
Suicide in the Elderly	p. 226
Mindsets about Suicide	p. 227
Suicide Bombers	p. 229
How to be with a Suicidal Person	p. 232
From Doing to Being	p. 232
As a Spiritual Journey	p. 234
The Gift	p. 235
Conclusion	p. 238
Glossary	p. 240
References	p. 244
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