How do people become "addicted" to depression?
Many people who live with depression are frustrated by the suggestion that they are "addicted" to it. Depression is not a choice, and it is not an addiction in the medical sense. Yet psychologists have long observed that some people can become emotionally attached to familiar patterns of suffering, even when those patterns cause pain. The attachment is not to sadness itself, but to the habits, beliefs, and emotional dynamics that depression creates. When depression persists for months or years, it can become part of a person's identity. The individual may stop thinking, "I am experiencing depression" and begin thinking, "This is who I am." The depressed self becomes familiar terrain. Even when recovery opportunities arise, they may feel unsettling. Hope can feel risky. Change requires effort and uncertainty. Remaining in familiar despair can seem psychologically safer than venturing into an unknown future. Depression can also provide hidden rewards, ...