Internal factors

TESS

The internal factors of depression are psychological characteristics that can increase the risk of developing depression. It can be ordinary nervousness, a very negative way of thinking or a passive behavioural pattern.

Ordinary nervousness

Your tendency to become nervous depends both on your heredity and environment. Nervousness is like other personality traits determined both by your genes and your personal development. If you are easily emotionally disturbed and vulnerable, you are at a greater risk of becoming depressed. If you have a tendency to react with strong negative feelings, you can easily become completely down and out emotionally when you are subjected to external strains like marital separation or being reprimanded. If you are generally very nervous, you need to avoid environmental strains and stressful influences in order not to increase the risk of developing depression.

A very negative way of thinking

A negative way of thinking means that you are inclined to think in a pessimistic way, especially when you are up against adversity. A negative way of thinking is especially marked by three things:

• An inclination to take the blame for unpleasant events.
• An inclination to believe that unfortunate events will spread to other aspects of one’s life.
• A belief that nothing will improve. You believe that you will be subjected to unpleasant events for the rest of your life.

A new American study has shown that young men with a negative way of thinking had a 16 times greater risk of becoming depressed compared to others who do not have a negative way of thinking.

Passive behavioural pattern

You have a passive behavioural pattern when you react to adversity by:

• coming to a complete stop
• giving up on solving problems
• escaping problems

The risk of becoming depressed would be smaller if, in your childhood (or later), you learned how to solve problems, i.e. being active instead of passive. One way of solving problems is to talk about them. But if you have a passive response pattern, it might be a result of negative thinking. Perhaps you often tell yourself: "I can't do anything anyway". And the reason you think this way might be because you haven't learned how to solve life's problems in an active and constructive way. A low or unstable self-esteem (which fluctuates up and down in line with prosperity and adversity) can also increase the risk of developing depression. The same applies to people with a high degree of emotional dependence on other people or people who generally lack the ability to trust other people.