Why has depression been increasing so rapidly on our planet in the last twenty years? Statistically, more people will experience and be diagnosed with depression this year than last. Depression is a disease much more subtle than cancer or diabetes but can be just as fatal. It is a disease that attaches itself to other diseases. If you are currently undergoing cancer treatment, you can expect depression to sink in with the diagnosis and follow you through treatment. At times, depression can become a major problem -- unless you are one of the few who figure out what meaning your disease has for you and, with that knowledge, set about to change your life.

Depression is now showing up in children and is rampant among teenagers. They claim to find no "meaning" in anything. There is big money involved in creating new drug varieties to suppress the symptoms of depression so people can function. In most medical paradigms, drugs solve the problem. Just tell your doctor you are depressed; she will probably prescribe a drug. You don't even have to have treatment. You can just take the drug until your life situation improves -- or the rest of your life if need be. Unfortunately, this is no solution at all. Fortunately, the holistic approach incorporates body, mind and spiritual therapy to bring about a permanent solution.

A few years ago, a client of mine went to a psychiatrist because her mother died and she was deeply grieving. Grief is very often confused with depression. With plenty of medical insurance to use, she thought a professional could help her move through the grief in a healthier way. The psychiatrist said to her, "Why bother to grieve when I can give you an antidepressant and you won't have to grieve at all?" The woman then got angry. Why? Because the psychiatrist had threatened something very special to her: the meaning of her mother's death. The woman chose a holistic approach, allowing the grief process to unfold naturally, taking time off work when she needed to cry. Through ceremony and ritual, she savored every part of her process, completing the relationship with her mother and deepening her soul.

Along with lack of meaning, hopelessness is one of the main ingredients necessary for depression to thrive. In this respect, it is a spiritual disease and much less likely to occur in people who are practicing a religion, or living with spiritual values. With television and the media distorting reality, painting false elaborate pictures of how life should be, it is easy to not measure up. No wonder depression is more common in mid- life! The "American Dream" easily becomes a nightmare when the first half of life is over and we realize we haven't achieved the dreams we started out with. The failure of those dreams can hurl us into depression: the perfect relationship turned sour or never arrived, financial setbacks, the perfect family destroyed through alcohol, addiction or an affair. The hopeless that we will never get it right sets in. Figuring out that life is not about "who has the most toys wins" can be the first step to figuring out what life is really all about.

I recently did some healing work with a young man just out of institutional treatment for drug abuse. New to Alaska, he was at a crossroads in his life and considering antidepressants again. Both of his parents (divorced since he was 2) had been on antidepressants for his entire childhood. His mother had found her way out of depression and off drugs through a holistic health approach. The young man had been on an antidepressant during his early teenage years, before he discovered that recreational drugs and alcohol worked better for him. It just wasn't cool to be on antidepressants, but it was cool to drink and drug. Now that he had given up the alcohol and drugs, he just couldn't shake the depression. Through Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), however, he had begun to develop a relationship with his Higher Power.

As we began to explore his basic belief systems and attitudes that were carried as energy in his body, the main theme that emerged was "why bother?" He energetically carried a thought system he inherited from his parents: "Nothing works for me, so why bother?" Scanning his field, I noticed that many energy flows in his body were shut down. The vision I received was of a blanket thrown over a light, concealing his light. On the surface, he was mildly upset because he had a very young daughter that his girlfriend wouldn't allow him to parent. Was he going to get his parental rights established legally, I asked? The thought never occurred to him. "Why bother?" Another man was with the girlfriend now. Besides, his daughter was so young she wouldn't even remember him. "Why bother?"

Behind these beliefs was a lot of anger because it did matter; it mattered very much. This young man loved and wanted his child, but he had no role model for expressing his anger. He had lived with depressed parents whose brains and psyches were chemically altered. He had learned not to feel, not to question, not to reach out. Feelings that needed to be explored and expressed because they led to the signposts in life showing him which way to go were all neatly suppressed. His anger would have gotten him in touch with the deep primitive parental love he carried for his daughter.

The depression lifted when we energetically cleared the thought "Nothing works, so why bother?" Suddenly, everything mattered. He saw how things could work for him, and how he could develop a relationship with his daughter. He made plans to go back to his home state. Hope was alive and well underneath it all. His child gave meaning to his life.

Did the depression end here for him? Probably not. Old habits die hard. New habits have to be reinforced. I recommended that Martial Arts might be a good way to help him deal with the powerlessness that had blanketed his life force. He needed to learn how to motivate himself, express his anger appropriately, work with feelings, deepen and nurture his new relationship with his Higher Power and baby daughter -- things that gave him meaning. He needed spiritual values and ceremony to put him in touch with his soul. I recommended he find a men's center and get additional training in coping skills. I also suggested that he find a church to belong to, or to do things that made a difference to others and made him feel good about himself.

It takes courage to unravel your life. Using prescription antidepressants can be a temporary fix. You can accept the medical model that says your hormones just don't work right and live on drugs. Or, you can explore yourself and look for beliefs and habitual thoughts that block natural happiness. You can decide for yourself what matters in life and what doesn't; you can decide where meaning resides within yourself.

There are many religions and churches to help us in our quest for hope and meaning. There are treatment programs that include good exercise regimens and diet. We are currently in the midst of a spiritual revolution of sorts. In this new 21st century, with all of our amazing technology, we will completely redefine our lives to see where the real meaning lies. It could be that the mass depression we seem to be experiencing is just a precursor to this new definition of life that our emerging spirituality will give us.