INTERVIEW: VALERIE WHIFFEN, author of A SECRET SADNESS
 
New Harbinger Publications:
Early in the book you spend some time discussing the differences between sadness and depression. What are some of those differences?

Valerie E. Whiffen: It’s normal to feel sad when we lose someone who is important to us or when we fail to meet an important life goal. But when we are depressed, we feel badly about ourselves. We may feel defective or that we have somehow caused bad things to happen to us.

NHP: How can a woman recognize that she is depressed and should seek treatment?

If a woman feels sad and down on herself every day for at least two weeks and also experiences physical symptoms like changes in her appetite or sleep, she may be depressed.

VEW: Women can benefit from therapy even if they aren’t clinically depressed. Any woman who is unhappy and wants to stop feeling that way should look for help. However, if she has experienced more than one period of depression that lasted for a significant amount of time – say two months or more – I would strongly recommend that she seek treatment. Depression tends to be a recurring problem; if a woman has been depressed two or more times, she is highly likely to become depressed again.

NHP: What are signal functions? Can you give an example of how the loss of signal functions can cause depression?

VEW: Emotions have “signal functions.” Emotions give us important information about how we are experiencing a situation. When we feel anxious, there is something about the situation that is threatening to us. Even if our feeling of threat is greater than what another person might experience, there is something about the situation that is a genuine threat to us. If we pay attention to our emotional responses, we know how to act. For instance, if I am feeling anxious about writing an exam, I know that the exam is important to me and that I want to do well. Realizing that I’m anxious about the exam prompts me to do something to ensure my success, like studying hard.

The feeling that is associated with depression is sadness. We feel sad when we lose an important relationship or when we feel rejected or unappreciated by people whose opinion we value. If we are paying attention to our sadness, we will be prompted to do something about the relationship that saddens us, if possible to improve it. When we don’t pay attention to our feelings in relationships, we stick with them even though they make us unhappy. Over time, our unhappiness can become depression, especially if we begin to blame ourselves for the way we are treated.

NHP: What are blind spots?

VEW: Most of us have a hard time facing unpleasant truths about our relationships. No one wants to admit that someone we care about doesn’t seem to care about us. I think of these unpleasant truths as blind spots. As we do when we’re driving, we may have a feeling something is there but we can’t see it unless we turn to look at it.

NHP: How can discovering your blind spots help conquer your depression?

VEW: When I work with depressed women, they often feel better right away when they admit what is in their blind spot. It can be a relief just to put it into words to another person. When we see what’s in our blind spots, we also have the opportunity to do something constructive. If I feel sad because of the way I am treated by my spouse, I can try to express these feelings with the goal of improving our relationship.

NHP: How many symptoms of depression should a woman have before you recommend that she seek professional help?

VEW: Women can benefit from therapy even if they aren’t clinically depressed. Any woman who is unhappy and wants to stop feeling that way should look for help.

NHP: What are some biological factors that contribute to depression?

VEW: If we think of the causes of depression as a pie, biological factors account for one-third of the pie. At this time, these biological factors aren’t well understood. However, we know that stress reactivity is one piece of the puzzle. Women who are more easily stressed than other people and who have difficulty calming themselves down again are at risk for depression. People who experience prolonged periods of stress also are at risk for depression because of the biological impact of stress on our bodies.

NHP: The fact that depression rates for women increase at puberty and after childbirth would seem to indicate a link between depression and a woman’s reproductive hormones — is this the case?

VEW: This is certainly a popular idea. However, at this time, there is no evidence that links reproductive hormones to depression at any time in women’s lives. Women become depressed during and after reproductive events like childbearing for the same reasons that they become depressed at other times in their lives.

NHP: Can genetics alone determine whether a woman will experience depression?

VEW: The genetic risk for depression varies from one person to another; some people have a high genetic risk, while others have a minor risk. No matter how great the genetic risk, however, women almost always have to experience life stress as well to become depressed.

NHP: What is the link between gender roles and depression in women?

VEW: What is it about the lives of girls and women that puts them at risk? I believe gender roles are linked to depression because girls and women want to have close, harmonious relationships. When relationships are healthy and secure, they protect women from becoming depressed, but relationships that are conflicted and insecure are detrimental to women’s emotional wellbeing. The fact that women care about their relationships makes them vulnerable to depression when those relationships go wrong.