Existential depression: very common in people with high intelligence

What sense does this world have? Why are there so many injustices and inequalities? Family, work, friends… is there nothing else in this life, something more transcendent? These types of questions are what shape what is known as existential depression. It is a type of condition that appears in very reflective people or people characterized, in turn, by high intelligence.

Depression has many forms, it is conditioned by infinite variables. and each patient experiences it in a particular and distinctive way. Thus, and although we have all heard about existential crises, it should be noted that this reality is somewhat more complex. A crisis can arise as an effect of an adverse experience, also when entering a new stage of our life cycle.

However, existential depression, first described in the 1950s by the psychiatrist Heinz Haefner It tells us about a type of disorder that, although it is not described in the DSM-V (diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders), occurs with special frequency among the population with great talents.

They are those people who don’t seem to find meaning in life. They are profiles that delve excessively into dimensions such as death, lack of freedom, social injustices and that abyss where existence becomes lonely and one feels disconnected from everything that surrounds them.

In these states, they are the own thinking and obsessive ideas that undermine the balance until weakening the emotional fabric of the person.

Existential depression: origin and characteristics

Jean Paul-Sartre said that people do not know what we want and yet we are responsible for what we are. Existentialist philosophy is always a great reference for unraveling many of those mental processes, reflections and personal skeins that patients suffering from existential depression derive from.

Kazimierz Dabrowski, Polish psychiatrist of the early 20th century, was one of the references that most studied the problems that people with high abilities usually faced. This expert told us about what is known as ‘positive disintegration’ and that it would explain in some way one of the origins of this condition.

The problem of confronting what we are with what surrounds us

Kazimierz Dabrowski established that people can go through 5 stages of personal development. Now, a good part of the population (between 60 and 70% according to the author himself) remains in the initial phase; that is, in the primary integration stage. In this phase, people limit themselves, little by little, to adjusting to the ‘mold’ of their own society. We discipline ourselves, so to speak, and integrate its failures, adapting to all the good and not so good that our environment provides us.

Now, there are people who get trapped in the third level of Dabrowski’s theory. It refers to spontaneous disintegration. One perceives great discrepancies between one’s own values ​​and what defines society.. The gaze of the thoughtful person or person with high abilities feels excessively the weight of injustice, falsehood, materialism…

If these dimensions have a profound impact on the person, they will, therefore, be in that fourth phase that Dabrowski called multilevel disintegration.. In it, the human being does not find vital meaning. Little by little, he becomes a mere observer who only appreciates the failures, the nonsense and an emptiness that sooner or later ends up suffocating him.

The four dimensions that describe existential depression

Irvin David Yalom, professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University and psychotherapist, is another of the experts who has studied existential depression. in his book Existential psychotherapy explains to us those four factors that usually determine this reality:

Losing someone and reflecting on the meaning of death. This can certainly be a trigger; However, by itself it is not useful for the diagnosis of existential depression, the rest of the elements must be present. However, suffering a close or not close loss often causes the person with high intelligence to begin a process of doubt and reflection about the meaning of death.The lack of freedom. This is another element of great importance. It is common for this profile to often wonder why human beings do not have greater creative power, a greater impulse to create and achieve. Society itself always acts as a vetoer, as a controlling entity that cuts our wings.The lack of meaning. This is a dimension that Viktor Frankl already told us about in his book Man’s Search for Meaning. If the human being does not find meaning in his life, meaninglessness, anguish and depression appear.Isolation and loneliness. Not feeling understood, perceiving that one sees the world in a very different way from the rest creates isolation and a great emptiness.

What treatment is there for existential depression?

Cognitive behavioral therapy is undoubtedly one of the best approaches to treating existential depression. Nevertheless, It is important not to lose sight of the theory of psychiatrist Kazimierz Dabrowski. The last stage of his approach to human development is positive or secondary integration.

It would therefore be essential that we work on that phase that follows the multilevel disintegration stage. The aspects that make it up are the following:

Work on our self-awareness. Clarify our goals, desires, needs, values…Define and work on our meaning in life. Placing a purpose on our horizon and working with it gives us momentum, helps us find motivation, encouragement and enthusiasm.

Last, but not least, it is recommended that we learn to use adequate emotional self-education.

Dabrowski, already at this time at the beginning of the 20th century, understood that good understanding and emotional management It is key to the fulfillment of the human being. It not only guarantees our well-being, but helps us evolve in every way. Let’s think about it, let’s not hesitate to request expert help in case we are going through this same situation.

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