Causes of Depression: Overcoming the Core Beliefs of Depression

We are born with a clean slate and develop as humans with five senses. Our eyes are exposed to a wide variety of images. Our ears hear countless sounds. Our skin touches assorted surfaces: pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant. Our noses distinguish between thousands of different smells. Our mouths detect limitless different ingredients in our food.

From our five senses, we encode memories into our short-term and long-term memory. Our memories are gained or lost throughout our lifetimes. In our brains, memory storage is greater than any supercomputer. We convert memories into thoughts based on our experiences.

As we sort through these memories, we make assumptions predicting future actions and what others are thinking. We create rules to govern our everyday lives. By developing these rules, we rely on our hypotheses that will reach a certain conclusion.

Beginning in early childhood, we gradually increase the speed of our decision-making and decrease the time required to reach a conclusion. By the time we reach adulthood, we have tens of thousands of thoughts per day. Automatic thinking allows us to make split-second decisions based on our memories, images, and thoughts. Without automatic thinking, we could become bogged down and immersed in our thoughts.

However, because we live in a broken world with broken people, our thinking is not always accurate. In other words, we are susceptible to faulty thinking.

When our thinking becomes connected to an early memory, image, or series of thoughts, it will form our core beliefs. Core beliefs shape how we see ourselves, others, and our future. They drive our perceptions and play a significant role in our executive functioning. Core beliefs are what we often unconsciously believe about ourselves, how others feel about us, and how we view the future.

Core beliefs are deep within us like coal buried deep in the earth. Intermediate rules, assumptions, and conditional statements form the middle layer covering the core belief. Automatic thoughts are on the surface, happen immediately, and often without much thought. It is important to dig deep inside to discover one’s faulty core beliefs and substitute them with more accurate, balanced thinking.

Five core beliefs of depression

For the rest of the article, I like to present five common core beliefs of people suffering from depression and replace them with thoughts from God’s Word. The most five common beliefs are: “I am unlovable,” “I am worthless,” “I am hopeless,” “I am helpless,” and “I am inadequate.”

My goal is not to condemn anyone or make anyone feel even worse. Being depressed is not a sin. Sadness is a human emotion that we have received from God. For example, we become sad when someone we love passes away. However, because our experiences, memories, images, and thought formulations are not always based on a positive event, we can become stuck believing our own negative core beliefs.

Unlovable

Depression can make us feel unloveable. I am not oblivious to human suffering. I have been exposed to the heart-breaking treatment of children who have been neglected, abused, and treated with extreme indignity. Despite all these horrific things, others – especially Christians – can love you, take compassion on you, and show kindness to you. The apostle John devotes an entire chapter (I John 4) commanding Christians to love one another as Christ loved them.

People may let you down, but God will never fail you. He loves everyone in this world. The Bible tells us that he loved us so much that he gave His own Son to be sacrificed on the cross for us (Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, John 19). Psalm 139:13-14 reminds us that God chose for each one of us to come into this world and so created us in our mother’s womb. The apostle John states that “…God is love” (I John 4:8b, NIV). Without a doubt, you are loved and lovable.

Worthless

Someone once told me that I would never amount to anything. These words were extremely hurtful. These words stung because they were uttered in anger by someone who I love. Many people carry this burden daily as they evaluate their human value as little or nothing. It weighs heavily on their self-esteem and self-worth. These individuals often lack self-compassion and that drives depression.

You may not place much value on yourself as a human being, but Your Heavenly Father does. Reassuring his disciples, Jesus states, “So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:31, NIV).

Your worth is not measured in your job or by how much money you make. Your value is not evaluated by the size of your house or your physical attractiveness. Even though circumstances and temporary setbacks can be burdensome, they do not reflect your importance. Purpose can be found; meaning can be explored, and feeling significant can be possible.

Hopeless

Everyone faces dark times. These times are plagued with a lack of optimism. Dark times paralyze our ability to respond to life’s challenges. It often seems that everything that can go wrong will go wrong. Regardless of our attempts to change our situations, our lives become like being stuck in a running clothes dryer running in circles, applying heat, and feeling uncomfortable.

As a society, we suffered great despair as a worldwide pandemic hovered over our heads from 2020 to 2023. However, the pandemic slowly reduced its direct impact on society. This process shows that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

The Bible’s teaching illustrates two acronyms about hope: “Hold On, Pain Ends” and “Hold On, Possibilities Exist” (AcronymFinder.com). For Christians, we know that the pain will end one day: “‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes.

There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:4, NIV). That also means there will be no more depression. When things seem impossible, God has proven countless times that He can make it possible.

Helpless

We come into this world vulnerable. We rely upon parents and other people to help nurture us properly. As stated above, the bad news is that people can let us down, which causes trust issues. We have been impacted by traumatic events. Some people never learned how to cope and respond to various situations. We are blinded from seeing the resources around us and become lost. We are separated from our support systems.

The good news is that you are not alone. It is a familiar struggle of mankind. Seeking help is a common refrain in the book of Psalms as David cried out to the Lord (i.e. Psalm 5:2). God has given us His Holy Spirit to “help us in our weaknesses” (Romans 8:26, NIV). As Christians, one of our roles is to “help the weak” (I Thessalonians 5:14, NIV). Help is available. If you ask for it, you will receive it.

Inadequate

Michael Jordan missed over thirty thousand shots in his career. Would Michael Jordan call himself inadequate and sink into depression? I am certain that there were some days that he did not play his best game. It is difficult to make shots when teams constantly are fouling you. He has faced injuries and illness affecting his performance.

We are imperfect people living in an imperfect world. We will never meet the goal of perfection. As human beings, we are adequate and are enough. It does not stop us from giving up. It does not mean that we stop working on ourselves and not try to improve our situations. However, we need to have compassion for ourselves. Like the apostle, we need to allow his grace to be sufficient for us and God’s power to strengthen us (2 Corinthians 12: 9).

Conclusion

If you are feeling the painful symptoms of depression, remember that you are loved lovable, you have value, hope can be found, help is available, and acceptance can be freely given. Often, individuals cannot find relief by themselves. Please contact one of the qualified Christian counselors in our directory.