Proceeding through the Slaying the Giant book, Dr. O’Shields describes the five traits common to those who are prone to depression. I know I recognized myself in these…how ’bout you?
You are more inclined to become depressed if you…
1. Are Extremely Introspective Your thoughts center and focus mainly on yourself. Most all your thoughts turn inward…
Guilty as charged. Why do you think I call myself “selfish”? Why do you think I said in a recent meme that I blog to indulge my rampant narcissism? Cause it’s true! Dr O’Shields states that many of these people are unaware of their self-focus. I wish I were. I’d feel less guilty.
2. Are Very Sensitive Sensitive is not to be confused with sensitivity (an alertness and awareness to the feelings of others). Rather, for our purpose here, sensitive means fragile feelings. {…} A particular comment or action that will not faze an ordinary person will be responded to by a person of this temperament with hurt, poutiness, and probably anger.
He forgot to mention tears. You’d be amazed how the tiniest criticism or disagreement can throw me into a tizzy. I’ve gotten better at hiding it in public, since I know that my reactions are too strong. I generally rant and rave at home and get over it before I talk to whomever offended me. But every once in a while… Kaboom!
3. Possess a Negative Self-Image …You have great difficulty liking and accepting yourself as you see yourself to be. Since you are convinced the way you see yourself is the way you really are, then you automatically assume others don’t like or accept you either….
I thought I had licked this problem a long time ago. In some ways I actually have too high an opinion of myself. 
But that second sentence popped me between the eyes. I think I’ve decided that I like me - cause I have to live with me after all. But I’m still totally amazed when anyone else likes me.
4. Have Poor Willpower and Self-Control The preceding traits are always found in this temperament. This one, however, is often present, but not always. When it is, it may incline you toward depression because poor willpower and self-control result in a lack of discipline. The lack of discipline will produce situations that cause you distress, trauma, and guilt. Such crisis situations, coupled with your particular temperament, may be the stone over which you trip headlong into depression…
Yeah. No kidding.
5. Are a Perfectionist
The last trait is so crucial in disposing someone towards depression that the entire next chapter is devoted to it. Dr O’Shields goes on to describe what it means to be a perfectionist.
The perfectionist is not a person who does everything perfectly. Rather, he is the person who equates personal worth and value with doing everything perfectly. Thus, he continually demands perfection of himself even though in his eyes he has never achieved it in anything or any way.
Some other traits of perfectionists include:
1.The perfectionist adopts a self-formulated and self-imposed set of standards and responds negatively toward himself when he falls short.
4. The perfectionist has unrealistic expectations of others, particularly the significant others in his life, and gets angry at them when they don’t measure up….
5. The perfectionist is very structure oriented. He does not bend easily. He views any necessary change in or departure from his plans as being a major interruption. The slightest deviation from “the best way” is totally intolerable…
6. The perfectionist is greatly controlled by “ought” and “should”…
8. The perfectionist is very critical of self, others, and things, but finds it difficult to receive criticism. His difficulty handling criticism directed toward him is not because he feels it is unwarranted. He is already convinced he doesn’t measure up. Rather it is disturbing to him to realize others are now aware of his inadequacy. He interprets their criticism as confirmation of his own negative opinions about himself.
9. The perfectionist is never satisfied or feels he did as well as he should regardless of the level of his achievement…
So now we have the basic outline of the temperament most likely to struggle with depression. You might be tempted to wonder why you have that temperament. Modern psychology might tempt us to spend a lot of time examining our past hurts and how we were raised… But remember, as I said in the last post, the why doesn’t really matter. What matters is what we’re going to do about these doldrums. We’re almost there! So stay tuned!
Oh my. I think I may have to read this book. #1: Check, #2: Check, #3: Check, #4: Check, #5: Check. Thanks so much for your reviews of this and sharing what you’ve been learning!
Comment by Lorri — October 2, 2006 @ 8:43 pm
I can relate to some of that list (although not as much as I could have 5 years ago).
Comment by Blair — October 3, 2006 @ 2:54 pm