A Case Of Profound Depression

- Dr Frank Gruber

This is a case of a 28-year-old woman complaining of no motivation [3]. She can’t really seem to change her life, even though she wants to, because she can’t get started. Most of that revolves around a difficulty focusing [3]. She doesn’t really know what she wants. She has difficulty on a day-to-day basis in keeping focused and getting things done.

She has a profound depression [3], which dates from her teenage years. It occurs every couple of months. At these times, she has intense weeping [3] and can be suicidal [3]. But, even during the rest of the month there is a feeling of hopelessness [3], that nothing will ever work out and that something terrible is going to happen in her life [3]. It makes her quite fearful for her day-today survival with a lot of the fears being based around money and the lack of it. Each day she is very anxious about her health and about whether she will survive due to the crises which constantly occur and drain her financially. She never seems to be able to get ahead since something happens each time she gets ahead to wipe her out financially.

“I’m a pessimist. You have to expect the worst. Something will come and take it away from me. I’m very vigilant. I go to bed with my clothes on. I’m afraid something will happen to me. I’m sad. There is nothing to live for; nothing to look forward to.”

She has extremely low self-confidence [3]. Even though she is quite attractive, she sees herself as unattractive, and unable to compete with other women. “I feel like I let my family down. I just couldn’t be the way they wanted me to be. I need a lot of recognition. I want people to like me, but I don’t make the effort to initiate it.” She is very critical of herself [3], of how she walks, talks and looks.