Is depression a fear-based and fear-driven emotion? Depression is certainly a form of suffering, but is it also a means by which the being attempts to cope with fear and uncertainty? A depressed person is essentially a risk-averse person, and so the feeling of depression can lead an individual to avoid risky behavior that could lead to even greater suffering or even demise. So, ironically, it confers a measure of protection and safety to the afflicted individual, but at the cost of personal happiness. What is Creator’s perspective?

In essence, what is on display with a depressed person is a profound level of helplessness to the extent the individual can and does very little. They will slow down, disengage from normal daily routines, and may even be unable to get out of bed without great difficulty; it may seem to be a monumental task to do so. Personal hygiene and even taking meals might be neglected and cause a further decline and dishevelment of a depressed person, and this is why, at the extremes, it may require hospitalization so a person can be cared for to not become severely debilitated and unhealthy, not to mention the risk always, in a desire to escape, a depressed person might turn to suicide. So what the latter reflects is not strictly risk aversion, but trying to escape the torment by creating a state of depression as a coping mechanism. Depression is essentially a state of exhaustion from being chronically immersed in overwhelming fear for so long a person becomes numb and depleted in their ability to mount strong emotion, and this is coupled with a recognition that one can adopt a certain level of denial in an attempt to escape the painful state of fearfulness by blocking all emotion, and this may take all of a person's strength and focused concentration to blot out thoughts and avoid activities of all kinds that will serve as a reminder of what the person is wanting to avoid facing. Often it is their own life and what it has come to represent to them, through doubts and uncertainties leading to fear of failure and regret, or there might be a deep subconscious fear of unavoidable danger that will not be understood consciously because it is being fed by the deep subconscious to have a strong desire to escape. Because that is illogical and irrational, it is simply exhausting and leaves a person without options because there is no obvious answer on the horizon when one is consumed by unhappiness that is ill-defined with no seeming origin or explanation. That will add to the pain of it and the feelings of helplessness that conspire to keep a person immobilized, and this becomes a downward spiral to make the life worse and adds to the level of difficulty in turning things around to make the life better.