We've Got Depression Wrong: It's Trying to Save Us

Short answer: New research suggests depression isn’t a defect or an aberration, but part of our biological defence system. Drawing on Polyvagal Theory, these ideas frame depression as an “immobilisation” response: when the body senses a threat it can’t fight or flee, it shuts down to protect us. Understanding this lifts the shame and reframes people with depression as courageous survivors, not damaged invalids.

Rethinking what depression is

For generations, we’ve seen depression as an illness, an unnecessary deviation from normal functioning. That makes sense, given depression causes real suffering and even death. But what if we’ve got it wrong? What if depression isn’t an aberration at all, but an important part of our biological defence system?

More and more researchers across different fields are questioning our current definitions. Biological anthropologists have argued that depression is an adaptive response to adversity rather than a disorder. The British Psychological Society has published a report stating that “depression is best thought of as an experience, or set of experiences, rather than as a disease.” And neuroscientists are focusing on the role of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). According to the Polyvagal Theory, depression is part of a biological strategy meant to help us survive.

The common wisdom is that depression starts in the mind, with distorted thinking, which then leads to physical symptoms like headaches, stomach aches or fatigue. Models like the Polyvagal Theory suggest we’ve got this backwards. It’s the body that detects danger and launches a defence strategy to help us survive. That strategy is called immobilisation, and it shows up in mind and body as the symptoms we call depression.

When we treat depression as irrational, unnecessary suffering, we stigmatise people and rob them of hope. But when we begin to see that depression, at least initially, happens for a good reason, we lift the shame. People with depression are courageous survivors, not damaged invalids.

Laura’s story

Laura believes depression saved her life. Most of the time her father hurt her only with words, but when she stood up to him, he became dangerous. That’s when he’d get a vicious look in his eyes, and more than once his violence put her life at risk. He was so perceptive he could tell when she felt rebellious inside, even when she hid it, and he punished her for those feelings.

Depression is what helped Laura survive. It kept her head down, kept her from resisting, helped her accept the unacceptable, and numbed her rebellious feelings. She grew up at a time when there was no one to tell and nowhere to get help outside her home. Her only strategy was to survive in place, and she did.

Looking back, Laura doesn’t regret her childhood depression. She values it. Working through her own healing with a therapist helped her see how it served her. Her story is stark, and it helps us understand something important: even though depression may happen for a good reason, that doesn’t make it a good thing. Laura suffered deeply. Her depression was a painful experience that began as the last resort of a good biological system.

Depression starts with immobilisation

According to Polyvagal Theory, developed by neuroscientist Stephen Porges, our daily experience is based on a hierarchy of states in the autonomic nervous system. When the ANS feels safe, we experience wellbeing and social connection, and we feel like ourselves.

But the ANS is constantly scanning our internal and external world for danger. If it detects a threat, or even just a lack of safety, its next strategy is fight or flight, which we often feel as anxiety. Sometimes, though, the threat is so severe or goes on so long that the nervous system decides there’s no way to fight or flee. Then only one option remains: immobilisation.

Immobilisation is the original biological defence in higher animals, the shutdown response we see in reptiles. Also called the freeze or faint response, it turns the metabolism down to a resting state, which can make us feel faint or sluggish. It has an important role: it dulls pain and makes us feel disconnected. Think of a rabbit hanging limp in a fox’s mouth, shutting down so it won’t suffer as much. In humans, people often describe feeling “out of their bodies” during traumatic events, which cushions the emotional shock, because some things are so terrible we don’t want to be fully present for them.

Immobilisation is meant to be short-term: either the shutdown preserves the organism, or the organism dies. But if the threat continues indefinitely with no way to fight or flee, the response carries on. And because it also changes brain activity, it affects our emotions and our ability to solve problems. We feel unable to get moving physically or mentally. We feel hopeless and helpless. That’s depression.

Does depression have value?

It’s easy to see how Laura’s circumstances would trigger immobilisation. But why does it happen to people facing less obvious adversity? Our culture tends to view depression in someone who finds work too stressful as weakness, implying they just need more mental toughness.

But that’s not how the body sees it. The nervous system’s defence responses aren’t about the actual nature of the trigger. They’re about whether this body decides there’s a threat, and that happens pre-consciously, before we even think about it. Our higher brain then makes up a story to explain it. We don’t choose this response.

Studying anxiety shows that many modern situations set off fight or flight. Low rumbling construction noise can sound to the nervous system like a predator’s growl. Feeling evaluated at school can strip away a child’s sense of safety. To most of us, fight or flight feels like anxiety. And if these triggers last long enough, the body decides it can’t escape, and immobilisation follows. What we call depression is the cluster of emotional and cognitive symptoms sitting on top of that physiological platform. It’s a strategy to help us survive. The body is trying to save us.

That changes everything. When people who are depressed learn they aren’t damaged, but have a good biological system trying to protect them, they begin to see themselves differently. Depression is notorious for feelings of hopelessness and helplessness, but if it’s an active defence strategy, people may realise they aren’t quite as helpless as they thought. This connects to the idea that depression may be part of a survival response worth understanding.

Shifting out of immobilisation

If depression is the emotional expression of the immobilisation response, the way forward is to move out of that defensive state. According to Porges, it isn’t enough simply to remove the threat. The nervous system has to detect robust signals of safety to bring the social, connected state back online. The best way to do that? Social connection.

One symptom of depression is shame: a sense of having let people down or being unworthy of their company. When we tell people their depression is an aberration, we’re effectively telling them they’re not part of the tribe, that they don’t belong. That deepens the shame and drives them to avoid connection, cutting them off from the very path that leads out of depression.

It’s time we honoured the courage and strength of people with depression, valued the remarkable capacity of our biology to find a way through hard times, and stopped pretending people with depression are any different from anyone else. If you’re recovering from difficult experiences, how can I recover from trauma is a hopeful companion read, as is are you depressed or sad.

Frequently asked questions

Is depression really a survival strategy? Emerging theories, including Polyvagal Theory, suggest so. They frame depression as an immobilisation response the body uses when it senses a threat it can’t fight or flee, rather than a defect.

What is immobilisation? It’s the body’s freeze or shutdown response, mediated by the vagus nerve. It slows the metabolism, dulls pain and creates a sense of disconnection. Prolonged, it shows up as depression.

Does this mean depression isn’t serious? Not at all. Understanding depression as a survival response doesn’t make it any less painful or serious. It simply removes the shame and offers a more hopeful way to understand it.

Why do people get depressed without obvious adversity? Because the nervous system’s threat response is pre-conscious and isn’t about the objective size of the trigger. Ongoing modern stressors can keep the body in a defensive state that tips into immobilisation.

How do you move out of depression? By helping the nervous system detect genuine signals of safety, above all through social connection. This is why isolation deepens depression and connection helps lift it.

If you’re struggling right now

Depression can feel isolating and hopeless, but you are not damaged, and you don’t have to face it alone. Please reach out. This is a sensitive topic, and if any of it applies to you personally, help is available and you deserve support.

• Aware (telephone support): 1800 80 48 48
• Samaritans: 116 123 (freephone)
• Pieta: 1800 247 247 (or text HELP to 51444)
• Emergency services: 999 or 112

Ready to talk?

Reaching out and reconnecting is often the path out of depression, and you don’t have to walk it alone.

Book an appointment and let’s take that step together.