You’ll hear many times that single events can trigger a major episode of stress, depression and anxiety. The key word is “trigger”, because that is all a single event is. It doesn’t actually CAUSE stress, depression or anxiety but it does trigger a sequence of behaviors that lead to mental trauma.

But how does this happen?

Descent into a stressful, depressive or anxious episode happens because of negative and catastrophic reactions to events you are confronted with. One event by itself simply isn’t enough. There are many chain-reactions that take place before a person becomes highly stressed or depressed or anxious, but I’m going to discuss one of the biggest ones: using one event to ascribe catastrophic meanings to all areas of your life – I call it “generalizing”.

Let’s take a look at two events that most, if not all humans, will experience during their lifetime:

1. Loss of a job. 2. Death of a loved one.

Loss of a job is a major event that can trigger depression. Please understand, the job loss itself cannot cause depression. It triggers a number of reactions, especially generalization and here’s how it works:

You lose your job and you start to think in general terms:

“Oh no, this is disastrous! How will I cope now? What will people think of me when I tell them? My job meant the whole world to me, now my world is falling apart. I’m nothing without my job! How will I pay the bills? I won’t be able to get another job and life will become a real struggle. Everything is going wrong and I’ll never be happy again!”

Now, this reaction is typical of how a depressive episode can be triggered by one event. Powerful words – disastrous, nothing, struggle, everything, never – will stir fearful emotions within you. Self-esteem is being hit, doubt about your abilities is raised, and a catastrophic prediction of the future is made. The job has also been used to ascribe meaning to your whole life and now it’s gone, a feeling that your life has no meaning is also present.

A similar reaction will happen when you lose a loved one:

“I’m devastated! He/She was my whole world, and now my world has fallen apart. Nothing will ever be the same again, I’ll never be happy and I feel empty inside. Life holds nothing for me anymore and I don’t know how I’ll cope without him/her. “

Can you see the generalizations? Again, we have powerful, negative and emotionally charged phrases to ascribe meaning: whole world, fallen apart, nothing, never, anymore. And a catastrophic prediction for the future is present again.

In both examples, one event has been carried into all areas of your life. With a job loss, enormous importance has been placed on the job itself and now the job has gone, these general meanings cause you serious distress. It’s the same with losing a loved one. Meanings about your whole life have been placed on one person and their passing means your whole life is affected.

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