🕯️ IFS and Depression

Depression, through IFS eyes, isn’t emptiness—it’s protection. It’s the system’s way of powering down when pain, loss, or pressure have become too much to bear.

• A shut-down part may drain energy to prevent further hurt.

• A hopeless part may whisper, “What’s the point?” to stop striving that never felt enough.

• A heavy part may carry grief the body never had space to release.

IFS doesn’t try to lift these states through force. It listens:

• “Who holds this heaviness?”

• “What are you protecting me from by going numb?”

Often, depression guards deep exhaustion or despairing exiles who once felt alone in unbearable emotion. As Self begins to sit with them gently, a faint spark of life returns—not through cheerleading, but through companionship.

Depression in IFS is not a malfunction of mood; it’s the system’s way of saying, I need to stop and be held.