Career Depression: An American Epidemic.

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 19, 1999--

"Indirect loss to companies is incalculable,"

says Chicago career counselors

Jotham G. Friedland, Ph.D., and Sander I. Marcus, Ph.D., clinical psychologists who specialize in career counseling, report that they are seeing career depression with increasing frequency in people, from their mid-20's through retirement age. According to Drs. Friedland and Marcus, the syndrome affects as many women as men.

"Career Depression Syndrome (CDS) is a name we have given to a serious problem consisting of career unhappiness leading to discouragement, self-doubt, feelings of inadequacy, hopelessness and depression," Dr. Friedland said. "CDS is being seen with alarming and increasing frequency. Few, it seems, are immune."

Estimation of the loss to companies, in productivity, creativity and lost work time is impossible to calculate. "CDS is costing companies millions," Dr. Marcus said.

Twenty-five years ago, perhaps one out of ten career counseling clients had career depression. Today, it is more than half. This is based upon 25 years of career counseling in which these psychologists have clinically interviewed and tested (personality and aptitude testing) more than 10,000 people.

Signs of CDS can be seen every day in newspaper articles on job stress and career insecurity. CDS is expected among those whose careers are disrupted or eliminated from downsizing or technological changes. But many with career depression are making a good living in careers that most would feel are interesting and exciting. People with CDS include lawyers, MBA's, psychologists, business people, sales people, nurses, executives, teachers, engineers, accountants, and people from all walks of life. By any of the outer trappings of success, they should be happy, but they aren't.

"Our experience is that people with CDS may seem clinically depressed," Dr. Marcus said, "but CDS is different from true clinical depression because the source of CDS is a lack of fit with one's career."

Without taking action and getting appropriate help, the person with CDS will go through three stages:

stage 1: career dissatisfaction,

stage 2: career demotivation, and

stage 3: career paralysis 

People in stages 1 and 2 are unhappy, feel "stuck" in their careers and often are not proactive in doing something about the problem such as a job search or obtaining career or job search counseling. They lack self-esteem in their professional role but not in their basic self-concept as a person. Solutions to stage 1 might include job enrichment or job change. In stage 2, additional help is needed to remove motivational problems or roadblocks.

By the time a person reaches stage 3, other areas of life such as family or social life are affected. The level of depression and impact on these other areas of life may be so intense that the original career issue can become masked, and the person may be treated as clinically depressed (take medication, enter intensive psychotherapy, etc.) While these measures are certainly appropriate and often necessary, they are not designed to directly address the career and job search issues. Career and job search counseling incorporating expertise in clinical issues is necessary along with the other professional measures.

There are two major considerations in resolving CDS: first, people with CDS have an ability to gain insight into the problem once they understand it. When CDS is explained to them, they react immediately. They often smile with relief and say, "Yes, you understand!" They are able to quickly integrate this insight into their self-concept so that they gain self-confidence from their unique strengths and skills. This, in turn, gives them hope and confidence which carries them through the career counseling.

"In our clinical experience," Dr. Marcus said, "this characteristic is not typical of clinically depressed people, who usually take a long time to develop a genuine sense of hope and self-confidence."

Second, what is needed in each particular case is a clear differentiation between people whose depression has its source in physical or psychological causes unrelated directly to career, and those for whom the depression is the direct result of the career issues.

"For those who are clinically depressed, the career work may be helpful but will not alleviate or resolve the basic unhappiness," Dr. Friedland said.

For individuals with CDS at Stages 1 and 2, direct help with identifying the right career and working out a practical strategy for achieving it often will resolve the depression. For individuals with CDS at Stage 3, career and job search counseling is necessary to address this major source of the depression, but should be provided in conjunction with traditional approaches to depression.

For more information on CDS, visit Friedland and Marcus' website at http://www.careermotiv8.com or call 1-800-931-1107.