call this consistent pattern your brain-chemistry baseline, or simply your baseline. In fact, you maintain your sense of identity by maintaining your baseline.
Depression, as I’ve said, is the result of an imbalance in the chemical combination in your brain. This imbalance can become your baseline; in other words, some people’s identities can become associated with depression. These people maintain their long-standing depression by sustaining the ways in which they think, eat, behave, and interact with others. Throughout this book, I will be talking about personality types that, taken to the extreme, support depression. You will have to look inside yourself to see whether these descriptions fit you and to determine which elements in your personality and behavior might be keeping you from achieving your optimal level of well-being.