What color do you think of when you think of depression? It’s probably a dark color, like blue, black or gray.
There is a reason for that.
Research from the University of Freiburg shows that depressed patients cannot view black and white contrasts accurately.
A new study in Biological Psychiatry showed a dramatically lower retinal contrast gain in patients with depression than in healthy subjects.
For the study, Seeing Gray When Feeling Blue? Depression Can Be Measured in the Eye of the Diseased, Dr. Emanual Bubl and his team evaluated 40 patients suffering from depression (20 who were taking antidepressant medication and 20 who were not.) 40 healthy patients were also studied as a control.
They found a significant decrease in the retinal sensitivity of depressed patients, even patients taking medication.
Further, the more severely depressed a patient, the lower the retinal response.
Depression can change the way a patient sees the world, eliminating the vibrancy of naturally occurring colors.
But also, viewing the world as a drab, colorless environment could worsen depression, perpetuating the emotions of loneliness and sadness.
According to Mark Hyman MD, there is a significant correlation between biology and mood.
Check out our courses on Mind/Body Medicine here for more information.
In the meantime leave a comment. How do you treat patients with depression?
I remember looking around one day and everything around me was super unsaturated… it was wild. I’m wondering if it had to do with the fact that I was like super depressed back then.
Thank you for this post. I definitely believe colours have an impact on our mental health: https://ilovecolours.org
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It would be black..
when I think of depression The colour I think of is black.
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Depression: The Connection between Color Perception and Mood
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I have suffered with depression my entire life–even when I was a young child. Recently, I purchased a pair of glasses with the color corrective lenses created by Princeton University: O2Amp. I cannot see colors perfectly, but I CAN see colors. I have noticed that my mood has been changing. I feel happier, more energetic. I feel calm and my anxiety has gone away.
Could this change in mood be because I can see color now? Or is it just a placebo effect?
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How does color blindness impact depression?
The startling book Anatomy of An Epidemic by Robert Whitaker, an award winning science and history writer investigates the medical mystery of why the number of disabled mentally ill in the US has tripled over the past 20 years. His findings reveal that the drugs used for depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, etc actually increase the likelihood that people will become chronically ill, less able to function well, and more prone to physical illness. These findings are supported by long term research studies done by NIMH and other reputable institutions. Why are we not aware of this information? I highly recommend reading this book!
This video further underlines the contraindication for using windowless rooms for counselling. I was told two decades ago by an exchnage student from Seden that it is illegal to require anyone to work in an environment devoid of natural light in her country. She was shocked to find that the counsellors she was interning under all saw patients (it was a hospital) in rooms without any windows at all.
Since I personally cannot tolerate this kind of setting for any lenghth of time, I feel it would be inhumane to expect depressed or traumatized clients to spend time “getting help” there. Perhaps in the future this recent research will convince administrators to set different priorities when allocating work space in medical and counselling settings. Why does it take so long for the research to be applied to real life situations?
As a therapist,when myclients are talking, I track their autonomic system…..I have seen over and over again when a client is depressed and we work out the issues that show up as sensations in the belly, and/or the heart…..and the legs and arms become like drain pipes to the heart and belly….. allowing the sensations of feelings to move out and down,using a process of a free association of thoughts, feelings, memories, images and most important SENSATIONS,….I know the client has rewired something in their autonomic nervous system….because the client, out of nowhere, make comments like: “Oh I never noticed the color of your wall…was it always that color….?” What I have concluded is that when, feelings that are stuck (repressed) in the heart and the belly is finally allowed, experienced, and released….the EYES and the face seem to light up and the cognition inevitably finds clarity.
The amount of color lacking in the way they dress casually. often is a visual clue to their state of mind. Confirm this in your treatment. Do they look you in the eye? Do they smile at all? Saddly they are often locked in a “GREY state of life” Crystals of bubbles held up to natural light can evoke the wonder of a child. A rainbow they can make for themselves is healing therapy.I am not a Doctor, so all my treatments are not drug related or prescribed. Ruth thank you for all your work and presentations.
I suffer from depression and was wondering, does anyone know if wearing colored lenses could help? At night I drive with yellow lenses to reduce glare. Would this have any effect on the brain if worn all the time? Or a different colored lens? I remember one time a friend had a pair of light blue lenses and a pair of red lenses. The red ones made me feel really uncomfortable and anxious, while the blue ones were soothing. If anyone knows of any research on this let me know, thanks!
I’m intrigued with the color theory. I’ve read that each depression experience is unique so when I did a workshop for school counselors I gave each participant a black piece of paper, a white piece of paper and scissors. Most of us remember how to cut out a snowfake by folding and cutting a piece of paper. We cut the white paper and taped it to the black paper. In the group of 50 people, no two snowflakes were the same. I have several samples in my office and when the discussion about depression is explored – I show my client the story of the snowflake.
Each depression is unique and if we learn it’s message – we can learn something about ourselves and the wound that caused the feelings of sadness. Since I live in the north with snow half the year, it makes a powerful demonstration for us to remember to deal with our depression with the right tools and applications.
This story suffers from the same problem of a large amount of medical research–assumption of a cause and effect when neither was assessed here. This study did not test for depression as a cause of retinal dysfunction, nor for the reverse, although the latter may be more likely than the former. Yes, I meant what I wrote here (see below). Furthermore, there may be a cause of both depression and retinal dysfunction that has not been found.
If we look at depression as a result of failure in some systems in the brain to consistently return a “satiety” result after executing a program, then failure of the retina to register vibrant color when it should result from a failure in other systems. The brain tries to repair the damage, but is either too damaged to find what is damaged, or is not equipped to handle the repair that is needed.
Both emotional and physical trauma can cause this kind of damage, so that the psychotherapist pursuing an emotional event that might have lead to this depression can help guide the brain into healing itself. Anti-depressants only work on one area of the brain that deals with this kind of “satiety” feedback (hypothalamus), when there are several other areas that could cause depression (brainstem). Thus some patients benefit from these antidepressants, and others do not.
Two thoughts: for those of us practicing in northern latitudes, this seems to suggest that our patients might benefit from being surrounded by bright colours, much as they are advised to use light therapy for SAD.
I have always made a point of having my office on the sunniest corner of the building, and keep it painted a bright yellow. Almost every patient who comes to see me for the first time comments favorably on the room’s warmth and beauty. (I also have many plants and art with vibrant colours.) Environment is an important component of any healing process.
thanks for the post – really interesting! So maybe the linguitsic labels about the world being ‘grey’ have some kind of physical biological relationship also (remember that the eyes are extension of the brain). i wonder if we think in a pessimistic/negative way – would it have the same biological effect? Also, if we change the internal representations of the peson who is depressed to a richer more colourful ones (brighter pictures, etc) would this have a biological measureable effect? Very interesting indeed!
My only experience of this is as a patient – and at my very lowest I found I was dreaming in grey. But as the depression lifted I had a dream where the colours were coming up a grey valley, like sunshine slowly coming up in the morning. It was so vivid that I can bring back that picture in my mind as I type this.
I am also a person who has to have a SAD lamp on on dull days to lift my mood – and yes they do really work! If I could I would live in a sunnier place than here in the UK!
I think that the connection works also in the other way round : when somebody leaves in a dark place, with a little sunshine and cloudy and rainy weather he becomes depressed. It’s a two way connection.
I take my clients into a bright colorfull room, full of sun light and fresh well circulated air, and give them a new hair style,color,cut, good sculp meassage, and sometimes use alittle N.L.P. To file anything that is no longer serving them well into the area in their brain [ mind] where they have stored the things that have long sinced been healed. I see beauty in evry one I see and try to bring that inter beauty out. I have seen some amazing transformations. Catherine Forsey Hair Dresser- Life Coach
My only experience with this, is as a patient, myself, After being diagnosed with major depression, I was prescribed a SSRI. When I began feeling better, I remember riding in the car with my husband. I was going on and on about how wonderful I was feeling. One of my most curious reactions was how the colors of things were so much more beautiful. Brighter and more saturated than I had ever experienced them! I think my husband probably thought I was a bit looney or high from the medicine. But that was my experience. It was wonderful.