THE PERSONALITY’S TYPE A TRIAD: THE DEPRESSED STATE
Type A's run hard and crash harder. Many researchers consider depression to be the flip side of the Type A behavior complex. This is understandable when you consider how unnurturing and joyless life becomes from prolonged states of Superperson Type A living.
While operating in the Depressed state, Type A's become overwhelmed with self-blame and discouragement. They are paralyzed by the fear that they may never be able to overcome the many obstacles that they perceive to be in their path. Life can become filled with some or all of the following symptoms for Depressed Type A's: feelings of gloom, of being burdened by life and of being overwhelmed; guilt about the impact that their behavior during the Superperson flurry has had on others; low energy, lack of pleasurable reactions, sleep disturbance, or various physical problems that become the focus of obsession and shame and embarrassment over experiencing any of the above.
Type A's have particular difficulty coping with depression for three reasons. First, when depressed, they are unable to engage in their typical mode of defending themselves from awareness of their underlying low self-esteem—their Superperson behavior. Their depression is thus fueled by the surfacing of overwhelmingly negative self-evaluations when they slow down, exhausted from the prior Superperson flurry. Second, Type A's interpret the surfacing of vulnerable feelings as indicative of weakness. They then become even more self-critical. Third, being rather distrustful of the good intentions of others in the first place they then tend to project their negative self-judgments onto others; they fear that they will be criticized by others if they let their pain be known. They may begin to avoid others, thereby increasing their own sense of isolation. In this manner, depression escalates. The depression continues until Type A's do one of two things: (1) once physical energy is regained from the "rest" that came with slowing down while depressed, Type A's may distract themselves from further depression by switching back into the Superperson state, this time geared with even higher goals and even greater urgency (both of which are now needed in order to overcome the elevated level of depression); or (2) they may move into the Angry state.
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