Recovery from covert depression must involve three layers—the addictive defense; the underlying relational immaturity or disorder of self; and the childhood trauma that set the whole process in motion. The pain—the depression that the covertly depressed man seeks to escape—results from all three of these phenonomena. Childhood trauma leads to disorders of self-regulation, which can either be felt as overt depression or warded off, acted out, as covert depression.
