Learned Helplessness and The Environmental Theory of Depression

Learned Helplessness is a state of the mind in which the person that suffers it is resigned to something. It involves a punishment to the person, and when that person sees that he or she cant do anything about it, he or she resigns him or herself to that punishment. This makes the person not even try to avoid it because he or she knows that nothing can change it. The environmental theory of depression can be related to learned helplessness. The environmental theory states that depression is caused by factors out of ourselves. This means that things like the ones that happen to us during the day, and the persons that interact with us are the causes. Other causes of depression that are out of ourself, meaning that we don't have any type of control over, may be school, work, the amount of stress we have, or the loss a loved one.
The relationship between the environmental theory of depression and learned helplessness is very simple. When a person feels nothing can be done about a punishment, it is because usually someone that is not him or her, but someone else, is punishing the person. This is exactly what the environmental theory of depression states, that anything, this includes school, friends, family, etc. or anything out of our power is the cause of depression. The relation is too simple and obvious. The only way in which it woul not work would be if a person punishes him or herself, and falls under learned helplessness by his or herself. This would make the cause of depression the own person, and this would be considered another theory of depression. It would be more like the cognitive theory, which states that it is one's own thoughts and actions that cause depression.