Am I Depressed or Just Out of Alignment?

David Stamation, Executive Life Coach

If you’ve been wondering whether something is wrong with you or whether your low energy is actually trying to tell you something important, this reflection is for you.

Illness or Misalignment?

In executive life coaching, one of the most common questions I hear is quiet and loaded:

“Is something wrong with me… or am I just in a low season?”

High performers are especially prone to mislabel their inner state. When energy dips, clarity fades, or motivation disappears, the mind often jumps to pathology: Maybe I’m depressed. Maybe I’m broken. Maybe I’ve lost my edge.

And in that story, we begin waiting for our energy to change, slipping into a subtle form of passivity.

Sometimes depression is real and deserves professional support. And sometimes what you’re experiencing isn’t illness, it’s misalignment. More often than we give credit for, that sense of malaise comes from living out of alignment with who you truly are. Self-diagnosed pathology can be misleading, and it often keeps us stuck in a story that isn’t ours.

The Legacy Method begins with what is already there:

Your emotional state is data.

“Low vibe” moments such as apathy, heaviness, irritability, numbness aren’t failures. They’re signals. They’re the psyche and nervous system saying, something in your life no longer fits who you’re becoming.

Here are a few distinctions to explore:

Depression often feels global and pervasive.

It lingers regardless of environment or circumstance. Pleasure disappears. Hope feels inaccessible. Even rest doesn’t restore you.

Misalignment feels situational.

Energy drops around certain roles, routines, or relationships. You can still feel alive in moments when on a walk, in a conversation, during solitude. The heaviness has a shape. It points somewhere.

Ask yourself:

• Do I still feel moments of vitality, or is everything flat?

• Is my low energy tied to specific areas of life?

• Am I exhausted from effort that no longer feels meaningful?

• Have I outgrown a version of myself I’m still trying to perform?

The Legacy Method is about listening before labeling.

When you’re living from outdated values, inherited expectations, or a role you’ve already mastered, your system often rebels. Not loudly. Quietly. Through fatigue. Through boredom. Through emotional fog.

This isn’t weakness. It’s evolution.

Your body and emotions are asking better questions than your mind:

Who am I now?

What chapter is complete?

What wants to emerge?

Executive life coaching doesn’t rush you back into productivity. It helps you interpret what your inner world is communicating so you can respond with intention rather than self-judgment.

Sometimes the most courageous move isn’t to “get motivated.”

It’s to pause long enough to hear what your low energy is trying to say.

Depression deserves care.

Misalignment deserves attention.

This journey begins when you learn the difference and choose to listen.

A Warm Knowing Invitation

If this resonates, you don’t have to navigate it alone. Executive Life Coaching offers a space to discern what’s happening beneath the surface and to shape your next chapter with clarity and intention.

PS: A collaborator who I ask to preview my work, after reading this piece said, “Oh good, I’m not depressed, just out of alignment.”