The Depression Diaries

This link is time sensitive, but it is an interesting read. To summarize in case the article goes to the happy place up in the sky where posts go to die,  it is titled “Head fake: How Prozac sent the science of depression in the wrong direction” from the Boston Globe. Its main argument is that depression is an actual neurobiological disorder, where brain cells atrophy and die out, and that people who use antidepressants see benefits because they stimulate the regrowth of these neurons, and not because they help increase seratonin levels. So instead of inducing a state of chemical happiness (seratonin is the hormone that also gets released when exercising) the medicine helps regenerate your depleted brain cells which then results in a physical and psychological improvement.

I’m pretty clueless about science, but I think this explanation helps to address various points that I have never felt satisfied with in terms of how depression is viewed and treated. The first is that I have observed that depression seems to have roots in some genetic factors, which to me would indicate that there is a partly biological cause to depression. I know that in my family there is a tendency towards mental illness. Not to say that outward influences aren’t important, but I think that the ability to cope with these varies from person to person, and that that ability is partly inherent in your genes, and partly shaped by your environment and experiences (shoutout to my family for not only passing depression genes to me, but also flat nose and boobs genes!)

The other, is that I think this would go a long way in helping people’s perception on depression. I swear, if a person tells me ‘why don’t you just change the way you think and DO something’ once more, I will kick their ass from here to Uranus (hee, shoutout to my family for passing on their perpetually twelve year old humor on to me!). When I was severely depressed, I knew all the things that I could do to get myself better: go out and exercise, meet new people, find something that you’re good at. Knowing didn’t matter one bit; I did not have the strength or the inclination to do any of these things.  You feel helpless, and every single time that people tell you it’s your fault that you are depressed, you admit to yourself that they are right, that you are a worthless piece of shit if you can’t even get up and get some help. But, it literally is mentally and emotionally impossible for a depressed person to do anything about it - like trying to fly when you don’t have wings (Or a helicopter. Or an airplane. Or 150 giant helium balloons, a bb gun and a lawn chair. You get the freaking simile). I can see why it’s hard for people to understand such a situation if they haven’t experienced it; but if there is evidence that a cause of chronic depression is biological, I think it would help them at least be more compassionate about it.

Hmm, I can’t think of a conclusion paragraph. So, in a totally unrelated note, did you guys hear about the man who flew 250-something miles in a lawn chair and 150 helium filled balloons?