151–160 of 184 posts
Professor Sapolsky at Stanford gave an interesting lecture about depression a few years ago... highly recommended: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOAgplgTxfc
Fuck this shit. We need to have sympathy. Not because we've diagnosed someone with a disease, but because they're a person. Rates of depression are skyrocketing all over the developed world and whatever we're doing clearly isn't working. Personally, I think the most obvious issue is that a group of intelligent people have simply accepted the notion that what's relevant isn't someone's life circumstances, but some vag…
Depression is not only a matter of society or brain chemistry. It's personal circumstances, too. About 1.25 years ago, I had a depressive breakdown that resulted in my leaving my job. Luckily, I came from a family that had always been very supportive and understanding, and through various means got treatment and changed my life to put myself back on a healthier, happier path. But... it's still a little scarring today, on the emotional front. I know that I'm fighting a defensive battle if I put myself in certain living situations.
Thing is, I was in a situation where many people would have thrived and been happy, not become depressed. It wasn't my brain chemistry, and it certainly wasn't a permanent illness. It was partially society, but most people would merely have been unhappy due to those societal factors, not depressed. It was social factors plus my burned-out personal state when it started (that I hadn't really recognized as still-burned-out) plus the social isolation I had put myself into by moving away from home and from my college town with nothing to ground me but a job plus the psychic pain of betraying several of my more important values and dreams.
Part of the problem with depression, though, is that it reduces your ability to think. I can introspect on what was going with me far better now than I could then.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you not see that there is a huge difference between "questioning the effectiveness of psychiatry" and "blaming psychiatry for the holocaust"? I'm more than happy to ignore people who use the propaganda from a cult where anything from psychiatry is ignored.
k, agree, I don't want nothing to do with Scientology also, but it's still straw-man to picture everyone who is questioning as a scientologist
But that's not what I did. I responded to someone who posted scientology propaganda.
Fuck this shit. We need to have sympathy. Not because we've diagnosed someone with a disease, but because they're a person. Rates of depression are skyrocketing all over the developed world and whatever we're doing clearly isn't working. Personally, I think the most obvious issue is that a group of intelligent people have simply accepted the notion that what's relevant isn't someone's life circumstances, but some vag…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If it's only chemistry, why is it so much more of a problem in the developed world? Is there an unstated implication of a potential environmental cause?
It could be statistics - maybe people with depression in the undeveloped world simply die without having the depression diagnosed. But to my knowledge the current(?) model of depression says it is both. There is the clinical depression without noticeable external factors, and there are those depressions which are quite obvious a reaction to an unbearable situation. The clinical depression can manifest itself again an…
Very much this; when you are dealing with starvation and life threatening physical diseases, mental illnesses get short shrift. There may also be a factor that fighting for survival tends to "cure" depression, but that's not a treatment I would advocate.
Is it chemical? In some cases, definitely yes. Could we do better as a society, both on being more accepting and supportive but also changing some fundamental things about our culture (more social/economic mobility, more leisure time, less consumerism)? Inarguably, yes. There's no easy solutions.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Depression has many aspects but one of the most important is a chemical imbalance in the brain. If this is the case, there should be a chemical test to determine whether a person suffers from it. Does such a test exist? I'm unaware of it, but I'd love to read more. (I'm not asking if it's clinically usable, but merely whether the specific chemicals and levels are known. If they are not known, then "chemical imbalance…
how about just doing a tiny bit of research: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology_of_depression ??
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Personally, I think the most obvious issue is that a group of intelligent people have simply accepted the notion that what's relevant isn't someone's life circumstances, but some vague and baseless notion of "abnormal brain chemistry". How about people who lead objectively wonderful lives, with good jobs and happy families, but still suffer from deep depression? The problem, if any, seems to be the other way round:…
Maybe good job and family isn't the only factors in leading a happy life? Not that I agree fully that brain chemistry isn't a factor. That said, the fact that wealthier countries have higher depression rates (according to WHO) does make me think there is something non-biological involved.
To start with the anthropological theory, let's take David Graeber's notion from Debt about the trauma of slavery. It's not merely being made to work by force that makes a slave. On a personal level, what traumatizes and dehumanizes a slave is that they have been ripped from their context. Everything that tied the free person to their family, their friends, their tribe/nation, their home, their religion, their culture, even their enemies, it has all been taken away.
I think whenever you take someone entirely out of their context and put them in an entirely new context, there is a chance for depression, because I think that on a deep level, depression is a phenomenon of a person being out-of-context, or at least, out of any context that can physically and mentally nourish them in the right way.
Right now I am depressed. I feel terrible, and very, very guilty that I feel the way I do. I don't want to do anything, but I do want to do something to distract me away from my awful feeling of numbness. I worry about the future at times, and feel I'm at a dead end. I worry about my kids, and my wife, and my ageing parents. I'm sleeping constantly, but when I sleep my dreams are too vivid. Despite it all, I'm a func…
The one thing I really want to kick you in the ass on is: get out of bed every fucking day, and you damn well spend time with your friends and family. It's the one thing I know of that can reliably make it feel better.
That's your life right there: friends and family. Your job will be gone someday, and you will achieve that degree someday. What's there for you right now is friends and family.
And if you ever want to talk, on Skype or instant-message or email, you damn well grab my contact info off my Hacker News profile. I've been through this before, over, under, around, through and after.
It's not easy, but it is simple. You just have to keep doing one positive thing after another, day after day. I promise.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here is one for you: "In 1995 CCHR published the acclaimed book Psychiatrists: The Men Behind Hitler." http://www.amazon.com/Psychiatrists-Behind-Hitler-Thomas-Rod... And another one: "In 1999, members of the Council of Europe issued a resolution that recognized psychiatrists as the architects of the ethnic cleansing and encouraged Council members to 'study the material that has been put together and researched by th…
Actually, the second citation you reference asserts that two psychiatrists participated in and coordinated ethnic cleansing, implying that psychiatry was the root cause. It states that eugenics is particularly stupid and unjust (note that this is not a theory recognized in psychiatry) and it was issued as a resolution made by merely three members. In other words, they lobbied a few European politicians into making a…
What makes a great citation? The claim was that a book was published, and I showed the book. Another claim was that a resolution was passed and I showed the resolution. I thought I was doing well until I read chris's reply. :)
I will address chris's point that eugenics is not a theory recognized in psychiatry.
1. Forced sterilization of mental patients was done by social psychiatrists, to improve society by removing the genetic material of mentally feeble and insane.
Reference: Keeping America Sane: Psychiatry and Eugenics in the United States and Canada, 1880-1940. Ian Robert Dowbiggin. 245 pp. Cornell University Press, 1997.
http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/how-psychiatr...
http://www.amazon.com/Keeping-America-Sane-Psychiatry-1880-1...
2. The following paper offers historical case studies of "psychiatric genetics" and urges reflection on social psychiatry.
The Eugenic Legacy in Psychology and Psychiatry by David Pilgrim of Mental Health Policy, University of Central Lancashire, UK
http://isp.sagepub.com/content/54/3/272.abstract
3. What about "On human self-domestication, psychiatry, and eugenics" by Martin Brüne in Philos Ethics Humanit Med. 2007; 2: 21. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2082022/
Am I doing better?
I want to thank chris for challenging me to contribute higher quality content.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I appreciate where you are coming from, but I think it is wrong to dismiss the chemistry component. Having had close family members diagnosed with depression (and having lost a friend to suicide), I found myself amazed at the degree to which chemicals in the body do play a role. I have seen two cases of dramatic behavior changes in people who had no change in external life experiences (and extraordinarily happy life…
If it's only chemistry, why is it so much more of a problem in the developed world? Is there an unstated implication of a potential environmental cause?
Hierarchy of needs masking chemical depression, I'd imagine.