Anxiety and Depression Are Symptoms, Not Diseases
psychologytoday.com
Anxiety and Depression Are Symptoms, Not Diseases
1–10 of 281 posts
Re: Anxiety and Depression Are Symptoms, Not Diseases
#2> Or if you are outside for a long time in the cold with no jacket, upon feeling very cold, you don’t say that you have "a coldness disorder".
A better example for anxiety or depression would be standing inside in a warm room, and despite everyone else in the room being comfortable, you are unable to warm up at all. When you complain, you are told that "everyone gets cold sometimes".
This article doesn't seem to have any new information, it's just repeating the old ideas that depression and anxiety are the same as temporary sadness and worry due to legitimate problems.
Re: Anxiety and Depression Are Symptoms, Not Diseases
#3> Or if you are outside for a long time in the cold with no jacket, upon feeling very cold, you don’t say that you have "a coldness disorder". A better example for anxiety or depression would be standing inside in a warm room, and despite everyone else in the room being comfortable, you are unable to warm up at all. When you complain, you are told that "everyone gets cold sometimes". This article doesn't seem to have…
That's better than the unsubstantiated theory that depression is a serotonin disorder.
Re: Anxiety and Depression Are Symptoms, Not Diseases
#4> Or if you are outside for a long time in the cold with no jacket, upon feeling very cold, you don’t say that you have "a coldness disorder". A better example for anxiety or depression would be standing inside in a warm room, and despite everyone else in the room being comfortable, you are unable to warm up at all. When you complain, you are told that "everyone gets cold sometimes". This article doesn't seem to have…
Real depression comes out of nowhere, hits you like a ton of bricks, and makes you wish you weren't alive.
Re: Anxiety and Depression Are Symptoms, Not Diseases
#5This is a terrible article that completely treats depression as the fault of the individual. Pretty irresponsible frankly.
Re: Anxiety and Depression Are Symptoms, Not Diseases
#6> Or if you are outside for a long time in the cold with no jacket, upon feeling very cold, you don’t say that you have "a coldness disorder". A better example for anxiety or depression would be standing inside in a warm room, and despite everyone else in the room being comfortable, you are unable to warm up at all. When you complain, you are told that "everyone gets cold sometimes". This article doesn't seem to have…
That's better than the unsubstantiated theory that depression is a serotonin disorder.
How do you mean unsubstantiated? If you mean it's less than certain than sure, but SSRIs and SNRIs and NaSSAs and such improve depression greatly for many patients. That at least says something about serotonin levels in patients with depression.
Re: Anxiety and Depression Are Symptoms, Not Diseases
#7> Or if you are outside for a long time in the cold with no jacket, upon feeling very cold, you don’t say that you have "a coldness disorder". A better example for anxiety or depression would be standing inside in a warm room, and despite everyone else in the room being comfortable, you are unable to warm up at all. When you complain, you are told that "everyone gets cold sometimes". This article doesn't seem to have…
Real depression comes out of nowhere, hits you like a ton of bricks, and makes you wish you weren't alive.
I agree with this, but I also think a lot of "non-real depression" is too easily diagnosed as the real thing. A lot of depressed people could be "cured" by just changing circumstances in their life (not that it is always easy, but saying there is stuff in your life you can't change and it is making you depressed, doesn't make it a mental illness).
But you have worn out doctors facing a tough choice: do the near impossible and try and help someone change their life, or take 40 second to prescribe a pill from a billion dollar drug company that is paying for him to go on a conference in the Bahamas next month.
Re: Anxiety and Depression Are Symptoms, Not Diseases
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
Real depression comes out of nowhere, hits you like a ton of bricks, and makes you wish you weren't alive.
I agree with this, but I also think a lot of "non-real depression" is too easily diagnosed as the real thing. A lot of depressed people could be "cured" by just changing circumstances in their life (not that it is always easy, but saying there is stuff in your life you can't change and it is making you depressed, doesn't make it a mental illness). But you have worn out doctors facing a tough choice: do the near impos…
Incidentally a lot of antidepressants (like the one I'm taking) have generics available that make this kind of thing less likely. I gotta say though, life with antidepressants for me is a life I haven't experienced in a very, very long time, in fact I can't remember when the last time I felt this way was.
Re: Anxiety and Depression Are Symptoms, Not Diseases
#9This is pure generalization and does not apply to those who are clinically depressed or suffer bipolar.
Re: Anxiety and Depression Are Symptoms, Not Diseases
#10> Or if you are outside for a long time in the cold with no jacket, upon feeling very cold, you don’t say that you have "a coldness disorder". A better example for anxiety or depression would be standing inside in a warm room, and despite everyone else in the room being comfortable, you are unable to warm up at all. When you complain, you are told that "everyone gets cold sometimes". This article doesn't seem to have…
The problem with using a purely neurochemical explanation like this is the rates of these disorders differ dramatically between societies and within societies geographically, demographically and over time. It is clear that the United States in particular is, especially in recent years, churning out unprecedented numbers of severely psychologically ill individuals. The idea this is solely due to previously undiagnosed individuals or otherwise not representative of a sickening society is difficult to support.
Frankly we have spent too long acting as if mental disorders could not possibly have anything to do with ones surroundings, upbringing and life in general, when it's beyond obvious that they have very much to do with those things, as well as genotype/phenotype/etc. We've used this idea that it shames individuals to suggest that the actual problems they deal with could contribute to mental damage in much the manner they can physical damage, which is simply dogma masquerading as science.
In fact, using purely neurochemical explanations denies people's humanity and lived experience, denies that we are sentient humans not some organic robots that need an serotonin oil change and some dopamine transmission fluid.