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One Road Out of Depression

thinkfaster.co

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Re: One Road Out of Depression

#92

The "chemical imbalance" theory has been losing steam for quite some time. The British Psychological Society has issued this consensus statement: There is actually no evidence for the current view – and we agree with many senior psychiatrists in saying that – we do have an overwhelming amount of evidence that even severe psychiatric breakdown is actually the end result of a complex mix of social and psychological cir…

One thing, please, for anyone on this board, or anyone who intends to advise anyone about whether or not they should take medications:

Unless you are a doctor, you have no advice to give. Unless you are a doctor and have examined a patient, you have no advice to give except to that patient.

I don't care what good or bad experience you personally had with medication; people respond differently, and it does not qualify you to give advice to anyone about any drug they are considering taking.

Re: One Road Out of Depression

#93

It could be OCD, or it could be the downfall of most young men (many of whom I'm friends with) when they leave tech companies in bay area to strike out on their own: "for fame and fortune". Thats your problem. You need to do it because you are passionate about the problem you are trying to solve and genuinely interested in the work you do. You were frustrated with the rest of your life because you were looking for it…

> the rest of the world has multi billion dollar low hanging fruit begging to be worked on

go on...

Re: One Road Out of Depression

#94
post #78

The "chemical imbalance" theory has been losing steam for quite some time. The British Psychological Society has issued this consensus statement: There is actually no evidence for the current view – and we agree with many senior psychiatrists in saying that – we do have an overwhelming amount of evidence that even severe psychiatric breakdown is actually the end result of a complex mix of social and psychological cir…

The "get up and fix yourself" theory lost all its wheels long ago, though.

No, no, no, I'm not advocating for that at all.

Rather, trying to be the slightest bit aware of what the sewage of thoughts in your head consists of.

Re: One Road Out of Depression

#95
post #92

The "chemical imbalance" theory has been losing steam for quite some time. The British Psychological Society has issued this consensus statement: There is actually no evidence for the current view – and we agree with many senior psychiatrists in saying that – we do have an overwhelming amount of evidence that even severe psychiatric breakdown is actually the end result of a complex mix of social and psychological cir…

One thing, please, for anyone on this board, or anyone who intends to advise anyone about whether or not they should take medications: Unless you are a doctor, you have no advice to give. Unless you are a doctor and have examined a patient, you have no advice to give except to that patient. I don't care what good or bad experience you personally had with medication; people respond differently, and it does not qualify…

Unless you are a professional author, you have no message to communicate. Unless you are an author and have interviewed your reader, you have no idea how he or she will personally react to the words you write.

/s

Re: One Road Out of Depression

#96

The "chemical imbalance" theory has been losing steam for quite some time. The British Psychological Society has issued this consensus statement: There is actually no evidence for the current view – and we agree with many senior psychiatrists in saying that – we do have an overwhelming amount of evidence that even severe psychiatric breakdown is actually the end result of a complex mix of social and psychological cir…

Losing steam? You mean the theory was discredited because there isn't any proof whatsoever of it being true and we don't have the means currently to prove or disprove it (measuring said chemicals while the brain is alive). I'd say that's a little more than losing steam. That's on par with the anti global warming campaign as far as science goes. But it's a nice story (think fiction) so people like to keep regurgitating it, including psychiatrists and psychologists who all should know better.

But hey, it does sell a ton of drugs, so its primary purpose has been achieved.

Re: One Road Out of Depression

#97

Author here. Thanks for all the comments, I'm surprised to see so much interest here on Hacker News. I figured this would be one of my posts that collected dust. For the record, my way out of this happened to be psychological, but that doesn't mean I'm against medication. It just didn't happen to be my experience, so I can't comment on it. I try to avoid topics I don't know anything about.

Reading through the suggestions here, I would suggest, if you're in a really deep hole, combine as much as you can from "all of the above".

Re: One Road Out of Depression

#98
post #92

The "chemical imbalance" theory has been losing steam for quite some time. The British Psychological Society has issued this consensus statement: There is actually no evidence for the current view – and we agree with many senior psychiatrists in saying that – we do have an overwhelming amount of evidence that even severe psychiatric breakdown is actually the end result of a complex mix of social and psychological cir…

One thing, please, for anyone on this board, or anyone who intends to advise anyone about whether or not they should take medications: Unless you are a doctor, you have no advice to give. Unless you are a doctor and have examined a patient, you have no advice to give except to that patient. I don't care what good or bad experience you personally had with medication; people respond differently, and it does not qualify…

I respectfully disagree. I would agree that someone-that-isn't-your-doctor shouldn't tell people what they should do, but hearing the personal experiences of numerous people that have taken certain medications or had certain therapies is invaluable. This is quite different than "regular" diseases and maladies. The drugs and therapies for psychological diseases aren't well understood and are very hit-and-miss. Like you said people respond differently, so hearing the experiences of multiple people can be just as, or much more valuable than your doctor's recommendation which may be based solely on a datasheet they read and maybe tried on a few patients. You may hear experiences of drugs that your doctor has never prescribed before or has never even heard of before. It's not uncommon for a psychiatrist to have certain go-to medications that they use almost exclusively. If those don't work for you, then getting advice from other patients can be a lifesaver.

The medication that helped me the most by far was not recommended to me by my doctor. I recommended it. And I found the medication through an ad in the lobby of the doctor's office plus I was considering that class of medication based on the experience of my mother. People rail on prescription medication advertising, but I might not be alive today if not for that ad. And that ad could have easily been a recommendation by a handful of random internet strangers (in fact I would trust the internet strangers more because it's less likely they have an agenda whereas the ad definitely has an agenda).

Re: One Road Out of Depression

#100
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What did the people who told you to take the medication tell you about the issue of feeling numb?

I used to take lithium and brought up to my doctor that it destroyed my creativity, which affected my job. His answer was, "Then the medication is doing its job." Psychiatry has been a very unempathetic field in my experience (across 4-5 doctors), so a "deal with it" response would be unsurprising.

After I lost my dad, that's what the therapist I tried to see said: "Deal with it." At that point, I realized I was wasting my money. It took many more years, almost losing everything, and sheer fucking willpower to undo what the psychiatrists did with their meds. "Take your meds like a mindless cow," is psychiatry's attitude because they're making incredible profits off your sickness. And they get the patients to evangelize (see the top parent comment in this thread) and spread their nonsense while people are getting sick, dying, or at least wasting a whole lot of money on drugs that don't help them.

Unempathetic doesn't even begin to describe the profession. Anti-Hippocratic oath might be the place to start if you're looking for a way to describe this field. Profit driven would be even better.

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