Situational depression is a normal, healthy response to life events, of course. Clinical depression doesn’t have to have a trigger or cause. What strikes me in** torie’s **case is the predictability of it.
I’ve been told by my mental health team that being emotionally depressed (as apart from chemically depressed) for periods on end can change your brain chemistry, contributing to a chemical depression. So, even if your depression is just due to a sucky life, not dealing with it can cause a permanent change to the brain. (Likewise, working on changing self talk and expectations can cause permanent positive changes in the brain.)
Certainly, there is no cookie-cutter cause nor solution to depression. Not everyone needs drugs. But it’s a sin to not take drugs if they will help you. Not everyone needs them the rest of their lives. For many, many people, the drugs lift the burden and you feel more like yourself, which allows you to make more progress in therapy, for example. They can be an emotional re-set for many people.
Yep, and someone who CAN be “fixed” by CBT probably should do that - its way better to solve the root cause if the root cause is “you haven’t been trained how to think” over medicating someone to cover up the problem. Likewise, someone who isn’t exercising shouldn’t cover up lack of exercise with medication - exercise has so many additional benefits other than mood.
I’m not a huge fan of medicating issues away (I don’t even take Advil or cold medicine unless I can’t stand it) - but I’m also not a huge fan of waving away health issues that can be treated with “eat better, exercise, get rid of your stress” when there are actually health issues back there that can’t be fixed by good ol’ clean livin’
I think you’d be hard pressed to find research that supports objective differences in brain chemistry/structure between “normals” and clinically depressed folks.
If you are implying that use of the term “chemical imbalance” is misplaced, I tend to agree.
That is not to say that antidepressant meds are not helpful, they certainly are to many people. But when we hear, you have a chemical/neurotransmitter imbalance, here’s drug to fix it, that is more of a marketing ploy than science.
I agree with what you’re saying, it’s just that it’s impossible for some people to motivate themselves to make the necessary changes when they aren’t taking medication. I’ve been taking antidepressants off and on for about 15 years, and I’ve gotten into deep depressive states both ways, but with medication I can work up the energy to do something about it.
No need to flame when you have empirical data. There are a slew of research studies showing differences in brain chemistry and structure between those who have psychological disorders and those who do not. In fact, there’s evidence that thoughts and behavior can physically alter the structure of the brain. I just read a research paper about it yesterday. Don’t have the original sources at the present moment, but
Some of both. The last therapist I had pegged me as a chemical imbalance walking through the door. Because I said “my kids are healthy, I’m healthy, my sister has recovered from breast cancer and is clear, my other sister has been in recovery for a year and is getting her life straightened out, my husband loves me, I have a wonderful and supportive circle of girlfriends, my boss thinks I’m fantastic, my house is paid off, I have enough savings that if my husband and I were both to get laid off we wouldn’t need to change our standard of living for over a year - and the kids would still be able to afford college. I really don’t have self esteem issues…and I want to drive my car into a bridge abutment.”
For me, I can’t get over the “what ifs” (which is why we have so much in savings quite honestly - its a coping mechanism.) What if the economy collapses completely. What if global warming makes my grandchildren’s lives impossible and dangerous (my kids are ten and eleven - why am I worried about my grandchildren!) What if my sister’s cancer comes back, or I end up with breast cancer. What if my husband dies of a heart attack. And, of course, what if the project I’m working on goes over budget and over schedule!!!
And even when the what if’s fade to the background “THERE ARE CHILDREN STARVING IN SOMALIA! WE ARE BOMBING CHILDREN IN IRAQ!”
And death…death will release me from worry…(Mine has always been a combination of depression and anxiety - when the anxiety is controlled the depression is controlled, when the depression is controlled, the anxiety is controlled.
My screwed up brain chemistry is HUGE on borrowing trouble. Even when I know this isn’t rational.
But I also had an episode triggered by my divorce and a subsequent a rape when I was 23. That was definitely a triggered event.
I’m not really implying anything. I’m just wondering if there is something physically different about depressed people’s brain that makes them depressed or if being depressed changes your brain. It sounds like it’s a bit of both.
For me or you?
Not to mention that the lack of a proper support network would make it difficult to significantly make any real changes in your life. Sometimes people are unable to envision a life outside of the one they are currently living.
I muuuust say, Cosmetology School is not the kind of place where I’d expect to run into a ton of nerds. IME, things will get better once you’re out and working with grownups (which your classmates aren’t), but you still need to get there and yeah, it won’t be easy. Is there a university or a comic-book specialized store nearby? Those are places where you may be able to locate and join a Gaming Club; those often meet for 1-3 times a week (with specific games meeting on a specific day), and they’ll probably have someone who can pick you up. There may also be Roleplaying Clubs, an amateur Theatre group, or a Theatre Club, where again there should be someone who can pick you up. One of the cars that comes to my RP Games is an old-model Mini which brings 5 people, we call it “the can” as in “sardines.”
I won’t deny people in the throes of deep depression may have some bad chemicals floating around in their brains or the ones that are there aren’t working so well, and yeah, it is a chicken/egg thing. I personally don’t believe the vast majority of people diagnosed with chemical imbalances have broken brains. Broken lives that may lead to subtle chemical changes, maybe.
So often the troubled children and adolescents I work with are characterized as having “mental illness” that needs psychiatric (see medication) treatment. They are prescribed a pill for their “imbalance” and that is all that is done for them. Again, the meds can and do help in a crisis, but should not be the only treatment. The entire family usually needs counseling.
Often in these cases, the meds change/help the child’s behavior for a while, but if nothing in the family dynamic changes, the child reverts to old behavior/maladjustment. Unfortunately, what usually happens is the medication is changed and we start over again.
We have a medical model approach to mental health right now. Though psychiatry offers valuable tools to troubled people, it cannot be the only treatment used to restore health.
That’s what I see in the anxiety support group quite often; people get a wake-up call through their anxiety that their life is not working out as they’re living it, they start on medication, they start to feel better, so they don’t make any changes in their lives. Sooner or later the drugs stop working, and they’ve made no changes or done any work on fixing the bad habits they have that cause anxiety. I would like to make it clear to people that they’re better off having some short-term pain for long-term gain, but that is a really, really hard sell.
There are a slew of research studies showing differences in brain chemistry and structure between those who have psychological disorders and those who do not. In fact, there’s evidence that thoughts and behavior can physically alter the structure of the brain. I just read a research paper about it yesterday. Don’t have the original sources at the present moment, but
