DEPRESSION

This topic has tended to be dominated by psychological medicine or presumed biological causes.

Even the word depression almost means a disease. Words to describe related feelings include unhappiness, misery or low energy.

CONS OF CALLING DEPRESSION AN ILLNESS

While there may be some plusses in calling depression an illness, the disadvantage it may tend to restrict the ways in which the issue is explored.

Here an alternative view is presented. There is no attempt to present it in any scientific way, that is not to say it might not make more sense to some people than some scientific papers on the subject.

I ask readers not to attack the viewpoints here (in their mind), but simply to observe and acknowkedge them as they are.

ENVIRONMENT

The immediate environment is critical to how you feel. Past environments are also important.

The convential approach tends to concentrate on non-environmental factors, genetics, biological theories, chemicals etc. This is a limited approach.

In addition to environment, how one responds to the environment is important (and the consequent thinking/feeling patterns that are created.)

FACTORS WHICH MAY INCREASE INCIDENCE

Here are some factors which may increase the probability of someone being depressed. These are in no particular order.


low physical activity (lack of exercise)
I've heard of people who stay at home all day watching TV, or who spend half the day in bed. (Thats likely to lead to insomnia too.)

poor nutrition and irregular eating habits (skipping meals etc.)
If one over eats, under eats or eats yukky food, I don't see that helping. Its amazing some people remain healthy considering what they live on.

social isolation
Recluses or hermits may be less able to deal with negative moods as they arise.

insomnia
If one sleeps poorly (especialy chronically) of course they will tend to feel less well during the day.

anxiety(negative thinking, worry, fear, tension, apathy etc.)
I once read in a book on Anxiety that anxiety and depression co-exist, you don't have one without the other. Imagine having a lot of anxiety, naturally that person will have low energy.

receiving little or no physical affection
If a person is rarely touched then tension, their body is likely to become more afraid and a subtle increse in tension is possible.

victim of crime or bereavement etc.
I can imagine this could be pretty disturbing and depressing, at least in the short term, especially in the short-term.

chronic pain
Serious chronic pain might greatly reduce enjoyment of life for some people.

smoking (and passive smoking)or alcohol/drug abuse (prescribed and unprescribed)
Anything which is unhealthy for the body is likely to be harmful for one's emotional state.

stressful work or family situation
Hanging around with negative complaining people can be dangerous to one's emotional health.
See anxiety

seriousness
A lack of sense of humour.

PSYCHIATRIC INSTITIONS
As an ex community visitor in the psychiatric system (a voluntary position), I've seen wards thick with tobacco smoke, a TV blaring away non-stop, people pacing up and down, riddled with the effects of phenothiazines etc, spending all day botting cigarettes off each other, eating meals made on the cheap. (in the late 1970s, it cost about 50c/a day to feed a person in psychiatric institution) Not what I'd call a great environment.

Though to their credit, the staff got them out of bed, gave them some exercise and did organize some activities for them. And of course, there is the ocassional kindness which counts more than all the drugs in the world.

FACTORS WHICH MAY REDUCE INCIDENCE

social interaction
Friends are very important.

positive thinking spontaneity alertness confidence meditativeness
If you don't worry, how can there be a problem?.

music
The right kind of music can be very uplifting.

massage A regular massage by a skilled practioner could be of great benefit.

exercise, physical fitness, sport etc.
Its hard to conceive of someone truly physically healthy to be depressed.

work, helping others, helping self
If people are doing useful work for themselves and others of course they will tend to feel better.

emotional release
Expressing anger in a *constructive* way might sometimes be helpful
to get energy moving even in such a simple manner as playing a carthartic computer game.

humour
Funny books, videos etc.

REPROGRAMMING THE BRAIN
Obvoiusly, some people get depressed in an environment that another person might not. Past programming has a lot to do with the difference.

Instead of attempting to mess around with the physiology of the brain, it might be far more productive to change negative thinking/feeling patterns etc. in a person.

There are already established methods that use this approach, eg. Neuro Linguistic Programming.

REMEMBERING THE SELF
Many people believe we are not who we think we are.
Our ego (our thoughts etc., our concept of self) is important, but not the real us.

Our true self is incredibly light-hearted and is incapable of being depressed.

If people can remember 2 simple things it is difficult to see how they could remain seriously depressed.

(1) Whatever mood they are in (however bad) cannot last indefinitely.
If one is patient, the feeling will pass.

(2) Whatever mood they are in (however bad) is not real, it is only apparently real.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
Why does depression seem more prevalent in some ethnic groups than others?

There is a lot more to this of course.

THE TROUBLE WITH MEDICINE
All the above are likely to be common sense to many people. But (can't see the woods for the trees) mechanistic psychiatry seems to take little note of the above.

It has been said psychiatry tends to cause the very thing it seeks to cure. Guess what one adverse reaction of some anti-depressants are? Depression!, especially if an excess dose is taken. Also, its outrageous that people feeling low are prescribed drugs which they can easily fatally overdose on.

One class of anti-depressant drug a few decades (the Mao inhibitors) are potentially fatally if the person eats any of about 50 different common foods. How such drugs were ever legal is a credit to CSTWFTT thinking.

If I had my way, people would get massages instead of brain-damaging shock treatment. And good food, exercise, occupational therapy (work) , music etc. instead of anti-depressant drugs.

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