yunki

The whole life change thing is a separate issue.
I believe that fundamental life changes are a superb way to combat depression and have embraced the idea to it’s fullest extent in the past.
I have packed a few things in a bag and walked away to start a fresh life on numerous occasions and it has always been a completely successful method.
We probably get stuck in patterns of behaviour and thinking, and these patterns are reinforced by work, by friends, family so taking off into the great unknown to meet new people with new perspectives and fresh interpersonal dynamics cannot fail.

But, old habits die hard and I think unless you can keep moving (with whatever pitfalls that might entail) you will always fall into old hardwired patterns and habits

And there is a truth. Word for word have experienced exactly the same.

Hi Yunki, some of that is so similar to my experience.

Reads like clickbait

So, what is really going on? When I interviewed social scientists all over the world – from São Paulo to Sydney, from Los Angeles to London – I started to see an unexpected picture emerge. We all know that every human being has basic physical needs: for food, for water, for shelter, for clean air. It turns out that, in the same way, all humans have certain basic psychological needs. We need to feel we belong. We need to feel valued. We need to feel we’re good at something. We need to feel we have a secure future. And there is growing evidence that our culture isn’t meeting those psychological needs for many – perhaps most – people. I kept learning that, in very different ways, we have become disconnected from things we really need, and this deep disconnection is driving this epidemic of depression and anxiety all around us.

No shit Sherlock, I worked that out when I first got high. MrJesus though, spent years researching to get to this point and decided to write a book to tell us all about his revelation.

I preferred the rebuttal in yesterday’s paper

Sorry as I haven’t caught up on this all yet, but question to all those that have suffered or are suffering

Have you looked into Vitamin D defficiency? And have you had any success with supplements?

Sorry if this is covered somewhere in all the info posted already

Thanks

I didn’t intend to imply that you can make vitamin D by using a SAD light box. I do use a light box and also take vitamin D in the winter, but there are two different things going on with regards to lack of sunlight in winter.

I believe that fundamental life changes are a superb way to combat depression and have embraced the idea to it’s fullest extent in the past.

It’s not always possible though, without inflicting a great deal of upset and pain on others which is where people can feel trapped.

didn’t intend to imply that you can make vitamin D by using a SAD light box. I do use a light box and also take vitamin D in the winter, but there are two different things going on with regards to lack of sunlight in winter.

I think I accidently implied that whereas I was thinking that someone whose using a light box might be more aware of the vit D issue.

There was a medical type on the radio the other day who was running down the importance of vit D a bit, talking about ricketts, etc. But the fact that 70% of tissues have receptors for it implies to me that it is pretty vital.

There was a medical type on the radio the other day who was running down the importance of vit D a bit, talking about ricketts, etc. But the fact that 70% of tissues have receptors for it implies to me that it is pretty vital.

Quite. I think rickets is actually one of the last, most disastrous symptoms of a deficiency – there’s plenty of bad stuff going on before you reach that point.

Unfortunately a lot of the historical guidelines about safe levels were only those required to prevents rickets in children, with little appreciation of the other systemic effects. That may have changed now though.

I’ve not read the whole thread but this series of tweets expalins where the auther in the OP got his ‘statistics’ from and it’s basically bollocks. He picked a number from a 2009 self published book that used one 2004 study as a vague basis.

https://twitter.com/StuartJRitchie/status/951210391908114438

Frankly, this is ‘vaccines give you autism’ all over again as far as any scientific credibility is concerned.

wwaswas – Member

I’ve not read the whole thread but this series of tweets expalins where the auther in the OP got his ‘statistics’ from and it’s basically bollocks. He picked a number from a 2009 self published book that used one 2004 study as a vague basis.

Thread -> In publicity for his new book on depression, Johann Hari has repeatedly made the following claim: "between 65 and 80% of people on antidepressants are depressed again within a year". He says it in this extract: https://t.co/9CyTnG3mWw

— Stuart Ritchie (@StuartJRitchie) January 10, 2018

Frankly, this is ‘vaccines give you autism’ all over again as far as any scientific credibility is concerned.

Just because the author in the OP is using hyperbole to make a point or hype his book it doesn’t mean that there is some/a lot of truth in what he is saying. Or bollocks.

But let’s assume it is absolute bollocks for a second, and that there are no physical, environmental or cultural causes contributing to depression. What then is depression? It’s a disease which causes a chemical imbalance in the brain. How do we fix that? With drugs. Do drugs cure depression or just manage the symptoms?

It’s a disease which causes a chemical imbalance in the brain

not sure if that is what you are saying, but I don’t agree with that, except maybe in some cases.

Too many things can tip someone into depression, one being grief, and there have been posts on here where someone has failed with drugs and something else, like reading that 59 seconds book I mentioned, has broken them out of it.

If it were a disease then how could it come on with grief, and go away because someone has changed their outlook on life?

TurnerGuy – Member

It’s a disease which causes a chemical imbalance in the brain

not sure if that is what you are saying, but I don’t agree with that, except maybe in some cases.[/quote]

I wasn’t saying that, you guessed correctly. I was saying that if we act as though depression = brain chemistry malfunction, and drugs are the answer does that address the cause.

Eg if you repeatedly broke your hand punching brick walls the doctors would quickly want to know why you keep breaking your hand. Are anti depressants just a plaster cast on some broken bones, are they pain killers to help you ignore the pain, or will they stop you from punching the wall in the first place.

I realise this is a very clunky analogy, but my earlier post which you are questioning was a response to wwaswas calling the OP’s article bollocks. Even if the book featured is plagiarism or misses the point somewhat it’s wrong to dismiss it as bollocks.

“If it were a disease then how could it come on with grief, and go away because someone has changed their outlook on life?”

I suspect it’s more complex than that. There are different types of depression that manifest in different ways. Some people can’t sleep, some can’t stop sleeping, some lose their appetite while others comfort eat. Bipolar disorder has a genetic component so the depression aspect of that may be considered at least partly inherited in some people.
It all boils down to the fact that depression and other mental health conditions are poorly researched, poorly understood and often poorly treated. Especially when you look how far we’ve come with certain types of cancer and HIV.

Is Everything Johann Hari Knows About Depression Wrong?

Taken from the twitter feed quoted above, which is worth a look.

I suspect it’s more complex than that. There are different types of depression that manifest in different ways.

This is true. Struggling with pain and disability at a young age (30yrs) resulted in my being investigated for depression. The psych diagnosed it as ‘reactive depression’. I think similar to (or part of) PTSD. This made sense because my whole life, mobility, independence, marriage, career, health etc had just crashed down in one fell swoop. I told the psych I was dealing with it ‘in my own way’ and she just gave me a relaxation tape. I think the intense focus and militant struggle towards beating the disease is the thing that got me through. Yet I have old friends and family who have seemingly always struggled with nasty insidious depression, that one where they identify with it, and focus on it, it becomes part of life for the long haul. Whether this is chemical imbalance and/or introspection/over-sensitivity gone critical and normalised I’m not qualified to say. But I suspect it may be a feedback loop.