jamesq | Depression and the Lack Therof

I used to suffer from chronic depression (and a lifetime of wandering down the wrong neural pathways means I'll always be prone to it) so It's something that I always pay attention to. Athena and I got to talking about it today.

Some years ago, a buddy of mine was suffering from depression and he got treatment for it. He was so grateful for this that he told everyone of his experience. As he hung out with like-minded people (i.e. socially awkward geeks), he knew that there was a high incidence for depression and also a high incidence of being in complete denial about it. Certainly this was the case for me. I was firmly in the if you're depressed you should just suck it up school of thought. I am my Father's son after all.

Now my buddy's method was not to walk up to the most obvious candidates (myself and at least two other people he knows) and say "Hey, you're obviously depressed, get some treatment ferchissake". Instead, he simply described his own experiences. What the symptoms were, how it was affecting his life, what the treatment consisted of and the end results. He did this to anyone who would listen. I heard it and it planted a seed in my mind. Here was a guy I knew who was admitting to mental illness and how he was treating it so that he got better. In my mind it attached a real person to something for which there are still stigmas attached.

Later in my life, as the stress mounted and I hit a low point in my life, the seed sprouted and gave me a much needed option. I got into treatment and spent a year on anti-depressents. I also went into therapy and learned some much needed coping skills. It's like a muscle though - you've got to keep exercising it or it will atrophy.

Anyways, we (Athena and I) got to discussing anti-depressents and this all came out. We both agreed that they're a great idea, but disagreed on whether there was a class of people who needed to be on anti-depressents permanently. Now it's not that Athena is convinced one way or the other, she's just looking for evidence. Me, I think that this set of people exists, but it's smaller then the set that's diagnosed that way. Frankly, I think it's prima facia that anyone on anti-depressents should also be in therapy. That way you have some tools for when you're no longer on the anti-depressants. Sadly, North American attitudes are such that the quick-fix-pill is the default response to any illness or condition.

If you had to take a drug to correct a chemical imbalance in (say) your liver, you'd do so in a heartbeat. If it was a permanent condition, you'd still do so. But when the organ in question is not a liver, but your brain, we get all weird.

For me, a year on anti-depressants was a god-send. It rebooted my brain, helped me keep it together when my mother died and allowed me the time to get back up on my (mental) feet. It did have it's downsides though, namely some sexual side-effects that I'm happy to say went away when I went off the drugs. I know at least one person who is on the drugs permanently. I'm content to trust her judgement that she is in the class of people who need to be there permanently, even though that evidence (to me) is anecdotal and not scientific.

What's my point? I guess I don't really have one, I'm just pondering. Though you could say I'm paying back my buddy for his passive way of letting me know my options. I know plenty of other people who would be a lot happier in their lives if they sought treatment. I also know that I can't just tell them that, they have to get there on their own, like I did. If this post, or other similar posts, plants a seed, great. The world will be a better place.