Can life, by being difficult, cause depression instead of a chemical imbalance?!


Question:

Can life, by being difficult, cause depression instead of a chemical imbalance?

Life can throw so many obstacles our way and is filled with difficult things at times. Sometimes it's too much, so it can cause me to get depressed, give up, and just generally be low all the time.

Now, instead of diagnosing me as a depressed person with an imbalance, why not just assume I'm a normal person who got served more than he could handle?

That's what irritates me about psychology/psychiatry; they throw those chemical imbalances, mental disorder diagnoses far too loosely, when you may be totaly normal, living in an insane world ( which I strongly believe is the case).

So therefore if the cause of my depression, and perhaps the cause for others' depression is REAL LIFE, rather than their own neurotransmitters,

what is the best way to deal with it?

Drugs? Talk Therapy?


So can life, by it's daily grind, bills, unfairness, materialism, bullshit, etc, cause depression, more so than something neurological?

And if so, why do docs FAVOR the neurological aspect?


Answers:

Yes. Absolutely. Glad to see that someone is getting the point here. ^_^ Catch is, a lot of it is a combination or what science would call a moiety. It works rather like some forms of cancer or heart disease: yes, you can be *born* more prone to depression than other people, but living an emotionally unhealthy, distressing and outright abusive lifestyle will do it too. And the deeper you get into the science of it, the more you realize that you *have to* change both the lifestyle *and* the neuro-chemistry. Meaning, pills and "cognitive behavioral" workbooks and rubber bands around the wrist *alone* aren't enough--the circumstances of someone's *actual real life* have to improve as well for treatments to stick and get people *Better*.

And as for why the doctors favor the Neurological aspect? Part of it is their training, this is what they are taught to do with nearly *any* illness, to look at it in terms of *treatments*, which usually means drugs and therapies *after* things go wrong, versus say prevention or rehabilitation.

But a lot of it is that HMOs and the Big Pharmaceutical companies just flat out *dictate* policy courtesy of their iron-clad control of how folks *get paid*. Doctors are human beings like anyone else and do need to work for a living, but the way Big Insurance and Big Drug Companies combine to form a *racket* with regards to legitimate medical illnesses that *just so happen* to involve a brain....it's almost criminal (negligence, fraud courtesy of baiting and switching, malpractice as well, if you want to get specific).

So a lot of it is just a consequence of the Money People being jerks, as per usual. You can spot my latest Question at my Profile for more stuff in this vein. And if you really want to do things the hard way you can also look up some of my Best Answers in the Psychology and Mental Health categories here too. Some are long and ranty....because this is a sore-nerve issue for me, and one I am familiar with courtesy of being a neglected client.

But one other thing you should look at as well: When you talk of "improving the circumstances" of people's lives, in the United States at least it stops becoming a health issue and becomes a *political* hot-potato as all manner of Pampered Rich People (putting it politely) come forth and whine incessantly about losing *one red cent* of their profits. Simply put, we can't even make most workplaces *free of cigarette smoke* in spite of the evidence showing that second-hand smoke *does* lead to cancers as bad as those of active smokers....people piss and moan about losing money, as their workers *die*, of slow suffocation.

And life in America is like this for *every* thing you can attempt to improve the circumstances of the mentally ill, because for most of us, there's just no money. Even those of us who *can* work for a living on proper medication aren't *allowed to* courtesy of HMO bigotry and "healthcare" plans that will cover *Quack Science* like chiropractic but not cover *one red cent* of anything regarding psychiatric issues *even when it is in their best interest* to do so--in order to keep folks *Working for a living and off of welfare!*

So yeah....sorry for the rantlet there, but I've only been saying this since day one here. I've only been telling the truth as I know it--as I've lived it. And I get tired too of having to "sell my soul" to the Devil--the local mental health system that has a monopoly on care to the poor--just to stay on meds and keep myself from losing function day in and day out. I get tired of the endlessly *parasitic* nature of this "business" which is all about Profiteering off of our Misery, keeping us Stable--read Dependent and trapped in the system--and not allowing us to get Better--read Self-Sufficient and able to live *without lining their pockets*.

And frankly I get tired of ranting about it, even if I seem to be one of a *handful* of people on the damn internet who has *clue one* what is going on. The ignorance and bigotry people show on this issue is *appalling* and medieval and is *difficult* to fight when you already have your own issues to deal with and they are *not* being dealt with.

But yeah....my apologies for going on so. I hope this is at least somewhat helpful. Thanks for your time. ^_^ Email me if you'd like to know more.




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