Things are looking up!
Finally! Twenty-first century medicine is finally realizing that “depression” is not a genetic disease like Huntington’s, but a symptom, a condition, like a “rash.” Lots of things can cause a rash, e.g. measles, stress or poison ivy. Lots of things can cause depression, e.g. repressed anger, alcohol, or intestinal dysbiosis, and while a one-size-fits-all pharmaceutical, a serotonin re-uptake inhibitor (SSRI), might work for a few folks, for millions of Americans who will exhibit depression this year, this class of psych meds will not work at all. Finding a psychotherapist who can help you get to the bottom of your particular complicated reality and get moving on a treatment that WILL help is the ticket to living a life you love. You’re not genetically broken. You’re off balance. Let’s figure out how.-–MR
The Cause of Depression Is Probably Not What You Think
By Joanna Thompson, Quanta Magazine, January 26, 2023
People often think they know what causes chronic depression. Surveys indicate that more than 80% of the public blames a “chemical imbalance” in the brain. That idea is widespread in pop psychology and cited in research papers and medical textbooks. Listening to Prozac, a book that describes the life-changing value of treating depression with medications that aim to correct this imbalance, spent months on the New York Times bestseller list.
