YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

A lot of great information on the reality of depression

Uploaded by StanfordUniversity on Nov 10, 2009
Stanford Professor Robert Sapolsky, posits that depression is the most damaging disease that you can experience. Right now it is the number four cause of disability in the US and it is becoming more common. Sapolsky states that depression is as real of a biological disease as is diabetes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOAgplgTxfc

lol, hey i posted this too, having come across independently somewhat recently. this is an amazing lecture. what a talented lecturer this guy is.

It's so gratifying to see someone shining a light on the suffering the comes with mental illness, especially someone with a broad audience. I watched it about a month ago and the only reservation I remember having about it was that, he seemed to attribute a lot of things to biochemistry, genetics, and early experiences. While there is certainly some truth there, thinking about depression in this way seems to give me zero power to do anything about it. (Meds have not been helpful in my case.)

I'm not keen to dwell on things that are outside my control, and I wish he had spent more time on different psychotherapy options. People are just waking up to the idea that modern psychotherapy, which is almost disappointing because it is so down-to-earth, can change the way a brain works every bit as much as meds.

I dunno, I see my depression and anxiety as absolutely biological. And I don't see it as out of my power to control. Every experience we have is processed through our brains, and our brains are dynamic. We can rewire via experience alone, aka therapy.

Agreed. I watched the video a second time today. I do wish he had been a little more specific about the range of treatment options, but maybe that was beyond the scope of his lecture. And maybe I'm just a little oversensitive about any suggestion--real or imagined--that meds are the first line of treatment for depression and if those don't work there's less hope for recovery. I know he didn't say that and probably never would. I'm just oversensitive about that.

There's even this new treatment involving magnets: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/transc ... on/MY00185

I've heard of transcranial magnetic stimulation, but I've never known anyone who tried it. It sounds like the side effects are usually quite manageable, so if it works it could really be a Godsend for a lot of people. As long as we're talking about less common treatments for depression, I'll mention that I've heard of things called vagus nerve stimulators and deep brain stimulators. Both of those require surgery though, and so if they are an option at all, they are way down the list of things that people will try as depression treatments.

I'd like to express a fairly strong opinion, and I just want to preface it by saying that I fully realize I could be way off base, and that people have strong feelings about this that may differ from mine. That's totally okay with me. I'm going to say this in as nonjudgmental a way as I can. Here goes:

I'll only speak for myself. Part of what has kept me depressed for so long is the perception that I'm helpless in most ways to get what I want out of life. I talk a good game, but deep down I often have serious doubts that I have the power within me to get better. That's dark, I know, but I've learned to mostly ignore those thoughts. When I'm feeling a lot of self-doubt, a big part of what draws me to certain treatments is that they don't rely on me to do much. The helpless/hopeless part of my brain does this math where if something depends on me to provide sustained effort, then it's doomed to fail from the start. I'll "flake out" or "drop the ball" eventually so why bother trying. For years, I approached my meds with a passive, "Hope this fixes me!" approach. Most of the time, I did little or nothing else to help myself. Maybe that was the best I could do at times. I'm not saying that anyone should rule out depression treatments that put control somewhere outside of ourselves. Please don't! Actually, I think an important part of reclaiming power for a depressed person is to explore and take advantage of all available sources of help. The bottom line is that anything that's effective against depression is a good thing. However, for far too long I let my frustration over having something less than 100% control over my life stop me from exercising the partial control that I do have.

It's a bitter pill to swallow, so to speak, but I say a version of the Serenity Prayer sometimes:
Grant me the serenity to accept those things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

I have a fear of medical procedures. I don't think I can trust going under and being in the total care of other people. I was supposed to get a procedure done to prove that I have celiac disease, because the blood tests that currently exist aren't 100% conclusive, ever. But I couldn't do it. The only cure is not eating gluten anyway, so I just don't eat gluten. On a related note, celiac disease has been linked to mood disorders- especially depression and anxiety, so there's one more thing to look out for.

cyanidebreathmint wrote:I have a fear of medical procedures. [...] I was supposed to get a procedure done to prove that I have celiac disease [...] The only cure is not eating gluten anyway, so I just don't eat gluten.

I don't call this being fearful, I call this being smart! Why not just go gluten free for a while and see if there is any improvement. Seems logical to me. All the best, cheers!

My sister-in-law has a pretty severe fear of anything involving needles. She gets panic attacks when she has to have blood drawn or has to have an IV. It's pretty rough for her, but she's found ways to at least manage it.