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Harrison wrote:You can't make blanket statements about human beings and their emotions.

You did.

Fixing psychological disorders isn't as simple as changing your habits, eating healthier, reducing stress, la la la la.

Why? Once you fall into a pscyhological disorder, it is consuming. When you are fully in the grips of it, you don't think like a normal human being. You can't just "reduce stress" or anything else like that. Those sort of things work for people who are normal, and just having a bad day. Or bad week, or month, or even year. They do not work for people who are actually ill.

Mental illness is a self-perpetuating cycle. You feel like shit for ______ reason. As time goes by, you feel like shit because you've been feeling like shit for so long. Depression begets depression. In many cases the only way to break these cycles is medication.

It is absolutely impossible to eat healthier, reduce stress, change habits, or any other feel good nonsense when you can't even stomach the idea of getting out of bed. When you sleep 12+ hours a day because dealing with reality has become unbearable. When you have a constant fear that you damn well may be losing your mind. And this is just depression, a mild form of psychological illness.

Ask someone with anxiety attacks, or bipolar, or obscessive compulsive disorder, etc. if they can fix it by eating salads and or going for a good jog every day. That's insane.

No, it takes a lot of hard work to beat the cycle. It's not as easy as eating a salad or taking a walk.

I would say that it takes admitting to yourself that you are responsible for your condition and realizing that no one is going to come and save you or cure you. That is definitely not an easy realization to come to. It's hard to find the desire to change yourself when you are depressed.

Um, in case some of you didn't know, there are often actual biological causes for depression. In many cases, it's because the brain is not producing enough serotonin, which causes all sorts of issues. That's what some of those anti-depressant drugs do, they stop the brain from re-absorbing the serotonin it does produce, so that the levels of the chemical floating around stay high, and the brain can function more normally.

You can't cure issues with serotonin production via diet, exercise or any such thing. Saying drugs are not necessary, at least in some cases, is utterly asinine. Would you tell a full-fledged diabetic that he should skip his insulin injections because he should get by with exercise? I think not. Diabetes is caused by a lack of production of a vital chemical. So is depression in many cases. Different chemical, but same process. Taking drugs to fix depression in those cases is no different than a diabetic taking insulin.

-Arlos

There are natural ways to promote neurotransmitter production. If the "brain is not producing enough serotonin" it's usually because of a psychological rut the person is in. Are there some people with actual physical brain damage? Of course... meth, xtc, xanax, etc abuse can all cause permanant brain damage which may cause your brain to physically not be able to produce the right combination of neurotransmitters to make you feel "happy" but for the most part, people that are chronically unhappy due to tragic circumstances in their life have all the tools they need to "correct" their unhappiness.

arlos wrote:You can't cure issues with serotonin production via diet, exercise or any such thing.
-Arlos

This is bullshit.

diet, exercise, sex, sunshine, etc can all stimulate serotonin production.

Tossica wrote:There are natural ways to promote neurotransmitter production. If the "brain is not producing enough serotonin" it's usually because of a psychological rut the person is in. Are there some people with actual physical brain damage? Of course... meth, xtc, xanax, etc abuse can all cause permanant brain damage which may cause your brain to physically not be able to produce the right combination of neurotransmitters to make you feel "happy" but for the most part, people that are chronically unhappy due to tragic circumstances in their life have all the tools they need to "correct" their unhappiness.

To me it sounds like your saying the cure for depression is to not be depressed.

More like changing the factors that led to depression, whatever they may be. That's much easier said than done, of course.

Gidan wrote:To me it sounds like your saying the cure for depression is to not be depressed.

Pretty much, yes.

Wow, I didn't know so many people were this clueless about chronic depression.

I almost want to email my teacher and invite him to join the board discussion. It would be interesting to hear his comments on all of this..

Harrison wrote:Wow, I didn't know so many people were this clueless about chronic depression.

And where exactly does your wealth of knowledge come from cranberry boy?

Harrison wrote:Wow, I didn't know so many people were this clueless about chronic depression.

Wow, I didn't know one person could be so completely clueless about so many subjects yet think he has so much knowledge to share with others.

I can personally attest that changes in diet, regular exercise, and possibly the taking of
St. John's Wort have made a difference in my case.

They haven't entirely eliminated cyclical feelings of depression, but nadir of the cycle
is more bearable now than when those factors were different.

Zanchief wrote:

Harrison wrote:Wow, I didn't know so many people were this clueless about chronic depression.

And where exactly does your wealth of knowledge come from cranberry boy?

Who do you think wrote my ex's psychology final?

I wrote a 15+ page paper specifically on depression alone. I also firmly believe that half of psychology is a crock of shit anyways.

Refer back to blanket statements. Not everyone is created equal. To say one reason for a certain phenomena is the case for all human beings is absurd and you know it.

Pscyhologists argue amongst themselves constantly because they all don't know their ass from their heads in the community. You could take the same two psychology courses from two different teachers and they would be so disparate you would confuse the fuck out of yourself if you attempted to absorb both simultaneously.

Edit:
Psychology: Child Development specifically if you want to nitpick

How did the gay talk get into the depression talk?

Could you not make the arguement that gay people are retarded (not completely serious here but just follow me for a sec).

We know that over time the body mutates, all you evolution folks believe we came from apes (yeah I'm a bible hugger and go both ways with evolution and "adam/eve" but still just follow along).

Could you not say that mother natures has been twisting our gene's around a bit? And please I do NOT mean to offend folks with these statements. If you look at a child with a retardation, so long as it isn't medically induced, is this not a "mistake" by mother nature, could this have been an attempt at the "next human". Is evolution to stop because it can't get any better? Could mother nature / evolution attempt to find a way to stop human procreation because we are a desease on this planet?

I know, Clakar WAY the fuck out in left field again. But if you truely think about that, does it not make "some" sense?

How long is it between two evolutionary milestones anyway?

Dude, that's harsh!

O and Harrison, I'm not going to "dog" your physco-babble stuff but if I look at my two kids or even myself.

I would probably get thrown pretty quickly into the "metrosexual" bucket. I'm clean cut all around and like it that way. I love sex and it grosses me out thinking about males being sexual together.

I guess my point is some folks ARE more feminine. I can see my oldest boy is much "sweeter" more kind, to animals, people, friends everything. My youngest is a hornet, He'll be the one I have to watch more closely as he sort of has a devious / mean streak. They were brought up with identical morals, I love them both equal, raise them equal, attempt to spend equal time, etc etc

Harrison wrote:

They say depression is a chemical imbalance in the brain, and sure, it is, but you can change that chemical imbalance just by eating healthier, or exercising, or changing your environment.

Wrong.

I think the word 'just' is what makes this wrong.

There is no way that exercising, eating right, and getting more sun alone are going to cure serious clinical depression.

Can it help people who feel pretty crappy or lousy (especially if influenced from external rather than internal factors)? Sure, probably.

Can it make a little difference in worse cases? Maybe.

Can it shift the chemical imbalance in someone who is at suicidal risk and cant get themselves to get out of bed, let alone go to work or do much of anything to serious levels? Uh, no.

Matt... Matt... you're glib.

Yamori wrote:

Harrison wrote:

They say depression is a chemical imbalance in the brain, and sure, it is, but you can change that chemical imbalance just by eating healthier, or exercising, or changing your environment.

Wrong.

I think the word 'just' is what makes this wrong.

There is no way that exercising, eating right, and getting more sun alone are going to cure serious clinical depression.

Can it help people who feel pretty crappy or lousy (especially if influenced from external rather than internal factors)? Sure, probably.

Can it make a little difference in worse cases? Maybe.

Can it shift the chemical imbalance in someone who is at suicidal risk and cant get themselves to get out of bed, let alone go to work or do much of anything to serious levels? Uh, no.

Thank you Mr. Rationality

Diabetes is caused by a lack of production of a vital chemical

this isn't true in all cases, it can also be caused by a tolerance to insulin, there's two types of diabetes.

About the whole gay thing, this study in no way showed that it was genetic, what they showed was that brains reacted different. The reason for these differences could be wildly different, it could be genetic or it could be due to a number of other factors. They really haven't shown that it can't be a learned behavior or based on environment.

I know, Clakar WAY the fuck out in left field again. But if you truly think about that, does it not make "some" sense?

I guess if you believe in an actual entity called mother nature who has a will or a plan then yes I guess maybe it can make sense, course I think that argument is laughable and akin to believing in the flying spaghetti monster

Phlegm wrote:

Tikker wrote:it's been pretty much accepted for a long time that it was genetic

Tell that to the religious zealots.

Sorina S wrote:I completely disagree that homosexuality is genetic.

Point proven?

My reference to mother nature was not in regards to ID or Religion but evolution.

I view mother nature and evolution as synonomous(sp).

My point again was that evolution is self healing to some extent, it destroys things that "don't" work and keeps trying until it finds something that works. I don't believe evolution takes place in a bubble and evolution walks a path driven by environment or the surroundings.

I don't fully believe the comments I wrote, I just put those there as thought starters.

Re: diabeties, everything I've ever read and the Dr's I've talked to (I'm boarderline diabetic), haven't a clue (they are looking and maybe nearing one) as to what truely causes one to be diabetic. I do not fit ONE profile for a diabetic yet I'm boarderline. 2 or 2 Dr's agree, blame your family tree.

Re: Chemical imbalance, there isn't one ill of the human body IMHO that can't be attributted to a chemical imbalance, excpet for maybe cancer (virus's, diseases don't qualify as these are externals introduced into the body). But all this depression talk, ADD, ADHD, etc do (my opinion). We are a biology wonder, of course the lack or execess of a chemical would and/or can greatly effect our being.
(didn't spell check, sorry)