as a holistic psychotherapist supporting folks tapering off SSRIs, i just want to commend you for continuing to be a voice for the voiceless. Trapped trauma in the nervous system and compromised gut health (intestinal permeability) seem to be the culprit to me clinically. it is a true tragedy that pharma marketing departments have misled the general public into the modern day lobotomy.
Primary care physicians are prescribing SSRIs based on questionaries (probably unvalidated and developed in a Pharma marketing department) and sending people on their way. There are days where if I answered those questions honestly I would have walked away with a prescription myself. This is just terribly wrong. I know so many young people who are taking these things!
As a psych RN working on an inpatient psychiatric unit I can attest to this. I called it the “dumping ground” for patients the doctors couldn’t figure out. The environment in the hospital could induce depression in someone without depression, and the treatment was pills. Complete evolutionary mismatch. The system is broken.
If the medical community and the public would examine the root causes of depression and proceed accordingly, it would have a profound affect on the well-being of a society. Thank you for another insightful essay.
Not just this, which, as a (retired) clinical psychologist I agree with, but also, on a social-political level, the state of affairs in the world is very depressing and I think many people catch these contagious emotions of darkness and depression through emotional contagion.
Thanks for sharing, Roger. As a psychotherapist, I often come across patients who have been on medication for years, have been consulted by several psychiatrists and have never been told that they should have psychotherapy. I find this regrettable and scientifically incorrect
Bravo. The idea that despair is not a medical disorder but a common human experience should be a VALIDATING sentence for people to hear. I myself have never heard this idea expressed so well and I take much comfort in it.
Additionally, it is dangerous waters to tell a family doctor you are experiencing depression, as SSRI"s will be suggested, and that is the end of the subject, despite the dangers of such a recommendation. It is so reckless and yet vulnerable patients are at the mercy of this travesty.
Your writing is a progressive understanding of symptoms of depression, and takes a holistic approach, not a reductionistic approach that conventional medicine takes, and which does not heal. I had extreme premenstrual symptoms, with symptoms that would look like bi-polar, only it was not. Mostly, the depression was profound and lifted as soon as bleeding began. A doctor was so frustrated with me for refusing Prozac, but I knew that was not addressing the endocrine issue and could make it worse. There were many factors that needed to be addressed by an endocrinologist, that led to hormonal imbalance such as trauma that led to alcohol consumption which can lower the liver's ability to clear estrogen metabolites, which raises anxiety etc....We are divorced from a harmonious interaction with nature, the industrial revolution has damaged our bodies, minds and souls. The tech revolution is giving us more time, but we use it in addiction to it. Depression is natural. I read that certain tribes would sleep around a fire, it was noisy, everyone did not go to sleep at the same time. For years, many would cry out in their sleep from dreams of lost loved ones, not a pathology, a healthy processing of loss. I know many who have spent years on SSRI's which made things worse.
Thanks for another insightful essay. I would be most appreciative if you could, at some point, address the diagnosis of low-grade, chronic depression, or dysthymia, although I think the latest DSM may have changed the name to PDD?
as a holistic psychotherapist supporting folks tapering off SSRIs, i just want to commend you for continuing to be a voice for the voiceless. Trapped trauma in the nervous system and compromised gut health (intestinal permeability) seem to be the culprit to me clinically. it is a true tragedy that pharma marketing departments have misled the general public into the modern day lobotomy.
Primary care physicians are prescribing SSRIs based on questionaries (probably unvalidated and developed in a Pharma marketing department) and sending people on their way. There are days where if I answered those questions honestly I would have walked away with a prescription myself. This is just terribly wrong. I know so many young people who are taking these things!
As a psych RN working on an inpatient psychiatric unit I can attest to this. I called it the “dumping ground” for patients the doctors couldn’t figure out. The environment in the hospital could induce depression in someone without depression, and the treatment was pills. Complete evolutionary mismatch. The system is broken.
If the medical community and the public would examine the root causes of depression and proceed accordingly, it would have a profound affect on the well-being of a society. Thank you for another insightful essay.
Sent link to my kids (3 in their twenties.) This is such a helpful article.
Not just this, which, as a (retired) clinical psychologist I agree with, but also, on a social-political level, the state of affairs in the world is very depressing and I think many people catch these contagious emotions of darkness and depression through emotional contagion.
Thanks for sharing, Roger. As a psychotherapist, I often come across patients who have been on medication for years, have been consulted by several psychiatrists and have never been told that they should have psychotherapy. I find this regrettable and scientifically incorrect
Bravo. The idea that despair is not a medical disorder but a common human experience should be a VALIDATING sentence for people to hear. I myself have never heard this idea expressed so well and I take much comfort in it.
Additionally, it is dangerous waters to tell a family doctor you are experiencing depression, as SSRI"s will be suggested, and that is the end of the subject, despite the dangers of such a recommendation. It is so reckless and yet vulnerable patients are at the mercy of this travesty.
Your writing is a progressive understanding of symptoms of depression, and takes a holistic approach, not a reductionistic approach that conventional medicine takes, and which does not heal. I had extreme premenstrual symptoms, with symptoms that would look like bi-polar, only it was not. Mostly, the depression was profound and lifted as soon as bleeding began. A doctor was so frustrated with me for refusing Prozac, but I knew that was not addressing the endocrine issue and could make it worse. There were many factors that needed to be addressed by an endocrinologist, that led to hormonal imbalance such as trauma that led to alcohol consumption which can lower the liver's ability to clear estrogen metabolites, which raises anxiety etc....We are divorced from a harmonious interaction with nature, the industrial revolution has damaged our bodies, minds and souls. The tech revolution is giving us more time, but we use it in addiction to it. Depression is natural. I read that certain tribes would sleep around a fire, it was noisy, everyone did not go to sleep at the same time. For years, many would cry out in their sleep from dreams of lost loved ones, not a pathology, a healthy processing of loss. I know many who have spent years on SSRI's which made things worse.
Funny you brought up Matt Walsh because when I saw the title of the article, I immediately thought of his segment on his show today.
Thanks for another insightful essay. I would be most appreciative if you could, at some point, address the diagnosis of low-grade, chronic depression, or dysthymia, although I think the latest DSM may have changed the name to PDD?