Why Depression Isn't Just a Chemical Imbalance
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ค. 2024
- Depression is a common disorder, and though it might seem like we’ve got it figured out, what it is and how to treat it is actually way more complicated than we think.
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I was depressed from 16-25. I'm 28 now and finally have my life together and rarely have an episode. We're all gonna make it bros.
I'm 30 and i just can't get my stuff together :(
Same. The "best years of your life" were absolute hell.
Being 26 with an ok job and plenty of time to exercise is a world of difference.
Also this probably taboo to say this but having regular sex did help with my confidence. Not saying sex alone will fix depressed people, but it probably helps.
Edit: i'm excited about my 30's :)
I'm so glad to hear that!
That is so amazing to hear. That’s a message of hope if ever there was one
your comment gave me hope fr
I hate when people try to bring up the fact that they just need to get over it, unless you have experienced real depression you don't know how hard it is to get out of
Hell yeah it's hard. If it was easy nobody would be depressed. However you need to get over it. My problem was that I didn't want to get out. I thought I was a victim and there was nothing I could do. Comfort in the pain
@horrorkesh Exactly, it's like telling someone with a broken leg to just ignore the pain, get up and walk.
Just get over it...yeah right. It's so NOT that simple.
Oh you’re homeless? Just get a house!
Depression is "mental", meaning you fix it "mentally". A broken leg is physical, you fix it physically. The difference is, our medicine is very advanced in the physical part but still backwards at the mental part (mostly because the human mind is still too complex to understand). So, depression victims shouldn't rely on doctors to "fix" their case, because each case is different, and you know your self, your depression case, and your mind better than the doctors. YOU CAN alter the chemistry of your mind, meaning you can fix your depression. So guess what "get over it" is correct, and it's actually a better method than taking medicine, if you do it correctly.
And yes I was depressed, it was hard, but I did get over it after I realised that only I was capable to actually fix it, it's my mind and the mind is very flexible and moldable.
16% is just the tip of the iceberg. A lot of people don't feel comfortable even letting their doctor know because they'll be labeled as crazy or have just become so used to feeling that way it becomes their normal.
Facts. Especially when you're a student...its so hard to prove that you're struggling
I had been depressed for 6 years before even realising it, because everytime I'd try talking about it people (even doctors) kept telling me "everyone's teenage years are rough", "you're just having a bad day" and "it's because you don't sleep enough". (admittedly I didn't sleep enough, but that was because I couldn't fall asleep while worrying about everything and wishing death)
Also a lot of people in the us cant afford health care(me included) and cant afford treatment
Life Circumstances are a MAJOR contributing factor. Lousy dead-end job, long-work hours, debt, a bad spouse, ungrateful kids, loss of a friend or family member, health issues, etc. Many people feel trapped, and many futilely try to escape with drugs and alcohol.
Then consider the sheer affordability of going to see a doctor in the first place. Literally no one I have ever met in my generation DOESNT have Depression or some form Anxiety. Literally 0.
Depression isn't always neurological; Sometimes it's psychological.
It's not always a mystery; Sometimes people just live really crappy lives and feel powerless and hopeless.
JanetFunkYeah Exactly. In most cases, depression is a symptom. Not a disease.
Ashley Hunter relax with the “in most cases” that is simply not true
Everything psychological is neurological. Everything neurological has some psychological affects.
The main difference is, that those two are separate academic departments in most universities...
The reality, you can't really separate the two.
Is it you? Are you talking about yourself? Do you have a crappy life? Is that why you spew hate on the internet?
I would say the cause of depression is different for everyone. Sometimes it's the outside environment, sometimes its emotional trauma, sometimes its chemical imbalances due to nutrition. There are so many different reasons and factors that people experience depression. It's not about the disease it's about what type of person has the disease. From ther eyou can do process of elimination as to what treatment or treatments will most likely work best for them. Sometimes simply changing the nutrition does the trick. Sometimes antidepressants and years of therapy does it. It varies from person to person.
Depressed vs depression needs to be better understood.
No it doesn't, because there is no difference. The criteria which diagnoses depression are somewhat arbitrary (as are pretty much all DSM disorders). There isn't a simple test (e.g. blood or urine test) to determine if someone "has depression". This is because we still don't understand the underlying causes of depression. This means it has to be diagnosed by a psychiatrist, which is inherently subjective. The bigger problem is that "depressed vs non-depressed" isn't a binary classification. There's a spectrum of depression. If someone just barely fails to meet enough criteria to be clinically classified as depressed (according to some psychiatrist), they probably wouldn't appreciate being told they aren't depressed. Don't depression gate-keep
@@gardenhead92 I believe what the other person is trying to say is the difference between feeling depressed and having depression as in the feeling of depression and the actual mental disorder depression need to be understood as two separate things.
@@Dougiewoof I understood, and I disagree. Where's the cutoff? At what point does someone go from being depressed to having depression? It's arbitrary. I know this is popular rhetoric among those with depression to try to explain how serious their feelings are, but it's at the cost of discounting the feelings of others. BTW, I'm also diagnosed with depression. But I'm sure there are plenty of people with similar feelings to me who have never been officially diagnosed
@@Dougiewoof Exactly, like I have issues with anxiety but I know I dont have an anxiety disorder, even though I have had a couple panic attacks and there are times it gets very bad. You can be depressed or have depressive episodes but not have depression. Doesn't mean what you are going through does not matter or is less than someone with depression, but it can help determine how you are treated. For example if you are depressed, therapy and counselling, exercise, changing your environment could work our amazingly for you to relieve symptoms, and medication may be a last resort(it takes long to work anyway). However if you have chronic long term depression, you may need medication because that is something you'll likely have for life regardless of counselling, but meds with counselling can give you coping skills and take the edge off.
There are people with depression who go through periods where they are fine, they are not experiencing the effects of their depression, and because they are not depressed they may be cast aside as not having depression because they seem fine. Whereas if you lose someone or something happens to you, you will obviously be depressed and need counselling, thats normal. The thing about depressed vs depression is not to belittle anyone's pain but to understand that one is "normal" and one is "abnormal". Normal not as in, not a big deal but as in you are more likely to pull through with typical interventions. Of course, it is up to a MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL to determine which category you fall under ; either way seek help.
@@gardenhead92 As someone with depression you surely know that there IS a difference. Sure - the line between those two is blurry at best but arguing that they're not separate because you cannot draw a clear line between the two doesn't make any sense to me. Heck - the world basically is full of things that are similar but different and nobody argues about them being different just because it's not clear sometimes where you make the cut. Also - in what way is that discounting the feeling of others? For example, if my dog dies this can be a hard time for me but I shouldn't be diagnosed with depression because of that. Even though we cannot easily draw the line sometimes I think it's pretty clear that "my dog just died and I feel miserable" and "my dog died and since then I cannot work anymore for almost 5 years now" are two completely different things and the latter should be treated as an illness. It that case IMHO one doesn't discount the other - it's just different.
I cannot wait for the day when depression and other mental illnesses are treated with the same respect and care that that other chronic illnesses are treated. In Jamaica, people generally say you are "weak" if you suffer from mental illnesses. The stigma needs to change.
Yep. As a Jamaican suffering from mental illness, that’s exactly how everyone sees it. Just ‘snap’ out of it. Unless you’re actually going mad they don’t recognize it.
Yes it's true some cultures still haven't realised what mental health is, I too experienced that.
Where I am from, our psychiatrists do take it seriously. I would rather someone had schizophrenia than depression, actually schitzo can be treated much easier than depression
@@CB-bb2ix same in Hungary 😕
I had a roommate with a mental illness once. It made him very irritable and controlling, and he had a hard time controlling himself. In didn't even know he was sick until we parted ways. So, I can honestly say I hated him during our stay together, since he would blow up over tiny things all the time.
Now, I don't know how much he needs to be blamed for acting that way, but sicknesses like that at least deserve attention.
"There's hope on the horizon, even when you can't see it."
Thank you for this.
@Rafael Ferreira Nice... Do you like being a jerk?
I suffered from chronic depression for 4 years and I feel amazing now! Don’t give up hope
@Lee "increase neurons" means nothing
@@paleobc65 if you only had it for 4 years, it's hardly chronic is it
Peter Kaminsky Not true at all
I've always told people that they will never really understand depression unless they've experienced it, themselves. Then I tell them I hope they never do, because it's something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.
Having got on medication for the first time about a year ago, and experiencing what it was like to have a 'normal' functioning brain, I'd have to agree. Having a brain that operates as it should, and a depressed brain, are not remotely comparable. It made me understand why people don't/could never understand unless they've experienced it.
I remember one time having to run for a PE class for school and feeling really happy afterwards because of the endorphins. It was so strange because I've never felt that light and happy before. Though still, I can't wrap my head around what it feels like to not be depressed even though I experienced it before cause that was only once and I'm depressed every single day of the year.
I would never wish long term depression to any one...But short term is very beneficial in your life...It makes you put everything in your life into perspective and when you get over depression you are not only better person, but also happier. But long term heavy depression (like I experienced it)...no, I wish that to nobody!!!
Well, in my case when I first started taking Sertraline last year, I started feeling better almost right away ( placebo perhaps?) but it doesn't seem to work anymore! But at least I don't have many side affects...aside from trembling hands.
@@normang3668 If you took medication your brain isn't operating as it should anymore though.
We need more people to be aware of what depression really is and why one can't simply "get over it"
Does it make you feel worse when someone says, "Get over it?" It tends to make me feel worse if someone tries to tell me to get over something.
@@someone2973 Yes, because being depressed is not a choice.
So many things people have said to me makes me feel annoyed. I said to this one person that I wanted to disappear from life and not live, then they replied "well I'm sure I can't change that :p and if you really wanted to die, you would've already done it, don't you think?" And I was thinking "what are you implying? That I don't mean what I said cause I haven't killed myself yet??"
A lot of people with depression approach their problems with feelings of helplessness. Knowing you can change and improve your life is important, as well as knowing that having looped negative thinking is a cognitive problem that needs restructuring. Thats why 'cognitive behavioral training' really helps. Medication will typically just keep you dependant on them rather than really help in the long run.
@@naritruwireve1381 Wow, yeah that's not very helpful to say.
I mean mine was triggered by several factors: neglect, family issues, genetics and hormonal issues during my pre-pubescent years. I hate how people only focus on one factor instead of the bigger picture.
That's terrible, but that may be because your family is depressed, too. Far more than you. I'm not trying to belittle your problems, I'm saying that's how you got depressed in the first place. Your family got depressed, their depression goes towards you.
Complex PTSD Stress without end.
@@chinookvalley psylicibin maybe? It can destroy the influence trauma has on your brain
@Deadsoon For whatever the subject is in society people just rarely get the bigger picture and it’s very sad
@@glacialimpala Destroy the influence trauma has on your brain? I very really seriously strongly doubt this. Developing in a traumatic environment causes profound structural differences in your brain compared to neurotypical people, and one chemical produced by fungi would tremendously hardly be a magical cure, it can't rearrange your whole brain in a new way.
“Depression is common in the US”
*cough
In the world
Some One sometimes people are talking about just one country. Depression isn’t the same in every country
ssundiall it’s seen across all cultures but is more common in some than others
Dark Ninja I realize that depression is a worldwide thing but America is not doin so good rn
ssundiall yee we need more meth
It's more likely there are more studies into the estimation of the demographics of depression in the US than the rest of the world. Doesn't mean that the rest of the world is necessarily different, just that we are more confident about what's going on in the US
I've had depression for 10 plus years. Nothing has helped. Being poor has made it worse. This is just How Things Are Now.
BookGoblin yep :/
BookGoblin - I'm very sorry. :-( Can you find a better job? A better environment? Do you have a supportive family and friends?
@@Andrea-xs4ny I work part time because I help to raise my autistic son with my wife, who is physical disabled. Friends? I haven't had a real friend since High School. No one wants to get wrapped up in our situation. We would move to a better place if we had the means but between my son's mental health services and my wife needing the help of her family we're stuck. I fight tooth and nail to keep myself, and my family, from sinking.
This is all I can do.
@@J.Starkweather I'm sorry to hear about your challenges, friend. You're brave and strong. I get how being poor makes it so much worse. I will be sending good thoughts your way, and hope that how things are now is not how things will always be. Hank's brother, John, said in a video once that "how you feel when you are at your sickest is not how you will always feel." That helped me pull through the darkest of my depression (and the worst of being hideously un or underemployed.)
@@TradeChat88 Thank you. I have to remind myself that tomorrow is not yet written and despite the challenges I love our little three person family. One day I hope things will not be as difficult.
Depression for me is not feeling anything at all and having memory problems
KFC Manager Do you struggle with sometime recalling information that you may have just read or heard someone speak to you?
@@Rampage_Ty_ Yes it's horrible
@@Rampage_Ty_ Omg same, had never thought that maybe this could be a depression symptom, was seriously starting to think I had developed ADD (and I know it's not possible to "develop" it lol, so I've just been putting it all down to stress)
@Give Peace A Chance im 22
Damn me too. Never through depression might be it ( I no a have depression I just didn’t know this could be a symptom) I thought I was alone with that and just stupid
Depression in animals also happens and I want to know more about it.
Say whAT
Anxiety too. I wouldn't be surprised if there where more mental disorders in animals.
I’m not surprised when they’re locked up their whole lives
@@randomhuman9672 Exactly!
I made my bachelor in neuroscience and we researched about social anxiety and some other phds researched on depression, chronic stress and generalized anxiety in rats and mice! We can't tell if the rat is "depressed" as a human being because they cannot talk to us, but there are certain experiments you can make to see "depression like behavior", like the tail suspension test, forced swim test, elevated plus maze, social preference, light dark box, so many more. In social anxiety, the hormones vasopressin and oxytocin play a huge role and the labs main focus is on oxytocin!
Only 16%? No, I don't buy it. That's just how many actually admit it.
100% at one point or another
It's called being a human
WhatAWorld yeah I agree it’s definitely more then that
16% of people didn't get over it
@Androva J. They didn't say that everybody is depressed at all times
But I would argue that most people will be depressed
*clinically*
At some point or another
It's not just about admitting it. If you consult a psychiatrist about it, that proves you have hope, and thus aren't depressed. Only when you don't seek help are you depressed.
We as a society tend to treat all of the symptoms of depression rather than dealing the root cause.
Exactly
Yup: a poor societal structure that begs for exponential growth in wealth but that requires resource scarcity to remain profitable.
Very true.
So what's the root cause for every single person with depression?
@@yesta7375 lack of hope
Why does nobody talk about how depression can also be circumstantial? As in, yes, chemical/genetic depression is a thing, but even if you're chemically/genetically not prone to it you're still going to be depressed if you grow up neglected and/or abused or are abused or neglected as an adult.
Trauma is a massive deal.
Luce Verde - Yes, it is. Counseling (preferably with a psychologist or psychiatrist) is a must when there's trauma involved. There's healing and freedom from it down the road.
I think that wasn't addressed in this video because it's less of a mystery. What scientists are still trying to figure out is why some people get depression who _don't_ have any trauma.
Good question.
Circumstantial or not, it's the same process in your brain. If you break your leg because you have osteoporosis or you break your leg getting hit by a car... either way you gotta heal your leg.
@m norton buswell of course, but any doctor that doesn't know that is a bad doctor, and this is youtube video, not a diagnostic tool
*I read it as Depression Isn’t Just My Chemical Romance*
😂😂😂😂
🤣🤣
My chemical imbalance.
It's not a phase mom
I mean im not okay, either (I promise)
😂😂
*Did you know it's forbidden for exotic animals to work in a circus, in the Netherlands? Except for one elephant. When he had to stop working at the circus, he got depressed so the court ruled that he was allowed to keep working there for the rest of his life.*
that warms my heart
source?
@@donot5643 Seems like Buba is still with his owners, it seems like the best thing at his age..
www.ad.nl/binnenland/circus-freiwald-buba-is-niet-ontsnapt-maar-aan-de-wandel~a62d998a/
So lack of purpose or meaning is a big contributor?
@@hououinkyouma5539 No, the elephant didn't do well away from the people it considered it's family/herd so it's not allowed to work but it is allowed to live and travel with them.
I’d love to see a video on how service dogs help people with mental illnesses.
My service dog is the most effective treatment I’ve ever had to help handle my PTSD.
I would love to have an emotional support dog, i know it would help
The effects very much depend on the type of mental illness. Service/support dogs/animals can have a huge beneficial effect on many people with both mental and physical illnesses, but for some forms of depression they really wouldn't be suitable, though it probably would help most of the milder cases to at least feel better about being miserable which in turns means they are more likely to recover sooner.
I wish I could afford a service dog for my PTSD. My friend, who is a veteran of Afghanistan, only has to ask for one if he feels the need and he would be provided one. I'm a civilian with PTSD that developed in childhood, thanks to severe emotional abuse, and I have to wait years, get multiple letters from psychologists and doctors to qualify for one, and then pay for it myself. I can't work because of it. The government barely gives me enough to feed myself and my current pet dog. How am I supposed to afford a dog with special training that would actually allow me to get out of my house and be around the public once in a while? I've been through every treatment under the sun that's available here. Nothing works. Nothing.
@@OnlyHopeRemainsTTV given military veterans developed their PTSD in service for their country l can totally understand them getting assistance dogs first, but yeah your right. A lot of people would be way better off with assistance dogs and it may well save the health or even welfare systems a lot of money if it allowed people to become more functional and active. Unfortunately governments have never had a good track record for funding things that aren't completely black and white. Far easier for a minister or public servant to sign off on a cancer treatment that costs $100,000 per year with a 50% chance of working than for an assistance dog where the costs can be variable and the results are harder to classify (quality of life vs simply if the person is still alive). Government just doesn't do well with things that don't fit into their little boxes.
i wish it would help mine, but even with my pets i get overwhelmed. but there are times the do really help its just there are times when it doesn't.
Having struggled woth depression for 10+ years I can ABSOLUTELY say that there is a huge behavioural component to it that is hugely under approached.
Doctors are very keen to say to depressed people that they need to excercise and meditate, but I dont see them often working with depressed people to help them achieve those things. The sad thing is I really think regular exercise and solid social support is probably the best possible treatment for depression but its so unrealistic to expect us to be able to do those things on our own when sometimes just getting out of bed seems impossible.
And social prescribing doesnt make pharmaceutical companies money...
I agree.
Doctor: "You need to exercise more. You need to eat healthier. Here are some pills"
Therapist: "You need to fight these thoughts, or realize they're only part of you. Here are some tips for thinking about things in a new way"
Me: Can I go back to being a child and have someone physically take care of me... like cook me healthy food and take me outside to play... cause effing hell. I barely feel like I can function as an adult. All I want to do is sleep all day. Everything takes _so much effort_.
YES!!! And bring out the importance of Social interactions in recovery. It's fundamental need in humans. There is SO much more what could be done to help depressed person! It is crazy to expect depressed person to pull together a better diet when they hardly can function...How many non-depressed person is actually changing their diets easily? None. It's easy to see what would be best for the person, but actually changing the circumstances of life around them is NOT easy and saying that the depressed person should do it all on their own is kind of neglect and fully dismissing the impact of depression in their lives. Good thing is to know that there is very simple set of things which can be changed around the person to help them out with depression as a first responce.
@@Nietha wow you put this into words very well
True. A symptom of depression is an unnatural lack of motivation even in things that interest you. Why would you be motivated to do something unpleasant like work out?
yes!!!!!!!
I’ve been diagnosed with depression since I was 14. I’m 40 and still depressed.
Same
Yep but like any illness you learn to live with it and adapt. Being that depression it's some kind of damage to the emotional part of the brain I mainly function using the logical part of the brain. makes me feel like a robot in the sense that you think logically with very little to no emotions.
mindlesstube Personally, I find it difficult to think logically about many personal matters. Living with depression and Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (a symptom of ADHD) has given me a warped perception of self.
@@NarfiRef problem with people that you cannot equate logic to a being that is emotional, who's actions are determined by their emotions. Vs ones who can not act by emotions sole try to rely on logic. is it because the emotions are suppressed or is it because there is something wrong with the emotional part of the brain I don't know. I'm simply theorizing at this point. that is all we can mostly do being how complicated the human mind seems to be. I started studying many philosophies about the self and the mind. One particular one said there are two selfs. One being the real self the self that cannot be realized. As realizing the true self would be that of fire being able to Burns itself. Meaning it cannot be done. Then the second self being an illusion. A self that we create through our past memories in what people tell us we were or were not or even tell ourselves. If that is true how would one get rid of this illusion I don't no. Though it seems fear and worry are emotions that I still have. It could be that maybe only certain emotions cannot be so easily achieved possibly suppress somehow leading to this depressive state. Either way I will try to keep learning and never give up trying to free myself from the mind which seems to imprison myself.
Have you tried lsd? It helped my depression
1:29 - "We know that depression isn't simply a 'bad mood' that you can snap out of, something is not functioning correctly in your brain"
... nail. on. the. head.
Most disorders begin with that
I disagree. Most of the time, the brain is functioning correctly. But the living circumstances along with the way of living are what causes it. If you're living in a way that isn't good for your mental health, you're going to get a depression and you're not going to get out of it. And it just so happens to be that the way our modern society works is an excellent way to create depressed people. Fixing depression on a grand scale isn't going to be done with medicines and treatment. The only thing that would work is fixing society as a whole.
@@thenonexistinghero @thenonexistinghero - LOL!
In other words: There is No Cure!
@@montesa9136 Your own body is the cure. Taking care of your body in such a way that you don't get or stay in a chronically depressed state is a good cure. Of course it's not easy with modern society forcing people to act/live in ways that aren't healthy for the mind, but even with that there's many things you can do as an individual.
Still, it's hard to come up with methods yourself if you aren't even knowledgeable about the subject. Most people don't have an inkling about how the mind works and the many things that affect it and its state.
So I can only conclude that the only efficient way to battle depression on a large scale is to structure society in a way that's health for the human mind. Not that that's going to happen since governments and big pharma benefit en profit far too much from selling medicine to essentially healthy people.
I suffer from depression since I was ten years old. Yes, a ten years old with depression. I want this to be wrenched from me and never bothers me again.
Same. I had suicidal thoughts even at that age
I wanted to die in sixth grade, so yeah.
I used to hear things when I was a kid and they slowly became less frequent as I got older, disappearing entirely by high school. Didn't learn until maybe a year ago that auditory hallucinations are a symptom of depression in little kids...
I'm now 22 and rely on meds and exercise to manage my depression.
This actually brought me to tears. For years I struggled with this feeling of numbness. I had a hard time describing it and I would sometimes get frustrated and tell people I felt like “the color beige” and I didn’t know that was a symptom of depression. I’ve been dealing with that feeling for over 13 years and somehow knowing that made me feel less alone.
SSRI's did nothing for me, SNRI's made me feel literally high as a kite .. to a frightening degree... but luckily, Hank's voice has a little ASMR effect to it.. so today's a good day.
For me SSRIs worked for a while, tricyclics knocked me out, and SNRIs had horrible side-effects and were horrific to come down from.
I went through l think it was three different types of SSRI before l found one that worked for me. I was on it for over a decade and it did help, it left me feeling functional rather than happy, but eventually lve gotten off it as l suspect the medication combined with lifes stresses ended up wearing me down on a physical level.
It's clear that what works for some doesn't for others and l had plenty of people suggesting diet and exercise, l tried a few things but it didn't do much. In the end l tried the carnivore diet and honestly it was a whole new world for me. It's taken me two years of continuous improvement to get back to feeling pretty normal now, but given where l came from feeling 'normal' is a huge improvement.
Definitely not saying it will work for u, but might be worth a try if you can easily enough do it. Just cut out dairy, sugar and plant based stuff for a week and see if you feel better for it. I've heard multiple theories why a carnivore diet works for some, but it clearly has a link with inflammation and inflammation both in the body and brain causes countless often kind of vague systems.
All SSRIs I tried made me hallucinate and caused some permanent memory loss and high as well, didn't help with the symptoms. I can not tolerate SSRIs at all.
I use MOAIs in conjunction with a Dopamine agonist and that works well treating my chronic fatigue and depression.
Anyone have any luck with NDRIs? Bupropion didn't help my depression or anxiety much, but it did cause me to spontaneously stop smoking (1-2 packs a day, for 25+ years, no less) about 6 months in.
@@NewMessage I wanted to try them, but they aren't used in Australia as anti depressants so I wasn't able to get any doctor to prescribe it. Instead I got MOAIs which work on all 3 major neurotransmitters plus a dopamine agonist.
I had to this treat mainly the fatigue I have from chronic fatigue and a side of depression. As a bonus it also fixed my restless leg syndrome, that was a a direct result from the dopamine agonist.
As a psychiatrist I commonly watch clips on TH-cam about mental health tops so that I can share them with patients. Most mental health clips geared toward the general public are terrible. However, this one is EXCELLENT and highly accurate
I have really bad (severe at times) chronic depression, as well as migraines. So bad so that I'm in the process of unfortunately applying for disability because I just cannot work because of the two coupled together with my mild social anxiety that has not been helped with over 6 years now of different medications, therapies, talking about them, etc... I love your videos because even though this is the 21st century and public knowledge and opinion have evolved greatly on mental health issues, too many people are still of the opinion that "it's all in your head", "buck up!", "snap out of it", "you are just weak", etcetera.
Are you able to be on disability? My situation is similar but I thought i couldn't.
@@kaitiemarie9572 think you will find that it depends on the country and the level of depression along with if you can get enough medical professional weight behind your claim(not easy to get when getting out of bed each day can be a struggle).
@@Jake12220 Gotcha. I guess I will just have to research it. I just never thought it was an option so didnt look into if i qualify. That's very true about the getting to a professional. Plus I have no money so how do I pay for that. Ugh oh well. I will just keep doing what I can.
Hey mate, do u know what's causing the headaches at all? I had depression for most of my life and spent around 15 years on antidepressants, but also used to get incredibly bad headaches, especially when the weather changed and started to cool down. In the end l got my tonsils taken out(they regrew after they were taken out as a kid) and that helped a lot, but the thing that really helped was when l tried the carnivore diet. Nothing special about it, no books or specific products, just involves cutting out everything that isn't meat from your diet(including no dairy, at least for me). It seems a lot of people are intolerant to a lot of stuff we eat, not allergic to, just intolerant so just mild negative effect.
I would suggest you try just eating meat for a couple of weeks and see how you feel. If you feel better but don't want to just eat meat then slowly add foods and record how u feel the rest of the day after eating them till your eating everything else you want. A lot of issues people have are related to inflammation in both the body and the brain and doctors often try removing one product at a time till they work out the cause, it can take years this way. Going full carnivore approaches it from the other side by removing almost all possible causes and letting you reintroduce foods one by one so it's far easier and quicker to know if something is causing a lot of the symptoms.
Personally lm planning to stick with the pure meat(though l do just eat whatever l want every couple of weeks if l want), my energy levels and mood are just so much better that l consider it a reasonable swap for the foods lm missing out on(l used to eat a LOT of dairy, but that seems to be the worst issue for me).
@@kaitiemarie9572 lm not sure what country your in but here in Australia the welfare system is often staffed by people that have no idea what the actual policies are or what can be available. It's not all the staffs fault, the system is complex and there is poor staff retention so most people are either fairly new or just too crappy to get a job elsewhere. Still a huge amount of people get really bad advice when they go in to see them, completely wrong, like what planet are u from level wrong, so always always always get a second and third opinion if you get a rejection. It's utterly amazing what a good staff member that knows their way around the system can achieve in five minutes that crappy ones have supposedly been working on for months couldn't.
Depression is a state of the illusion of reality. Depression makes you feel and see everything differently than everyone else. Negatively to be on the point. Even things that are amazing to you can be a negative thing because your perception of reality is altered.
Its not just imbalances of chemicals. It's the perception of reality.
Maybe that’s the “right” way of seeing things. That’s crazy just from your point of view...
I've often wondered if those of us with depression are just able to see the real world for what it is too clearly. Those who are supposedly sane are just happily unaware of how awful it is and can be. Ignorance is bliss indeed.
An awakening
What if reality is actually horrible for that person? Like being abused by parents, bullied by peers, things like that? So all that is just an illusion?
@@klltsun_2576 Well, that wouldn't be depression if it's currently happening, no. I would call it something like "having life problems"
If what you're describing happened in the past, then it could cause depression if the person can't get over those experiences and live a fulfilling life
The science of depression is a much sought after topic - thanks for keeping us updated.
The cause of my depression is do to the uptick in people educated by garbage who think they've been educated by gold. And now that it has taken over garbage is the new sought after education. Now people like me have no choice but to fade out of existence or go on murderous Rampages. What a fucked-up choice that is. Welcome to Communism
@@kendalbridges897 where did you get communsim
@@AkkarisFox I was tortured by the public education system from age 10 to 15. Not emotionally tortured but physically tortured. The only lessons how to submit and follow orders. Logical or not it didn't matter. The only thing I have in my favor from those years is an unbelievably high tolerance to physical pain.
I couldn't stay focused to watch this through. I hate having to back up the video over and over bc my cognitive abilities are horrible. I take meds, but I can't remember the last time I cried. My heart to those who can relate and suffer.
"The light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train" - Slavoj Zizek
That comes to hit you. That's how life generally works, indeed.
Some people would rather get hit and killed by a train than to keep living with depression.
I welcome the train.
Thank you so much for this video. Even though it wasn’t directed at me specifically it still felt nice to know researchers care so much that they want to try to help people. :)
Hey kovu!
yes, the video was directed at you, you are its audience. You deserve this video.
My mom and I both have major depressive disorder. I really appreciate these videos, as they give me more insight into myself and my mother
Have you seen these videos?
3 Baffling Depression Treatments and Why They Might Work | SciShow Psych
th-cam.com/video/akWAc3ju_Hg/w-d-xo.html
Ketamine Gets Controversial FDA Approval for Depression Treatment | SciShow News
th-cam.com/video/Nx6pb73jBTg/w-d-xo.html
Same
Huge link with anxiety. Fighting anxiety all your waking hours is like being walked to the gallows everyday for decades. The cumulative effect makes you shut down and recoil from everyone and everything.
You wake up alone feeling like a cork floating in the middle of the ocean with no direction, no hopes, no dreams, no one to even talk to.
Fear from every direction ends in crushing loneliness and depression. You reach out are told "You made your choice".
No one chooses to cry alone everyday of their life. We all a subject to a pity party now and then but no one wants to make it a lifestyle. People pull away and call you "a negative energy". They say they can't live like this as if it is someone's choice to just go on in the hopes something might change.
this
The moment you realise that you have all those symptoms at every moment of you day and week and year....
Depression isn't that bad then...
after going through it most of your life & realizing damn , it took a year for me to accept it & years for my family to understand that therapy was actually a good thing & nothing to be ashamed of
@@Telenaus same, except meds and therapy didn't really help much. Support from my family and girlfriend did the most, but mostly I've just been toughing through it even after I accepted it and tried to get help
@@archerelms yep i did that as well when i couldn't find a clinic that had therapists, i hope you find more of what you need.
one thing ive come to notice about depression is that things typically dont get better after you talk to people about it. Depression is such a common illness that most of the time opening up to someone only leaves them feeling helpless about how to deal with you. This should be the opposite effect. Instead, a lot of the time, people with depression will be treated like damaged goods instead of with the love and care they require
I don't appreciate how this video kinda skips the whole PSYCHOLOGICAL part of depression. When someone is depressed because of trauma then there is more going on than a Chemical inbalance.
Especially when the title includes, "Isn't Just a Chemical Imbalance
".
The trauma caused chemical imbalance, so it is chemical imbalance. Problem solved.
true but alot of people see depression as an emotion & not an actual physical thing in the brain,
@@Telenaus that's mostly because it's both
entres theyve actually shown brainscans of those suffering from ptsd and the like, apparently if you have an emotional trauma the brain literally changes shape, its a physical manifestation for sure.
Since I started taking Zoloft I have felt so much better... i know it doesn't work for everyone but it works for me really well. Whenever something bad happens it's easier for me to bounce back
I had zero response to most anti-depression drugs most of the way through High school and college. Very board-line suicidal, what eventually saved me was a few short sessions with LSD. Which also effects Serotonin pathways among others. We need to look more at alternative treatment methods, because like Hank said, the traditional meds don't work on everyone. And speaking from experience, no one should be left in Severe Depression. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.
Where are you about? I got no clue of where to find this kind of things.
Psychedelics have been studied for a couple of years now after several decades of full prohibition. The results have been promising, but need to be done on a bigger scale.
While its true that psychedelics can help some people I think its important to note that they can also trigger psychotic episodes and panic attacks, and actually worsen mental illness in many people.
@@utena2 that's a valid point. The problem is that you don't know whether or not you get a psychotic episode or a panic attack before you try. A red flag (= not to try or use psychedelics) is if your family has a history of psychosis.
Polephemeus
Brain not doing its job right? Just give it the soup brain drug
TH-cam recommendations always know exactly how I feel
Kzpy LJ Kinda weird isn't it?
Staring at the pattern on Hank's shirt is a trip. 10/10
As a 40 year old man who’s healed from 20+ years of severe mental illness and trauma, the best piece of advice I can give is not to try and do it alone. GET HELP. Anything can be overcome with help.
Thank you, Crash Course, for this engaging and compassionate look at mental health.
Thank you for doing a video on this. When you’re in the midst of it, it’s all you can think about and you just want answers as to what is causing it or why. There aren’t a lot of answers yet, but I still really enjoy that this is a topic you care about and hope to explain further.
Needed this, today. Been a bad one. Thanks SciShow for being awesome enough to help me think my way out of it today.
Before someone gets huffy: I do take medication. And have had therapy, learned various coping skills and self-care, and you can still have a shitty day, even doing all the right things. Learning new things, and thinking about science, is one of the things that makes my brain skip tracks. Getting that "reset button" effect doesn't negate the condition: it just helps deal with the immediate need to not feel awful. And for me at least, handling it day to day is my norm. On the bad days like this one has been, it's fifteen minute increments.
So yeah, this helped: might not help others, but helped ME. And I'm grateful.
If you go through hell, keep going.
Medication helped to stand up in the morning, but I still had to do it myself. Without, it was impossible. I think the problem is, that a lot of people get misdiagnosed and then treated of course with no effect or negative effects on the medication. If you have serious problems in your life you have to clean them up. Medication can't help doing that. But it can help getting your head straight how to figure out paying those debts, finding a good job and relationships. Worked in my case, but I also had a very good psychiatrist that teached me about self awareness and meditation. I think the mix of both helped me a lot. One to get started, the other to pull myself up by the bootstraps.
Hey. How do you target depression with meditation? I made permanent positive changes in my anxiety disorder with it, but when i do it to combat depression too, it doesn't make a dent. I must be doing it wrong, but i don't know how doing it right is supposed to look like.
@@whiteraven90 meditation helped to reflect on things. when i came back from depressive episodes i was able to reflect on my state during depression. i saw how i totally misinterpreted the world during my bad days. having a broken lense, thinking all the world is against you and there is no point doing anything against it
i don't know why you have depression but with me it looked like being more kind, towards the world and myself, was the big driver. i tumbled into it after a very cruel betrayal. therefor i had to learn to forgive
@@WTFSt0n3d Thanks for the explanation! It gave me some ideas. I'll probably have to meditate with acceptance in mind, for starters. I think i might have tried to skip that step. And some other steps. I tried to rush the whole thing, i guess.
Anyway i'm glad you found the things that work for you specifically! You are a way better Disney character than Hercules ever was or will be.
7 years of medications and therapy and I'm more depressed than ever. I hope they understand depression better sometime soon
It's cuz even the doctors don't really know what's going on either. I'm sure the next generation it the one after that will look at psychiatrists today the same way we looked at doctors 200 years ago, who thought cutting people would cure diseases.
So... I have depression, have had it for years. And spreading the word is amazing. It gives me hope, which is hard to do. Thank you. ❤
"there's hope on the horizon, even when you can't see it." ...that's all i needed
@Nada R. - Not for me there isn't!
I wonder how many retakes Hank has to do in order to not mess up in his words while filming, but I love this content. It's very informational, and since I have depression myself, it's good to put these facts out there.
"There's hope on the horizon even when you can't see it."
As someone who's been dealing with treatment-resistant depression for the past 8 years, I really appreciate this video. The ignorance surrounding depression is... depressing. Videos like these help to change that.
Also, for those who could do with some of that hope on the horizon now, a new antidepressant nasal spray for treatment-resistant depression with a novel mechanism of action (NMDA antagonist) called Esketamine was FDA approved on March 5th. It's a ketamine analogue. (Ketamine has been researched and used for depression to a limited extent for a while now, but it can't be patented so naturally drug companies have no interest in it). Though Esketamine won't work for everyone, it's shown very promising trials and may prove to be superior to it's predecessors.
@Ungregistered User For me it's kratom and ketamine. Kratom's done most of the heavy lifting for the past 4 years. Been doing micro doses of ketamine for the past year and a half. At first I was noticing only a mild, really brief antidepressant impact, but over time it's become clear that it's been producing a modest overall mood improvement and a significant improvement to my cognitive functions.
Have you tried cbt or dbt or neurofeedback therapy?
Too much stress caused my onset of clinical depression. It was a life lesson that could have been very costly. Thank God that my SSRI worked for me,. That and Ambien so I could sleep again!
I've been suffering from major depression since I was 14.. I'm 26 now..
I've been suffering from my current iteration of my depression since I was 16. I'm 29 now..... Before 16, I had delt with depression for an unknown period of time. I did know when it really began.
hello me :)
19 now 28
I have depression, but I don't think mine was genetic. I attribute the development of my depression (which started when I was in middle school) mainly to excessive bullying, a messy divorce, and the alienation resulting from being both way smarter than my peers and way too socially inept to engage them. Depression, anxiety, and Aspergers: the trifecta of asocial misery.
It doesn't have to. Your precieved reality is a product of your thoughts, your thoughts are a product of whatever template you're functioning on. If your template is that you're a victim, your reality will be "asocial misery". What you don't realise is that it's actually completely under your control. Not everyone who was bullied, experienced messy divorce, being smarter than average or have Asperger's are depressed, it means that the events that happened (completely out of your control) don't have to ruin your precieved reality (which is completely under your control). There are people who suffer chronic diseases or live below poverty line which (let's be honest) are much more miserable compared to your misfortunes (the one that are out of your control), but they're not necessarily depressed. Which means that whatever happens out of your control shouldn't necessarily effect what's under your control (your precieved reality).
I'm just trying to help. I have Asperger's too and I suffered from depression too. I just want to tell you that your precieved reality is completely under your control, if you're depressed, it's your own doing and you can fix it ... Of course it's not easy, sometimes playing the victim role waiting for doctors and others to fix us is easier, but only you can change your mental template of your thoughts, which eventually effects your precieved reality.
I think your depression might be stemming from trauma and it may be beneficial to reprocess those emotions. I have a very similar experience and therapy as well as accepting my trauma has helped me a lot. I still definitely have the genetic factor but that’s something that’s treated better with meds.
@@yuzan3607 You are not trying to help, you are trying to prove the point that mental illness is all in your head. Stop telling people that and, preferably, get out of this comment section before you cause real damage to someone's life by your advice, that is useless at best.
@@bytefu "mental" literally means "it's all in your head". Why are you so triggered? Calm down and prove to me why what I said is incorrect or "damaging"?
@@bytefu how do you know that what YOU are saying isn't damaging? What are you even trying to say? That depression isn't curable? Or that only a doctor can cure it? What about all the people who were able to overcome it?
thank you. i'm wondering if, in the future, we'll be able to undo the long term damage/structural changes depression causes in our brains.
Had some people at work yesterday telling me I shouldn't take my antidepressants because they have side effects and "we don't know how they work" (one person even went so far as to say they're "not safe for human consumption"). I was furious. So thank you for that last section, Hank. We don't need to know how they work to know they work. And for me at least, they sure do work. ❤️
I have too many of these symptoms for comfort... You even nailed the fact that my sadness feels more like a lack of emotion or numbness...
Thanks for the info. I've known many depressed people in my life, and I have even had episodes myself... Not as severe as the people around me
Currently I have a friend who is essentially dead to the world right now.... 24 years old.... Out of work for almost a year now, due to lack of effort,... No degree... No ambition... Just plays video games or sleeps in his room in his parents house all day. Never eats.... If he does, it's very little, and crappy food.
Can't even drink because two beers and he throws up... Idk if that's involved.
Smokes weed from a pen all day.
Smokes cigs in his room.
His room is trashed. I've gone in there and seen mold in food sitting out.
His friends and family have mostly just stopped communication w him... Even his best friend in the whole world... Because he just won't do anything.
I don't stop being friends w him, although I barely see him, because I know he needs someone, but also he's a cool guy.
He has gone on depression meds, although they obviously have not helped... And I think he gave them up because of that.
He has confided in me that he feels numb... He feels literally nothing. Just no motivation to do anything.
Any advice???
Would have been good to see the role of therapy mentioned when talking about environmental factors. Very validating video though - I love that sci show isn't afraid to say they don't know when the science isn't certain yet, but still makes an informative video
It's sad, frustrating and mind blowing that therapy is not used much by people commenting here. There are many many kinds of therapies and imo it's much more effective long term than a just a pill. Pills cannot change perspective or behavior.
Wow! So well said. It is complex. And you knew to say there's hope on the horizon to your viewers.
I'm eighteen, and I've had depression since I was twelve. Thank you for this incredibly well-made and respectful video, it clears up a lot of myths I've had people assume were true for me.
I have had depression since childhood. Usually it just makes me really pissed off easily and cry a lot. I struggle being nice sometimes because of it even though I really don't mean to be rude or grouchy.
I found it really fascinating, that depression has an inflamatory element to it. groups of depressed individuals show increased levels of inflammatory biomarkers, and also the gut flora plays a very big part in your overall - and mental health. I would be curious what you think about that!
I somehow hope if I can find enough information I will be able to get better. I have been on antidepressants since I was 12 (13 years ago), and they just don't work for me, but at least I'm addicted to one of them now. welp, that's that, hang in there everybody with depression in the comments ! we will figure it out
I hope you find a medication that actually works for you. Also maybe you need something besides medication. A specific diet may help. You would need a nutritionist or dietician to work closely with you to see what it is. It's amazing how little things like iron deficiency can affect our body and mental health as a whole. I hope you get better. Get some sun, stay hydrated eat good food, brush your teeth. Sometimes that's all I can do to just feel okay.
@@loryndabenson2118 thank you very much for the kind words! I am trying to get my diet better, I have ibs as well so I have been experimenting with the FODMAP diet in the last 2 weeks. But will try to get hold of a dietician or nutritionist. I wish you all the "feeling okay" in the world as well!:)
Been suffering from depression since I was 11. All my acting out as a teen was a cry for help and I got diagnosed at 17. Since I’ve been on meds I’ve been much better.
thank you for this video, a friend of mine has depression and your explanation makes it easier for me to understand what's going on inside of his brain
"Hope on the horizon"
Too bad the horizon is like 15 light years away -.-;
I'm stealing this joke thank u very much
Yeah but it *is* there, hand on buddy
I know it is hard. If you want some advice on how to deal with it you are welcome to message me (though therapists are the best option). A thing that has helped me recently is a song lyric, “I hope your best day now, is your worst day in the future.” (I think it was a song lyric) As I have gotten better that rings true.
Light year = a unit of measurement of distance
Just get over your depression
I remember when the horizon was 15 light years away. You're looking at the wrong direction.
Tomorrow is right behind you and it will come in a blink of an eye.
All of this will soon be a long forgotten dream.
I know it's hard, but trust me. I'm talking from the other side.
It seems like forever *now*. Now will be light years away tomorrow.
I'm suffering from depression since I was a teen and back in the days SSRIs did wonders for me. Over the years the types of depression I experienced changed and SSRIs became less and less effective. So from my personal perspective, this video was really interesting and a great watch. Thank you! :-)
Ungregistered User
> “my depression was from a lack of dopamine and norepinephrine”
How do you know that? Don’t say you know that because stimulants helped you. That’s the same logic as saying that back pain is caused by a lack of endorphins because opioids help against back pain.
@Ungregistered User While this sounds interesting I'm also confused about how you found out what you were lacking? Also, I'm outside of the US so I guess I'm out anyway.
Here I am learning about something that affects a TON of people from youtube, because school health class didn't even come close to covering this. Thank you for providing free science education to the world!
Great explanation! Thanks for the well researched topic. :)
Thank you soo much for this correction! Could you do an episode on how most disorders are actually syndromes?? Basically, the disorders found in the DSM are useful clinical constructs but they don't equate to other diseases constructs that we find in the rest of the medical field. This is important because construct boundaries are more permeable in the psychiatric world than in the rest of medicine (ex: comorbidity is the norm in psychiatry). Rectifying this misunderstanding could potentially reduce stigma in my mind. Love your show btw.
Anyone who has had depression realizes it isn't related to feelings of sadness at all. The whole body feels awful. Exhausted and overwhelmed. It hurts - not just emotionally, but physically. Ever have a bad flu and just feel lathargic, weepy, and achy? Yep. Like that, but also experiencing the worst grief you've ever experienced (except you don't know where the grief is coming from). Oh. And then for added funsies, you also feel like a complete waste of space. Totally worthless. It is awful. I've been taking Effexor for a decade. It literally saved my life. Why it works is really important, but I'll for now just accept that it does.
I have been diagnosed with Depression and Bipolar Mania disorder. My Bipolar Mania disorder seems to blocks my depression since Mania episodes can give you alot of unnecessary energy. I guess it's kind of a blessing..
This is so interesting! My medication started working in a matter of days when i got the right dose, probably because i had a very good childhood and depression runs in my family. It’s so interesting to learn about other people’s experiences with depression and I’m excited for more research to help us learn even more!
I'm about to turn 70 and depression is a normal response to my life. Anyone in my situation who is not depressed is deranged.
And SSRI's may push people's mental health into a more severe state...
"sideeffects: suicidal thoughts"
Might have happened to me. Years ago I overdosed on pills and the doctors theorized that the fact that I started a new SSRI might have played a role in this sequence of events.
This was so informative. It helps me understand my depression.
Antidepressants worked for me for about 6 months and after that I started heavily drinking alcohol from Monday to Monday. I gained so much weight and got introduced to acupuncture. My psychiatrist didn't approve of me trying out acupuncture but since the meds were not helping I had to try something else. Acupuncture really helped. When I relapse I schedule an appointment with the acupuncturist and it works almost instantly for me. I've drastically reduced my alcohol intake. Depression is very hard because it's never black and white.
There's Hope on the horizon even when you can't see it - Hank Green
There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn't - John Green
DFTBA
*This week on ‘is my trouble concentrating and lack of memory coming from my depression, adhd, or high insulin? Tune in next week to still not know...’*
I was on SSRIs for a time, and they did not work for me. I'm so glad you talked about that because when I went through that experience, it felt like it was my fault somehow I wasn't getting better with medication. So glad I was able to talk with my doctor and find different medication that does help me.
I appreciate how Hank handled this video, really great upload.
This definitely isn't the lion share of cases, but in very severe cases, it can be much less situational. Peeps in the comments, statistically it does "get better" for those who have depressive thoughts, but getting your life together etc when you have a very severe case won't change anything. I have had depression through ups and downs. At my darkest most suicidal time, I was hospitalized. Guess what? At my best time, finishing high school as valedictorian, I was hospitalized. I was hospitalized another time in between those. I have been on SSRIs for a long time, I have also been on other types of antidepressants (SNRIs, TCAs, MAOIs, etc). I've been in cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectal behavioral therapy, group therapy, psychodynamic, etc etc etc (the list goes on and it's been constant for almost 12 years now). Now I am fortunate enough to be with a very skilled psychiatrist, who I've been with for almost 3 years now. I'm getting scheduled for electroconvulsive therapy in the coming month or two, as a last resort treatment. It has improved in strides in recent decades, much more humane, much more effective than before ((with changes to pulse duration and electrode placement). Why is it effective? Juries still out on that. Those in neuroscience still can't conclusively tell us why, but it does work for some. But heyo, might help with my MDD, so I'll take it, and I never thought I'd say this, I'm somewhat looking forward to induced seizures.
POINT BEING -The brain is a freaky place, but to those in the comments, if you say things will "get better" if situations change to every depressed person you come across, you have a fundamental misunderstanding of what depression is. "Situational" depression, isn't a term in the medical field. For some experiencing depressive symptoms, fair, it might be strictly situational. Usually however, especially if the depressed mood lasts longer than 6 months, it isn't at all. There are underlying problems with the chemical makeup, structure, or thought process of the individual, the situation is simply what either brings it out, or exasperates the issue.
the best thing you can do to improve a depressed persons life is to... improve their life. You can't just medicate someone to be happy when they feel entirely alone and hopeless because that's their actual reality.
I have been diagnosed with mild anxiety disorder... You know panic attacks, anxiety high palpitations etc .. am on Seroxat for 6 months now and am feeling better than before! Hope a cure for all mental disorders be found someday 👊
Thank you for this great video.
I have been dealing with anxiety and depression/PTSD myself for a while now. There's still a huge stigma associated with it in society. CBT and well as medication has helped me understand and manage it as well as avoid the triggers but it is a moving target. Depression feeds on itself
Thanks for exploring this very important topic. Educating the public is critical.
I was expecting him to say that therapy helps, finding a purpose helps
Why is depression always approached from an almost protein psychiatric standpoint?
Why is science so strictly focused on neurologist/genetical factors for depression, but so seldom on psychological factors? What helped me most so far where not the SSRIs but the therapy. I fear that actual psychological therapy is being replaced by purely physiological approaches.
Bc psychology gets seen as quackery in contrast to psychiatry and neuroscience.
As someone who has been on medication for depression literally for decades, but who only fairly recently got into therapy, I'd suggest that the drugs do indeed play an important role in helping to suppress the symptoms; but that therapy is also needed to help sort out and deal with the root causes in that person.
Not everyone has access to both, sadly, though, and if I'd had to have chosen one or the other, and having experience now with both, I personally would have gone with the meds, because they really do make a wonderful difference if you can find some and a dose that works for you. However, without addressing the underlying causes, it is really tough to, well, deal with the root cause of it. Although, perhaps if there's a genetic component, some day we'll have a gene therapy or something instead. But for now, meds and therapy are the best tools we've got, and thank goodness we do have them!
Palkjefta Kjeltar When the source of your depression is biological, therapy won't cure your depression anymore than it would cure cancer. Clinical depression is a lot different from being depressed because of problems in your life. When you have clinical depression, you're depressed regardless of what's going on in your life.
Palkjefta Kjeltar SSRIs are also useless or even harmful for some people who have clinical depression. They really need a far better understanding of depression to effectively treat all people with depression.
Because there’s money to be made by shoveling endless pills down peoples throats.
Rewinding this episode 3 times in the same place because I couldn't concentrate the first 2 times. And watching at 3:01am because I can't sleep - like usual. I think that's a solid two right there.
I have struggled with depression from 18 to my current age of 23. I’ve been battling suicidal ideologies for 6 weeks now...educating myself and sharing it with my community is helping.
“Its all chemicals, they just need a pill and they’ll be fixed” - Others
Fraid thats misconception continues to exist.
Or the other end of the spectrum, "just think positively and you'll feel better"
And, "unbelieavably", none of it is happening. For some reason.
@@noonespecial9233 If you don't have power to think positively, because of long term depression. How can you treat it? Because depression makes you feel to think all negetivity about life, and in the end you will feel that this world does not deserve you.
@@shadikhossain_ you do know I was being facetious, right? Like how the original comment was venting about how either ignorant or just mean people will say "a pill for everything"; you get the same speech in the form of "just be positive CHOOSE happy and you'll be all better".
And still some people say "happiness is a choice".
That's one of my many gripes with "toxic positivity."
Wow. Was not expecting Hank.
Thanks for making videos on this. Learning something about the science of depression makes me feel more in control, even if it's just an illusion
Andrew Solomon made a fantastic quote about depression in his Ted Talk, “The opposite of depression isn’t happiness, it’s vitality.” I highly recommend this listening to his talk
I was discussing with someone how interesting depression as a disorder is because it doesn't seem to have one singular cause or explanation and they responded that I was literally erasing people with depression because I went against the whole "chemical imbalance model" and i'm like.... this is why we need more research and funding for mental health medicine because we got idiots who understand very little about it having hardcore political views that don't adapt to scientific realities being the people who speak out.
Thanks for the info sci show I know some people who need this
I haven't used a single medication against depression that hasn't given me side effects worse than my condition. Sertralin triggered some sort of psychisis after a few months when my life got even more stressful. Mirtazapine made me MORE depressed and way more tired. Quetiapine actually helped for a few months until it, too, started making me more depressed and it also caused even more weight gain than my eating disorders and HRT already had which made my dysmorphia and other self image related symptoms even worse.
In conclusion I don't trust psychopharmaceuticals. At all. I'm glad they help some people but about once a year I decide to trust a doctor and their recommendations again and my mental health just gets worse than when I begun.
@PuffyRainbowCloud - That's because Depression is very poorly understood, & we have no idea how to treat it. All doctors do is try different things. We are still in the Dark Ages when it comes to understanding & treating the illness. All we Do Know, is there is No cure ...
@@montesa9136 Actually, that’s not quite right. There are studies that show immense improvement using micro doses of LSD and also great results using shroom trips. We’ve had the cures all along but the racism and other issues that fuelled the war on drugs ruined it for everyone.
@@PuffyRainbowCloud @PuffyRainbowCloud - Those studies have been around since the 70s. They still remain very controversial. Yes many people swear by them, but they also have harmed some people as well. These drugs are still just treating the symptoms of depression, & don't last.
@@montesa9136 Not entirely true. There is evidence that a single trip on shrooms may be enough to permanently cure previously thought incurable cases of phobias, addictions, depression… It’s worth looking into. And I would try it.
LIFE is a chemical imbalance.....P
depression might just be a situationally natural response to certain socially / emotionally unsustainable living conditions...../
Absolutely. Perfectly said
I definitely agree. Depression is often a symptom of living in a way our mind and body cannot cope with and instead of changing our situation we turn to medication. The closest to taking my own life I have ever been was after starting an ssri without any therapy or life changes. Changing my diet to eliminate foods that give my body issues, learning how to meditate and breathe correctly, removing toxic people from my life, getting regular exercise, finding a job with less stress, and having daily conversations with strangers has almost completely taken away my severe anxiety and moderate depression and they are all simple things that are considered part of a healthy lifestyle. These things are so much more important than most people think.
〝ѦƁↁεя〞 - Something doesn’t have to be an useful part of our evolution, it simply has to not interfere with reproduction, even depressed people have sex ;-) Even if you were to go with advantages, it can be as simple as not wanting to go out as much as others, thus lowering risk of death/disease compared to others.
WELL SAID LIFE IS SOMETIMES A PAIN IN THE ASS ISN'T?
i totally agree.
Hank you, Thank! I mean it. Thanks!
Thank you for making this video! Especially for saying that SSRI's do not work for everyone. I am one of the people who respond poorly to them, and they are actually on my allergen list because of it. Within a couple days of taking them I get violently suicidal when I wasn't before; even if I was not switching medications at the time and just started it after being unmedicated for a while. It's complex, and frustrating, and thank you for speaking about it.
Serotonin? In this economy?