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Originally Posted by Rep Hater So sad to see adults rush to pills because they cant control their minds. |
This statement can apply to 2 sides of "depression."
Normal depression happens to everyone. It's the blues. Being bummed out, sad. Usually lasts a few days or a week or 2. Then you return to normal personality equilibrium.
Clinical Major Depression is a physical abnormality in the brain, which is the organ that produces the "mind" and consciousness/sentience. The mind-body connection is reciprocal, meaning if there is a fault in 1, the other soon is influenced.
If your LIFE is having a problem and you have short term depression based on external events, your MIND can probably fix it through cognitive willpower and logic. This is how most people deal with things.
If your BRAIN is having problems and you have chronic major depression, it is a problem that is caused by physical and chemical abnormalities inside your actual brains neurology. Your mind CANNOT usually influence this, no more than you can use your MIND to command a broken bone to heal instantly. Chronic Major Depression is a problem that is located in the Limbic System, especially the amygdala, hypothalamus, basal ganglia, and mammilary bodies.
Since your brain is what creates your mind, if you have depression due to physical sources, be it trauma, genetics, or a combination of many things, "powering through it" or "thinking your way out of it" isn't going to be very successful.
I don't imagine that people who "don't believe in pills" or psychiatry or neuropsychology will really care what I have to say, I just want those who are open to new ideas to be able to clearly understand the point I am trying to get across.
Also, here's a PET scan of a healthy non-depressed adult brain, and of a depressed one. The left is a healthy person, the right is a depressed person. Red is brain activity. The depressed brain just isn't functioning at the level it should, and you can never really know why.