Depression - What should I do E-Book

• Herausgeber: Digital World
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 90

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

This book offers a comprehensive and compassionate guide for anyone seeking to overcome depression and regain the joy of living. Through accessible language and a comprehensive approach, the work presents several tools and strategies to deal with the symptoms of depression, promote mental well-being and build a fuller and more meaningful life. Understanding Depression: Identifying Symptoms: Learn to recognize the main signs of depression, such as deep sadness, loss of interest in pleasurable activities, changes in sleep and appetite, fatigue, negative thoughts and feelings of guilt or worthlessness. Uncovering the Causes: Explore the many factors that can contribute to the development of depression, including genetics, chemical imbalances in the brain, traumatic events, psychological and social factors. Breaking the Stigma: Combat myths and prejudices related to depression and recognize the importance of seeking professional help and social support.

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ISBN: 978-1-85538-245-9

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Introduction

Unless you live in the middle of nowhere, on a wave-beaten island of solitude, with no contact with civilization and no internet or television connection, you have heard that:

“Depression is a real illness”

“Depression affects anyone.”

“Willpower is of no use in the fight against depression.”

“Depression has nothing to do with depression.”

And so on.

Whether it's an appointment with your doctor, leafing through a women's magazine, opening a book entitled Depression in Ten Lessons , or participating in a forum dedicated to the subject, we invariably end up falling into these common places, sooner or later. As repetition is a very strong figure of rhetoric, these opinions end up passing for evidence. But what are they worth? Would it be wise to believe this? And when, wisely or foolishly, we believe in these ideas, what are the consequences?

That's what we're going to find out.

1. A “TRUE DISEASE”?

Let's start with the most popular of clichés: depression is a true physiological illness . Here are some other variants that you will recognize from having read or heard:

“Depression is a disease we can cure ourselves of.”

“Depression is not a curse, but an illness.”

“Depression is a disease that needs to be treated vigorously.”

“Depression is not a state of mind, but an illness that needs to be treated.”

“Depression is not just sadness, it is a real illness.”

“Depression is a health issue and, like every disease, it has treatment.”

“Depression is a disease that only doctors can diagnose.”

“Depression is a disease recognized as such by medicine.”

“There is a disease that affects more than three million people in France. An illness that can prevent you from talking, laughing, eating, working, sleeping or even getting up in the morning. A disease that can prevent you from living. This disease is depression.”

If you still want other samples, just search the internet for “depression + illness”, and thousands will appear. But what does this prove?

Certainly not that depression is a physiological illness.

But is she?

The medical prism

Perhaps you consider this question a mere detail, thinking that, after all, it doesn't matter whether depression is a disease, an addiction, a hole or an atmospheric phenomenon: the essential thing is to get out of it!

I am forced to insist that it is important to know whether or not it is a disease.

The fact is that the belief in depression-illness influences and shapes all the thoughts we dedicate to our malaise, and not just thoughts, but decisions and actions as well.

When we believe in depression as an illness, we imagine that it is up to a doctor to examine the symptoms, diagnose it and tell us what to do. And because it is a disease, we treat it with the medicines that are prescribed to us. If this doesn't work, we will have to be admitted for more muscular treatment. In the end, we will be able to recover completely and everything will be under control, or we will be able to recover with some after-effects (for example, we will cry once a week) or we will be able to suffer some more or less serious relapses, or, as a last possibility, we will die. victims of this deadly disease, by suicide.

But in all these cases, we will have made the right decision, that is, to treat ourselves with specialist doctors.

Symptoms, examination, treatment, medications, hospital, recovery, sequelae ... Believing that depression is a “real illness” puts a medical prism before our eyes. It is through this prism that we see, think and choose; everything we consider is colored by it. The vocabulary of illness does not enter our thinking as an external element; it is from within that it conditions, models, formats it. And that is why it is so important, I would even say, vital, to know whether depression is really a “physiological illness”.

Two sister ideas

Let’s start by distinguishing the depression-illness thesis from two other ideas that are very similar to it. As similar as sisters, the kind we get confused with.

As the body is closely linked to the spirit, several diseases have the effect or symptom of a depressive state, which can be more or less significant. An example: lead poisoning can induce an apathetic state, dark ideas and even suicidal thoughts. In other words, depression can be a consequence of a real physiological illness.

The cliché of depression-illness should not be confused here with this observation of pure common sense. According to the cliché, depression would be a physiological disease in itself. It would be, in itself, a “malfunction of the organism”, an “alteration of physical health caused by internal or external factors”. Being depressed or depressed would, ipso facto, be sick, independent of any other illness from which one was suffering.

The depression-illness thesis also differs from a purely metaphorical statement. In a figurative sense, illness simply means “that which disorganizes, weakens”, or even “serious problem”. In this figurative sense, depression, but also poverty, selfishness and backbiting would be diseases. Saying, figuratively speaking, that depression is a disease, highlights its seriousness, and emphasizes that it is neither a matter of whim nor laziness.

When you heard for the first time that “depression is a disease”, you may not have paid attention to the ambiguity of this phrase, nor did you make the distinction between its two meanings (literal and figurative). And yet, this can never be confused with that: there is no way to jump from one to the other.

Approves?

When you ride your big horse, you don't need a saddle; when you build castles in Spain, you don't pay property tax; and chemotherapy cannot do anything against soul cancer.

The depression-illness thesis is not the exact and evident idea, almost a pleonasm, according to which lasting sadness is a problem (an illness in the figurative sense). It is the controversial theory that sadness is a real illness, a medical problem like diabetes, hypertension, bunions or diarrhea.

The arguments in favor

Let's look at the arguments in favor of the depression-illness thesis.

Do you think there are many? Not so much. In fact, I only found four:

1- Depression is a disease, as doctors say so, and treat it as such.

2- As depression kills more people than road accidents, it is a serious illness, sometimes deadly.

3- As the suffering of depressed people is very real, depression is, therefore, a real illness.

4- The physiological origin of depression has not yet been precisely identified, but we are almost there. A little patience, this won't take long.

Are these arguments valid? Rational?

Let's examine them one by one.

Zoom in on the arguments in favor

1 – First argument: “ Depression is a disease, as doctors say so, and treat it as such .”

In Logic manuals, this is called an argument from authority: someone, with recognized credibility, issues an opinion, which is recognized as truth. Doctors see depression as an illness, so it's true.

This argument rests entirely on the respectability of the medical community. The problem is that the history of medicine is full of errors. And if you don't hear much about them, it's because silence covers them, and the cypress trees provide good shade. There is nothing more pleasant than a cemetery, whose guests do not sue anyone.

2 – Second argument: “ As depression kills more people than road accidents, it is a serious illness, sometimes deadly ”.

Earthquakes, skydiving without a parachute, and serial killers are also deadly. And does this mean they are diseases? If depression is a disease because it causes deaths, why wouldn't my cat be a rhinoceros, since it has four legs and a tail? And, if what counts is quantity, if it is the number of deaths that causes the disease, then why not vaccinate coastal populations against tsunamis?

This argument really doesn't convince.

3- Let’s move on to the third argument: “ As the suffering of depressed people is very real, depression is, therefore, a real illness .”

But the pain of a broken heart, staff cuts and betrayals also cause very real suffering and, however, to this day they are not considered illnesses (at least, not yet... you never know what the future holds). .

Just like the previous one, this argument is not worth a penny.

4- Fourth argument: “ The physiological origin of depression has not yet been precisely identified, but we are almost there. A little patience, this won’t take long.”

How to be sure?

For years now, researchers have been working diligently to discover a physiological cause for depression, with no results. Suppose that, in a lost village in Alaska, five hundred prospectors invested thirty years of work without finding a measly nugget of gold. What could be deduced?

That they should persevere a little longer before finding a vein, or that they're not looking in the right place? You and I agree that it would be best for them to look elsewhere.

The arguments against

What can we offer in opposition to the depression-illness thesis? Some pretty solid arguments.

1- People are not diagnosed as depressed during a physical medical examination, and when they are, it is not because depression was identified as the “disease”, but because no physiological illness was detected. It is not the presence of a precise physiological problem that indicates to a doctor that depression has occurred, but, on the contrary, it is their absence that makes him think: everything happens as if depression were the disease of those who do not have any other.

2- If depression were really a disease, would there be a need to state it with so much emphasis, and to write so many articles and books with the sole aim of convincing skeptics?