Tag: depression

Depression as pain

depression as pain

So much talk of disease these days. Depression is a disease. Mental illness is a disease. -- The language of disease is soothing: there is nothing wrong with you, you are not crazy, you are not different, you are not “less.” You just have a disease. Like diabetes. -- Type 1 diabetes is a lifelong condition: you take your insulin, you are fine (well, sorta: you also have a shorter life expectancy and likelihood of nerve damage, eye damage, etc.). So is the “disease” of mental illness. Nothing to be ashamed of. It doesn’t mean you’re weak, or that someone hurt you. It’s no one’s fault. -- So here’s what’s wrong with this lovely, guilt-free approach to mental pain. one: it dooms you to a lifetime of disability. You are a lifetime depressive, bipolar, OCD sufferer, schizophrenic. The disease is here to stay. ... [click on title to read the rest]

Depression (psych labels in general) reflect the dis-ease of civilization

"The health of the society and the health of its individuals are inextricably linked. To end the worldwide epidemic of depression, we must combine individual psychological therapies with new social and economic systems that respect the earth and more fairly distribute the worlds resources. Such models already exist. What we need is the political will to implement them. If we can do so, we will be able to create a more equitable culture that optimizes the mental and emotional health of each of its ciitizens." … [click on title for full view]

Is This Depression? Or Melancholy? Or…

By Will Hall -- "Depressed." -- It's a word I put in quotes because, like so many words we use to describe our mental health experiences, it has as much power to confuse as it does to clarify. We live in a culture bombarded by media and sped up by rapid-fire social interactions. It's definitely useful to grab hold of a simple, short, sound-bite term, to quickly describe what we are feeling or suffering. "Depression" is such a word - it evokes and encapsulates, conjures the images of that ugly pit of despair that can drive so many to madness and suicide. Yet at the same time the words we use, strangely, become like those pens deposited in medical offices and waiting rooms around the world: ready at hand, easily found, familiar — and tied to associations, marketing and meanings we were only dimly aware were shaping how we think. … [click on title for the rest of the post]

Rocks in my Pockets: a crazy quest for sanity

“Rocks In My Pockets” is a story of mystery and redemption. The film is based on true events involving five women of the filmmaker’s family, including herself, and their battles with depression and suicide. It raises questions of how much family genetics determine who we are and if it is possible to outsmart one’s own DNA. The film is packed with visual metaphors, surreal images and a twisted sense of humor. It is an animated tale full of art, women, strange daring stories, Latvian accents, history, nature, adventure and more. … [click on title for the rest of the post]

Contrary to popular opinion “major depression” can respond to non-drug options!

YES, thank you...don't believe the hype about how essential drugs are in severe cases. It's possible to make healthy choices and avoid neurotoxic and dangerous drugs most of the time. People need to be offered options as a very real possibility. As it stands now people are often misled to believe they need drugs when another method of care may actually be more appropriate for long-term positive outcomes. "Alternative" care needs to become mainstream so that people might become truly and deeply healthy. … [click on title for the rest of the post]

We all have stories and context — diagnosis try to strip that away from us

Everything that happens in our lives (and all our encounters with psychiatry) are SITUATIONAL. Always. There is no such thing as a clinical depression without a "situation." That is a ludicrous and destructive fantasy. The same is true for anyone with any diagnosis. Schizophrenia, bipolar, anxiety, OCD. We all have stories and context. Diagnosis try to strip that away from us. The fact is EVERY single person with a diagnosis has an individual, unique story and context. Everything matters. Diagnosis (as currently most frequently used) are reductionistic lies that try to remove us from the fabric of our lives. … [click on title for the rest of the post]

If you could live your life without depression…

If someone told me that I could live my life again free of depression provided I was willing to give up the gifts depression has given me--the depth of awareness, the expanded consciousness, the increased sensitivity, the awareness of limitation, the tenderness of love, the meaning of friendship, the appreciation of life, the joy of a passionate heart--I would say, 'This is a Faustian bargain! Give me my depressions. Let the darkness descend. But do not take away the gifts that depression, with the help of some unseen hand, has dredged up from the deep ocean of my soul and strewn along the shores of my life. I can endure darkness if I must; but I cannot live without these gifts. I cannot live without my soul … [click on title for the rest of the post]

Robert Whitaker on Psychiatric Drugs (interview CBC Radio)

Robert Whitaker has argued for years that millions of the people who are prescribed those drugs derive no benefit from them. And in fact, the drugs may make their illness worse.

Mr. Whitaker's criticisms were controversial when he published his research in a 2010 book calledAnatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America. That book, though, won the 2010 Investigative Reporters and Editors Book Award, and since its publication, an increasing number of psychiatric researchers have come to agree with his conclusions. … [click on title for the rest of the post]

What if grief is the natural order of things, a way of loving life anyway?

From a young age we see around us that grief is mostly an affliction, a misery that intrudes into the life we deserve, a rupture of the natural order of things, a trauma that we need coping and management and five stages and twelve steps to get over.

Here’s the revolution: What if grief is a skill, in the same way that love is a skill, something that must be learned and cultivated and taught? What if grief is the natural order of things, a way of loving life anyway? Grief and the love of life are twins, natural human skills that can be learned first by being on the receiving end and feeling worthy of them, later by practicing them when you run short of understanding. In a time like ours, grieving is a subversive act. … [click on title for the rest of the post]

Contrary to popular opinion “major depression” can respond to non-drug options!

YES, THANK YOU...don't believe the hype about how essential drugs are in severe cases. It's possible to make healthy choices and avoid neurotoxic and dangerous drugs most of the time. People need to be offered options as a very real possibility. As it stands now people are often misled to believe they need drugs when another method of care may actually be more appropriate. "Alternative" care needs to become mainstream so that people might become truly and deeply healthy. … [click on title for the rest of the post]

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