We’ve Got Depression All Wrong. It’s Trying to Save Us
psychologytoday.com
psychologytoday.com
But it also makes sense evolutionarily. People who suffer depression may survive periods in their life when they would otherwise commit suicide, and people who don't exit life early, meaning that depression is naturally selected.
I’ve been on medication, and what I read online about it and what my doctor and therapist say about the medication is almost completely removed.
I’d prefer counseling to medication too, but if you have doctors recommending something, generally take their advise over HN and reddit.
That is true, but I think we should also be careful of assuming that doctors are always right. A different approach, in my opinion, would be to educate yourself in the subject by, for example, reading books from experts with different options. This is may sound too cumbersome but, I mind, it’s a whole life that’s at risk.
His work fully outlines how depression & stress can be a coping mechanism when we're not able to express needs or emotions.
I highly recommend everyone to read and apply his approach to managing stress and psychological wellbeing.
I think depression in particular is treated purely like a disease because of a culture that notoriously avoids suffering. If you have narcissistic personality traits people will still cheer you on if you run a successful company, people with manic traits sometimes turn out to be great artists, but depression is uncomfortable because it can't really be integrated into this fairly fast paced environment we're in, even if it functions as a protective mechanism.
Really the only thing that seems adaptive is suppressing executive function / initiative. In every other respect, to keep your head down and avoid punishment you need to conform. Depressed people do sometimes manage this but they describe it as exhausting work, which was easier before they get depressed.
> Crying spells and slowed movements attract attention.
Only if you're already around people. Slowed movements put you in the path of fewer people, especially in a pre-modern environment (say, hunter-gathering). The natural inclination of a depressed person is, afaict, not to leave the house at all.
> Flat affect reads as ingratitude.
Only matters in a particular type of social environment, which a person suffering depression would likely rather avoid.
> Emotional deadening tends to leave you with the one emotion that will get you in the most trouble, anger.
This doesn't square with any account of depression I've ever heard. I think it's an entirely different kind of deadening.
And it's not about "submissiveness". If you're getting that from the one example in the article, I don't think you understood it. I think the theory is that depression is about avoiding negative stimulus/continuing damage/trauma. "Conformation" as the prime way to avoid damage, rather than staying out of the way of predators or, I don't know, conserving strength after an injury, is extremely modern. Depression can get behind sugar-craving in the line of things that just recently became maladaptive.
"Hey guys, Bob's a bit down this week. Let's get him some mushrooms and get him some counseling with a local shaman." - was probably the way to go.
https://www.psycom.net/depression-definition-dsm-5-diagnosti...
It will take more than an article or two to turn this bug into a feature.
Even in the example, the father is physically escaped, but I think the patient has an unknown likelihood of repeating patterns of the verbal abuse from their childhood on the next generation and fear of doing that can lead them back to a depression response.
This is something therapists can help you with. You learn new ways to communicate and manage these situations AND you get to practice them in a safe place before you need to use them.
His podcast is pretty good if anybody is interested.