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Is everything you think you know about depression wrong?
Depression and serotonin
Attributing depression to spontaneously low serotonin is "deeply misleading and unscientific".
According to Dr. David Healy, there was never any basis for it, ever. It was just a marketing copy.
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Key Ideas
How depression is measured
Depression is often measured by scientists using something called the Hamilton Scale. It runs from 0 (where you are dancing in ecstasy) to 59 (where you are suicidal).
Causes of depression
Many leading scientists believe the whole idea that depression is caused by a “chemically imbalanced” brain is wrong.
There are in fact nine major causes of depression and anxiety that are unfolding all around us. Two are biological, and seven are out in here in the world, rather than sealed away inside our skulls.
Childhood trauma can cause depression
When you’re a child, you have very little power to change your environment. So, you have two choices.
- You can admit to yourself that you are powerless and there’s simply nothing you can do about it.
- You can tell yourself it’s your fault and at some strange level under your control. If you were responsible for being hurt, then at some level, you have to think you deserved it.
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Key Ideas
Unhappiness vs Depression
Unhappiness and depression are on the same platform. They both are caused due to our disconnection from what makes us happy.
What we need to be Happy
Depression is caused by the lack of what we need to be happy:
- We need to belong to a group.
- We need to be valued by other people.
- We need to know that we are good at something.
- We need to know we are secure in our future.
Soul-Destroying Work
If the work you're doing isn't meaningful, people are bound to get anxious, depressed and unhappy. The most stress-inducing is the work that is monotonous and boring.
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Key Ideas
The Invisible Illness Called Depression
Depression is a serious mental illness and can be overlooked by friends and family because the depressed person expends precious energy just to camouflage the problem.
Depression is like a...
The Manifestations Of Depression
- Women under depression usually exhibit sadness, guilt, hormonal changes, among other seemingly unrelated symptoms.
- Men can get irritable, exhausted and start having sleep issues. They then get into drugs and alcohol, or start to overwork in order to distract themselves.
- Kids under depression usually start to sulk, feel lonely and misunderstood, or have long periods of irritability.
Mindfulness As Part Of Treatment
The common treatments of depression are antidepressant medications and therapy, which has a large relapse rate.
However, if mindfulness is part of the treatment, the relapse rate declines. What is being pointed out is that mindfulness is effective when it is part of a treatment, and not so much on its own.