Sunday, May 01, 2016

The mystery of depression

Whenever I've suffered from depression I can almost always trace it to some major life event that triggers it and it can run the gamut from romantic rejection or breakup, lost loves or betrayal, guilt/remorse/regret to an illness or problem in the family to prolonged joblessness and even job rejection itself can at times get it going. It could be the job itself is depressing, I've had those and they say a major side issue of cancer patients is depression caused by having the cancer. There are those however and there are millions out there who are depressed and don't know why, who can't get out of bed in the morning but can't trace it to any life-situational thing. This is the common everyday depression we hear about in the news and a whole pharmaceutical industry has burgeoned up around it. I don't deny this reality but I've never fully understood it either. It's not spiritual depression or angst or a midlife crisis or a state of mind caused by your overall life situation it's just, well depression. It's all about the chemistry of the brain, neurons and gray matter and stuff. In other words people who should be happy but are dragging all day. It'd be like being in the Garden of Eden before the original sin and not being happy and God scratching His head. It's over my head so feel free to elucidate and clarify.
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36 comments:

  1. BB-Idaho5/02/2016 9:49 AM

    Observations we can agree with, and worth pondering. IMO,
    everyone has a bit of depression once in awhile, sort of a
    natural response to disappointment and loss of self esteem;
    as you point out in more particular causes. However, chronic
    depression with no observable cause is pretty common and the target of big pharma (with some success). It also targets otherwise remarkable individuals. Sometimes so severely it results in suicide, like Ernest Hemingway, Robin Williams, Virginia Woolf, Meriwether Lewis, etc. As for the human brain with its 100 million synapses (any one of which is capable of multiple complex
    calculations) responding to specific biochemical while responding to the outside environment and filtering experience, each individual varies. If not, 'free will'
    would be moot. But we have people who have reason to be
    depressed and are not/ people with no reason that are.
    So you are right, it is some sort of endemic curse that probably goes way back (even chimpanzees at the bottom of
    the pecking order have low serotonin and mope). Like the
    latest approaches to human ailments, they are looking at
    the genome and its relation to depression. We ponder whether that will lead to more understanding or more confusion.

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  2. Z-man5/02/2016 10:44 AM

    If I were a shrink I'd take a good session or two to make triply sure there was no life event or circumstance or root cause like hidden guilt causing the depression. Only then would I conclude it has no observable cause and prescribe accordingly. There seems to be this assumption out there that most depression is causeless.

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  3. Z-man5/02/2016 2:07 PM

    Now that you mention Hemingway it really is an enigma to me why he shot himself. Was he bored with life? Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton...I kinda get that.

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    1. BB-Idaho5/02/2016 2:36 PM

      With Hemingway, it seem to run in the family : daughter Margot
      died by phenobartitol OD as well. Perhaps living your life in a fishbowl of publicity can be a factor?

      Delete
  4. BB-Idaho5/02/2016 2:26 PM

    They say that counseling or therapy works fine if the patient is genuinely interested in working things through.
    My only experience is watching 'What About Bob?" although I
    knew a guy that absolutely loved counseling. He was constantly in one therapy or another, attempting to "find his human side". Meanwhile his wife ran off with a state patrolman, his son ran away and his youngest daughter announced she was gay. Lost touch, but heard he married a
    rich widow with a chicken farm.

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    1. Z-man5/02/2016 2:39 PM

      I'm not against the mental professions and what they have to offer but I don't think the answer to Life's problems can be found there. Coping skills is fine but the answer to Life's problems can't be found because it's a mystery.

      Delete
  5. cwhiatt5/02/2016 2:33 PM

    I think, that when you take a look around at the world in which we live in, it is quite easy to become depressed. I know I do at times and sometimes quite deeply. What tends to separate us apart is in how we cope and deal with it. I know personally that an increase in faith has helped me as of more recent.

    On a side note, I had the distinct pleasure of making the acquaintance of his excellency Bishop Bernard Tissier de Mallerais yesterday as he was administering the sacrament of Confirmation at our church.

    Having been drawn to many individuals throughout history who've sort of stood in the fray or been the voice of opposition (Ron Paul, Gandhi, etc.) it was quite a pleasure. The Bishop was one of 4 priests consecrated by Marcel Lefebvre in 1988 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ec%C3%B4ne_consecrations) and it was he who urged Lefebvre to found the priestly society.

    It made for an interesting Sunday.

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    1. cwhiatt5/02/2016 2:34 PM

      That url looks jacked. It'd be the Econe Consecrations on Wiki.

      Delete
  6. Z-man5/02/2016 2:43 PM

    Chris tapped into the truth here. It isn't so much sitting on a couch, it's faith, it's prayer.

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    1. cwhiatt5/02/2016 2:56 PM

      How do we get back to getting everyone to refer to me as "Hiatt". LOL

      But seriously...just sitting idle and watching life pass one by is a recipe for disaster. I find prayer and meditation to be extremely beneficial. So much in fact that I have been going to great lengths to abstain from instances where I might be subjected to fluoridated water as it causes buildup on the pineal gland.

      Also, I've found that there seems to be something more meditative in the Latin pronunciation of prayers. I tend to meditate greater on the mysteries of the rosary in those instances where we/I am praying it in Latin vs. English.

      Delete
    2. cwhiatt5/02/2016 4:23 PM

      I also think that animals are a huge therapy aid to overcoming depression. They just know when you are down and the fact that they pick up on that and help you overcome that is really amazing. I know that when I'm down or have a bad day it really lifts me when I come home and they're excited to see me.

      Delete
  7. Z-man5/02/2016 4:23 PM

    Sitting idle and watching life pass one by...at church I always see a couple of older women (not old old) w/o a male attachment. Now unless the guy doesn't attend some women seem to have accepted their lot in life. I say go down fighting, make it happen or try to anyway. Even if nothing is going on in your life romantically at least have some sort of game plan in your head, some roadmap otherwise you'll end up like those ladies at church.

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    1. cwhiatt5/02/2016 4:24 PM

      Maybe their husbands divorced them and they feel as though they can't get involved with anyone else?

      Delete
    2. Z-man5/02/2016 4:30 PM

      That could be. I don't know what their situation is but I see the same ones for years. This would drive me crazy. I'd at least get an escort for church.

      Delete
    3. cwhiatt5/02/2016 4:38 PM

      I suppose it's also possible that they enjoy the solitude. I know that often times Mon and I will sit apart at Mass.

      Delete
    4. Z-man5/02/2016 5:41 PM

      Sometimes the acoustics in church are bad and you don't really know what the priest is saying.

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    5. cwhiatt5/02/2016 6:07 PM

      Or sometimes their accent makes it difficult to understand (visiting priests).

      Delete
  8. Z-man5/02/2016 4:28 PM

    Re pets one of their biggest draws for me is they don't judge you. Humans judge constantly often unfairly but an animal is just happy to be fed and groomed and petted. I saw a bumper sticker once: "wife and dog missing, reward for dog."

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  9. cwhiatt5/02/2016 4:31 PM

    Then again maybe the reason why the animals are so good to us is so they'll get fed, petted, etc. I guess we'll never know.

    Z, I also left another comment on the Prince/Trump post. Are you no longer on Facebook?

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    1. Z-man5/02/2016 5:38 PM

      I kinda deleted that awhile ago but have thought of beginning something again. Couldn't devote that much time to it and I believe unemployment was looming at the time so my attention was elsewhere.

      Delete
    2. Z-man5/02/2016 5:44 PM

      Besides I didn't have anything fancy to post like exotic vacations and mountain-climbing. They say a good % of FBers somewhat embellish their profiles.

      Delete
  10. cwhiatt5/02/2016 9:20 PM

    Nah. Just post whatever. If you try too hard it shows.

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  11. Z-man5/03/2016 5:35 AM

    I've often said I was born in the wrong era. We live in an extremely serious age. We used to have these bikini weenie vendors in Yonkers so one day I asked the girl if I can take a quick Polaroid and she even posed. I was talking about it at work and the ladies around the table said that's stalking. OK I feel creepy I'll burn the picture:)

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    1. cwhiatt5/03/2016 9:14 AM

      It's a fine line between general curiosity and creepville.

      Delete
    2. Z-man5/03/2016 10:42 AM

      Today Cyrano de Bergerac and the guy he's helping would get arrested. Ted Bundy changed the whole social landscape re men meeting women. You can't just go up to a woman in the laundromat anymore.

      Delete
    3. cwhiatt5/03/2016 10:57 AM

      Whole Foods. That is where you want to be picking up women. Everytime...and I mean literally everytime I'm there, there are a flurry of attractive women.

      Delete
    4. cwhiatt5/03/2016 10:57 AM

      And they are always shopping alone.

      Delete
    5. Z-man5/03/2016 1:35 PM

      You clarified for me something about divorced women in your church comment above. One time I fell in love with one and I don't think she hated me. There might have been even a faint liking and if she was in the supermarket or Walgreen's she was always alone. Anyway no matter what I did it always reached a dead end. Probably a total waste of time and effort but live and learn.

      Delete
  12. Z-man5/03/2016 5:36 AM

    I think the first go-round on FB Chris I was trying too hard. Next time I would go for lite and breezy.

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    1. cwhiatt5/03/2016 9:15 AM

      I think you'll fair much better. And, should you feel you've gotten off track all you need to do is post a cat video and you'll bounce back.

      Delete
    2. Z-man5/03/2016 1:37 PM

      Racking up the friend roster was always a bit difficult.

      Delete
    3. cwhiatt5/03/2016 1:41 PM

      I never measured its value by the number of friends. In fact, it's rare that if I get a friend request I accept it. I keep a small circle by choice. I always remind myself of how many Apostles Jesus had (one too many).

      Small groups are good otherwise the good stuff gets lost in the shuffle.

      Delete
    4. Z-man5/03/2016 2:48 PM

      What's scary is the rather large % of psychos on FB. I scan the news regularly - guy shoots up his workplace he had a FB page. Another guy has a bad day and shoots some folks in downtown Seattle or Peoria he had a FB page. You're right small circles are better.

      Delete
  13. Z-man5/05/2016 5:33 PM

    A tailor-made Saty thread. It would be good to hear her thoughts.

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  14. Z-man5/06/2016 1:40 PM

    That's a really great website. BB would like it.

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  15. Z-man5/12/2016 12:23 PM

    I recently finished the book "Men and Depression - One Man's Journey" by Bruce T. Forbes (2010) to better understand the subject. The book is strongly written from the Mormon perspective but general enough. Most of the men in the book who suffer this overwhelming and unbearable depression are married to loving spouses and have children. In other words they should be somewhat happy all things considered so it's not always some major life event triggering it. After finishing the book I was as ignorant as I began. The usual or only explanation is a chemical imbalance in the brain, a brain that doesn't function as it should being the classic medical explanation but can there be other theories? Is there something spiritual going on? Is their subconscious unappy about something they're unaware of? To me it's still a mystery.

    ReplyDelete

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