theory on depression ?
Q.If you believe I think depression is that simple you dont understand me. First lets get one thing clear here. By depression, I am specifically talking about major depression or clinical depression. The kind where basic bodily functions have begun deteriorating. I dont know if youve ever had that sort of severe depression. I surely have but a lot of "depressed" people have never gotten that severe before. These people have what I would describe as a milder, non clinical depression. This type of depression is in my opinion the type of depression most have. It hardly qualifies as a medical emergency. However, the major depression that I and some others have is a medical emergency and it can literally kill you and make you disabled. This type of depression destroys basic, central nervous system controlled, physiological functions you normally take for granted and dont even think about (sleeping, eating, sex, cognition).
A.Now that I have clearly spelled out what I exactly mean by the word "depression" I should tell you that major depression is a severe brain disease. It is a medical condition where your brain has deteriorated and basic bodily functions we take for granted(sleeping, eating, sex, cognition) begin to degenerate. If not checked with medical treatment, death will soon follow. With depression, necessary medical treatment is needed immediately, just like any other major medical condition. What happens with other, non psychiatric medical conditions if you let them go unchecked and untreated? Oftentimes you die. Well that is usually what happens with unchecked major depression, you die. Clinical depression is mother nature's way of slapping you upside the head and telling you "HEY, you are one sick person." I was in the rTMS clinical trials under neuropsychiatrist Dr. Mark George. This guy is also a radiologist and is heavily involved in imaging the brains of severely mentally ill people using functional MRI scans, PET scans, SPECT scans, etc. He and other scientists like him are trying to develop the technological capability to clearly image and differentiate the various types of severe mental illnesses...the severe major depressions, the bipolar manic depressions, paranoid schizophrenia, severe anxiety disorders like OCD and also alcoholism and addiction problems. What George told me is that they can clearly differentiate a severely clinically depressed brain image when they compare it to a brain image of a healthy non depressed person. The MRI images clearly show major, fundamental differences between severe depression and healthy brains. LIke night and day. Increasingly it is being determined that severe major depression is a neurological or neuroendocrine type medical condition. One that "positive thinking" and talk therapies little to no no control over. Dr. George has been quoted in Newsweek as stating that he wouldnt be surprised that in ten years time, the scientists will have discovered ten different sub types of depression, each with its own specific diagnosis and its own specific treatment plan. The moral of the story is that we need to quit looking at clinical depression as a social or psychological issue and more like a purely medical problem that needs high tech, modern 21st century, specific medical treatment. The current practice of just starting all depressives out on SSRIs may wane in the next 20 years. Instead, the doctors may develop diagnostic and treatment capabilities that will allow them to highly individualize your diagnosis and highly individualize your depression treatment.
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