Kind of curious what other peoples thoughts are.
My personal belief is once you have depression it’s a lifelong battle, you never get rid of it. You might be able to put it into remission and be happy most of the time. It will always be there though waiting for that next traumatic trigger to bring it right back to the surface. You will always have to be wary of relapses. All you can hope for is to manage it as best you can. With medications, therapy, coping mechanisms, self awareness, meditation, whatecer. But you never escape it completely.
13 comments
Mild depression, yes. Major depression, no. I think mild depression is common after a tragedy. Like your beloved pet dying for example. But I think major depression is caused by possibly permanent changes in a person’s neural pathways. So like you said, you always have (major) depression but you can put it into remission. Although you will have to worry about relapsing. Mainly because I believe the pathways never truly change. But that’s just what I think.
Thank you, yes I should have been more specific, obviously people experience periods of sadness, or grief following traumatic events. I meant specifically major depression.
I have major depression and I don’t think it gets better. I’m worst now than I ever was. I honestly think life gets to a point where it’s so bad, you can’t turn back. I don’t know what to do anymore. Maybe try antidepressants again? Those never really worked and that’s why I’ve been self medicating. I might have to force myself to try an antidepressant again anyway because my thoughts are darker than I ever remember.
Yea antidepressants I never thought they did much honestly. I think it’s more a placebo than anything, if you believe they will help you get better then your belief is actually what makes you feel better. All these SSRI’S being prescribed , and yet some scientists say there is no link between serotonin levels and depression.
But the pharmaceutical company’s will never admit that because they make so much money off those prescriptions, and they have nothing better to offer.
@ anhedonic apathy. Anhedonia being a real biological symptom of depression.
Depression is a real biological disorder which can be compared to other diseases, do you also tell people with other diseases that their medication is “I think it’s more a placebo than anything, if you believe they will help you get better then your belief is actually what makes you feel better”?
Part of what makes it clear that depression is more than just a psychological disorder are the real physical symptoms associated with depression, eg, neurology changes, appetite and sleep changes, stress levels (which are a factor for inflammation) ect. This indicates biology and that something is out of sync in the brain. There is evidence of these neurological changes as they can be mapped. Also, a recent study has established a potential link between eye vein thickness and mental disorders through retina imaging.
The serotonin system is only a small part of the many different types of neurotransmitters in the brain, although one of the few that are implicated in
depression. As a result there are many antidepressants with varied mechanisms of action by targeting different neurotransmitters.
I worry that a broad assertion that all antidepressants “Yea antidepressants I never thought they did much honestly.” will impede people being open to all treatment options.
Hand picking a group of antidepressants and using the claim that “some scientists say there is no link between serotonin levels and depression.” to support your argument is unfair as it ignores the complexity of antidepressants affect on a synaptic level and our physical and psychological responses that follow.
Physical and psychological responses to neurological changes induced by antidepressants are part of the reason why it was hypothesised that targeting a specific neurotransmitter helped without the full complexity of how it worked being completely understood and not having a full explanation for other inconsistencies.
That is very true, my beliefs about the effectiveness of antidepressants aside. I would never tell anyone not to try them. Whatever help they could give is certainly better than nothing.
I realise it’s a controversial topic as our own experiences can be different to expected results for a number of reasons.
I think that one day we will have a treatment tailored to our own genetic make up eliminating the trial and error switching and that a simple blood test will tell you what is required.
I see antidepressants often viewed unfavourably here and agree that they are not perfect. It’s understandable as those who have had good outcomes tend not to post about them on a suicide forum. A subjective view is important (blind/double blind studies) My response was only to even a somewhat lopsided debate where I was concerned that personal views were overriding results derived from clinical trials.
Lets look at it from a simplistic, logical point of view.
MRI can establish differences between a normal brain and a depressed brain.
Put aside cause such as environmental factors and genetic predisposition for a moment. What we have is biological changes in the brain, not just psychological. Would it not seem plausible that medications that alter these chemical imbalance back to a normal state would see improvement.
By saying medication is ineffective it gives support to the notion that depression is a pure psychological state. Although not defined as a disease depression is a disorder with physical symptoms. Maybe the issue is correct diagnoses, short periods of feeling down following traumatic events is normal and if there is no changes in the brain antidepressants cannot work. In fact excess serotonin or elevated levels of dopamine can be harmful.
I definitely agree with you that there are actual biological changes that occur when you suffer from depression. Like you said the differences can be found on an MRI. I don’t at all believe that depression is purely psychological. I believe it starts psychologically, and causes negative biological changes, that cause even more psychological damage, which causes further biological change etc. So yes definitely they should be worked on together. So I do agree with you. If you have medication that fixes the biological damage it makes it so much easier to address the psychological issues. I only question how much effect “current” medications have on that biological damage.
My only concern is that we don’t know enough about the chemistry involved. I believe like you said eventually they will have tests that can determine exactly the level of ichemical imbalance in our brains and give us a treatment specifically tailored to our personal imbalance. It is mostly guess work and experimentation at this point. It isn’t like people go in for an MRI every week to check to see how much their antidepressants are working. So its not the idea of medication I question, only the effectiveness of current medications. It is still better than nothing though, and I am glad we have them to try.
I agree. If you have treatment resistant depression, it seems like you’re pretty much fucked. Only thing that touched my depression once was an MAOI so I would recommend that if SSRI’s aren’t working. Even the MAOI stopped working after like a year. I think I’ve been prolonging my own life by finding different things to self medicate with over the years. That can make things worst though depending on what you’re doing. I don’t have any answers. It just sucks.
Yea that seems to be the problem with all meds, you take them everyday and you end up building up a tolerance. You either keep upping the dosage just to get the same effect, or you have to find another medicine that works.
I feel that depression can not be cured. It’s kind of like cancer. Most people die from it, but some, very rarely, are cured. Although in this case, most people commit suicide over depression, or they learn to live with it so it’s not as bad. Some days will be more hard than others. Medication and therapy sort of drown the pain out a bit. I stopped taking medication because it wasn’t helping. Plus, it temporarily took away my ability to feel love (which some antidepressants can actually do), and it was screwing up my relationship. Depression is one hell of an illness.