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Treatment for depression ought not begin and end with medication. It's symptomatic. In the vast majority of cases, it means some large part of your lifestyle's

Treatment for depression ought not begin and end with medication. It's symptomatic. In the vast majority of cases, it means some large part of your lifestyle's gone wrong. The common advice today is tantamount to ignoring fist lines of defense in favor of just treating symptoms indefinitely, because it feeds the pharma machine. That's not to say medication doesn't have its place. It's that suggesting we eschew all other measures in favor of medication is ridiculous.

ncmncm 7y ago
> In the vast majority of cases, it means some large part of your lifestyle's gone wrong. It must be nice to know so much about everyone around you, without needing to actually obtain any facts at all. Is it possible that changes to exercise, diet, time outdoors, or latitude of residence could help in some cases? Maybe. Is there anywhere near enough data to attribute a "vast majority of cases" to these causes? No.
dmos62 7y ago
> In the vast majority of cases, it means some large part of your lifestyle's gone wrong. That's misleading. Lifestyle changes can have a significant positive effect, but that's also misleading, because you have to account for the often insurmountable inertia that old behaviors have. Furthermore, the most reliable predictor of manic depression in later life is more than 2 traumatic experiences before age 7. I might be misquoting the figures slightly: it might be 3, not 2, or 10, not 7. However, the point I'm making is that in many cases saying that depression is caused by erroneous lifestyle is plain wrong. I agree with you on medication, it has it's place, but it's hardly the end of the story. I personally don't take it, because I feel that my case is more suited to a different therapy, though I feel a bit silly about never having tried it. I think that one of the best things you can do is try a lot of things, to see what works for you.

ncmncm 7y ago

> In the vast majority of cases, it means some large part of your lifestyle's gone wrong. It must be nice to know so much about everyone around you, without needing to actually obtain any facts at all. Is it possible that changes to exercise, diet, time outdoors, or latitude of residence could help in some cases? Maybe. Is there anywhere near enough data to attribute a "vast majority of cases" to these causes? No.

dmos62 7y ago

> In the vast majority of cases, it means some large part of your lifestyle's gone wrong. That's misleading. Lifestyle changes can have a significant positive effect, but that's also misleading, because you have to account for the often insurmountable inertia that old behaviors have. Furthermore, the most reliable predictor of manic depression in later life is more than 2 traumatic experiences before age 7. I might be misquoting the figures slightly: it might be 3, not 2, or 10, not 7. However, the point I'm making is that in many cases saying that depression is caused by erroneous lifestyle is plain wrong. I agree with you on medication, it has it's place, but it's hardly the end of the story. I personally don't take it, because I feel that my case is more suited to a different therapy, though I feel a bit silly about never having tried it. I think that one of the best things you can do is try a lot of things, to see what works for you.