3 ms·

This feels so obvious. 30 years from now, we might very well look back at these labels we applied to people, implying something is wrong with them for respondin

by kbos87 6y ago

This feels so obvious. 30 years from now, we might very well look back at these labels we applied to people, implying something is wrong with them for responding to their negative circumstances, and feel like we were living in the dark ages. When we see historic rises in mental disorders following an external event like the coronavirus pandemic, is it not something we should reasonably expect? I can accept that some sliver of the population has an unreasonable reaction to something like this, but for most people, it isn’t a problem in their head as modern psychology tends to imply. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/05/04/mental-health-coronavirus/%3foutputType=amp https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/health/2...

arethuza 6y ago
I remember reading about the first expeditions to the Artic by the Royal Navy in the 19th century - they initially found some sailors exhibiting the symptoms of being drunk and would punish them harshly. It took them a while to realise that the symptoms of severe hypothermia and drunkenness are actually pretty similar.... See: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/878082.Barrow_s_Boys https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/878082.Barrow_s_Boys
Cthulhu_ 6y ago
I hope so, and that what we now call depression will be considered as silly a moniker as hysteria or "troubled humours" back when.
- proverbialbunny 6y ago
  Exactly. When it comes to depression the chemical imbalance theory comes from Zoloft. It is a drug that accidentally had the side effect of reducing depression in some patients. Curious scientists wanted to figure out why, so they examined it. Turns out Zoloft boosts serotonin in the brain. This created the chemical imbalance theory, but since then study after study for decades has disproved this, yet for some sort of reason the theory stays in the mainstream. Ibuprofen can cause an ulcer. Imagine some primitive ape sees this blood loss and assumes the blood loss is what reduces inflammation. The Zoloft serotonin study follows the same faulty logic.
  - dorchadas 6y ago
    You might be interested in Johann Hari's Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression - and the Unexpected Solutions, who really looks into this and how depression is diagnosed and treated, as well as why it may actually be the 'adaptive response' suggested above.

by kbos87 6y ago

arethuza 6y ago

I remember reading about the first expeditions to the Artic by the Royal Navy in the 19th century - they initially found some sailors exhibiting the symptoms of being drunk and would punish them harshly. It took them a while to realise that the symptoms of severe hypothermia and drunkenness are actually pretty similar.... See: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/878082.Barrow_s_Boys https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/878082.Barrow_s_Boys

Cthulhu_ 6y ago

I hope so, and that what we now call depression will be considered as silly a moniker as hysteria or "troubled humours" back when.

proverbialbunny 6y ago
Exactly. When it comes to depression the chemical imbalance theory comes from Zoloft. It is a drug that accidentally had the side effect of reducing depression in some patients. Curious scientists wanted to figure out why, so they examined it. Turns out Zoloft boosts serotonin in the brain. This created the chemical imbalance theory, but since then study after study for decades has disproved this, yet for some sort of reason the theory stays in the mainstream. Ibuprofen can cause an ulcer. Imagine some primitive ape sees this blood loss and assumes the blood loss is what reduces inflammation. The Zoloft serotonin study follows the same faulty logic.
- dorchadas 6y ago
  You might be interested in Johann Hari's Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression - and the Unexpected Solutions, who really looks into this and how depression is diagnosed and treated, as well as why it may actually be the 'adaptive response' suggested above.