It took me awhile to figure out what to write this blog post about. I’m not particularly good at blogging, and I’ve just been slammed with work. Then it came to me what to write about: something that hits home, depression. While not depressed, clinically at least, myself, a lot of very good friends of mine have dealt with depression for most of their lives. One even lost the battle with it last August.
When we talked about neurotransmitters in class, the idea that an illness that can lead you to take your own life was just based on chemical balance and little more was mind boggling. I’d heard of the concept before but never knew that that was it, just chemical balances of dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. I thought of my friends, one undergoing serious treatment for depression; generalized anxiety disorder; and obsessive compulsive disorder, and instead of the idea that current medication isn’t 100% reliable bringing me down about hope for her and other friends, I was relieved. The fact that we even know that we may be able to change these chemical balances pharmaceutically gives me a lot of hope for all of my friends suffering from depression. The way that Prozac works is really cool to me, as a premed. Pharmacology is an amazing field, and it’s really incredible to think that we went from just locking people away fifty years ago to now knowing that we have a drug that can target extraordinarily small cells in the brain that may make someone stop considering suicide or self-harm.
What little we learned about neurotransmitters in class really made me happy, when I was thinking about the massive steps we’ve taken in less than a century. We know how these crippling illnesses work because we now know about neurons and neurotransmitters and chemical pathways in the brain.
Thank you for reading and I’m sorry if it seems disjointed, writing a blog as a stream of thought is the only way I know how.
I, too, have friends that suffer from depression. It is definitely hard to be around, but I also find a lot of positivity that we have so many different solutions to it, whether it may be medical treatment or therapy. So many different types of programs and organizations are out there now that support this like the whole idea of the Suicide Hotline or Post Secret. I also remember reading about a bridge that was put under recent construction to prevent suicide attempts on it: http://www.pri.org/stories/2012-09-27/bridge-signs-used-south-korea-anti-suicide-efforts. There are so many efforts and as amazing as it is, I can’t help but blame a society like ours to be the cause of depression – we are not as personally in-touch with our community as generations before us. We might be in the technological sense, but I don’t know if this is enough. People are meant to be interactive with other people – solitude (I believe) is the worst kind of torture, and it is the perfect breeding ground for things like depression and low self-esteem.
I am also glad we are learning more about the science and chemical processes behind such problems. Like you said, it is definitely an improvement from 50 years ago. However, I feel like the solution is so much simpler than drugs (even though I have seen it definitely be help to certain individuals) – communication is a huge factor, whether it be between friends or therapist & client. That is why I believe therapy can be so truly helpful.