What if depression is not an illness? Now, that's a question I hear quite often.
And recently I have heard someone, who I think is a pretty reasonable person, say
that depression is not an illness... And I think that this is what prompted me to
do some googling and see what other people have to say about this. And I've
discovered that there are actually some...
therapists out there who think that depression is not an illness.
And, you know, I've, I've listened to all of their arguments, I've read all of their
arguments, and they seem quite reasonable, but they are also easy to dismantle,
and that's actually what I'm about to do today, so yeah... I guess I just want to
share why I personally think that depression is an illness and why
it should be treated like one. I want to stress... I have to stress at the beginning,
that I am NOT one of the social justice warriors who, you know, get triggered
every single time they hear someone mention the idea that depression, or any
other mental illness, might not actually be an illness. I actually have a list of
arguments that I would like to share and I'm not here to, you know, pointlessly
scream at you. Okay, so let's jump right into it.
First of all, I certainly agree with the fact that any mental illness is not really an
illness in the standard medical definition of the word which is:
a definite pathological process, having a characteristic set of signs and symptoms,
which may affect the whole body or any of its parts and its etiology, pathology
and prognosis may be known or unknown. To make it a bit simpler, what I'm trying to
say is that depression, or any other mental illness,
does not really attack your body or to be more specific, your tissues, the very
same way that, let's say, the flu or cancer would. Now, there are a bunch of
arguments, a bunch of reasons why some people suggest that depression is not an
illness, but it's rather a state of mind, a trait of character, or even worse:
a weakness. So I just want to list all of them and I will, you know,
dismantle all of them one by one. First of all, people suggest that the cause of
mental health problems has not been pinpoint 100% and that the mythical
chemical imbalance has not been fully confirmed. And that is actually true, that
is true. We do not know, we are not sure what exactly is going on in there.
It is very likely that depression stems from influences other than
the neurotransmitter abnormalities, which is the whole serotonin / dopamine thing.
And among these are irregularities in brain structure and function, disturbances in
neural circuitry and various psychological contributions, such as stress.
But I ask: should a really matter? There are other idiopathic diseases,
which basically means that their cause is unknown, yet no one denies the fact that
these are indeed illnesses. There's also a list of illnesses that can be
confirmed... that can be diagnosed only through interviewing the patient, because
there is no way... there are no specific tests that could confirm it, like, you
know, the the restless legs syndrome. But it's still considered an illness.
Number two: some people suggest that medication doesn't work for everyone, so depression
cannot be cured, or at least, it cannot be kept in check and that is why it cannot be an illness.
But I ask, should it really matter. There are many other illnesses
out there for which we don't have treatments that would have a 100%
success rate. Now, chemotherapy doesn't always work,
but, you know, you wouldn't say that cancer is not illness. There are many other
illnesses that cannot be fully cured, we can just try and, you know, control the
the severity of the symptoms. So how is depression any different, again.
And does the fact that not everyone responds well to medicinal treatment...
Does that mean that we should ditch it altogether? You know, surely, you wouldn't
suggest banning chemotherapy just because it doesn't work for everyone.
And last, but not least, the people who suffer from mental disorders,
most of them, lead severely impaired lives... Now, these things can be cured or
at least kept in check. However, these people won't be able to
cope with it unless they seek professional help. Now, that - to me - sounds
like how an average, more conventional disease would work, doesn't it.
When someone breaks a leg, you don't just tell them that if they change their mindset
their bones will instantly heal. When someone is taking insulin shots for
diabetes, you don't ask them whether they aren't scared that the medication will
change them and you don't ask them whether they wouldn't prefer to cope
with it on their own. When someone has the flu,
you don't just tell them to snap out of it and get out of bed. So why would you
say those very same things to people who suffer from mental disorders... And...
Disorders that we know - because it has been scientifically proven and it has
been documented over the years - these disorders will not go away on their own
in most cases. Now, there are people who suggest that depression is not an
illness, it's rather a symptom of our consumer culture, the constant rat race,
the pressure for perfection imposed upon us by the social media. So, I guess the
theory is that people who... who are somehow more emotional, somehow weaker,
they can't take it. They can't take the pressure and as a result they become
depressed. And I say yes this might be one of the many causes of depression, but,
you know, I don't think that it's the illness itself. I don't think
that this is enough to explain the complexity of depression.
Because what about the people who are clinically depressed for no apparent reason?
What about the people who actually won the rat race, what about the the people
who are successful, who are rich, who have it all, who are, you know, considered
attractive or whatever, but they are still depressed. And last but not least:
what about all of the people who are overly emotional, who are very responsive
to what goes on in the world, who care too much, but yet, they are not depressed.
Take me for example. It's a little bit weird to talk about
myself this way, but I am the so-called highly sensitive person. I am very
emotional, although I don't really show it on the surface, but, you know, I think
a lot, I dwell on things inside... And yeah, I guess I just, you know, I have
heightened empathy, which - I think - is what allows me to make those videos, to make
them so relatable, at least according to you, I don't know... But yeah, and, you know,
my life hasn't been that easy, to be quite honest, especially for the past... for
the past couple of months and somehow... I'm not depressed. I'm not.
I never was and, you know, I don't feel like I'm about to be. So I think what I want
to say is that, you know, it's it's not a general rule, it's... it's not enough,
the theory that people that are somehow more emotional, are more prone to
depression. I don't think that's enough to explain it. I really don't want
to go overboard with this so let me just stress that I think that the feelings of
depression, anxiety, stress or any other unpleasant emotions, they are a part of
the human condition, they are normal, they are natural. I don't think that these
should be labeled as something bad, as something that is unwanted. I don't think
that we should, you know, strive to fully erase these because that would be absurd,
that would be like, like a real life version of a Brave New World, which is
something I really don't want to happen. So... Also, I believe that getting rid of
depression or any other mental illness is in the hands of the person who
suffers from the disorder, because that's actually what a lot of therapy is about.
And, most importantly, I don't think that simply popping a pill every single time
is the right way to go. I don't think that overmedicalizing this issue is
the one and only and the right solution to this. However, there are times when
people cannot cope on their own. They need the help of medication, they need
the help of therapy. Sometimes, and I think that actually most times, a mix of
these two things works best. So as you can tell I'm trying to find a middle
ground here, basically... having a discussion with myself. But yeah, and to
all of the people who suggest that there was no depression in the good old times:
I just want to say that Mount Everest wasn't discovered and named by the West
until the 1850s and I'm pretty sure the mountain still existed, okay?
So to sum up, what I want to say is that I personally don't really care whether mental
illnesses are called illnesses, because I know what they are, I know how they
should be treated I know how they work. But there are a lot of people out there
who don't know how these work, there are many misconceptions about mental
disorders. And I do believe that labeling mental disorders as illnesses has taken
so much of the stigma away, which obviously is a good thing. And I guess,
that being stubborn and just arguing that these are not illnesses, just
because they don't exactly fit the biological definition of the word
illness, won't do any good. It can only do harm, because it basically, it opens up
doors for all of the people who think that it's just a weakness, it's just a
trait of character, it's laziness, and, you know, saying that it's not an illness
basically... takes us back to medieval times and we don't want that.
Every time we suggest that it's not an illness, I think we further stigmatize it.
I think we somehow suggest that people who suffer from these disorders, they are
somehow weaker, that they cannot cope with it on their own. And some people
even romanticize depression and, you know, they say that sadness is a good
thing in this empty world and that we should all feel more sadness and that...
Depression should be somehow nurtured, which is such a ridiculous idea. What I
think is worst about this is that when you say that it's not an illness...
When you say that, you imply that people who suffer from
these disorders should actually be able to cope with them on their own. And when
it turns out that not everyone can cope with it on their own, these people become
ashamed. And when people become ashamed, they refuse to seek help.
And what happens when people refuse to seek help? They often attempt a suicide.
Now, there's no hidden agenda in this for me. I'm not a psychiatrist, I'm not
psychologist, I am not in any way linked to the pharmaceutical industry.
I'm not even depressed and I never was depressed. So you may be wondering why
I am so passionate about this and, you know, first of all I just guess I like to
discuss various interesting ideas, various interesting topics, but I think
that the main reason why I took my understanding of the mental health
issues... of the mental health case, what took it to another level was me being
diagnosed with social anxiety and me opening up to the world about it.
So, you know, when I did it, when I finally had the guts to admit it, to admit that I was
struggling with mental health issues, I was somehow denied - by some people -
- the right to suffer from a mental disorder. No matter how hard I tried to
explain that I've been diagnosed both by a psychiatrist and a psychologist,
and I actually, you know, took medication for a while, for a very brief while actually...
No matter how hard I try to explain that I actually went to therapy for a year,
every single week. No matter how hard I tried to explain that maintaining a high
functioning persona online, although I wouldn't really call myself high
functioning, as I think you can clearly tell, but yeah maintaining an online
persona in the comfort of your home, where you can edit out all of
the mistakes, where you can put a filter on or whatever, it's not the same as
what you would act like around people in in real life. Even though I tried to
explain all of these things, people still had the nerve to say that I am somehow
making it up or doing this just to get attention, because clearly, for these
people, these two things don't work. Being online and having social anxiety. These
things don't work. So I guess this left me a little bit broken and very much
disappointed. Because not only did the mental illness itself mess up my life.
But, you know, the people, the society, when I finally, you know, opened up about it,
they didn't just accept it, they, you know... Some people just questioned it at every
single opportunity they got. And I guess I just hope that when my children are
around, and when they need any mental health help (I hope they don't, but if
they do) I hope they will instantly get it without having to get humiliated
along the way, the way many of us were. And I guess I just hope that in the
future, people will get help before it's too late.
So yeah, thank you so much for watching and I will see you in my next video. Bye!
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