Note: Kindly please don’t respond to my emails personally unless it’s with praise and adoration. I’m not looking to have debates, though I welcome counterpoints in the comment section.
A new study came out that confirmed something many of us have known for a while: the idea that depression is caused by a “chemical imbalance” is absurdly vague and unscientific. The study basically shows that over a wide swath of data, there is no relationship between someone’s serotonin production or receptors and whether they are depressed or not. A big caveat here before I have a field day on this finding is that it is a single study—technically a study of other studies—so it shouldn’t be trusted as the whole truth and nothing but the truth. But, it seems pretty damn damning and has us asking: “So what exactly do anti-depressants do?” I’m going to need psychiatrists to show their work.
For years, we’ve been gaslit into thinking that telling a diagnosed depressed person to “just be happy,” was somehow this massive faux pas that showed our ignorance and insensitivity; it’s categorized up there with using a racial slur. While I’m happy that mental health is starting to be taken more seriously, sometimes it’s taken a bit too seriously. Depressed people have become a protected class of humans—corralled in with people affected by bipolar disorder, the autism spectrum, and other—God forgive me—actual brain disorders.
Here’s my take as someone whose therapist has diagnosed me with “low-grade depression.” If there is a chemical imbalance, it’s merely a reflection of a societal imbalance. Depression is a bouquet of un’s that the modern person must suffer under: unrested, unhappy, unfulfilled, unpaid, unsafe, and so on. “Low-grade depression” is just another way of saying, “Today, you’re doing just an okay job at reconciling a ’happy’ life with the complete shit show we call civilization.” Severe depression on the other hand—can’t get out of bed style—is just another way of saying, “Today, you are completely unable to reconcile civilization with your needs as an individual.”
Non-commerce-based societies, those we demeaningly call “primitive,” have almost no incidents of depression. We “civilized” folk are told we need to be richer, prettier, healthier, and happier than our neighbors and parents or else are failures. And then, with that as the stated goal, we are set “free” in a labyrinth of a society that makes achieving these ends nearly impossible. The ends and the means are dumb. Non-commercial societies, on the other hand, are more focussed on actually pertinent goals like dancing for rain and cultivating a relationship with the spirit realm. That sounds like a joke when I’m saying it, but I mean it seriously, those needs are more pertinent to life on Earth. And peace on Earth. No wonder we are a depressed society—we are being paid to forget our needs.
To make matters worse, scientists—and by that I mean psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies—then have the audacity to claim that the epidemic of depression is caused by a vague chemical imbalance that is mysteriously affecting nearly everyone. How bizarre! Oh, whatever could it be making so many people feel unhappy in the very same way all at once?
There is nothing capitalists hate more than talking negatively about capitalism. They complain about their spouses, their cars, their family, their houses, the interest rates, their coworkers, their jobs, their politicians, and the media, but don’t you dare critique capitalism—the ether in which all of the above is immersed.
So, while I’m being gaslit into thinking it’s offensive to say that depression is not a real illness, I’m also over here grieving that people diagnosed with depression—especially those who really identify deeply with their diagnosis—are actually the ones being gaslit. They are being told by white coats and our collusive society that their issues actually belong to them, that they have no external causes, that something is wrong with them and their brains, that they need a pill or to do some sort of work in themselves to get better. Telling a depressed person just to be happy is rude, but not because it delegitimizes depression, it’s rude because the society that says “hey, being happy is your goal” is not willing to make any efforts to make that happiness achievable—it’s gaslighting at its finest. And that’s the last time I will say gaslighting in this post, promise.
Instead of searching for the perfect concoction of pills that will make life bearable like some sort of dystopian Aldous Huxley novel, why don’t we harness that depressed energy—which is really just anger at the way things are—and change the society around ourselves to be something that feels better? Even if that’s just in our friend group. You don’t need to start a revolution, you just need to stop involving yourself with people, places, and activities that don’t bring you and your community deep joy and peace.
Chasing real rather than cheap pleasures will, in the long run, make you less depressed. I won’t say it will make you happy—our society has peddled the happiness myth for centuries and I won’t do that to you. Happiness itself is a trap; suffering is a reality we must greet with open arms.
It’s worth noting I don’t mean simply chasing pleasure via shopping therapy, drugs, sex, and productivity hacks either, I mean becoming truly aware and self-sufficient in regards to what makes you triggered into your depressive states and what brings you strengthened dopamine pathways. You can even do the same exact things: shop, have sex, do drugs, and be productive, but you can do them with the awareness that happiness is not and cannot be the goal.
Art won’t save you. Pills won’t save you. Meditation definitely won’t save you. The only thing that will save you is a real connection with those around you, yourself, and the way you spend your time every day. How do you value yourself? Is that value achievable every day? It’s not easy, and it will never end. Contrary to what you’ve been told, there is no retirement except death.
If you’re feeling depressed like I am, consider perhaps that you’re in a shitty and abusive relationship with a toxic society.
Have a good week.
As always, I end my posts with a picture of my breakfast and picture of my baby, who currently has Hand Foot, and Mouth disease and it’s horrible to watch. It will be over soon and he will be fine.
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