Alexander Brennan’s recent experience with a prolonged period of deep depression taught him many things, one of which is that modern medicine is ill-equipped to deal with those facing the challenges of this physical illness.
Yes. Physical.
Everyone speaks of depression as a mental illness, however, the brain is an organ, just as the heart and lungs are organs. And despite the fact that the heart has been discovered to be just as responsible for our emotional regulation as is the brain, we don’t term strokes or heart attacks as an emotional illness do we? Depression is an illness that effects arguably our most important physical organ. It’s a physical illness.
This latest battle with the black dog also taught me patience, compassion and empathy. These are traits which I feel are decidedly lacking in some medical professionals that treat the disease.
Psychiatrists are a wonderful resource. They are typically intelligent, highly educated and excellent at diagnosing physical illnesses. What I have found, however, is that they can be far too prescriptive, and not just of medication.
Given, to prescribe medication is their primary modality, however, they seem to me very presumptive. They presume that, if you’re sitting across from them, you MUST have a mental illness, therefore you MUST need medication, and an hour and a half and $500 later, medication is just what they give you.
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To presume that an hour and a half of asking someone about their childhood, family history, alcohol and drug habits, recent history and outlook on life at that point in time is enough to diagnose and prescribe is simply ignorant.
I understand that the prevalence of depression and bipolar is increasing markedly, and the sheer volume of patient numbers require doctors to process them quickly, however, the lack of empathy and genuine care in diagnoses this can create is unacceptable.
The single psychiatrist I saw out of four professionals over a two year period that made any sense was a Japanese man, whose philosophy was rooted in eastern traditions of mindfulness and realism. He actually spent time understanding how I really felt, and offered some advice on how my thought patterns were contributing to my state of distress.
Admittedly, I had recently been prescribed lithium, a drug whose efficacy is unchallenged, even if the machinations of its effectiveness are not understood. And if not for a previous psychiatrist prescribing said lithium, I may have wound up in a far worse place than I am. Or dead.
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One thing the Japanese doctor said to me has stuck with me. That “The harder we struggled to attain something the harder it becomes to achieve.” And all of a sudden, my struggle to achieve ‘happiness’, whatever that ephemeral state of being may be, became les of a battle and more of a journey I accepted and was happy to travel on.
The myriad psychologists I saw over this period were no better. In fact, they were far worse.
I have eminent respect for the training and study these professionals undertake, however, I find their reticence to offer any kind of advice for fear that it will result in a malpractice suit is infuriating. Even when you’ve been lead down a path of conversation and you respond with a statement like, “So you’re saying I should do this?”, the quizzical raised eyebrows and implied question of, “I don’t know, should you do this?” is enough to make me want to scream.
When you are depressed, you need to DO something to climb out of that hole. You need to take action. You need to fight, to claw your way up, to connect with people, to be out in the sun, to exercise, TO LIVE.
And yet, even though the specialist private hospital I admitted myself to had a gym, we were never encouraged to use it. We were never told to try to take in the morning sun, to get outside, to speak with other patients about how we felt (even though we did).
Unequivocally, all of the people I spoke to while in hospital – that were committed to their recovery and were making progress – agreed. The psychologists there were next to useless, the psychiatrists weren’t much better, and the best way to get better was to take matters into your own hands.
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Andrew Soloman speaks of his time spent in Rwanda after the genocide in a magnificent TEDx talk (which I would recommend you watch [1]here) and how the village elders eventually banished western psychologists from their communities. They couldn’t understand why they didn’t get those experiencing depression outside. Get them dancing, get them talking to their neighbours, get them singing. Instead, they took them into a small, dark room and asked them to talk about all the atrocities they experienced during the genocide.
All of this focus on the past, on what happened, on how you feel about it, is – I suppose – somewhat useful as a diagnostic tool.
It’s absolutely useless as a means to achieve a cure.
Modern psychology, led by an Aussie Doctor Russ Harris, is all about Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). It’s a little controversial, as it flies in the face of traditional psychiatry, which attempts to distance the mind from unhelpful thoughts. ACT, on the other hand, accepts that unhelpful thoughts and behavioural psychoses are part of being human. It attempts to help people take action to confront their idiosyncracies, to deal with their behavioural traits in a proactive and realistic way. It has taken its instruction straight out the ancient eastern traditions of Buddhism and mindfulness training.
It is for this reason that I believe the ancient eastern practices of meditation, mindfulness, present moment awareness and acceptance of suffering are far better equipped to help those experiencing depression.
For it is only through accepting the challenges that one has and is facing, that we can begin to deal with them appropriately. And to overcome them.
[1]http://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_solomon_depression_the_secret_we_share
Photo: Beverley Goodwin/Flickr
Couldn’t agree more Frank. I’m on vitamin supplements as per Bill Walsh’s research, available in ‘vitamin Power’. Never better and no more lithium. Plenty of exercise and sun.
I can relate. Medication can be helpful for some people, but the whole notion that it’s mandatory is just plain ridiculous. Medication gets people a bit of breathing room so that they can have a good start for proper treatments. Unfortunately, the mental health profession tends not to keep current on treatment options and there’s a good chance that the professional you get to see won’t have any idea what the brain is doing and what to do about it. The best advice on depression remains to eat a clean diet, get ample exercise and try to look for other… Read more »