28/05/2020
Hey friends 🌱,
Before you read this short article, I just want to say that these are my own ideas about antidepressants so please take them with a pinch of salt.🙂 Although I have read books related to this issue, I am not a professional medical doctor nor a psychiatrist. I am just a curious individual seeking answers to questions that are often left unanswered. If you are living with depression I would like to share some of the resources(books) I used in my research when I wrote this article. These books are titled: The Lost Connection by Johann Hari and A mind of your own by Dr Kelly Brogan. I am not in any way encouraging people to stop taking medication, I am only suggesting that we take it upon ourselves to investigate further on our emotions and we see them as signals and not just as biological malfunctions. 🌪
I was eighteen years old when I first moved away from my African home to study in a different continent, to be specific North America, Canada. It was a huge change but I was expecting to experience the culture shock. However, what I had not expected was the constant restlessness I would feel at times. To be honest, I don’t think I was depressed, I was just feeling extremely lonely and I was missing home. However this made me want to understand feelings of depression more and I began going deeper in unveiling this personal mystery. 🌱
Today, I want to make it clear that I am not a part of the negative propaganda towards big pharma that the media portrays. I am simply an African neuroscience enthusiast who was curious about how her move from an African Swazi culture to American culture was changing her physical, emotional and mental health. I was astonished by the staggering numbers of Americans who take antidepressants compared to the rest of the world.
🌱🌱Just like everybody else, I believed that depression was caused by insufficient neurochemicals in the brain but I had many unanswered questions. Studies have shown us that 1 in 6 Americans are taking antidepressants. So according to the definition many medical practitioners have adopted, 1 in 6 Americans have a chemical imbalance in their brains which results in depression. As someone who has lived in a different society for most of my life, the concept that we were all biological machines with malfunctions doesn’t sit well with me. While some patients who take antidepressants claim to feel better, I think the concept that ALL depression is caused by lack of neurotransmitters is flawed and could be leading to ineffective treatment of depression for some people.🌧🌧🌧
Is it possible that depression is not caused by a deficiency in a neurotransmitter? Dr A Lieberman,the Psychiatrist-in-Chief at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center says depression is caused by disturbance in the brain in areas that regulate emotion. She says it is caused by disturbance in the neurochemistry (a part of the brain that regulates emotion). Most doctors take this approach when it comes to the beliefs they have about depression. However, there is very little evidence that depression is caused by the lack of neurotransmitters. Studies have shown that the levels of serotonin in depressed people’s brains is the same as in people who are not depressed(Journal). Therefore, this means that antidepressants may not be the best way to treat depression for everybody. Antidepressants work to create a balance of neurotransmitters in the brain, however they might be solving a problem that might not even exist for some people. This is what creates the negative side effects of antidepressants, (to be specific) SSRIs. 💐Don’t get me wrong here, I understand that there are very real biological causes of depression (such as genes), however, I am against the whole notion that science ALONE can explain the root cause of depression. All human beings have physical and psychological needs and somehow we get sick when these needs are not met. Most people in the Western American context seem to have their physical needs met yet the numbers for people diagnosed with depression is increasing rapidly. If biological neurotransmitters are the only explanation to depression then why are the numbers growing year after year. According to Johann Hari, a Swiss-Scottish writer and journalist who has written publications and books on topics such as depression, there are about nine causes of depression, two of which are biological( genes and a chemical imbalance of neurotransmitters). This means that the majority of causes of depression are not biological. If this is true then how come the prescription of antidepressants has been universalized and made as a first line treatment for depression?
🌊 I think depression is like a smoke. It is possible that depression is telling us something about our society and lives. One of the main things that shocked me when I came here was the little contact with people. I will never forget walking around my host family’s neighbourhood and asking myself: where are the people? Where I come from it’s so normal to have long conversations with strangers or neighbours. 🌳🌳Professor John Cacioppo has been studying the effects and causes of loneliness for 21 years. He is the director of the University of Chicago’s Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience. Professor Cacioppo claims that America is one of the loneliest societies(Adams). And I wonder if there might be a correlation between the high numbers of people diagnosed with depression and loneliness. Neuroscientists like John Cacioppo have found that loneliness causes not only stress on the physical body but it has been proven to cause feelings of despair and depression. This is evidence that depression is not just caused by malfunction in biological systems in the body. It reveals that we have psychological needs that must be met. Therefore we need to be careful how we describe depression.
🍀☘️In reality, depression is not just caused by loneliness alone, it can be caused by trauma. A journal published in the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, investigated the relationship between chronic depression and trauma. 75.6% of the chronically depressed patients reported clinically significant histories of childhood trauma. 37% of the chronically depressed patients reported multiple childhood traumatization. 🌻Experiences of multiple trauma also led to significantly more severe depressive symptoms(Negele). In cases of trauma, depression is a form of grief. ☘️☘️ Oftentimes people take antidepressants to try and live with an internal problem. Joseph Burgo, Ph.D., is a psychotherapist and author claims that antidepressants can work as a sedative, numbing us of the pain we can not tolerate(Burgo). If this is the case then should we be blindly prescribing antidepressants without figuring out the root cause? We all know that medicines like opiods are dangerous and addictive so we prescribe them to people in extreme physical pain. Shouldn’t it be the same with antidepressants? Maybe depression is a signal that there is psychological pain that should be dealt with and instead of numbing the pain with pills, maybe we should look into helping people solve the main problems through therapy that fits their personality.
🌼Our primitive ancestors were always surrounded by their natural habitat, they lived outrageously different lifestyles from the lives we are living today. Biology tells us that it takes years for species to evolve thus it is possible that our bodies have not adapted to living indoors for long periods of time as well as living lives with minimum and little exercise. 🌻Disconnection to the natural world is one factor that has been shown to be a cause of depression. Studies like those done by Frontiers in Psychology (Pearson) show that there is growing evidence that exposure to natural environments can be associated with a lower rate of depression. Moreover, International studies done on people with depression by ACSM’s Health and Fitness Journal indicate that exercise is beneficial in reducing depression.
🌸 Antidepressants are not bad because they give temporary relief to a minority of users however the biggest deception we should be examining is the fact that depression is caused by lack of balance in neurotransmitters alone and that antidepressants are the best(first line) treatment.
Please feel free to share your thoughts, experiences and ideas about antidepressants. We love to hear from you!
Much love and sunshine!
The Swazi Green Butterfly.
“Serotonin Imbalance in Depressed People Does Not Exist: Journal Articles.” SSRI Stories, ssristories.org/serotonin-imbalance-in-depressed-people-does-not-exist-journal-articles/.
Adams, Tim. “John Cacioppo: 'Loneliness Is like an Iceberg – It Goes Deeper than We Can See'.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 28 Feb. 2016, www.theguardian.com/science/2016/feb/28/loneliness-is-like-an-iceberg-john-cacioppo-social-neuroscience-interview.
Negele, Alexa, et al. “Childhood Trauma and Its Relation to Chronic Depression in Adulthood.” Depression Research and Treatment, Hindawi Publishing Corporation, 2015, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4677006/.
Burgo, Joseph. “Good and Bad Reasons to Take an Antidepressant.” After Psychotherapy, 4 May 2013, www.afterpsychotherapy.com/bad-reasons-to-take-an-antidepressant/.
Pearson, David G, and Tony Craig. “The Great Outdoors? Exploring the Mental Health Benefits of Natural Environments.” Frontiers in Psychology, Frontiers Media S.A., 21 Oct. 2014, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4204431/.
Blumenthal, James A., et al. “Opinion And Evidence.” ACSMs Health & Fitness Journal, vol. 16, no. 4, 2012, pp. 14–21., doi:10.1249/01.fit.0000416000.09526.eb.
“Serotonin Imbalance in Depressed People Does Not Exist: Journal Articles.” SSRI Stories, ssristories.org/serotonin-imbalance-in-depressed-people-does-not-exist-journal-articles/.
Goldacre, Ben. “Transcript of ‘What Doctors Don't Know about the Drugs They Prescribe.’” TED, www.ted.com/talks/ben_goldacre_what_doctors_don_t_know_about_the_drugs_they_prescribe/transcript -571661.
Benin, Richard. “Placebo, Antidepressants and Psychiatry .” Youtube, Bruceprattjr, 29 Feb. 2012, https://youtu.be/Zihdr36WVi4.
“The Antidepressant Nation.” Youtube, RT America, 14 July 2012, youtu.be/Sp1FPlLZ81E.
