Another explanation (excuse) for selfish and rude behavior.
I'm most surprised it says 1 in 4 Aussies are depressed. Now, I can see how kiving on the bottom of the world could make you depressed, but it seems like a lot.
I find it interesting they can target a gene for depression. I think my Father was always depressed, and I have struggled with it my whole life. My brother certainly was and he more or less killed himself. I figured it was genetic, but I thought it was a combination of factors, not one "Depression Gene."
For your ping list
Another way to sell pills. Flame suit on, but I believe that depression is a largely made up disease.
This whole study depresses me.
I think there are multiple types of depression. There is a "chemical depression" which appears to be long term and is helped by drugs. There is also a "behavioral depression" whose problems appear to be more psychological than physical and drugs only dull them, not help them.
I've had the chemical depression and been aided by the zoloft/paxil type medicines although I stopped them myself many years ago. I do think some of the people who are put on these drugs and then kill themselves or others were people who were not chemically depressed and the drugs only made their mood worse because they did not see themselves getting better even when drugged.
Treating both depressions the same way is like treating Type I and Type II diabetics the same way. There are similarities, yes, but the way to treat them might be totally different.
I say none of this as a doctor or a scientist. I say it only as a patient who went through hospitalization and therapy twice over my depression and observed many others while there. Medicine helped some but seemingly did nothing for others.
There seems to be an unusually high number of FReepers who claim to be depressed in one fashion or another. Are depressed people more attracted to FR or is it just a manifestation of a greater degree of depression in the cyber world?
As someone who has suffered depression from childhood, I can only hope it is a breakthrough.
I have gone through the therapy stuff, I tried the pills, neither were all that helpful. As I am now going through the process of menopause, I have found that I am having fewer and fewer bouts with the very deep depressions that I would experience. With me, it appears hormones had a lot to do with my depressions, although I still have depressive episodes, just not as severe.
This should work wonders for a great many people. Great news.
Of course it's genetic. Everyone but Mom and me in my family, all depressed and whining about something all the time. She and I were way too polite to express what we were always thinking when we were around anyone else: "What is your flippin' problem??"
And let me tell you, she and I both had some really, really horrible things happen to us. We simply had no long attention span for misery, and why cry when you can play a fiddle, or sing, or play with the cat or read to the kid?
Too bad I can't bottle the so-called ice in my veins. Lot of folks could use it.
This is a troubling article in a less-than-obvious way.
There's something fundamentally flawed with the underlying concept of what constitutes "depression" and "mental illness." In a world of death, suffering, abuse and sin, who is delusional, who is irrational -- those who feel sadness from time to time, or those who have blithe, oblivious happiness and are affected by little or nothing? I ask you, in the face of the realities of the world, are the latter normal? Are they rational?
There's something flawed with labeling 25% of a population as genetically less blessed because they are "less resilient."
There is something fundamentally flawed with the idea that the capacity for feeling hurt is a defect.
The motive, of course, is that of creating market -- the more people labeled as "ill," the more will seek, or be prescribed medication and treatment. But there's something a bit more insidious -- a disempowerment of a large segment of the populace (by saddling with a label of defective or ill) and taking away their "rational" voice (they're mentally ill, you know, so they really aren't to be taken seriously) and making them another entitled victim group.
A society made up exclusively of people who are universally "resilient" would be a coarse and brutal society. Abuse would be tolerated under a "no harm, no foul" mindset. There would be no motive to search out and excise tyranny and evil. Those who are hurt by it would be marginalized as defective because of an "inferior gene," or castigated as "weak" for not being able to take it and bounce back. There would be no one motivated to change things for the better.
Aren't most of the greatest advances and discoveries of science and culture -- and even religion -- achieved by those who are most motivated to make the advances and find the truths? In other words, aren't most advances and truths that lead to the changes discovere by those who are looking because they are unhappy with the way things are in the moment?
This is a bad road, these negative labelings of sensitive, normal people. We need sensitive people, people who feel. If they are removed, by drugs or more extreme treatments, advancement and improvement will decrease and the worst aspects of humanity -- it's latent inhumanity -- will flourish.
"After 25 years' research, scientists have found that people who carry a particular gene are more likely to suffer depression regardless of their life experiences."
Never doubted it. My DH has a mild case of depression. Generic Prozac keeps him steady. His Uncle, Brother and a Nephew also suffer from this. All still going untreated, except for self-medicating with alcohol, of course. Uncle has it the worst, but he still has Vietnam to deal with.
It took us four years of hell and back to find meds that worked well for DH.
I don't have it, but I know my Grandmother on my father's side did. My sister is on Wellbutrin, and I did insist that my Dad take a mild anti-depressant for a few months after my Step-Mom died. Took him to the doctor and put him on Wellbutrin for a while, too. Dad's not truly depressed, but the anti's helped him through where friends and family couldn't.
He thanked me later. He just got back from his Honeymoon with his new wife. Both are 70. Life goes on if you have the tools and information to help you through the rough patches. :)