Jezebel 
Enter your username and password.
New York, 3:13 PM
Mon Nov 9
40 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
tips@jezebel.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Anna Holmes
Email | Twitter
Deputy Editor:
Dodai Stewart
Email | Twitter
Senior Contributing Editor:
Tracie Egan
Email | Twitter
Contributing Editors:
Anna North
Email | Twitter
Sadie Stein
Email | Twitter
Reporter:
Irin Carmon
Email
Editorial Assistant:
Margaret Hartmann
Email | Twitter
Contributors:
Jenna Sauers
Email
Rich Juzwiak
Email | Twitter
Lizzie Skurnick
Email
Interns:
Katy Kelleher
Twitter
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
11/03/09
Emphasis added by yours truly, because that "in response to stress" is key here. It's logical to be depressed in response to stress. I don't think anyone wants to get rid of our capacity to feel depressed, period. But people with clinical depression experience these feelings in the absence of explanatory stimuli. That's when the receptor becomes a problem. So you use drugs to counteract a malfunction (e.g., serotonin reuptake) in another area of the brain.
11/03/09
Our environment (which is largely made up of human-created technology at this point) has changed much faster than our brains. #depression
11/03/09
11/03/09
11/03/09
11/04/09
11/03/09
11/03/09
While evolution is a wonderful thing, I am beginning to wonder if the field of psychology should start staying far far away from it (speaking as a psych student myself). #depression
11/04/09
11/03/09
11/03/09
11/03/09
But to infer from that conclusion that depression in general is an "adaptive" and therefore helpful condition is to ignore its numerous and harmful long-term effects. And in my past experience, depression rarely occurs by itself; it's often accompanied by (or triggered by) another condition. Plus, when people are diagnosed with depression, a good doctor won't immediately reach for the strongest med out there; they'll start you off on something small (like Wellbutrin, for example) and see how you respond.
And I'm disturbed by the narrow definition the authors have of depression, as if the alternative is, as they say, a "perpetual state of unwary bliss." Rather, I've always understood and experienced depression as a lack of feeling at all; nothing gets through, whether happy or sad. When I went on antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds, all it did was turn down the white noise in my head to let me concentrate on making even basic decisions. #depression
11/03/09
I can understand how mild depression CAN serve a purpose. But the negative symptoms far outweigh the ''positives'' for most patients, and I hope that the general public does not begin to think of what is a true mental disorder, Clinical Depression, just something that sufferers need to ''deal with'' and feel lucky that they have, because it's just in NATURE. That can be a dangerous notion to spread around.
For me, clinical depression hasn't been a particularly positive experience, besides my own personal growth, and how I've become a much stronger person mentally by learning about myself through my struggles. The complete lack of motivation, helplessness, melancholy, self-worthlessness, sleeplessness, loneliness, weight-loss, feeling nothingness, I felt when I have had worse episodes could not have been healthy for me as an individual.
If I continued to feel that same way to this day, I wouldn't be in college, and looking ahead to the future. I'm thankful I have gained back motivation, because I need it in order to go towards the rest of my life. Do I have periods when I feel worse than others? Absolutely. But I have educated myself to know that is a result of the events around me, my environment, and my brain, and I'm able to be easier on myself to get through it. Depression still needs to be taken very seriously. #depression
11/03/09
For most of human history, daily living was a struggle. People had to constantly deal with finding food. If you are clinically depressed, there is a good chance you will not be able to do this and will end up dead.
The structural ability to be depressed as a species can have evolutionary benefits without depression actually being beneficial. #depression
11/03/09
11/03/09
11/03/09
I find that's more a problem with the way scientists' findings are reported in the media, rather than with the research papers themselves.
"The structural ability to be depressed as a species can have evolutionary benefits without depression actually being beneficial."
I'd put money on this being the point that the researchers were actually making in their original paper. Somehow that kind of analysis often gets lost on the way from the academic journal to the newspaper science pages. #depression
11/03/09
11/03/09
11/03/09
11/03/09
It may be true that a little depression is a brain-building, and this evolutionarily progressive in the long run, but that won't make the depression patient (e.g. yours truly) feel any less like a rat from day-to-day. #depression
11/03/09
11/03/09
If such a thing hasn't been tested, I'd like to volunteer myself for research. Maybe twice.
--
There are SO many variables in depression, clinical and otherwise, I wonder if we'll ever figure out how to treat it properly. Diet, love life, work stress, not enough exercise, blah, blah, blah...
We're delicate creatures.
I would be curious to see how two people, with similar stress/depression/lifestyles, respond to drugs vs. exercise. I was bummed the fuck out earlier this year, like really bad. Since I started exercising daily, I feel like a much different person. Getting compliments on losing weight doesn't hurt either.
Sorry. Rambling. #depression
11/03/09
The whole, "Get up and exercise" mentality is somewhat hurtful, because it implies that it's all in your head, and that medications aren't helpful. #depression
11/03/09
11/03/09
11/03/09
11/03/09
now, if i felt like that all the time and never came out of it i doubt anything but therapy and meds would help in conjunction with the other stuff the helps us when we're natuarlly depressed. #depression
11/03/09
11/03/09
11/03/09
11/03/09
I have a very visceral reaction to people who tell me that I just need to exercise more and I'll feel better because in my experience, they have no idea what they are talking about.
11/03/09
I'm lucky enough not to suffer from any clinical depression, but I know that exercise when I'm stressed can make the difference between me biting someone's head off for breathing too loudly, and having a calm day. It's the last thing I feel like doing at those times, but by the end it's helped a bunch.
Unfortunately I imagine with clinical depression while it might help some, it probably does so much less on a relative level since there's so much further that the mood needs to be elevated to get to "normal", if that makes sense. #depression
11/03/09
11/03/09
11/03/09
11/04/09
11/03/09
Also, Sharon Begley is a hack. #depression
11/03/09
@mbprice: #depression
11/03/09
09/22/09
09/22/09
09/22/09
09/22/09
09/22/09
In that same ABC article, it is stated that 40% of half the unplanned pregnancies in America are terminated through abortion. Most of these women are over 30 and are also mothers. These are the people about whom the debate (if you agree that there should be a debate at all) should focus -- not Vilar, who likely stands alone in the number of abortions she's had.
On a side note, is anyone else curious why she wrote this book, knowing fully well that she and her children are now going to be targets?
09/22/09
09/22/09
09/22/09
09/22/09