Posted by forth meg on June 6, 2000, at 1:21:29
In reply to chicken or egg, posted by Hermit on June 3, 2000, at 22:10:24
The ultimate question -
What's caused by our brain vs. what's caused by our mind?
There's no easy answer.
The terms "endogenous," "chemical," "biological" when applied to depression are really fairly meaningless.
Truth is:
1. Life Events and Stresses can trigger a clinical depression that's indistinguishable from depressions which are purely "endogenous" and can be treated the same way. That's why the distinction between "endogenous" and "reactive" depression is now largely obsolete.
2. When you're depressed you tend to magnify negative events (so you think the depression is "caused" by an event, when in fact depression depression is "causing" you to feel much worse about it than you otherwise would)
3. Depression causes depressogenic behaviors. It leads to vicious cycles (oversleeping, overeating, avoidance, procrastination, withdrawal) that make depression worse.
So it really IS the chicken and the egg - it's very hard to know what's "chemical" and what's "environmental."And maybe it doesn't matter.
> I haven't read this entire message board, so perhaps this topic has already been broached, but I'm wondering whether the depression I suffer is chemical or behavioral. How can you tell the difference? I know that certain unfortunate experiences in my past have exacerbated the depression, but I also know that I sometimes find justifications for feeling low that, when I think it over later, don't seem sufficient reason for, for example, fantasizing about suicide, etc. All I know is that the doctor at my school was pretty adamant about giving me Celexa after I'd taken an absurdly short questionnier (sp?) that revealed I often am self-critical, tired, all the usual symptoms.
>
> I have been taking Celexa for about two days now, after already wanting to sleep all the time.
poster:forth meg
thread:20862
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000603/msgs/36241.html