Posted by CarolAnn on November 29, 1999, at 9:39:31
In reply to Letters from the lunatic fringe ... (long post!), posted by Bob on November 28, 1999, at 19:47:22
If I followed Bob correctly, he was basically saying that depression can be both biologically inherent *and* have a specific cause. I have to agree. As far as my biology: My father's whole family are alcoholics(in denial), and actually my grandmother(dad's mom) had(before dying) a history of depression including undergoing Electro-shock treatments! Most of my mother's family are drug addicts(also in denial). With these genetics is it any wonder that I would be predisposed to depression as well as substance abuse(although my "substance" of choice has always been food)??
Anyway, none of this was helped by being raised by a verbally abusive mother and an emotionally passive father. Now, according to some Doctors I should be cured of my depression after undergoing two years of talk therapy and totally resolving all my childhood "issues". Yet, here I am seven yrs. later and not only still suffering depression, but getting worse do to the difficulty of finding effective medication for my particular case. My bottom-line belief is that some people are born with a depression gene which gets "activated" by any number of causes: dysfunctional family, specific event(causing grief), traumatic experience, ect. There are probably some(very few,I would think) people who have the depression gene, but either never have anything happen to activate it or have the gene activated for no apparent reason. Regardless, depression must be treated a a true medical condition and not some kind of mental funk that will go away if we just ,"snap out of it!". CarolAnn
poster:CarolAnn
thread:15754
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19991123/msgs/15916.html