Posted by Marie1 on August 27, 2001, at 7:40:15
In reply to Re: Abuse of Prescription Medication, posted by Pennie Lane on August 26, 2001, at 13:49:17
Pennie Lane,
Thank you. All of this is very interesting to me. As the mother of two daughters, it's important to me to grasp what I can about my illness, as the genetic predisposition is obviously quite strong in my family. My brother's suidice shocked us all deeply (even myself; I hadn't "been there, done that" yet). My remaining siblings (there were seven of us originally) don't seem to have inherited mentall illness, at least on the surface. But one sister is a former heroin addict and another brother just recently died from complications of obesity, which he has had all his life. I always wondered about that too. What was it about my brother that he turned to food as a coping mechanism? Why didn't I? How much control did he have over his body? That his life was made miserable by his physical condition is undeniable; how fucking unfair if he really had no recourse.
I have also wondered just why so many people (it seems) have developed depression during the 20th century. I know it was around before then, but these days it seems to be epidemic. I think this may be in part due to: 1. the relatively sedentary life style of people in this computer and labor-saving machinery age. We all know that consistent exercise contributes to healthy brains, but it's difficult to get exercise while going about the business of living, unless it's a scheduled activity; and 2. (and I even hesitate to post this) spirituality. Many of us, disturbed by the hypocrisy and self serving of many organized religions, have abandoned spirituality all together.
Okay, enough of my rambling, I'm off to work while the kids are enjoying (! :-)) their first day at school. Yeah!!!Marie
> For all my profundity and rambling, I probably didn’t answer your question about, “if this is what you meant when you said ‘how the norms they excepted effected their development, and what alternatives might have produced different results.’"
>
> Yes, that is essentially what I meant. Even if depression usually or sometimes involves a genetic bio-chemical factor, or a socially influenced bio-chemical factor, it remains to be answered whether that factor would produce depression in all circumstances. A person might be predisposed by birth or experience to a behavioral trait that would be acceptable in other cultural surroundings, but which is unacceptable and leads to depression in a particular culture. The depression could be a secondary expression. Depression has often been found to be a secondary symptom of another undiagnosed unperceptual impairment. The ease of identifying a common secondary symptom - depression - might interfere with more difficult efforts to identify a wide variety of unique primary factors that contribute to depression.
>
> In another culture, the required physical activity (which tends to produce serotonin) or the social environment might not aggravate a depressive trait the same way our culture does. A comparison would be diabetes – some people never develop diabetes on a traditional indigenous diet, but are more genetically inclined than others to develop diabetes when they switch to a diet high in carbohydrates and starches. The inherent dopamine needs of individuals whose genetic history included a culture dependant on foods rich in dopamine precursors might incline them to reward deficit symptoms when they change diets – they might be predisposed to alcoholism (or to abuse of prescription meds) as a way of tweaking their dopamine activity.
>
> I’m not saying I think depression is primarily genetic or situational in origin across the board. And I’m not saying meds or psychological therapy are the best treatment for symptoms of either origin. What I am saying is things are not as simple as they seem, and any combination of therapy, social activity, professionally directed medication or self-medication might prove helpful for any given individual’s unique set of symptoms and circumstances.
poster:Marie1
thread:75755
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010822/msgs/76562.html