Posted by morgan miller on September 7, 2010, at 13:26:34
In reply to biology vs psychology » SLS, posted by emmanuel98 on September 6, 2010, at 19:55:35
> I'm on the fence here. I had a terrible childhood/adolescence and had mood disorders all my life -- mostly severe mood swings lasting hours or days. But it wasn't until I was 50 that I experienced severe depression -- virtually comatose, sucidal, unable to do simple things like shower or wash the dishes for two months until I went into a hospital and was started on parnate. This I think was biological. Maybe my background made me more sucseptible and gave the depression themes and forms, but I truly feel like it was out of my physical control and that physical activities I had used to deal with moodiness had no effect at all on this depression. I think there's a biochemical piece to severe mood disorders which is independent of psychological histories.
>
> This is similar, imho, to drug and alcohol addiction. For me, drug and alcohol addiction were very much associated with loneliness and emotional distress. But in AA, I have met people who have had perfect childhoods and loving parents who nevertheless became out of control addicts and alcoholics.Emmanuel98, do you think it is possible the depression and sadness was always lurking deep beneath the surface, basically underlying depression that you could not necessarily feel, and then at some point this inner sadness/depression came out and took hold in a way it never had before?
>But in AA, I have met people who have had perfect childhoods and loving parents who nevertheless became out of control addicts and alcoholics.
I hate to sound cynical here but there are many many people that claim to have had a perfect childhood and loving parents that had far from that. We have to consider what and how people define things. To them, it may have appeared to be and felt like a perfect childhood. To them, their parents may seemed to be the most loving parents they could have ever asked for. Don't get me wrong, I think AA is great, but there are so many people that go there and distract themselves with love from God and never really take the time to dissect and analyze their childhood and face the demons that may have drove them to addiction in the first place. There is a reason why denial is THE most powerful coping mechanism the human race has in it's arsenal. Can you really trust the word of someone who masked their pain and escaped reality through alcohol and drugs? Again, not trying to be cynical, just realistic. Most people idolize their parents, defending them and putting them up on a pedestal, saying they were great when in reality they really were not. Many do not realize what it truly takes to be a great parent. What many think is great is really sub par.
poster:morgan miller
thread:960391
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100829/msgs/961578.html