Biological Depression?

As a society we are making some fantastic improvements in having more freedom to talk about depression. A once taboo topic has now become the subject of podcasts, internet videos, meme-culture, etc. Every Youtuber has at least one episode about his or her battle with depression, which in general should be celebrated. While this is generally a positive change, there do become some issues as we consider the implications and consequences of throwing around the term ‘depression’ so frequently.

One of the biggest issues the average person is having due to the over-saturation of “depression culture” is actually differentiating what is and what isn’t depression. Biologically-oriented depression is notably different than the general idea of “going through a depression”. While both are meaningful and valid, there is an incredible difference in how these things are to be treated and understood.

Those of us with an innate biological condition of depression, a condition that tends to rear its ugly head between the ages of 16-25, the core issues are less relational (though still affect relationships) but rather organic in nature. While talk therapy is helpful for dealing with the personal, social, educational, or occupational components; talk therapy alone cannot reach the core of the problem. Psychotropic medicine will address the true core issues and will maximize the effectiveness of traditional talk therapy.

Though it is hard to discern the difference between the two types of depression I hope this can offer something to help you consider if the depression you are facing is biological or primarily personal in nature.

• If you find it difficult to find a start date to the depression, it could be biological.

• If you cannot imagine a scenario that would free you from your feeling, it could be biological.

• If you have a parent or family member with an actual depression diagnosis, it (really!) could be biological.

• If you find yourself frequently stuck in bed for no reason at all over a long period of time, biologically-oriented depression should be considered.

• If you are finding that talking about it is not really helping at all, it could be biological.

• If you find yourself making no headway in personal counseling, it could be biological.

None of these are guarantees of biological depression of course but rather are correlates. The more you check off the list the higher your chances. But you don’t have to have all of them in order to have a biological depression diagnosis.

If you do find that this resonates with you, consider either meeting with your doctor or potentially a psychiatrist. There are different reasons to choose either type of professional but that will have to be another blog post.

Before blaming the parents...

If you keep an eye on the social media of working adults, you’ll undoubtably find many an article that relates to how parents are letting their kids down by not preparing them enough for the real world. These articles might be about the decline in quality of academic institutions as students are treated more like fragile puppies than adults or the article might be about how parents are attending their children’s job interviews, but these articles are all pointing to the same general issue. The issue is parents are giving their kids Peter Pan Syndrome and thus the parents are failing both their children as well as society. So we are to point the finger of shame at them and reprimand them for their selfish failure. But we never stop to ask if there is a good reason for why they’re doing this.

There are some hard truths here that seems to be either lost in translation or simply overlooked. But after spending time with these parents who are deemed social failures and responsible for so many future societal woes, I’d like to offer some tea and sympathy. Here’s what I mean:

Parents are not doing this because they’re disconnected from the real world; parents are doing this because they’ve seen their son/daughter taken advantage of.

Parents have seen their child overlooked, beat up, picked on, treated less than, or hurt and justice was not served. Parents have seen their children miss out on opportunities because of things like cronyism or systemic disadvantage - problems no fault of their child. The parent knows the feeling of powerlessness and unfairness that both they and their children have faced. If they have the power to make things right or to call out unprompted favoritism, why shouldn’t they do what is in their power to help?

Parents know that the pressure for their child to succeed has never been so heavy.

This idea is nothing new but the degree and strength of it is socially unfamiliar. The expectations on a human being to have their personal, academic, relational, financial, social, occupational, romantic, and psychological life on point is like nothing we’ve ever seen before. And let us not forget that not only do these have to be achieved but we also must maintain all these things constantly. The level of difficulty is so absurdly challenging that it should leave us as a society speechless. No mere human being could be expected to hold all this - only a machine could do that.

Parents know that adulthood turns people into powerplants

Most people remember their childhood fondly. It was filled with a mysterious beauty and adoration that becomes difficult to find once in adulthood. Childhood is the hot bed of beautiful memories and joy at the simplest things. Adulthood is often filled with business, busyness, hustle, bustle, anguish, frustration, powerlessness, depression, and slow decay. Adulthood is smothering and our socio-political system has reinforced that adulthood is little more than a production-assembly line. For many adults it feels like their worth/value is tied directly to their production and this should be viewed with a great sadness and despair.

There is little room for enjoyment for adults; there is only room for productivity. We work, we fight, we work, we fight, we work, we fight we work…… And what parent would want their child to have to face this sooner than they have to? What parent would want their child to lose their love of life so swiftly and cruelly?

I can cast no stones at these parents who seem to over-protect. They want their child to live a life of joy and happiness and security because they know that adulthood values so little of this for them.

Fighting Anxiety Starts with Knowing Who We Are

There is a lot of things that people tell you when you tell them that you suffer from anxiety. They will offer tips to manage anxiety or maybe if you are lucky they will give you an “I’m sorry” response. But it seems like no one ever talks about the legitimacy of anxiety. This is to say: to be human is be anxious - at least about some things some of the time.

There is something good in us that pronounces anxiety to be felt emotionally. It is typically there to connect us to the moment and to help us feel alive (sometimes a sign that what we are doing is worth doing). Anxiety lets us know that our work and actions have significance and value. Anxiety reminds us that we are meaningful and important, even if we feel otherwise. When anxiety is felt without this existential backdrop, this is when deeper problems with anxiety occur. So I want to offer a few quick starting points for understanding you and your own anxiety.

- When anxiety is not present or at least not strong, spend some time doing some self-reflection. How do you feel about yourself when you are not being mischaracterized by anxiety? Are you a more lovable person when you are not anxious? Do your feelings matter less or more when anxiety is not present? Ask yourself: what if I actually am just as lovable and valuable with anxiety as I am without anxiety.

- What do you reach out to when anxiety strikes? What core beliefs about yourself do you cling to when you are having an anxiety attack?

- What thoughts tend to be present exclusively when you are fighting anxiety? Are these thoughts true or just conditionally true?

- What do those that are close to you think about your anxiety and the messages it tells you? Do they see a truth that is different? Could their viewpoint actually be correct?

Understanding and fighting our anxiety begins with how we see ourselves. To fight anxiety is to fight a negatively-bent, jaded perspective. If you fight this alone, this perspective wins out and the only way to move forward is to let others in and to believe their words.