re: Scientists find no evidence of depression being caused by "chemical imbalances" in brain

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I post this all the time...Pills do not give us the emotional skills to handle the daily knocks of life. It is possible to learn these skills, the lack of which are the root cause of most depression and anxiety issues.

I'm a pharmacist and I have believed for many years these medications don't significantly help the majority who take them. They have unacceptable side effects for many people, who often end up treating the side effects with other drugs, because SSRIs are difficult to stop taking. Many other drugs are serotonergic and the additive effects are too often overlooked.

For example, someone taking escitalopram hurts their back and gets prescribed meloxicam + tramadol, then gets a migraine and takes sumatriptan. That's four extremely common serotonergic drugs. People on SSRIs who take other common meds are often walking around with mild serotonin syndrome which manifests as increased heart rate, anxiety, confusion, insomnia.

Before you know it, a benzo is prescribed for the panic attacks, amphetamines for the confusion, and a hypnotic to numb the insomnia is added.

Prescribers just don't have time to address why people are really depressed...overweight, abuse, stress, being unproductive, alcoholism, etc.

This book teaches self awareness and emotional skills; that's what truly cures depression.

That's all real nice, but my wife was dangerously depressed for years. She tried every therapy under the sun and absolutely nothing helped until she got on the right med combination. Telling somebody who struggles with getting out of bed or cooking a meal to exercise or destress is a bad joke.

Fun fact:. My wife tried Abilify the first time and it didn't help. After trying and failing with several other meds they came around to it again. This time her doc got the crazy idea to try a lower dose and it worked. Sometimes it's more art than science.

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She exercised, dieted, slept 8 hours a night on the same rhythm, got sufficient sunlight, practiced deliberate gratitude?

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If you're seriously depressed your sleep patterns are almost certainly disrupted. You're not going to get good sleep. It's a circular argument. Yes to the other questions, as far as possible. Again, depression affects all that, as well as relationships, which is a big one. It's hard to be friends with a depressed person so they drift away and you become more isolated.

There's a difference between organic depression and having the blues, a midlife crisis or being down because you lost your job, although any of those things may contribute to or kickstart an existing depressive state.

Real depression is a medical condition that requires medical treatment. You wouldn't tell a cancer patient to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

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Next up in my opinion is the Statin/Cholesterol industry.

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Now that one truly is a crock of shite.

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Gaggle

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That's the typical story for most Ritalin and Adderall prescriptions

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Most of the stuff in your post regarding the typical adderall patient isn't the case at my pharmacy. There are more male than females on adderall, and almost none of them are obese and sedentary

The amount of people on all this medicine is depressing.

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Eta: But wellbutrin sure enough works for stopping nicotine. There are some uses for them.

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Many stop without any medication at all. Doubtful they have some superhuman power that others don't.