I do find it "interesting" (but mostly just unfortunate) that the "chemical imbalance" model alone has been so widely accepted by society, when it comes to depression and anxiety, in recent decades (look up "the grief exception", if you want to see how dubious all of that is)...
Yet we don't apply that same "logic" to personality disorders such as narcissism? We accept that narcissism and other personality disorders (BPD, in particular) have roots, largely, in early childhood experiences, yet we cannot seem to accept, as a society, that maybe that applies to a lot of other "disorders", too...
I know that my brain is fucked. I know that. But I also know that if there had been maybe a bit less trauma, in my life, over time, I could at least have managed it. Without those "traumatic life events", or even with, I dunno, maybe half of the shit that has happened to me, I honestly think I might have been OK...
But unfortunately that isn't how life has worked, at least, for me...
Same goes for pretty much every depressed person I've ever met, in person.
I know there are supposed "exceptions", like celebrities who outwardly appeared to "have it all", and yet couldn't cope anyway. But the fact is, we just don't know. We don't know what people have gone through, and we don't know what trauma, or shitty memories and regrets, that they may have... Succumbed to.
Frankly, I just wish we... Didn't assume that drugs will "fix" people. Because they don't, and they won't. It might "neuter" them, as this study attests to. But it won't "fix" anything. Only a change in life circumstances can do that. Only somehow finding a way to forgive yourself can do that. And even then, it might not be enough. Drugs? As pointed out by others, drugs are more of a "mask" or a "pain block" - they won't take any of that away.
It was always and ever thus.
I'm told "at least we admit mental illnesses are real, nowadays!"
Sure. That's a start. But until we admit that experiencing a lot of bad shit will fuck most people up, and that feeling like shit is a reasonably "expected" response to that bad shit? Well, I guess we're just gonna keep medicating people, and pretend that a neutered, drug-dependent zombie is somehow better than someone who simply cannot cope.
I do find it "interesting" (but mostly just unfortunate) that the "chemical imbalance" model alone has been so widely accepted by society, when it comes to depression and anxiety, in recent decades (look up "the grief exception", if you want to see how dubious all of that is)...
Yet we don't apply that same "logic" to personality disorders such as narcissism? We accept that narcissism and other personality disorders (BPD, in particular) have roots, largely, in early childhood experiences, yet we cannot seem to accept, as a society, that maybe that applies to a lot of other "disorders", too...
I know that my brain is fucked. I know that. But I also know that if there had been maybe a bit less trauma, in my life, over time, I could at least have managed it. Without those "traumatic life events", or even with, I dunno, maybe half of the shit that has happened to me, I honestly think I might have been OK... But unfortunately that isn't how life has worked, at least, for me...
Same goes for pretty much every depressed person I've ever met, in person.
I know there are supposed "exceptions", like celebrities who outwardly appeared to "have it all", and yet couldn't cope anyway. But the fact is, we just don't know. We don't know what people have gone through, and we don't know what trauma, or shitty memories and regrets, that they may have... Succumbed to.
Frankly, I just wish we... Didn't assume that drugs will "fix" people. Because they don't, and they won't. It might "neuter" them, as this study attests to. But it won't "fix" anything. Only a change in life circumstances can do that. Only somehow finding a way to forgive yourself can do that. And even then, it might not be enough. Drugs? As pointed out by others, drugs are more of a "mask" or a "pain block" - they won't take any of that away.
It was always and ever thus.
I'm told "at least we admit mental illnesses are real, nowadays!"
Sure. That's a start. But until we admit that experiencing a lot of bad shit will fuck most people up, and that feeling like shit is a reasonably "expected" response to that bad shit? Well, I guess we're just gonna keep medicating people, and pretend that a neutered, drug-dependent zombie is somehow better than someone who simply cannot cope.
Rant out.