I have been depressed a significant fraction of my adult life. I am also a biologist who abhors the medical description of this problem. I don't even like the word 'mental illness'. This shit is not an illness, its a normal response to a fucked up life! Can I get at least some acknowledgment of this fact?
The sine qua non for me was an issue of Nature a few years back that focused on depression, talked about how prevalent it is, how it is a 'drain on productivity', etc. Included therein was a graph of the worst affected populations, topping the list was Afghanistan. This passed without comment. How about: 'hey, the cause of depression seems to be human misery, like war, unemployment, alienation, etc.'
But you can't sell a fucking pill to cure war and alienation, so ...
The sine qua non for me was an issue of Nature a few years back that focused on depression, talked about how prevalent it is, how it is a 'drain on productivity', etc. Included therein was a graph of the worst affected populations, topping the list was Afghanistan. This passed without comment. How about: 'hey, the cause of depression seems to be human misery, like war, unemployment, alienation, etc.'
But you can't sell a fucking pill to cure war and alienation, so ...