 |
 |
hi all i believe that in the majority of cases clinical depression [cd] IS considered curable aka 'reversible' aka 'fixable' however, there are many different potential causes and combinations thereof and many individual responses to medications and therapies so there are many different modes of dealing with it [sound familiar?] the way my first psychiatrist explained it to me was: an incident of extreme stress, e.g. sudden death of a loved one, or even a long unrelieved period of 'regular' stress can cause injury or 'insult' to the brain's function much the same as a physical injury: stress is a killer and manifests itself in many disguises but the result is pretty predictable: it can cause the 'three tenors' of our emotional management neurotransmitter chorus to start singing more and more off key as the chemical imbalance worsens sometimes, with time, the brain chemistry can eventually reverse the 'insult' on its own the definitive marker between a period of natural sadness or grief and the recognition of clinical depression is usually stated in terms of time [the gloom lasts months rather than days or weeks] as well as in terms of manifestion of the classic cd symptoms but more often, medication can be used as a 'kick-starter' to stop the downward spiral of negative thinking and thus enable other therapies in the reversal of the chemistry back to normal in cases like this, it is not necessary to continue medication [in some studies cognitive therapy has been shown to be more effective than medication in dealing a death blow to cd] if someone suffers a Major Depressive Incident they are more likely than the general population to suffer another one but that does not mean that the disease is 'in remission' and always lurking in the background waiting to attack however, there are individuals who may be more susceptible to cd as an ongoing chronic condition through heredity or disease [see my earlier re-post of cd defined] in these individuals, medication, i.e. restoration of the chemical imbalance, may be advised/required on an ongoing basis part of the background to this false idea of 'incurability' may be due to chronic undertreatment even for those who have been correctly diagnosed it is my impression that there are lots of us walking around with one foot caught in the cd slime bucket and functioning at only part of our potential but for all intents and purposes still 'functioning' there are several news articles about all of this on my website just do a search on 'clinical depression' knowledge replaces fear with strength janet who takes prozac for her mood disorder and levodopa for her movement disorder and by gum, is almost normal! janet paterson 53 now / 44 dx cd / 43 onset cd / 41 dx pd / 37 onset pd tel: 613 256 8340 url: "http://www.geocities.com/janet313/" email: "[log in to unmask]" smail: PO Box 171 Almonte Ontario K0A 1A0 Canada