Linkage

[oyceter]

I've mostly been too busy with school to keep up with the news, particularly what's going on financially right now (main reaction: AIIIEEEEEEEEE!). So here, have some links:

• I got to see rilina, laurashapiro, and cofax7 over the weekend, and I sicced the Korean movie Le Grande Chef on everyone. The movie's based on the same manhwa that the kdrama Gourmet is based on, although Gourmet is much, much better. Also, less cow death! But for $3 at Blockbuster in Taiwan, I feel it provided a great deal of entertainment value. And cow-related trauma.
  
  • rilina's write up
  
  
  • laurashapiro's write up
  
  
  • rachelmanija's write up



• Redefining Depressing as Mere Sadness - I read the title of this, rolled my eyes, and groaned. But the article is actually a debunking of the myth of depression as "mere" sadness, and the practitioner/author is more worried about the undertreatment of clinical depression.



• The Bipolar Puzzle - Haven't finished reading this, and so far, the POV skews toward "OMG bipolar children are overdrugged and overdiagnosed!" despite the severity of the first case study. It seems to mostly concentrate on pediatric bipolar.

Comments

"Mere Sadness" ...

[chomiji]

I'm glad the author was arguing against this dangerous, foolish idea. Now, I'm merely a pushy patient who asks lots of questions and has a good doctor who will answer them - I'm not a medical practitioner. But here's my $0.02.

Even back when I was first treated for depression (1976-1977*), doctors considered that there was a difference between exogenous depression (brought on by outside events) and endogenous depression (brought on by brain chemistry). However, both were considered depression.

Just because it's "normal" to experience depressive symptoms after a serious life event doesn't mean that someone should be left alone to suffer symptoms that affect her or his life severely. Plus, untreated depressive symptoms can cascade into full-fledged major depression with serious brain chemistry problems, or even bipolar depression, depending on what the patient's brain chemistry was like beforehand.

Modern short-term treatments such as cognitive therapy take into account the fact that the patient may only need a helping hand for a little while, to get over the acute initial stages of dealing with a traumatically sad event. A diagnosis of depression doesn't mean that someone's being carted off to a mental hospital or drugged to the gills ... .

*Eeeek! 31 years ago!

Re: "Mere Sadness" ...

[oyceter]

YES. And also, one of the things I hate about the "mere sadness" argument is that it assumes that the depressed people and the doctors aren't asking that question already, and assuming that people just leap at the chance to get antidepressants. Because paying for prescriptions and dealing with side effects is so much fun!

Also also, very yes to how complicated it is and how "normal" sadness can turn into depression or the two can affect each other and etc. Sigh. I hope more people read this article instead of all the ones going on and on about how we are all popping Prozac and turning into happy clones or something dumb like that.