Depression, Brutus Right or Wrong?
03 Jan 2004
In 2004, how much depression will be due to the perilous times in which we live? How much due to genetics? A reader recently asked this interesting question.
Julius Caesar once counseled Brutus that "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves." Others would argue that today’s complex environment triggers increased depression in society. Who is right?
Since 9-11 the world is threatened with the constant fear of another major terrorist attack. Add to this the possibility of another SARS outbreak, Mad Cow Disease and the fast pace of our society .It’s hardly conducive to relaxed living. So the argument is valid that some depression today is the result of all these tensions.
But there’s a colossal difference between "situational depression" and bone-fide mental illness. A failed marriage, the tragic death of a loved one or even the dog is one thing. In these cases time is the great healer. Deciding to jump off the bridge is another matter. The first is like being hit by a toddler’s bicycle compared to being struck by a 10 ton Mack truck.
I believe Shakespeare was right when he wrote, "Such as we are made of such we be," that our genes shape our destiny and that they usually win.
Ernest Hemingway, the adventure-seeking author, sought out danger time and again during his lifetime. But in the end he could not avoid pulling the trigger to end his own life. His father, brother, son and grand daughter also took their own lives.
Alfred Lord Tennyson suffered from depression. So did his grandfather, father, five brothers and his two sisters.
People accept the obvious fact that genes determine our physical characteristics. Consider the awards won by offspring of the great racehorse, Northern Dancer. Or that the hockey star Brett Hull is the son of Bobbie Hull. And Rothchilds have for generations produced financial wizards. So if genes can pass along speed, athletic skills and banking super stars, even beauty why question that genes also pass along severe depression?
We know that identical twins are more than twice as likely to develop severe depression than non-identical twins. Moreover, even if they’re adopted separately in the first weeks of life they remain at greater risk.
Raymond De Paulo, Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, reports that families with a gene on chromosome 18 are a greater risk of manic depression on the father’s side.
In 1970 Swedish researchers discovered that the brains of suicide victims have lower levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that improves psyche. The more research that’s done the more we learn that what we inherit shapes our mental outlook on life.
What I find appalling today is the defeatism of those suffering from situational depression. Those who reach for Prozac, Valium , sleeping pills or other medication at the drop of a hat . No one would argue that 9-11 was not a horrendous day. But it’s alarming that the number of people needing tranquillizers and other pacifiers jumped 35 per cent in the US following this attack.
The US is unquestionably the world’s military super power. But one can also claim it’s a nation of wimps when so many reach for billions of pills to soothe their nerves. I doubt that Osama Bin Laden, even if he’s hiding in a cave, is reaching for Prozac.
Pillitis has become an insidious cancer in our society and the Osama Bin Ladens of the world are going to do us in if we don’t toughen up. If a partner runs off with the local preacher let time heal the wound, not Prozac, or other mind numbing medication. Let’s reserve the term depression for severe mental problems.
What we need today is to make certain better care and improved medication is available for those with major mental illness. They deserve better treatment from society.
The rest of us should remember the world once existed without tranquillers and soothers to blot out every discomfort.
For most cases of "the blues" Thomas Sydenham was right. "The arrival in town of a good clown does more for the health of people than 20 asses laden with pills." Amen to that.
