Pinkcuda

This is from another board and another discussion I was having. I thought I would pass it on.



Lets take Depression for instance. Lets look at a PET scan of a depressed person and healthy person


On the left you will see a healthy person, on the right is a person suffering from depression.

The highlighted red spot is where active nuerotransmitters are firing. If you see on the left side a very strong band of red in the pons and frontal lobe. The right side is much more sporadic and spread out. This is due to less nuerotransmitters firing. It literally means it "slows" down their thinking thus affecting their mood.

Ok how do you fix it? Here pinkCuda and I agree. Therapy does work! People who suffer from mild to moderate forms of depression respond to therapy as well as medications! Yet in the worst of the worst cases such as in the case above, it doesn't work. This is where medications are needed.

A good analogy of medicaitons is Antidepressants are like a really good set of spark plug wires. They overcome the loss or lack of nuerotransmitters and allows people get a adequate dose of nuerotransmitters to function. I think in this case its needed.

nandm

Interesting. Thank you for the post. I would like to see the study results that state that therapy works as well for depression as do medications. I do think that it is probably true in most cases of mild to moderate depression that it can be helped with the use of therapy. I do believe though that there are many cases of depression that therapy alone will not effectively treat, probably falls into the class of severe depression. I do also believe that a period of anti depressant medication combined with therapy is effectively covering all the bases. As if the depression if a type that can be treated with therapy the short term antidepressant therapy can allow the person to be stable enough to pick up the skills that therapy can provide thus allowing the person to be able to eventually quit the medication.

Personally I have a depression that is chemical. I am sure if a scan was done on my brain it would look very much like the one in your pictures. I can tell the difference between situational depression and the chemical depression. The situation depression I have been able to treat by utilizing the steps of AA. But the chemical depression the kind that when not being treated with medication, tells me as the first thought in my head when I wake up "put a gun to your head" while the logical side of my brain is screaming "Why! There is no reason to, life is fine." That is the kind of depression that I have to treat with antidepressants. It is insanity for me not to as it boils down to Russian Roulette on a daily basis if I don't.

That is why I will not discourage the use of antidepressants to anyone as I do not live in their head and I am not qualified to determine the depth or type of their depression.

StayinAlive

Cool pictures.
Even situational depression causes chemical changes. With a life time of situations you can be messed up chemically even when all is well like you say. If that makes any sense. I am learning to fight my depression but only meds has helped me to get to that point. I am happy to say that after 10 years of anti depressants i am only on a low dose of mood stabilizer now.

CarolD

My long term depression is why I began AA recovery.

Fortunantly, mine was situational depression
It started to lift quickly ...by 3 months sober
it vanished. It's never returned.

You need a medical diagnosis to determine what type
of depression is present. Sometimes meds are required.

However...from my experience and observations...
alcohol never is a long term solution to depression.