Survivor thoughts on Depression

Survivor of severe depression, multiple ADs, multiple ECT and outpatient and inpatient psych services. Retired medical nurse practitioner and teacher.

The term "Depression". It's not "an illness", i.e. one thing

It's an umbrella word for a whole range of signs and symptoms, some which have been or are regarded as normal in different times and cultures.

It is not an illness in the sense that, say, diabetes is. There are biological tests that identify diabetes and there is a testable theory describing exactly how it happens.

This is not the case in "depression". There are no generally agreed biological tests or biological descriptions of how it happens .

At best it is a "diagnosis of exclusion". Having excluded known causes of some of the cluster of symptoms we are left with a collection of signs and symptoms which doctors have categorised in various ways over time

For instance, in the USA presently, psychiatrists vote on the latest versions.

So, though many individual psychiatrists are well meaning, as a profession, at present without specific tests and an agreed biological explanation, they present as medical doctors, cloaked in the authority that this bestows.

However, the emperor, at best, is only wearing a thong.

i will expand on the consequences of this if there is any response 😀

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