h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm sorry, but no amount of positive thought, diet, or well wishes can cure severe clinical depression. And I have come to understand that serotonin reception enablers are no more a drug than Vitamin D which allows the body to benefit from sunshine. Misdiagnosis, wrong dosages, and psychological dependence/addiction aside they have done more good than bad by an enormous factor.

Not to be cliched, but I think A Beautiful Mind made a really profound point on behald of those suffering from psychological disorders. For many, life can be a catch-22 of the cure being just as bad as the disease.

Call me extremely assumptive, but from what I can see, I've been as severely depressed (taking this narrow category of mental disorder alone) than about anyone I know (and I know some fairly well-diagnosed individuals), and as far as I'm concerned, a lot of extremely dubious things cause vast changes in behaviour. I agree that 'drugs' are no more drugs than the endorphins released when we exercise; the dopamine levels associated with schizophrenia are very similarly controlled to the manner in which THC, the active agent in cannabis works; is schizophrenia a drug? No.. these things work similarly, and yet only certain elements are categorised as drugs; namely those created by people for the purpose of modifying behaviour. The truth is, 'drugs' can be as natural - or unnatural - as the human body's internal regulatory systems can be.

My point is, I suppose, to re-iterate the fact that should I ever take any prescription mind-altering substance regularly for the purpose of self-improvement, I - for one - should be shot, and many MANY elements of my life manage to have a profound effect on me - again, for one - such that cause depressive elements in my life to recede, disappear, and be negated.

Mental health, in many ways, would be far more suited to categorisation as an art than a science.

As ever, I totally agree, dear nyssa..

*goes to say something profound, but ends up muttering incoherently*

I think the definition of *normal* is the keystone here. For some a little depression is normal, for others it is the road to dirty razorblades making a cut that can't be stitched in the bath.

Sorry to be blunt but I have seen it and felt it.

Better now?

(read no further if easily offended or triggered..)

.. well, like I said, I know (have known) some fairly well-diagnosed individuals, and I've both seen and felt a wide spectrum of similar experience, ranging from dirty razorblades and utility knives to abrasive materials and many other unpleasently damaging things.

But I still maintain that as much as drugs can help people, the causes of human behaviour are far too complex for anyone to be able to make such a universal statement as to say that they're the only way out. Call it a function of the fact that people tend only to know well others who are to a degree compatible with themselves, but both myself and many others who I've known, the affections of other people, music, the environment around them, religion, and philosophy have all acted as remedies for some or many of their problems.

This all rests on how you quantify the word 'cure', I suppose, it being the word you used first (assuming, of course, that you're not universally saying that drugs are the only cure to any sort of mental problem)..

*thinks*

for 'but both myself..', read 'but for both myself..' ..

Saturnine! How are you now? Any more AA?

Sorry to jump back when the thread is supposed to be about/for/supporting Saturnine but I never said *cure*. I was talking about *normal* chemical functions in the brain. If you don't think you can live without serotonin, there are ways you can try your theory. They are unfortunately terminal.