Depression Part 2
Okay, let’s get a little more deep into the topic of depression; what causes one to be depressed? Also, what is behind the rising rates of depression? (an increase the likes of which has never been reported before). This can be complicated because of the sheer complexity of our brains, our individual personalities, our personal experiences, etc. Is it a chemical imbalance issue? Is it a spiritual issue? Some kind of combination?
Empirically, it is most likely NOT due to a chemical imbalance. I know. This is hard to take in since according to recent surveys 80% of the public believes depression is caused by a chemical imbalance. However, in July of 2022, the University College London published their large-scale review of various studies involving tens of thousands of participants, to determine if serotonin levels (high or low) have any influence on being depressed. The study’s lead author states “It is always difficult to prove a negative, but I think we can safely say that after a vast amount of research conducted over several decades, there is no convincing evidence that depression is caused by serotonin abnormalities, particularly by lower levels or reduced activity of serotonin.”
Let me be clear, I am not saying that our emotional struggles/depression have nothing to do with chemicals in our body or other biological factors, rather I just wanted to highlight that relying on the “chemical imbalance” theory as the go-to/main cause for our depression is narrow minded and may blind us from other things that may better explain the cause and/or continuation of our depression more accurately.
So, if it can be reasonably argued that depression is not correlated with serotonin levels, then what might be causing this spike in depression?
Once again, as often is the case, we can turn to the past for answers/insight. Viktor Frankl, in his book The Unconscious God, writes of what causes a societal uptick in depression. What Frankl believes is that a societal shift in depression would be the result of an “existential vacuum”. An “existential vacuum” is defined as “not only a sense of meaninglessness but also of emptiness” (90). What leads a society to feel this sense of meaninglessness and emptiness that arguably has more of an impact on our depression than a chemical imbalance? Frankl lists 3 causes:
A loss of traditions and values
Reductionism (the view of human beings as being nothing more than primal drives and instincts
An obsession with the self
All 3 of these causes can begin to feed into themselves and create a deadly feedback loop. If we do not have spirit in us, if we are nothing more than another animal in this world (reductionism) and our spirituality is nothing but a culturally conditioned response to events or a mere firing of neurons in our brain, then there is no deep meaning in our traditions and values. Our traditions and values are no better than any other set of belief systems; so why hold onto them? Why not just give into our animal desires? If there is no meaning to be fulfilled in following our set of traditions and values then we naturally turn inward. Why not look out for me and my own? If there is nothing calling to me, outside of myself, of value and meaning, then hyper self-interpretation and analysis follows. Frankl states:
As the boomerang returns to the hunter who has thrown it only when it has missed its target, so man returns to himself, reflects upon himself and becomes overly concerned with self-interpretation only when he has, as it were, missed his mission, having been frustrated in his search for meaning. (97)
Have certain traditions and values caused harm to individuals or sets of people at various times in history? Of course. But there is a difference between the innate goodness of the value, the meaning that can be had if we fulfill that tradition or value and our human proclivity to fall short. We have to, of course, switch out the bath water from time to time (re-evaluate our value system) but that is different than abandoning the entire system as a whole (throwing out the baby with the bath water). When that occurs, we are on our way to an existential vacuum.
So what might be done about this? Might there be a turnaround in the depression levels in our society if we return to a set of traditions and values that offered us a way out of ourselves/our own hyper self-interpretation? If we start to view ourselves as not only biological in nature, but also spiritual, might we begin to feel our life has purpose and meaning? If we are spiritual creatures who have a responsibility to fulfill a set of values in this world, might we start to look outward for ways to fulfill that purpose? Yes. Yes. and Yes.
I tell my clients frequently that we all need something to do. We need a quest or ideals to strive for (much like the ideals found in traditions and values). Stories, movies, and video games that are predicated on a quest are widely popular. There is a reason for this. To live our life as if it’s a quest; to live and pursue a mission is how we ought to live. When we live as if we ought to live, fulfillment follows. Living as we want to live, to pursue what we think is “freedom” (turning our back on tradition and values to live unencumbered by moral rules/guidelines), to satisfy our physical desires (reductionism), leads to an obsession of the self; If that occurs, misery is what follows.
So, pursue what is meaningful. Pursue something that will place a demand on you. Pursue something that is focused outside of yourself. Have patience with yourself as you attempt to discover that meaningful pursuit in your life…what else are you going to do that is more worthwhile than that?