Depressions

The truth is, for twenty years I’ve gone in and out of depressions. It seems appropriate, given the circumstances. The rest days are much needed, although sometimes unwanted. In this essay, I examine the benefits that I’ve experienced from depressions, why people get stuck in a depression, and ways out of short and long term depressions.

Sneezing is not a cause of illness, it’s an effect. Imagine four people are sneezing — one has the flu, one has a coronavirus, one has allergies and one has a bacterial infection. Now imagine they all get diagnosed with the same label: sneezing. “You have Major Sneezing Disorder,” says the doctor. This would not only be dumb, but also harmful because it is a misdiagnosis of the root cause. Nonexplanatory labeling is the standard of care in psychiatric diagnosing. Psychiatric labels are names for symptoms instead of root causes, to the detriment of the person and all of society. “I have depression,” is a popular root-cause misdiagnosis. In some cases, “…