This morning I worked on a painting of Thomas Jefferson high school while listening to a podcast about mental health. The school is made up of various shades of yellow and brown - tan, beige, cream - and that can get frustrating after awhile, but as it works out sometimes, I managed to mix just the right color for the stonework. So I was a happy painter as I listened and worked.
I love listening to professionals talk about mental health because, as this guy pointed out, a lot of professionals say stuff that the public never hears because the pharmaceutical industry is heavily invested in people being dependent on prescription drugs. So when the head of the National Alliance on Mental Illness says there’s no such thing as depression, the pharmaceutical industry does what it can to suppress it.
According to the guest, Eric Maisel, that’s exactly what happened, and most Americans are none the wiser. It’s not a slam on people who use medication, it’s just nice to know that a lot of our medical diagnoses are for treating symptoms not causes. That’s a lot of what they talked about in the podcast. The host shared that he used medication because he was at the end of his rope, but he also knew that it wasn’t a solution. It was a temporary fix.
I had a parent who had a nervous breakdown when I was young. It took over the whole family, drew all of us into its web. My sick parent believed that medication was the only answer, that it was adjusting a chemical imbalance in the brain. My other parent argued that it was possible to get well without a drug dependency. I have to say, for whatever reason, I agreed that it’s possible to get well without a drug dependency.
When I was struggling with depression I believed that I had grown into depression and that I could grow out of it. Maybe I was born sober and melancholy, maybe I was a highly sensitive child, I don’t know. Either way, I believed that I could find my way out of the dark. If you’d asked me ten years ago if I had, I would have answered yes. Today I would say that I’m happier than I was ten years ago. I didn’t know just how happy I could be and I believe there’s still room for me to grow. But I spent about 15 or 20 years working on my mental health and managed to find my way out of depression. It wasn’t easy, and it obviously didn’t happen overnight, but I did it.
A lot of what I discovered were tools for managing the highs and lows. I started practicing tools for keeping me stable. Some of those tools are mediation, eating healthy (avoiding caffeine, sugar, and processed foods), getting rest, not drinking or doing recreational drugs, writing, making art, exercise, and making sure I have people I can talk to. Those are just some of the tools I use in my daily life. I’m someone who maybe didn’t learn a lot of healthy coping mechanisms growing up, so I had to learn them on my own. Some tools that I’ve tried have worked and some haven’t, but I made my focus in life learning to notice what’s going on inside me and responding to it.
It’s validating to hear professionals say that a diagnosis isn’t the end of the story. And it’s validating to hear professionals say that medication isn’t a cure. Both the host and the interviewee agreed that while medication may help with symptoms, it’s not resolving the underlying cause, and reaching the underlying cause is key to mental stability.
Perhaps because of that early childhood experience, and my own issues with depression, I made mental health my main focus in life. I understand that a lot of people just want to get over their suffering so they can get on with their lives. Accepting that mental health was my life was hard. I too wanted to walk away and focus on other things. But life gives you what it gives you and you either start to deal with that now or later when it’s gotten worse.
The One You Feed podcast with Eric Zimmer, episode 555 with Eric Maisle, PhD.