Is depression a mental problem or a medical problem?

Transcript

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So, So, is depression a mental problem or is it a medical problem? Actually, both perspectives are valid in the sense that there are cases when these people feel down because of some reversals they have faced in life. And then, that we could say is a mental problem where it is that certain situations have triggered some responses which are negative. But, there are also cases where people may well have actually gone through people may have certain chemical deficiency in their brain because of which the feeling of depression becomes chronic.
So, we have to see based on time, place, circumstance two, three different things. There is in spiritual circles the tendency to assume that all emotional or behavioral problems can be solved simply through spirituality. But, if there is a chemical deficiency in the brain, I know one devotee who just couldn’t sleep at night and then they found that he was just trying to sleep and then he just went to a doctor and he found that there was some chemical deficiency in the brain and as soon as he that chemical was ingested, he was given some pills for that, he was able to sleep.
So, just as there can be a vitamin B12 deficiency among vegetarians which makes them feel weak that’s in the overall body sometimes there can be a chemical deficiency in the brain which makes people feel bad, feel down. So, if there is a clearly documented cause then to expect people to overcome that simply by simply by positive talks or spiritual wisdom that is like expecting a person who is tired because of vitamin B12 deficiency to get energy. Spirituality is not a realistic expectation.
So, we shouldn’t necessarily see the spiritual and the philosophical and the medical as competitors. They can work in parallel. Now, there is the other extreme that depression can become that rather there is a tendency to try to find chemical solutions to human problems.
That is to pathologize normal human emotions. So, when a loved one passes away, to some extent it’s natural to grieve. And one needs to one needs to grow emotionally, grow spiritually by processing that grief.
But if one thinks that every human problem is a problem that comes in the course of our existence as human beings we think that we can take a pill to solve all human problems that is also a mistaken concept. So, in general if somebody needs if somebody is feeling regularly depressed and there is nothing wrong in having such a person consult a consult a specialist and see and ascertain if there is some cause for it. And if a cause is found then if a cause is found in terms of something tangible ok, this particular chemical is deficient or this particular is lacking then definitely the treatment should be offered.
But there was a survey done in England where a person with a set of symptoms was as an experiment sent to 5 different psychiatrists and the same set of symptoms 5 different psychiatrists diagnosed as 5 different diseases and they offered 5 substantially different treatments. The problem with mental health issues is that there is no specific like a bacteria which you can by this test this bacteria was detected and therefore we can know that this is the problem. Nothing like that is there in mental health issues.
Because of age the problem often happens that it’s all a chain of inferences based on which symptoms the patient stresses while telling the doctor or the doctor stresses while making an assessment. So basically if there is no clear neurochemical basis to the problem then it is better not to get too involved in psychiatric treatment. Antidepressant pills can definitely help at least to alleviate the feeling of depression to some extent.
And if somebody needs them that is ok. But the mistake is to think that that alone is a solution. And one does need to grow emotionally and spiritually to be able to better cope with life’s issues.
So if the chemical solution or the chemical medication is an aid to inner growth then that is fine. But if the chemical if the medic chemicals become a replacement for inner growth then as soon as we feel something wrong we immediately run to a psychiatrist. Then that leads to chemical over-dependency which is from the long term unhealthy because many of these chemicals themselves have side effects and also unhealthy because that is that is choking the person’s inner growth.