Brain Chemicals or just caused by our own actions?

[5note]

ok, so I'm in denial still about having depression.
The doctor has put me on antidepressants and told me it's all about an imbalance of brain chemicals.

I'm still believing it's about actions in life. (cause/effect)
Curious to know others thoughts on this.
Is it our actions in life or things that happen to us that cause depression or purely a brain imbalance.

[PatT]

The actual experience of mental illness is completely a chemical imbalance and although it can occur in anybody's head there are a million proximate causes that can contribute to it. Like people who undergo certain disturbing experiences will always be much more likely to experience the chemical imbalances but it's true that people can live happily and comfortably and still experience chronic depression/anxiety etc.

Science isn't advanced enough to be able to completely evaluate every cause and manifestation of mental illness unfortunately so a great deal is generalising.

[159357]

I too believe that cause and effect is a part of depression.

It's as if all the times you've done something wrong and been aware of it has come back to get you. A way that i successfully fought this off (only made it a little bit better) is to concentrate on what im doing, but not to overreact on what i do.

Make your placebo positive rather than negative.

[5note]

That pretty much sums it up for me, something like karma maybe?

"It's as if all the times you've done something wrong and been aware of it has come back to get you."

I have a lot of events that have happened over the last couple of years. (some by my own doing, others outside of my control).
I believe I am suffering now because of this.
Still in the hole I created....

[aegidius]

Self blame is not a path I would care to go down - especially if I was in a depressed state. We have centuries of attitudes behind us (fortunately) of blaming mental health patents for their problems. The doctrine of karma is so easily abused for self-blaming or victim-blaming. My opinion only of course.

[daniellerecovered]

I feel like this exact thing happened to me 3 years ago!

I had a very negative team of collegues and bad management. It was my second job out of uni and i was young so i just put up with it.

All i can say is after 3 years i am almost completely recovered. . It does come up now and then for me but is temporary and very mild, i more just feel really tired.

Looking back i think it was a combination of stress chemicals, i was getting horrible anxiety symptoms such as finger tingling and racing thoughts and a negative experience i interpreted as my being 'incapable' of being in a career job. However now i think maybe the chemicals and being run down make my mental interpretations a bit skewed. I was too stressed and tired to interpret them for what they were, a bad working environment.

What helped me was I got myself another job after 6 months of no job (i dont recommend staying unemployed for long it makes it worse. I was soooooo anxious and scared and didnt think i would actually be ok in another career job but i knew that it was the fear talking so i did it...

The self confidence i experienced by doing this allowed me to not 'worry' as much which i think sparked the depression a lot. It almost reversed the negative belief i had formed because if i had held a career job for a few months and felt i could keep going how was i useless?

It also made me busier and more distracted which cut the cycle of rumination. Every day i achieved and felt better about myself and worried less and the depression cycle happened less.

I do think depression is chemical related but it is also a phenomenan. Like a panic attack or heart break. It i causes a cycle of thoughts and experiences and feelings. I do think to a degree chemicals cause the depression but i think perhaps negative beliefs cause negative thoughts which cause stress chemicals related to depression. I think exercise and eating healthy can help fuel your energy to fight the negative thoughts and add to reversing the cycle. I think going out and about and socialising can cut through the rumination and break the cycle too.

Depression isnt solely a chemical reaction or a single thought that causes a negative feeling. It is a cycle of thoughts that can circle down if you dont do something to cut the cycle in half. And the negative thoughts associated with the cycle cause a negative experience. The thoughts get so strong that it can be hard to differentiate because every thought has that negative spin on it.

[Ellie05]

I think it's a combination of the two but in my case I know brain chemistry is a very real factor. Every case is different, for some people depression is triggered by a traumatic event so in that event it's very much a cause/effect scenario but that event in itself can then trigger a chemical imbalance which will go on to impact that person's quality of life. In my case anxiety and depression have been an issue for me since I was 12 years old. My first experience with it was at this age as my dog was old, getting sick and I knew she was dying. It lasted about a year and I knew it wasn't natural to be so affected by something which is a natural part of life. I've since had a lot of anxious/depressive episodes which are triggered by things which really wouldn't affect others much. It runs in my family and I just have to accept that my biochemistry may be a bit out of whack.

[Just Ken]

The medical consensus is very much that it is brain chemistry. There is a theory that it is gaining ground that the changes are related to the immune system. What that means is that depression can be brought on by stress but also can be brought on by something external. Lots of people with autoimmune diseases, which are definitely physical diseases, have trouble with depression.