> The only unclear bit seems to be whether the chemical imbalances in the brain are *causes* or *byproducts* of mental illnesses like ADD and depression. I think that they're byproducts, but several people here have said that they believe the imbalances are causes of the illnesses.

This doesn't make much sense to me. A chemical imbalance in the brain is a physiological problem. Medication has been shown to help people with ADD and depression by treating that physiological problem. Therefore, it would make sense that the physiological problem is a cause of the mental illness. Now, behavior *does* play a part. When you have a mental illness, you get into certain patterns of behaviors and they become a habit. Even with medication, some of those habits won't go away. One of the benefits of medication is that they make the issues more managable so that you can work on your behaviors. I don't think that it is right for everyone to take medicine for these things, because not everyone needs it. But some people do, and many have found that medication is a vital part of their treatment.


> -useless"Okay, okay... I admit, I like to hypothesize about things I don't know much about!"ness

That might not be such a good idea if you don't make it perfectly clear that that's what you're doing.