WARNING--Long post; it didn't start that way, but it grew as I wrote

I can't speak for ADD, but I can for depression. I don't have it, but the females in my family do tend to, so I've become familiar with it. The term "chemical imbalance" has probably been used so much that you're sick of it, but that's what causes some kinds of depression. Let me digress for a minute.

Hemophilia is caused by a dysfunctional or absent clotting protein. Because a person lacks this protein, he or she can bleed to death from the smallest of cuts. No one questions this. No ones tells a hemophiliac that it's in his head, that it's something he could control if he really wanted to. When he takes medicine, it's not an "extra" that most human beings don't need. He's replacing something that his body should have and doesn't.

Now, likewise with depression. The word "chemical imbalance" means exactly that. When the neurotransmitters in the brain (think of them as messengers) are unbalanced, messages don't get sent. A person with depression is not able to feel happy because his brain is not being told he is. This explains why people who are depressed feel like they never have anything to look forward to, are often bored, and feel sad. So why do we fault a person who takes medicine for depression? All he is doing is providing his body with a chemical it should produce but doesn't--much like a hemophiliac. Depression often has a very real, physical cause that is totally separate from a person's attitude, circumstances, or upbringing.

Now, I do believe there is more to the human that his brain and body. But if the tool that the soul uses (the brain) is impaired, it will affect the soul. There are also causes of depression that are not chemical, and I do see a tendency to blame every bit of sadness on a chemical imbalance. But, like I said, there is a very real reason that some people are chronically depressed, and it's very upsetting to me that they often don't get help simply because they are made to feel like bad people if they get help from evil drugs.

In addition, because the human brain is so very complex, there is no one fix-all drug that will remedy depression. Some people will try one, find it doesn't work, and then give up on all of them forever. And some people give up on them because they take it for a few days and see no difference. It takes a while for them to work their way into and out of your system, so you usually don't see results right away.

Where we used to live in South Dakota, this was the general attitude of the population. Don't get me wrong; they were wonderful people, but often unwilling to learn and accept some things. My mother, who suffers from clinical depression, didn't take medicine because of this attitude. I remember her banging her head against the wall in anger and frustration over something like burnt toast. Now, since we've moved to Wisconsin, she's been taking amitriptyline, and I can't even remember the last time she did something like that. She's happy, she's a great mom, she's wonderful to be around. The point is, she's now herself. Antidepressants don't make you something you're not. It's depression that does that.

I'm sorry for this very very very long post, but it's something that really hits home with me because I remember what my mom used to be like. I know that a lot of people continue to live like this simply because they don't see another choice, and that is terrible to me.

ZwemGek