A recent review questioning the serotonin theory of depression has revived a generations-long debate over the very notion of "chemical imbalances." While there are plenty of important debates about the roles of pharmacology and psychotherapy in mental health disorders, conspiritualists from both wellness spaces and the far right have been using mental health to promote (and monetize) their own agendas. Derek investigates. Show NotesThe serotonin theory of depression: a systematic umbrella review of the evidenceThe New Study on Serotonin and Depression Isn’t About AntidepressantsInside Kelly Brogan’s Covid-Denying, Vax-Resistant Conspiracy MachineThe Far Right’s Next Target for a Bullshit Moral Panic: Antidepressants
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Thank you.
Speaking of nuance, I want to run a clip from recent Conspiratuality guest Danielle Bilardo's podcast, Wellness Fact vs. Fiction.
Definitely listen to it, the season's amazing.
Now here she's talking to clinical psychologist Jonathan Stea, who I mentioned earlier, and he's promised to come onto this podcast as well when his schedule frees up so we can get into a deeper dive on the topic of mental health.
I'm running this clip because it shows the care that clinicians put into their thinking around mental health.
The context of this discussion is experiencing depression after a life-changing event, such as the death of a loved one or loss of a job, some stressor that throws your emotions into disarray.
Jonathan discusses how he would go about the situation, which is, of course, ultimately decided on a case-by-case basis.
There's even a psychiatric disorder called adjustment disorder or adjustments disorders, which are sort of depressive symptoms showing up in the context of a life stressor.
Like, you know, a death of a loved one or a relationship loss or whatever it is.
And those depressive symptoms continue pervasively beyond the point of kind of being transient.
So I think the specifier is beyond three months or so.
And so it's it's a fascinating question.
It kind of gets at the root of what is how do we define psychopathology in general?
But for the everyday person, what I typically recommend is it never hurts to seek help.
And so it's not so much perhaps the depressive symptoms that someone's experiencing, I think a good indicator for people, or a red flag, is looking at their functioning.
So if because of those depressive symptoms, if you're feeling sad and you're not enjoying things that you normally do, which is normal after a life stressor, if that starts getting in the way of you doing life, doing your responsibilities, whatever that is, childcare, friendships, doing your responsibilities, whatever that is, childcare, friendships, jobs, schooling, If it starts to really get in the way, that's called functional impairment.
And that's your sign that you probably should seek help because you don't want to go further down that hole.
And it's never too early to seek help is what you're saying, Jim.
Absolutely not.
I mean, of course, there's the caveat, which we talked about, which is the over-diagnosis and over-medication.
And so, you know, yes, if you have a relationship breakup, I'm just using it because it's an easy example, but you don't want to immediately, if you break up with your spouse or your partner, you probably don't want to immediately go and get an SSRI for that because you're supposed to feel depressed and, you know, see if there's other ways to kind of manage that.
And if it's not, there's no shame in getting help from that, including pharmacological interventions, and people can be on them short-term as well.
Usually, depressive medications or SSRIs take about two to four weeks anyway to kick in, so it's not going to have that immediate relief of symptoms.
But I guess I would say it's a fine balance between a wait-and-see and it's never too early to seek help.
All that to be considered, it's also imperative to use social support.
Lean on your friends, lean on your family members, challenge thoughts, because it's very normal for people to think that I'm a burden and I don't want to burden people by reaching out, but maybe you would do that for them.
It's basically important to kind of nip these things in the bud and prevent them from kind of Turning into a full-blown psychiatric disorder, which we don't want to happen.
Now, let's listen to this clip from a conversation between Kelly Brogan and Aubrey Marcus, two people we've discussed a lot on the podcast.
I'll point out that Matthew has extensively covered Brogan's unscientific tapering protocol, for which she charges a lot of money.
I'll link to Matthew's article in the show notes.
Notice how mental health is treated in this conversation, especially compared to the last.
Now, to frame this, the title of the podcast is, and I'm not kidding, if you want to stay sick, don't watch this!
Classy influencers.
Now, as a note, to save you some mental bandwidth, I clipped out one divergence that spilled over into some weird take on economic theory applied to self-help.
I don't think they realized it was economic theory, but it was.
But you can easily find this entire two and a half hour conversation on YouTube if you're into self-torture.
Said it before, I'll say it again, that I think that victim consciousness is the only human pathology.
It is the root of what we call evil and hurt and suffering, and often it is cloaked.
It's hiding in these places that we wouldn't suspect it exists, right?
So obviously, if you're in your victim consciousness, you're saying things like, Poor me, why me, no fair, and you're fighting with reality as it's being presented to you, right?
And there's a villain that you're oriented towards.
There's some external source of power that is responsible for your suffering.
A victim requires an oppressor.
Exactly.
This was a big one for me in my activism, especially, you know, imagining that I know what's best for children, right?
And what should happen and shouldn't happen to them with regard to... Well, you might know a few things about that.
I certainly still think I do!
Maybe not 72 injections, I don't know.
Maybe, maybe not.
That's the thing!
Maybe, maybe not.
How do I know what a child's journey is?
Maybe you do know, I don't know.
I'd like to think I do, but I came to the point where I can't be so sure.
Like, I cannot be so sure what anyone else needs.
And when I am in that energy of imagining that I know… Well, let me tell you something, Kelly.
Science is real.
And trust the science, so I don't know what kind of blasphemy you're talking.
Because it's real, and it's fixed, and it's always the same, and it's known.
I know.
For everybody.
I was taking that science down the other path.
We're a computer, and the program works every time on the MacBook operating system of Okay, so this began with Brogan, a trained psychiatrist whose bona fides is that she escaped the industry, stating that victim consciousness is the only human pathology.
I guess the DSM has to be completely rewritten now.
Now, to return to nuance, as I mentioned earlier, naming a disorder allows you to pathologize it and then prescribe for it, and some are wary that the ever-increasing number of disorders provides a route to further treat people exclusively with pharmacology, but that's not really what's happening in this clip.
What really interests me are the two binaries at the bookends.
So one, Brogan states that only one pathology exists and every disorder is effectively a form of it or at least rooted in it.
And then two, Marcus states that science never evolves and is only designed to treat humans as computers.
Never mind that no actual scientist speaks like that.
The only people who do are those completely ignorant of the scientific process, which Aubrey further shows in his anti-vax sentiments around childhood vaccinations.
As I've long said on this podcast, watch what they say, then watch what they sell.
