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Treating Depression With Electrodes Inside the Brain
cowtamer writes "CNN has a writeup on a method of treating depression with implanted electrodes. If this works, we may be seeing a lot more of this type of technology in the future. '[The patients] were lightly sedated when the holes were drilled and the electrodes implanted, but they were awake to describe what they experienced. Several patients reported profound changes just minutes after the stimulator was turned on. One said the room suddenly seemed brighter and colors were more intense. Another described heightened feelings of connectedness and a disappearance of the void.' While I haven't looked into any of the academic literature on this, it seems that yet another Larry Niven Prediction has come true!"
Me thinks they are missing the point.
Aside from genetic tendencies, depression is typically a form of feedback from your environment not being 'right' for you. And I am not talking about ecosystems here.
So, while it is a scientific triumph (huzzah!) to find a temporary way to get around depression by sticking a wire in your brain, it's not one we should readily consider. Instead, we should focus on a more permanent solution, that of removing people from environments that would necessitate putting an electrode in their brains.
On a separate note, I am surprised at the number of psychs / etc. who prescribe pills in preference to telling their patients that they need to quit their job / move somewhere else. Sometimes the solution isn't a bunch of SSRIs, it's moving to another state (across country), or quitting an abusive job.
I am John Hurt.
Yet without any of the customary safety we come to expect by using natural compounds! Where can I sign up to have my head drilled into rather than trusting the wisdom of the ancients?!
Brian Fundakowski Feldman
...going for a walk. A good walk works wonders and is a little less extreme than electrodes in the brain. That said, my depression was a side effect of a long term illness and the walking may have had other health benefits that improved my mindset.
That said, walking might not be a great idea if you'd lost your job, sold your car, etc. etc...
Like many of the more readable writers, certain concepts were simplified. The "droud" in Niven's books stimulated pleasure centers. Doing this is different than relieving depression. Admittedly, the brains wiring isn't following such neat little concepts, but conceptually, relieving depression so you can feel normal is very different than seeking pleasure for its own sake.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
Maybe I took the bit about the "happy robots" other than in the spirit in which it was intended. Sometimes it's difficult for me to be completely objective about such matters, since the subject hits rather close to home, even when I'm not in one of my less happy phases.
It's also come to my notice recently that there seems to be an endless supply of online jerks who seem to think that depressives are that way by choice, or that they're just trying to look emo-hip.
Regarding the emo thing: I tend to take the emo scene with a large grain of salt. I appreciate that there are others with problems similar to mine, and many of them have it worse than I've ever had. But I don't need to see it glorified, and I don't need to broadcast to the world that it should feel sorry for me.
What I think helped to empower me was coming to the realisation that, while I can't always control how I feel, I can try to control what I do about it. And that feeling sorry for myself or expecting others to feel sorry for me negates that control.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.