Feeling Blue? Your Body is Protecting Itself the Only Way it Knows How
What we know of depression & anxiety is swiftly changing
Johann Hari is an award-winning journalist and the author of the recent book ‘Lost Connections: Why You’re Depressed and How to Find Hope’.
He had a very personal reason to ask this question. When he was a teenager, he went to his doctor and explained that he felt like pain was leaking out of him, and he couldn't control it or understand it. Some of the solutions his doctor offered gave him some relief, but he remained in deep pain.
So, as an adult, he went on a forty-thousand-mile journey across the world to interview the leading experts about what causes depression and anxiety, and what solves them.
The answer Hari found is not what you might think.
Modern society, at least in the Western world, is very good at meeting our biological needs - food, shelter, and clean air.
But equally strong evidence is emerging that human beings have psychological needs that are equally fundamental to our well being. According to Hari, who drew his research from cultures the world over, and who is backed by data from the World Health Organization,
“You need to feel you belong. You need to feel your life has meaning and purpose. You need to feel you are seen and valued. You need to feel you have a future that makes sense.
This culture we’ve built is good at all sorts of things, but we’ve been getting less good at meeting these deep, underlying psychological needs”.
People aren’t broken or weak to feel the pain of their needs not being met
For the bulk of human history, if you were cut off from the tribe, you were deeply depressed or anxious for a reason. Your survival was on the line if you were going it solo.
Human history, after all, is the history of cooperation. It’s why we’ve been so successful as a species. We’re still hard wired to feel this way.
In some cases, yes, this is a biological quirk in your DNA, and medication can help. But in many cases, and what is not being talked about enough, is the fact that your body is sending out signals that it needs meaningful human connection.
We all need to feel we belong.
We have only to look at the data - our modern world is the loneliest society on record.
The surgeon general of the U.S. has declared loneliness a national emergency. In a recent U.S. study, when adults thirty years ago were asked how many close friends they had, the kind you could count on if you need help, the most common answer was five. Today, the most common answer is zero.
I speak at length on this topic in my book. For reams of hard data on the importance of human connection, feel free to check it out.
There is a very good reason that community finds itself in the centre of the Wheel of Wellness.
Social prescribing as an antidote
Dr. Sam Everington, who has been knighted for his pioneering work in treatments for depression and anxiety in East London, has become a champion of using a combination of anti-depressants and social prescribing for an incredible success rate with his patients.
“If you are anxious or depressed, you’re not a machine with broken parts, you’re a human being with unmet needs”.
Though biology does play a part in some instances, evidence-based research is increasingly showing that there are three causes of depressions and anxiety, and they are often intertwined:
biological
psychological
societal
According to Dr. Everington, we need to deal with all three causes for lasting success.
“Probably over 70 percent of people's health and well-being has a whole raft of other factors engaged in it.
The evidence is very clear, for example, that if you have a job you will be healthier. If you get any improvement in your education you will be healthier. If you engage creatively you will be healthier. If you've got a good warm home guess what, you're going to be healthier.
And so social prescribing, I often call it as a conspiracy to retrain doctors in looking at the bigger picture”.
Social prescribing can include an actual prescription to join a club, attend an exercise class, do volunteer work, take up something creative, or meet an acquaintance on a regular basis.
The prescription depends upon the person. According to Dr. Everington, doctors and healthcare providers should be looking at all areas of a person’s life and filling in the blanks where they have unmet needs - be they biological, psychological, or societal.
Phone a friend
And what were Johann Hari’s conclusions after that forty-thousand-mile trek across the planet?
“The world over, the most effective strategies for dealing with depression and anxiety are the ones that deal with the reasons we feel so bad in the first place”.
The world has been full of bad news lately and many of us are feeling fragile. If you’re feeling blue, by all means, call your doctor and look into the role that medication can play.
But you can also call a friend. According to the latest research, it’s a very good place to start.
For an excellent bitesize synopsis of this topic, I highly recommend this excellent podcast. It’s chock full of great information.
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very timely for me... thank-you; I am also grateful that you are one of the friends I can call!:))