Encounters With Depression

mental health,on the negative side is often associated with unmanageable dirt, filth and squalor.state-of-the-art hospitals catering for geeneral health too are degraded to a humiliating low, the day the ‘’sweeper’, does ‘nt turn up.the sweepers belong to the most neglected class of workers, overworked and underpaid’’, by the metropolitan administration.there are some welfare bodies like edhi’ s which is most dependable in pakistan, who aare particular about matters of community health and hygiene.they maintain several ‘’homes’’ among which there is one for destitute women.most of them are aged, and abandoned and suffering from depression.as far as i remember through news dailies’ reports, and interview of bilkis edhi herself, that they make sure that the ‘’homes’’, re thoroughly clean,spic and span and neat daily without fail, especially the toilets.Repeat toilets.And there is no shortage of menial staff for this particular work.What iwant to point out now, is that if Mental health accomodation is procured all over the city, in convenient community focalized areas, so that a ''house'' would cater to the needs of a local community , it would be a welcome convenience.Keep it simple otta be the motto.The community could be sole in charge of maintaining without shortage the daily cleaning chores of the ''house,''like Edhi.There could be spacious floors, and rooms, all with ''modular''facilities to adjust the size of available space.The furbishing could be bare essentials. The patient's families if they so desire could bring their own furniture and AC's too.What the higher administration could do would be to ensure adequate number of well trained "psychotherapist support staff"and available "psychotherapy" specialists and consultants, to provide care for the admitted patients.For humanities sake we want a peaceful and respectful atmosphere to treat our mentally ill, right close to our neighborhoods, which make up our one and only city.The cityhas its limits.We are asking something wthin limits!

okhla writes <<< Does it actually take a physical kick on your behind to make you go away?? >>>

No, it will take something more, a jdam probably. I am not going away AH. I will be there to challenge the BS of your kind, supporter of dictators and US hegemony, slaves of the white man. Be afraid, be very afraid because I am not going away, regardless of your lies about rejection and deportation-NONE of which is true...

Re: # 45

Shut up Masadi. Take your weird articles to lulu.com, where they truly belong.
Can you not understand REJECTION?? Does it actually take a physical kick on your behind to make you go away??

I have already pointed out that you have been comprehensively rejected by the US school which got you deported, the Pakistani college which saw your true colors and finally by Chowk editors. Ordnary Chowkies like me had recognized your true Zero-potential long back.

Abb hutt jaa !!!
Hawaa aane de bhai !!!

read the article on Social Movement Structure that Mohammad Gill and other Chowk Editors censored and didn`t publish, because they want to hide things that might benefit humanity, all they are interested in is publishing their pseudo-plagirized, thoughtless, tape-recorder-esque (their brains, the finished products of colonial education designed for the ``inferiors`` and the colonized mindset, can only reproduce stuff that is rote-memorized, in other words their brains function as mere tape recorders that spit out in more or less similar words what they have read in other places, there is no connection of concepts, no original thought and no critical analysis even as there is consistent worship of all things Western by them) articles.

Chowk readers take back the site that belongs to you and not these ignorant AHs.

P.S. Dr. Sohail is one of these AHs as well

Re: # 43

What about Manic-depressives; what kind of sexual lives they lead

Re: # 42
dear dehli walla.... Freud would have loved your obsession with sex and might

have made you his Asian representative. smiles.

on a serious note ....unfortunately people with depression have lack of libido and sexual

desire and sometimes do not even have erection. on the other hand people who are manic

can be so excited and uninhibited that they become promiscous and can sleep with anyone

who is willing to sleep with them. sincerely sohail

ps...are you happy now that i answered your question?

Re: # 15
Drsohail:
why are you not answering my very important question?

does or not does not ``Copulation help fighting depression``?

If you notice I did not use any bad words here. I could have easily said that Choodam-choodai or something like that but as a sincere person I chose appropriate words.

BJKumar: Tum apnee harkato se baaj aa jao....warna....

Re: # 39
I do actually-in Queensland, Australia. Thanks for sharing your views.

#35 by hamidm2

Good One!! :)))

Re: # 38
dear nb...i fully support your ideas. talk therapy works when the person is stable enough to

sit down and discuss emotional problems in a meaningful way. i have used medications in

the first stage of therapy to control symptoms and psychotherapy in the second stage to

resolve conflicts and improve the quality of life. thanks for your comments....by the way do

you practice medicine and if yes where?...sincerely sohail

Re: # 21
Shandana, I don`t think antidepressants work as well as the drug companies would like to tell us. And I agree being sort of flat-line is a bad thing, but it is better than being outright miserable. Being able to be creative is all very good, but I see a lot of peple mechanically going about their lives, they have no energy to do anything except that which they need to exist. They don`t get hospitalised because they are no danger to anyone, but what sort of a life do they lead?
The problem with talk-therapy with bipolar activity is that when people are manic, they will pay no attention to what they are being told, so it is not much use until their mood stablises a little.

Re: # 33
dear ahad...i am glad you shared your dilemma openly and candidly. Depression is a

painful condition and we need to try our best personally and collectively to decrease human

suffering and increase health and happiness. Science and psychology have been trying and

will keep on trying. thanks for your comments...sohail

Desi immigrant’s challenges in adjusting to new life in western world are no different than other professionals back home who need to face relentless competition and balance family and work time. In fact, in many respects, making it in corporate and business life here has many rewards that make up for the normal “depression” caused by work.

Spouses face entirely different challenges. In most cases, if not all, they were not hungry enough to come here. They just followed their spouses and hence after initial excitement miss their social and family network and that perhaps is the primary cause of their sufferings. Some of them develop new interests while others keep shrinks busy or make every ones’ life miserable.

Children are much more flexible and adjust to multi-cultural environments. If parents are normal and do not make big issues about their ``uniqueness``, ``superior culture`` or ``injustices to their people``, kids turn out fine and take what’s good from all the cultures they are exposed to.

Re: # 32

bj,

........ you are right, but depression is equally, if not more widespread among desis in desilands - at least in pakistan ......... the reason that we don`t hear about it as much is because a) people don`t recognize it as a disease, b) if they recognize it, they try to hide it because of social stigma, c) there are very few facilities to treat it and d) there are no statistics available .......... pakistani women, in particular, have an extremely high rate of depression due to many factors - abusive husbands or the lack of husbands, nagging in-laws, financial problems, obesity and facial hair ......... a lot of men too suffer from chronic depression because of unemployment and sexual guilt brought on by oppressive religious indoctrination ......... nobody knows what the suicide rate is, because there are no official statistics available and - get this - both suicide and attempted suicide are a crime; unless, of course, you are a suicide bomber - in which case it is considered to be an honor to be rewarded with all-you-can-do sex in heaven ! ............

........ however, the denizens of chowk are not depressed, they suffer from a much more serious condition - psychosis : ``a severe mental disorder, with or without organic damage, characterized by derangement of personality and loss of contact with reality and causing deterioration of normal social functioning``

bjkumar #24

{{… Newton … Beethoven …}}

The case of Isaac Newton is quite interesting. He was born posthumously and his mother remarried early in his childhood leaving him in his grandmother’s care. He was on bad terms with his mother and stepfather and bore through his adult life the scars of being an abandoned and unloved child, inordinately fearful of criticism, and seemingly with no truly close relationships. Apart from this he seemed a more than competent adult until his first nervous breakdown, in his late thirties. He recovered but suffered a second breakdown in his early fifties, after which he apparently made no further contributions to science. He remained however more than competent by normal human standards, whether in rooting out and hanging counterfeiters or in political manipulation (as in his masterminding the Royal Society’s campaign against Leibnitz in the priority dispute over the invention of infinitesimal calculus). Quite a character, in short.

It is highly likely that Newton’s breakdowns were caused by heavy metal poisoning. Apparently physics and mathematics occupied only a small part of his labours. He was also an eager alchemist. Further, a large fraction of his manuscripts was devoted to his heretical researches into the Bible and especially the Book of Revelation. It was probably the alchemy that did for him – mercury (the flux of choice) and perhaps also lead.

As for other creative people of the past, some of them may have suffered from chronic infections for which no effective treatment existed then and which induced the symptoms of mental illness. The most obvious candidate is syphilis, which likely accounted for Beethoven’s deafness (and the insanity and/or premature death of at least two more famous European composers). One can speculate that without the terrors of approaching deafness Beethoven would have remained a more conventional composer for his times rather than the revolutionary he became. He may have had a longer and more normal (if less prominent) life, but music would probably have been poorer for it.

Dear Dr.

Nice Comprehendible article, for me being depressed means I can spend all day in bed, and still not get a good night’s rest. Depression had been closed to me like a shadow; but suicide hasn’t been.
Wallahi it can seem worse then deadly cancer because most cancer patients feel loved and they have hope and self-esteem, I have had this problem since I was in other planet, they don’t call it manic depression anymore;They call it bipolar disorder, and I am a Type 2 :-)
Na Pucho Hamse Koi Baat Ke Zindgi Ek Sawal Ban Ke Rah Gai Tee,
Dard Itna Ta Sine Me Ki Khushi Ek Khayal Ban Ke Rah Gayi Tee.
If our war is spiritual, then our despression is our lives, Think positive !
Think global!
Ahad

#30 Hamidm2

Sir, I am unsure about those two gentlemen whose names you propose for that list - but I do feel that most chowk people themselves qualify to be on the list (without the ``great men`` qualifier, of course) - for actually hanging around this site and having convinced themselves that they are actually accomplishing something worthwhile. :)

The exceptions of course are you and I! :) :)

And if you disagree with me, then I can always drop you off the list. :)

Now seriously,

I earlier stated that this is an extremely well-written article - which made Mr. Delhiwallah burn in anger of jealousy. (We won`t mention Mumbaiya people!)

But I really meant it. Its importance can not be overstated.

Depression is a widespread malady - especially among the Amrikkan (and perhaps other overseas) desi communities. Partly so because we desis are saddled with a lot of crap since early childhood and are unable to shed it - we sometimes even take pride in that baggage. We would rather go through the whole life carrying that crap than lift even one finger to address it - or even acknowledge it.

Problem is even worse for desi ladies - because of obvious reasons.

Problem is even worse for the children of immigrants - they carry all their parents` loads plus the load of growing up in a racially ``different`` society and all its associated ``blessings``.

I am aware of two suicide cases among people that I have known. One was in India and one right here in my neighborhood.

Depression is an ``equal opportunity`` killer!

BJ,

I think I took enough time to respond;-)

OK, Moses may not be a stammerer. I always `mistook` stammering with lack of self-esteem OR fear complex, otherwise there`s no physiological deformity!

assADI,

Ego never comes in my way when it comes to learning.

U seem 2 suggest that the US implanted a social structure in Japan and then, bingo suicide rates skyrocketed there? Is this another attmept of u making ass of urself, my dear embedded identity (i.e assADI)?

Re: # 29

bjkumar,

......... how about adding these two to your list of `great men with mental disorders`:

gandhi ji : a fear of clothing and a penchant for young nieces

mo of mecca: talked to an invisible friend named gabby

.............. thank you for maintaing this list - i will try to add to it whenever i can ......

#25 Folio

Folio, not so fast, buddy!

First, the way I understand it, stammering (stuttering) is a speech disorder – not a mental disorder and it has nothing to do with depression.

Second, unless you are as old as Moses and knew him personally, there is no proof that he indeed stammered – something that you seem to accept as an article of faith.

No dice!

Sure, there are people who have published research papers guessing that he probably stammered – and in “proof” they cite the following quotation from Moses:

“I am not a man of words ... for I am of slow speech, and of a slow tongue”, Moses states, and later he pleads “... I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh hearken unto me”.

Then that researcher goes on to say: “Most authorities consider these quotations to mean that he stammered.”

Utterly ludicrous, I say! That kind of logic is highly specious and only acceptable by the likes of the Hamidm2!

After all, just because something is uncircumcised, it is the height of foolishness to assume that it does not work right!

hamid writes <<<...... what about the bushmen of the kalahari desert and the eskimoes who suffer from depression ?.......... are they depressed because of colonialism ? >>>

A common tactic of idiots is to invent straw men in order to dismantle arguments that were never made. The bushmen of the kalahari do not suffer ``Depression`` of the kind the doctor is talking about, their depression and persistent anxiety is due to breaking the rules of their society, what Durkheim would define as mechanical solidarity, where individual and collective conscience is in congruence and hence the incidence of it is much lower, the depression of those living in modern societies is due to alienation, where an alien structure imposes itself on individuals, an organic solidarity that seperates man from the products of his hands from others and from himself, his value determined only on how he can be used. As is well documented, the ``depression and anxiety` of traditional societies as the American Indians were due to outside invaders and colonizers or due to natural catastrophies that threatened their ways of life and hence their values. Regarding post-partum depression, birth might predispose women towards such feelings but only one in ten suffer from it so there are reasons other than biology at work, but you, ignoramus neither have any data nor any clue about anything, you merely want to discredit things that have been quite thoroughly researched...

Re: # 26

masadi,

...... what about the bushmen of the kalahari desert and the eskimoes who suffer from depression ?.......... are they depressed because of colonialism ? ........what about postpartum depression and what about all those women in pakistan who routinely commit suicide - are they the victims of the american elite ?

.......... masadi, you really need to get some psychiatric help ....... dr sohail, please help him .....

folio writes <<< Do u think that the non-existent `social structure` is responsible 4 suicides in Japan as well? >>>

Fool, Japan`s social structure is foreign implanted, read a little about what happened there, to their social tradition and their way of life, as a result of defeat in WW@ and then under US occupation post WW2. If you are unaware of the reality of ``social structure`` , at least spare showing off your lack of knowledge like a damn fool and learn something...

You missed Moses, BJ. Moses was a stammerer.

Ppl who are conformists cant think out of the box. U need eccentricity to think differently. This is what Royal Council of Surgeons(?) said abt creative ppl.

There have been many great men with mental disorder, most of whom overcame their challenges by themselves, some could not. One wonders what these folks would have been like WITH medical intervention – even better than they turned out to be or would they have been just another average Joe?!

Winston Churchill

Churchill lived a long life and one probably richer in experience than most in the course of human history. His biography runs to some eight volumes. It is well known that he suffered throughout his life from what is now known as bipolar mood disorder - what used to be called manic-depressive disorder.

Abraham Lincoln

The questions concerning the fact that Lincoln was overcome by anxiety and depression are numerous. Michael Burlingame remarks, in his book The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln, that the death of Lincolns mother was responsible for his life-long tendency to melancholy. It has also been stated that his depression stemmed from a series of childhood losses. These deficits may have included the death of his newborn younger brother (Lincoln was only three years old at the time); the death of his mother, aunt, and uncle when he was only nine years old; and the passing away of his sister in childbirth when he was eighteen years of age. According to psychologists, bereavement in childhood can be one of the most significant factors in the development of depressive illness in later life.

Isaac Newton

Issac Newton , the man who was the pioneer of the law of gravitation and the law of motion suffered from a nervous breakdown compelling him to retire from research, but that didn`t deter the genius, and he went on to be the Master of the Royal Mint, President of the Royal Society and attaining Knighthood.

Ludwig Van Beethoven

Beethoven, one of the greatest composers of all times suffered from manic depression. He once wrote ``As for me, ``I am in despair so often and would like to end my life.``

Vincent Van Gogh

Van Gogh was an indisputable genius, utterly, indisputably ignored. He created hundreds of bold, brilliant paintings; only one was sold during his lifetime. He suffered from Paranoid Schizophrenia and ultimately committed suicide in 1890.

(The above information is from the website http://www.twilightbridge.com/icons1/iconshomepage.htm)

Re: # 21
dear shandana (in good faith)....in my opinion there is a difference between use and abuse

of medications. im my practice 80% of patients are treated with individual, marital, family

and group therapy to understand their Depression and take effective steps to improve their

lifestyle. But for those 20& who are acutely depressed or acutely manic.....when there is

chemical imbalance...one needs to control symptoms before they can sit in the office for an

hour to discuss their problems seriously. These days I am treating three people who are in

acute psychosis

....one woman is manic state started going to bars and getting drunk and promiscuous. her

children were embarrassed and her husband was going to divorce her. Now that she is

treated with Lithium and other antipsychotic medications ...she is stable. The loving wife

and mother they knew is back.

....the other woman got manic, and started spending money. Now she is in 25000 debt and

her husband who is very sympathetic is thinking of bankruptcy. She used her Visa,

Mastercard and American Express to maximum. She is refusing to take medications or go

to hospital and the whole family is in a crisis.

...one man in Depressed state sold his 150, 000 dollar house for 50, 000. Now I have

contacted his lawyer to discuss that when he sold the house he was psychotic and his

signature was not valid.

I am just quoting some examples to show you that when people suffer from mental illness

they do self destructive things and need to be treated and protected. Once their psychosis

is in control, they make healthy and wise choices.

I agree with you that medications need to be used as the last step not as the first step.

By the way Lithium is like salt, it does not produce sedation and does not make people

zombies.

These medications....antipsychotics...chlorpromazine was the first one discovered in 1952

and Lithium Carbonate in 1971 are some of the great discoveries of medical science.

These medications helped us treat people and help them live in community with their

families.

One Pshchiatric hospital that I worked in had 1000 patients in 1900.....and many of them

committed suicide....In 2000 the same hospital had 400 patients because others were

successfully treated with

psychotherapy

medications

education

family support

and rehabilitation.

Psychotherapy and education is the first step. But wise use of medications expecially in

Manic Depressive Illness is an integral part of treatment.

I have many patients who needed Anti-depressents for a few months and once they

stabilized we gradually decreased the dose and finally stopped.

For me academic discussions are different than listening to painful stories of people who

suffer and people who look after them. Mental health professionals not only help patients

but also their families who also suffer.....sincerely sohail

masadi,

............ i think that finally you might be on to something ! .......... i have always maintained that psychiatry and psychology are not real science and belong in the same category as sociology and palmistry ......... maybe you and i should petition the medical associations and universities to stop teaching this nonsense ........... having said that, i think you would benefit from prozac and a lobotomy.......

dr sohail,

che brings up an interesting point, that of self medication via drugs and alcohol. this is by far a more popular alternative for people diagnosed with a disorder in pakistan than medication. and it works too, at least for a while :)

my problem with medication, which you at one point suggest is an essential part of treating those with bipolar disorder, is that it generally doesn`t. work, that is, unless you get put on lithium, which essentially makes you a zombie. a flatline is not an attractive or pleasant state of being, and medication prescribed is often so that people around you find you easier to handle, it doesn`t really help the sufferer in the long term.

i have come to believe medicating people at the drop of a hat is a bad thing. if the person is seriously incapacitated or non functional then ok, but i think people with certain tendencies also have inbuilt coping mechanisms to deal with those tendencies, a lot of them tend to be creative and exercising their creative muscles often does more to alleviate symptoms than a cocktail of crap drugs manufactured by giant pharmaceuticals. how can you decide there is a chemical imbalance in someones brain when we dont really understand the human brain? and what is the chemical imbalance is part of a longer process that gets nipped in the bud by an influx of anti depressants, anti psychotics, anti nausea pills, appetite stimulants when the medications gets too much etc etc? and isn`t it true that the current method of choice for treating bipolar people is talk therapy?


you are right to suggest that there is a lack of understanding and awareness in society about disorders like bipolar, i think in pakistan that lack of understanding and awareness extends to the psychiatrits too.

in good faith,
shandana

#17 Delhiwala

Yaar, don`t feel jealous! :) :)

Dear Dr. Sohail,

I have read your exchange with masadi and it is my sincere suggestion to you to not to waste time with him. He has no clue as to what you have written. In his paranoia, masadi wants to blame everything on USA, even the depression of an individual. Masadi is one of those people who want to frame everything in sociopolitical context even if it is biochemical in nature. Fortunately for him, C. Wright Mills existed otherwise masadi wouldn’t have known what to think.

I have seen so many examples of people growing up and living under same sociopolitical setup and parameters and yet some show the symptoms of depression and others don’t. More interestingly, the ones who show the symptoms usually have a family history of depression. That is indicative enough that depression of a certain kind has biochemical sources rather than sociopolitical.

I think you can find better ways to spend your time than responding to the paranoids. And, by the way, do write something in future on the topic of paranoia as well.

Rafi

I see a box, I see it clear, it is my day, my night, my dear.
And when the darkness fades away, it takes with it my night, my day.

come share my meal, some share my space, ask not for talk or watch my face
lest you see who you would be too, if in this box your shoe tripped you.

- wink -

Re: # 14
BeejKumar is getting hottie on drsohail now...homo sala.

Asadi,

>>Of course not the suicide rate stays........much greater among the most alienated i.e. young black men, and lowest among young white males but when young white males become old white males they lose their social status being worthless to the capitalist structure and so have the highest rate of suicide....<<

How do you explain the highest suicide rates in Japan? Even a chef who cooks fugu fish commits suicide if the dish kills the consumer. Do u think that the non-existent `social structure` is responsible 4 suicides in Japan as well?

Asadi, do u suffer from depression since Chowk staff refused to publish ur articles?

Drsohail:
Does copulation really help in depression? I am serious.

People in Punjab believe that copulation helps in freeing up the emotions.

Re: # 13
dear bjkumar...you are not an easy one to get compliments from....as you are a tough

critic. so i really appreciate your positive feedback...all the best...smiles....sohail

Dr. Sohail,

I think this is one of your best written articles - and on a highly relevant topic, too!

Congratulations. :) :)

Re#11. You are helping to legitimize a social structure that produces problems like the ones you mention, in this role in the present day, you are more dangerous than those that promote ``ganda and taweez``....

Re: # 10
dear masadi.....this time you have an issue with US elite....i do not live in US and i am not

an elite. i just serve my patients who come to my clinic to get help and share my views.

My goal is for people to know more about Depression and Mental Health Issues so that they

can make informed choices about their dear ones and not be misguided by people who

promote ganda taweez and jinns....this is my last letter to dear masadi ....i am not angry

with you....all the best.....sohail

The doc writes <<< so relax and take it easy.

you have the right to express your opinion and i have the right to express my opinion. >>>

Relax and take it easy and let you mislead and drug humanity while maintaining an unjust status quo that produced the problem you spoke of to begin with. Sociological problems require solutions of structure not drugs or individual therapy, as is amply demonstrated your ``solution`` does not produce any change in the social regualarity of suicide.

Regarding your ``right`` to express your opinion, another slogan of hypocritical US elite, they monopolize all avenues of expression and then tout ``everyone has a right to express their opinion``, not so, you have choked off all avenues and I will sure as hell choke yours too if given the opportunity because you have choked mine. When your ``right`` starts to kill and destroy then your opinion is a weapon and must be countered. Regarding expression how come your BS is expressed on chowk front page and alternative points of view are censored and relegated to interactions alone? How come you don`t mention this ``right`` to the chowk editors, hypocrite. Mohammad Gill is a fool, and I stand by my previous assertion.

Re: # 7
dear masadi....it seems as if my article has offended you. being a student of human

psychology i am aware that you are frustrated. part of that frustration is

....you are disappointed in mohammad gill`s articles (i have a lot of respect for him)

....you are angry with chowk staff who do not publish the articles you like to publish

....you are disillusioned with psychiatrists who prescribe medication to children

following your line of argument you need to change the society and have a dialoguw with

chowk staff

but when you are upset and angry the socialogical or political issues become psychological.

i agree with your theory that there are social factors that set a stage for depression

my focus here is on psychology of depression and personal suffering who needs help

for next month i have written the article

suicide...religion....politics

in which i will compare different factors.

so relax and take it easy.

you have the right to express your opinion and i have the right to express my opinion.

we can have a respectful dialogue if you wish....all the best...sohail

In #7 read <<< Just as the doc writes, so is Mill`s observation proven true. ``

as <<< By what the doc writes today, Mills` observation back in the 1950s is proven true >>>

The Dr. writes <<< When mental health professionals talk about depression, they mean a human condition that is not only far more serious than ordinary sadness but also lasts for months and sometimes years, affects the quality of life significantly and needs professional help for recovery >>>

Dr. mian once again your tendency to reduce issues greater than the individual to personal troubles of local milieu, as is the tendency of psychologists, is quite deceptive. Depression is a social phenomenon. When someone puts all his or her ``eggs in one basket``, that ``Basket`` and thereby what are valued as ``eggs`` is socially defined. If the job was similar to taking a dump in society than nobody would feel depressed about losing it, but when it is defined as the sum total of worth in a capitalist society then losing it is like losing the sum total of your personality. Depression is the hallmark of alienation producing social structures, where the dominant values are the values of the corporation that has encroached and colonized the life world of individuals. The solution is not prozac to cover up the symptoms but social restructuring. You shrinks particularly in the US even prescribe these drugs to kids, thereby acting as damn criminals, those do not ``cure`` anything but merely numb the pain as they keep cheerful morons happily occupied in the business of producing surplus for the corporate elite. Suicide itself is not merely an individual act, it is a social phenomenon, amply demonstrated by Emile Durkheim. Shame on you for perpetuating the mythology of capital by drugging those that are rejecting the system that is contrary to the soul of humanity....

As C. Wright Mills states in the Sociological Imagination:
(Quote)

``Many great public issues as well as many private troubles are described in terms of `the psychiatric` - often, it seems, in a pathetic attempt to avoid the large issues and problems of modern society,?. Often this statement seems to rest upon a provincial narrowing of interest to the Western societies, or even to the United States - thus ignoring two-thirds of mankind; often, too, it arbitrarily divorces the individual life from the larger institutions within which that life is enacted, and which on occasion bear upon it more grievously than do the intimate environments of childhood.``

(end quote)

Just as the doc writes, so is Mill`s observation proven true. Look at what dr. sohail writes at the end

<<< More and more people are receiving professional help and are convinced that there is a light at the end of the dark tunnel. >>>

In other words the job of the ``professional`` is to convince through drugs and bs (aka therapy) that the system is ok for them to keep living as a thing, the problem was their own and not the problem of the system, that light exists in the system, darkness exists in the rebellious nature of their soul. Don`t do anything to change the system and reclaim meaning for your life, so do they have any success. Of course not the suicide rate stays constant year in and year out, much greater among the most alienated i.e. young black men, and lowest among young white males but when young white males become old white males they lose their social status being worthless to the capitalist structure and so have the highest rate of suicide- what a transition, which psychologist will dare to explain this phenomenon using prozac and what not huh???


You know doc, Muhammad Gill and you are twins on here, I see similarity in your BS articles, lack of originality as well as total misunderstanding of the human condition. Needless to say, I don`t see eye to eye with either of you ``mass producers`` of standardized articles on chowk. I think you two should be sent on leave by chowk staff for a few months, that might cause them to reconsider some of the more meaningful articles that these fools that run chowk have censored...

Re: # 5
Dear Paradox....I fully agree with you that we need to have a scientific approach to

understanding emotional problems and mental illnesses and a psychological approach to

help people who suffer from those conditions. It is unfortuante that many people in the

world rely on superstitions and deprive their dear ones of the professional help available.

thanks for your insightful comments. sincerely sohail

Dear Dr. Sohail
I am glad to see another article from you explaining “depression” as diseases as it helps to get rid of different dogmas surrounding it. My concern is that there should be at least a five years study done on the drugs, relating to depression and anxiety, before bringing it to the market so that there long term side effect should be known before hand.
Secondly, these drugs (SRI, SNRI) should be given as the last resort as there withdrawal symptoms are very painful. The problem is that since the half –life of the neurotransmitters are so short, we don’t have any direct method to measure there quantity yet, its like a treatment based on trail and error. Moreover the neurotransmitters are multi-functional, making the treatment much harder.

It would be very kind of you to write a similar article on other mental conditions such as different phobias.
I am saying that because today I saw a programme on GEO, called “NADIA KHAN SHOW” and she was talking about “fortune telling” and “JIN” .Another lady (religious scholar) said that it’s through the use of “ JIN” that the fortune tellers are able to predict the future. Now, at one end of the spectrum humans are looking at the genome, stem cell research, and gene therapy to treat diseases and get better understanding of nature while on the end some humans are going in the reverse direction and still believing in supernatural creatures like “Jin” and even finding that to be an acceptable explanation. GOD HELP US.

Dr. Sohail I`ve found that cannabis sativa is the most effective way of dealing with depression.

[i]After the fall of the U.S.S.R. some communists felt so depressed they committed suicide. [/i]

And communication with the ones who did not commit suicide is a constant source of depression for me.

Just kidding....

Very informative article. Thanks.

Rafi

Re: # 1
dear tolkinin....over the decades different mental health professionals have used different

terms....term AFFECT is used for MOOD. so MOOD DISORDERS....mania, depression, manic

depressive illness...are also called AFFECTIVE DISORDERS. if it has only depression then it

is UNIPOLAR and if it has both...mania as well as depression at different stages of life then

we call it BIPOLAR. research workers in mental health feel that BIPOLAR is more likely to

be genetically transmitted in the next generation than UNIPOLAR. thanks for your

interest....sincerely sohail

``The third type of depression, which is the most serious one, is part of an illness called Affective ``Diso

As opposeed to effective what does AFfECT entail......

if mania is distinguishable from unipolar depression how is affect determined or measured when it is very easy to diagnose mania