Anxiety and Depression Are Symptoms, Not Diseases
Amen to this article. As one who myself once believed my depression &quot;came out of nowhere&quot; (but which, in retrospect, was an obvious symptom of my emotionally destructive family and school environment) and who tried for many years to smother those feelings with antidepressants, I feel strongly that this article presents a wiser path.<p>Evolutionarily speaking, it seems likely that depression&#x2F;anxiety are there for some purpose, and yet we treat them both like meaningless pain meant only to be banished using drugs. I believe both are signals that something in our environment is not working for us. They indicate emotional or physical needs unmet---needs for safety, autonomy, connection, etc.<p>Often the individual suffering is fundamentally unaware of their own circumstances. I didn&#x27;t realize how messed up my family relationships were growing up until much later. There are various reasons for this unawareness, but I believe the depression&#x2F;anxiety are there to force our conscious self and the people around us to acknowledge that something is wrong.<p>This isn&#x27;t just the old nonsense about depressed people needing to cheer up, and that it will pass in a day. This is a completely different paradigm that explains depression and anxiety as meaningful signals of underlying problems rather than as inexplicable suffering to be numbed through prescription medication. I believe it will prove the more robust and also the wiser way of looking at these experiences.