[kbhn]

> Most of the times, there's a clear reason for a depression

I'm gonna have to disagree pretty strongly with that assertion without any supporting evidence. In fact, I would argue that rarely is depression caused by a clear reason which has a direct path to resolution. This is the exact perspective that makes those going through depression feel like others are trivializing what they're going through.

That's probably why you're getting downvoted, since it's #1 on your list.

[earlybike]

> In fact, I would argue that rarely is depression caused by a clear reason which has a direct path to resolution.

I'm gonna have to disagree pretty strongly with that assertion without any supporting evidence.

[kbhn]

Sure, let me quote Harvard[1]:

"It's often said that depression results from a chemical imbalance, but that figure of speech doesn't capture how complex the disease is. Research suggests that depression doesn't spring from simply having too much or too little of certain brain chemicals. Rather, there are many possible causes of depression, including faulty mood regulation by the brain, genetic vulnerability, stressful life events, medications, and medical problems. It's believed that several of these forces interact to bring on depression."

Enjoy your continued confusion as to why your 'advice' is being downvoted.

[1] - https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/what-causes-dep...

[earlybike]

‘It's believed’ != evidence

[kbhn]

Someone's throwing stones in a glass house.

Still waiting on ~any~ article to back up your assertion from a respected institution.

[earlybike]

I never claimed to have any evidence—you did but didn’t deliver.

If you read my initial post again you can read that this is my personal top 10 list. So I won’t provide any evidence. And my one reply was just imitating your discussion style.

[pdfernhout]

See my posts above for references to books and articles by Fuhrman, Hyman, Weil, Korb, Hickey, Moore, Bluezones, Howey, and others that support your suggestions as things that can help people in various ways -- quite a few providing evidence linked to scientific studies and thus moving beyond personal anecdotes.

Your point #11 is insightful too, judging by the moderation of several comments in this thread. :-)

That said, often the ongoing "cause" of depression is an interwoven set of issues which may feed on each other in a downward spiral, and getting out of those overlapping feedback loops can be difficult -- even if in hindsight specific causes might be identifiable. So, I can see why someone might object to the phrasing that "there's a clear reason for a depression" even as I tend to agree with the premise overall that causes (e.g. lack of sunlight, lack of sleep, relationship issues, poor nutrition, etc.) can usually be identified and (hopefully) addressed. But when the causes interact, granted, it can be very difficult to try to untangle that knot -- like when money issues prevent eating healthier or when (as an extreme interwoven example) relationship issues undermine sleeping well, which leads to financial issues, which stresses relationships further, leading to binge eating of junk food and sugar spikes and inflammation and headaches, leading to avoiding exercise, causing lowered self-esteem from worse appearance contributing back to relationship issues, and so on for strange knotty loops... The good news is, like Alex Korb (in "The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time") and others point out elsewhere, a positive upward spiral is possible too, as one issue after another gets addressed which frees more energy for dealing with the next issue...