It’s difficult to acknowledge that for part of your life you’ve been deceived by false information. For example, you could have small realizations, like the fact that crossing your eyes too much as a kid won’t actually make your eyes stay crossed, or you could have life-changing facts told to you, such as you were adopted and your mom and dad aren’t your biological parents.
The new book “Rethinking Depression: How to Shed Mental Health Labels and Create Personal Meaning,” was released on Feb. 15, 2012, and it explores the theory that depression and many mental disorders in general are essentially lies, and that people are only suffering from unhappiness.
Eric Maisel, a psychotherapist, claimed in his controversial book that depression is not a disease or mental disorder, but is actually just unhappiness. He suggested that depression and even other mental disorders are normal emotions, reactions and behaviors that have been pathologized as part of the rise in different industries, such as the pharmaceutical, social work and psychotherapy industry.
He added that it seems any unwanted emotions or behaviors are now considered abnormal and mental disorders, and depression is no exception.
Enormous numbers of people are diagnosed with depression and given prescriptions for antidepressants every year, and Maisel explained that this situation is making Americans “sicker and weaker."
Having a mental disorder diagnosis doesn’t allow people to really take charge and control of their lives because they are willing to accept that they have a mental disorder and don’t really have control because it’s part of their biology.
He wrote that it has come to the point that the word depression “has virtually replaced unhappiness in our internal vocabularies.” He stated that it is normal to be both unhappy and happy throughout life, and just because you’re unhappy and suffering for no reason, this does not mean you are abnormal and have a mental disorder.
The author went into detail on how current research and treatments don’t support an actual mental disorder of depression, yet the widespread lie of depression still exists. He even offered an “existential program” that can help people cope with and overcome at least some unhappiness in their lives.
Maisel’s book questioned the entire mental health industry, and for people suffering from and treating depression, there is both acceptance and resistance to this theory.
Ka Rae’ Carey, the director of Triangle Stepfamily Institute, which is an organization focused on helping people live successfully in a stepfamily, specializes in therapy for children and adults who are a part of stepfamilies. She acknowledged that in some cases people are diagnosed with mental disorders when they may not actually suffer from them.
“Unfortunately, mental health professionals are forced to diagnose clients when they accept insurance,” Carey said in an email. “Mental health insurance mandates that those that present for mental health services, must have a mental health diagnosis ... It may be true that people are over and under diagnosing conditions. However, I believe these situations and occurrences are directly related to having the proper training in diagnosis.”
In the book, Maisel stated that something like anxiety over public speaking, which is a reality for many people, can even be pathologized, even though it is just an unwanted reality. Carey said this is not the case, that just because a behavior or emotions are unwanted that they are considered abnormal and for no other reason.
“Of course the behavioral and mental consequences and experiences are ‘unwanted,’ as are the original stimuli,” Carey said. “However, many times it is not our clients’ fault, if you will. Specifically, many of our military are experiencing post traumatic stress disorder, as are foster children. Being shot at or abused is ‘unwanted,’ yet it happens. These children and adults do not engage in war or an abusive situation out of choice.”
She believes the book and its theory could have the potential to hinder society.
“I feel it will further devalue mental, emotional and behavioral health,” Carey said. “Additionally, stereotypes that have been prevalent for ages, will again come to the forefront of modern day thought. Specifically that people just need to ‘deal with it, suck it up, and move on.’ Also that mental health professionals are just ‘quacks’ may again be the thinking of our population. It may also perpetuate the tendency of people to put mental and emotional needs on the ‘back burner.’
Carey suggested that there are major differences between unhappiness and depression, and it’s a matter of strictly sticking to the criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is a manual used to diagnose mental disorders.
“One hallmark of depression is that you are unable to function as expected in domain life areas, such as school, work, socially, and/or in your family,” Carey said. “There are many situations that may make a person unhappy, but they are able to function just fine in all domain areas.”
She also disagreed with Maisel that diagnoses and labels weaken the population.
“It empowers them to recognize their condition in a concrete manner and assists them to obtain appropriate treatment from a competent provider,” Carey said.
Antidepressants can also be useful, not harmful, she said.
“I view medication as an adjunct to assist people to operate at a functional level,” Carey said. “Medication in of itself is not ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ it is there to help people who are suffering. Just as pain medication post surgery may be needed while the wound heals, the same can be true for mental disorders.”
Sara Rosenquist, a board certified clinical health psychologist, is the author of the book “After The Stork: The Couple’s Guide to Preventing And Overcoming Postpartum Depression.” She said in an email that her book is similar to Maisel’s except it focuses on postpartum depression. She also added that he is not the first to have this theory, which Maisel also addressed in his book.
“Maisel's book is one of several pushing the paradigm to shift,” Rosenquist said. “[The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders] is a cultural framework.”
She suggested that mental health professionals are pathologizing normal experiences to an extent.
“Every thought you have is a biochemical event in your brain,” Rosenquist said. “Every emotion you have is a set of neurons firing ... some in the brain, some elsewhere in your body. But by picking out the neurochemical thread and elaborating it, we put psychiatrists back in business with their other medical colleagues. In so doing, we pathologize and reduce what ought not be reduced.”
Dr. Sujatha Ramakrishna, a child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist, said in an email that she does agree with Maisel that a mental disorder diagnosis or label can actually do harm for many people.
“In my experience, many patients do feel stigmatized when they are told that they have a mental disorder,” Ramakrishna said. “They give up hope that they will ever become ‘normal,’ and they resign themselves to being ill. Eventually, that mindset becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
However, she thinks that antidepressants can still be useful in allowing some people to function.
“In many situations, such as severe depression, medication gives patients a needed boost in energy and motivation, which enables them to work on their underlying problems,” Ramakrishna said. “However, many patients take antidepressants without participating in psychotherapy, or otherwise making the changes in their lives that are needed to keep their symptoms from returning. Eventually the drugs wear off, leaving the patient right back where he/she started.”
Natasha Tracy, who was voted “second most influential depression writer online” by Sharecare.com, has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder type-II ultra-rapid-cycling, and disagrees with Maisel’s theory completely.
“Depression and unhappiness are two distinct states and to confuse the two is to do a disservice to both,” Tracy said. “Depression is not sadness (or unhappiness) at all. Depression is a cluster of symptoms both physical and psychological that go beyond sadness into a predominant state of being. Specifically, unhappiness tends to have a situational cause, while true pathological depression does not. For example, when a person dies an individual experiences very real and understandable unhappiness but this is due to a trigger. When a person is depressed they can easily experience unhappiness as well as other symptoms for months or even years without there being a trigger.”
She added that mental illnesses are just as legitimate as medical illnesses.
“It is ridiculous to suggest that all mental illnesses are simply ‘normal’ human emotions and behaviors,” Tracy said. “Mental illnesses are like every other illness – they hurt people’s wellbeing and need to be corrected in order for a person to live a healthy life. Talking to people who aren’t there, harming oneself, the inability to get out of bed for months at a time, thinking you a Jesus Christ – none of these are reasonable ‘normal’ states for a human being.”
She argued that diagnoses can help people take charge of their lives.
“The label of a mental disorder does not make a person weaker nor does it remove personal responsibility – it actually does the opposite,” Tracy said. “A mental illness diagnosis makes a person stronger as they can now take control of their health in a real, positive way. They are now more responsible for their own health as they must seek out and adhere to treatment in order to get better.”
In my personal experience, I have been diagnosed multiple times with depression, so I am one of the many people this book speaks to. Since I was diagnosed in childhood, it does hurt to some extent to hear that what I was going through was comparable to the general population, because I have a feeling that is inaccurate.
But at the same time, I am now an adult and have managed to keep my depression under control for the most part by just accepting it and realizing that some days won’t be as productive as others and requesting help when I need it, and by exercising, sleeping more, eating healthier and socializing with more positive people.
I still identify somewhat with the depression label, but not nearly as much as I did when I was younger, partly because I don’t feel the need to see a therapist or take antidepressants because they never really worked for me to begin with.
Maisel himself suggested in his book that current treatments for depression tend to not be necessary or effective, although he does add that psychotherapy is essentially talking out your problems, and that can be useful for anyone.
After reading the book, you might come to a large and even painful realization that perhaps you have been lied to about the existence of depression and mental disorders in general. Or you could disagree with this controversial theory that other experts have supported, and that countless others have disagreed with.
In the end, it is your life and you can decide what to believe because there is support for both sides. If anything, this novel will urge you to intelligently consider any theories and information you’ve been fed your whole life, and question the way things work and why you should believe certain theories and facts you’ve been told.
And perhaps this book can motivate you to take more control of your mental health and engage in a quest for meaning, purpose and happiness.
Sources:
Carey, Ka Rae’. Email interview. Feb. 13, 2012.
Rosenquist, Sara. Email interview. Feb. 13, 2012.
Ramakrishna, Sujatha. Email interview. Feb. 13, 2012.
Tracy, Natasha. Email interview. Feb. 13, 2012.
Tracy, Natasha. Bipolar Burble. About Natasha Tracy. Web. Feb. 15, 2012.
http://natashatracy.com/
Reviewed February 15, 2012
by Michele Blacksberg RN
Edited by Jody Smith