Depression Myths Debunked #1: Depression is not curable

My labmate and friend Tom Walk , who was the first to share a different perspective on the There is always HOPE article, deserves a follow-up post. Other subscribers, please share your perspectives in the comments, and I promise I'll prioritize writing about them.

“There may be more than one cause of depression and multiple possible approaches for sufferers. Here, I will add that managing and living with depression doesn't necessarily mean that it will be cured. Like alcoholism, depression is something to live with day by day.”

I agree with the first part of his statement. Despite tens of years of scientific research, scientists still don't have a clear answer on what causes major depression disorder. In this review paper (Cui Lulu et al., 2024), you can find 6 hypotheses (meaning that there is no solid evidence to prove any of them) for the pathology mechanism of depression. We know that our genetics play a role, the environment (seasonal depression, stressful situations, losing a loved one, relation break ups, and more) plays a role, and our body hormones (e.g., Postpartum Depression, PPD) also play critical roles. These should be treated and coped with differently.

However, I disagree with the statement:

“Managing and living with depression doesn't necessarily mean that it will be cured. Like alcoholism, depression is something to live with day by day.”

This belief is very common nowadays. Have you heard the famous saying from Winston Churchill, “black dog on my back”? In many Chinese books, they even expand the sentence into something like, "the black dog always follows me around and occasionally jumps on and bites me," which I could never find the original source for. However, according to Monroe Scott M 2022 review article, you can find a sentence saying, "Depression has not always been viewed as a highly recurrent disorder (Jackson 1986)."

Anyway, the idea that once you are depressed, you’ll always be depressed is a myth.

Everyone knows the fundamental principles of mathematics, and proving some statements wrong is rather easy because you only need a single counterexample. In this case, I can give you not a single but many examples:

• J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, had struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts for years before publishing the super-successful book series back in the 1990s.

• Eckhart Tolle, the author of “The Power of Now,” started the book with his long struggle with depression until one night he suddenly got enlightenment and realized that his voices are not himself. His ego is not himself. He is a spiritual teacher nowadays and tries to help others who struggle to live a meaningful life.

• Shirzad Chamine, a Stanford graduate and now CEO of the largest coach training organization in the world, offers training at Stanford University, Yale Business School, and many more, the author of “Positive Intelligence.”

• Similar names and stories you can search for yourself: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Lady Gaga, Terry Bradshaw (NFL Hall of Fame), Michael Phelps...

Myself too. After reading my articles, one of my colleagues reached out and carefully asked me, “Are you feeling depressed?” I appreciated his care and chuckled, “You're fortunate because clearly, you've never experienced depression.” The depressed version of myself couldn't do what I'm doing now; I would have avoided public view altogether. Unless you've experienced depression, it's challenging to comprehend. Perhaps that's why none of my friends who have dealt with depression asked me the same question after reading my post.

Now let's look at the numbers from scientific data. According to Monroe, Scott M., 2022, ~50% of people were cured and never had another recurrence, while the other half has a distribution from occasional recurrence to frequent (>10). Yes, some patients may have to figure out a way to live with it and cope with it for a lifetime.?

If you're one of those who are still going through depression, you may feel, “See, all these people got their cure, why can’t I feel a bit better? There must be something wrong with me.” No, it just takes time. All diseases take time to recover, and as my friend Tom said, everyone’s situation is different, and you may need more time to recover. Please don’t further blame yourself, you suffer from depression is partially because you tend to blame yourself instead of others. Please do remember and believe that “there is always hope”. Hang in there. I’ll write more about my recovery journey in the hope that you can learn some tricks to “cure” your depression.

Will I ever have another relapse? I don’t know. Mental health is just like physical health; a healthy person could get a severe disease or a fractured bone anytime. How can I be so sure I won’t suffer from mental issues later? But I’m pretty sure of one thing: I’m not scared about it anymore with my built-up muscle around how to handle it. Even better, the chance of having the same problem is much slimmer compared to 2017 because of my gained strength, both physically and mentally, through my battle with my depression.

Citations:

Cui, Lulu, et al. "Major depressive disorder: hypothesis, mechanism, prevention and treatment." Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy 9.1 (2024): 30.

Monroe, Scott M., and Kate L. Harkness. "Major depression and its recurrences: life course matters." Annual review of clinical psychology 18, no. 1 (2022): 329-357.

Jackson SW. 1986. Melancholia and Depression: From Hippocratic Times to Modern Times. New Haven, CT/ London: Yale Univ. Press