Stanford's Sapolsky On Depression in U.S. (Full Lecture)

Robert Sapolsky has a fantastic discussion of depression as a form of learned helplessness. We see it in abused animals: ▶ this video You are not much different from any other animal at some level. With enough conditioning you will believe that you have no agency over your own life, and you’ll just sit there and take the shocks hoping it ends soon. Or worse, you’ll lose perspective and imagine the only solution to your current (likely temporary) circumstance is to (definitely very permanently) end your own life.

I tried everything except for medication. I was afraid i would no longer be 'myself' or that's what other people told me — or maybe that it would make the problem more real. Anyway, I eventually took meds, and I have never felt more myself, or the person I want to be. I work, learn, socialize, live in a (relatively) clean apartment, which I leave to go outside. It took me way too long accept that depression is not all my fault, that it's a disease, and that I needed to see a real doctor. For those who suffer, or know those who suffer (that's probably everyone) I really recommend this lecture: ▶ this video It's super interesting, it ties all the causes of depression together — childhood trauma, everyday experience, down to the neuron, and chemical reactions. It really helps externalize it.

Sapolsky on depression: ▶ this video “Depression is agression turned inwards”. He explains what our current understanding of depression is. I think you’ll have a whole new understanding of depression after watching this.

This is the quintessential video for understanding clinical depression. A Stanford lecture given by Dr Sapolsky: ▶ this video I highly recommend watching it to better understand the disease.

while on the subject, highly recommend this video on depression from Stanford's Sapolsky to understanding the underlying biological aspect of it: ▶ this video

Professor Sapolsky at Stanford gave an interesting lecture about depression a few years ago... highly recommended: ▶ this video

This was posted in a HN comment not too long ago. It's a very good lecture that goes into both the biological and psychological aspects of depression and then manages to tie them together. ▶ this video > We say that there is something wrong with their brains, rather than saying that there is something wrong with society. The real answer is probably a little bit from column A and a little bit from column B.

And for something less disappointing see this Robert Sapolsky lecture ▶ this video Also his lecture series on Human Behavioral Biology.

Years ago I found the video by Dr. Robert Sapolsky[1] to be a good introduction to the topic of depression. I also suffered a major depression of my own about six years ago. It was a horrible time in my life. [1] ▶ this video

Stanford's Sapolsky does a pretty good job explaining what is and isn't. I recommend the full lecture, it's interesting stuff: ▶ this video

I find it very disheartening to see antidepressants described as "happy pills" that "numb your senses". Comments like this only serve to reinforce the stigma around these medications. This stigma is the part of the reason why I held out from seeking help for years. My experience taking Mirtazapine has been the exact opposite. At the deepest point of my depression, that is when I was "numb". Like many people I would listen to sad music when I was depressed, but eventually sad music didn't make me feel sad anymore, I literally just felt nothing. Since being on Mirtazapine, my depression is gone for the first time in 13 years and it's completely changed my life. I still have the full human emotional range - I have good/bad moods (mostly good), days where I feel bored/meh, I cry at the sad parts in films. The antidepressants cured my depression, they haven't given me a false sense of inflated happiness. The question of "am I actually happy?" doesn't even really cross my mind. I'm just content. The only side effects I experienced were 3 days of extreme tiredness when I first started taking them, which then subsided. And my appetite increased, so I have gained a few pounds, but since I was already quite skinny and had started lifting weights, this has been a net plus. I found this lecture by Stanford professor Robert Sapolsky highly insightful - ▶ this video - We all get depressed, it's a normal part of life, but depression is a disease which causes you to stay depressed for no reason,

Depression correlates with hormonal changes, but saying it's a result of it is reductionistic and inaccurate. Depression also highly correlates with changes in inflammatory markers called cytokines[1], but reducing it to a single biological factor never yields an accurate pathogenesis of the disease. Robert Sapolskys Stanford Lecture gives a good overview of the interaction an relationship of the main risk factors causing depression[2]. [1] link [2] ▶ this video [Robert Sapolsky On Depression]