The Search For The Cure For Mental Health
Breaking down theories on the mental health decline and how to fix it.
Mental health has been a very popular topic in the past several years, there have been many studies and theories on what causes depression, how to prevent it, and how to fix it. This post will be dedicated to summarizing these proven and unproven methods to give us a better understanding of our minds.
There may be a misconception that the term “mental health” or “depression” is a new term that has only been relevant within the last century, however, depression has been relevant and treated as a health concern as early as the 2nd Millenium B.C, of course at this time with the lack of resources and knowledge, “professionals” associated depression with demonic possession. Alcmaeon of Croton (540-500 BC) popularized the idea of body fluids (Humors), which were: Yellow Bile, Black Bile, blood, and phlegm. This was believed to be linked to the five elements (Water, fire, earth, air, and space) and played a fundamental role in a person’s health. This idea laid a foundation for ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, who thought that depression was a result of imbalanced body fluids (humours). He believed that depression was caused when too much black bile was spilled into the spleen. Treatments included: Diet, baths, bloodletting, and exercise. Although, it is quite clear that we probably don’t have “humors” or at least our mental state isn’t dependent on these “humors”, it is clear that the treatments (with the exception of bloodletting) are effective and do have an impact on our state of minds (exercise has shown to reduce depression from 42-60%, meanwhile psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy reduces depression by 22-37%).
We will cover those treatments further in the post, but for now, I want to continue with the history of this topic. Persion doctor Rhazes (865-925 AD) was one of the first to come up with behavior therapy as a way to combat this problem, this method showed a lot of progress, but once the catholic church became more powerful. ideas resorted back again methods resorted back to exorcism for “demonic possession” and harsh punishments. in the 1800’s depression was deemed “uncurable”, anybody who showed signs or symptoms was declared a crazy person and put into an insane asylum. We have come a long way since previous times, however, this problem has been around for a long time, and yet we still haven’t found the cure or perhaps we have, but maybe some people would prefer it to be kept “hush-hush”, perhaps a lot of us aren’t depressed, but just are feeling regular human emotions, but these emotions are being dramatized as something bigger or maybe the answers are more simple than we think.
This chart above is pretty eye-opening, you can’t help but see the significant rise in suicide shortly after 2006, and the difference in the levels of suicide between male and female. Males are far more likely to commit suicide than female, (2020 estimated stats show that 13.8 men out of 100,000 commit suicide to women’s 5. ) not only recently, but since the human race really began and the age group with the highest amount of suicides 45-64, so a middle-aged man is the most likely candidate for suicide. Despite these statistics, middle-aged men aren’t the only one’s who suffer from this, as the top three leading causes of death for people aged 10-34 are suicide (accidents and homicide being the other two). I understand if you think “Wow this is the most depressing post I’ve ever read. This post is so depressing that you may have increased the suicide rate of anyone who reads it.” But fear not, despite what you hear on the news, the world has continued to get better in almost every area, and the fight against suicide is no different. So what is the cause? Well from looking at the chart and what was previously written, suicide isn’t a new thing, but the rise after 2006 is. So what happened? Social media companies were created at an alarming rate. Twitter was founded in 2006, Instagram in 2010, Whatsapp in 2009, Facebook was made public in 2006 and the iPhone was released in 2007. It is no secret the effect social media has on mental health; it makes kids more insecure, prone to cyberbullying and angry at the world, not to mention that the platform they are using is programmed to be addictive. Take being addicted to harmful drugs, It is a terrible hole to fall into, that’s why schools gave us classes and PSA’s on saying no to drugs, yet the apps on our phone are created to make us addicted to something that is terrible for our mental-health, especially in young people. It only makes sense that schools should give the same lessons for social media, that they do for drugs. Another important thing I want to point out, is that for alot of young people, these feelings of depression can be overwhelming and they think it is worse than it actually is, because they’ve never felt anything like it; when we get a bruise on our arm it hurts, but you don’t consider calling an ambulance, because you experience it alot of times before. Only when you have a deeply painful feeling in your stomach that you’ve never had before, then you call the ambulance. This should be the same for mental-health, sometimes we think were depressed when we really just have bruises.
Recently the word “microbiome” has gotten a lot of attention recently (gut health), recent studies have shown the significance of one’s microbiome and the brain. The gut and the brain are connected through neural, hormonal, and immunological pathways; Certain gut bacteria produce neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin, which play a crucial role in mood regulation; In fact, 80-90% of the brain’s sensory signals are connected to the microbiome. Considering this information, I believe it is safe to say that diet plays a significant factor to one’s mental health. As we have progressed, food has become a business; fast food restaurants, chips, and candy. In order to profit from sales, what makes more sense? Make food more addictive or make food more healthy? Well, its obvious that the goal is to make food more addictive, tasting good food is one of the most pleasurable feelings a human can experience and the industry capitalizes on it with food additives. Food additives such as Sodium Nitrates that cause Pancreatic cancer, sulfites that cause asthma, and trans-fat with heart disease (just to name a few), in fact if you look at the countries with the highest cancer rate and the countries with the lowest, you’ll notice that first world countries have the highest cancer rate, while poor African countries have the lowest cancer rate.
If you look at this chart above, it is quite evident that cancer has become more prevalent in our daily life. If you think about it; it makes sense, for 99.6% of human life were spent in the jungle hunting and gathering, meaning that for 99.6% of our species existence we’ve been eating meat, vegetables and fruit; not processed chips, candy that taste like plastic or apples made grown with chemical pesticides. “Health experts” will tell you that these chemicals are healthy to eat, but scientist can be flawed; Don’t believe me? Just do a little research or read Bad Science By Ben Goldacre. (who’s bread I eat, his song I sing” – German Proverb). Now back on track, I don’t think its a coincidence that the rise of cancer coincides with the fast food expansions (1950-60’s) and the snack food industry growth (1970-80’s), since then it has only gotten bigger, our food is more chemical and the budget for marketing has only increased. Whenever we eat junk food, it gets digested through our gut (obviously), and creates harm with in our physical body, but remember: 80-90% of the nerves in our microbiome are connected to our brains; so if these foods can do this much damage to us physically, how much can they do to us mentally?
Click here if you want to know what foods to eat for your microbiome.
We’ve covered a few potential reasons that have an effect on our mental health, but what about the people with the real mental health problems? Shortly after World War 1, soldiers returned home with a new disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This disorder was known just over 100 years ago and like the psychologist and doctors back then, we still don’t have a good grasp on how to fix it. Or do we? Psychedelic research has become quite popular in this day and age, before the internet most of these drugs were considered a Schedule 1/Class A drug which means that they are the most dangerous (Heroin, cocaine, LSD and ecstasy), however now with further research we find that these drugs (not cocaine and heroin) or drugs in the same category are probably the most powerful medicine for mental-health. Not mental-health, where the subject feels a little down or had a bad day, but rather where they witnessed their friends dying in combat, being molested when they were 7 years old or watching their dad beat their mom. These traumatic events on a young child have ruined lives; people have become prostitutes, drug addicts, homeless, prisoners, and some don’t make it that far because they’ve already killed themselves before then. Psychedelic therapy has not only helped these people, but has cured them. In one phase 111 clinical trial, 67% of participants who received MDMA-assisted therapy no longer met the criteria for PTSD after treatment. A study from May 2020 – August 2022 had 94 participants engage in MDMA therapy and concluded that they had seen positive improvement in their family, social and professional life. In fact 86.5% of these participants displayed clinically significant improvement, by the end of the study 71% of participants no longer matched the criteria of PTSD. These are drugs are also very safe as one cannot overdose on them, cannot get addicted and cannot have withdrawal, yet the pharmaceutical companies are selling addictive and dangerous opioids over the counter, that don’t even heal or cure. The rate of ADHD has gone from 6.1% in 1997 to 10.2% in 2016, does this mean that kids lack focus in our day in age? No. Kids have always lacked focus, they have so much energy, but your asking them to sit still for 7 hours; of course they’ll get distracted, because sitting still for 7 hours even as an adult is incredibly boring, imagine what its like for an energetic 12 year old. So what happens is that the doctors claim that your child has ADD or ADHD and give them medication. Well, little do these parents know is that this “medication” that is used for kids with ADD/ADHD has the same chemical compound as methamphetamine as well as the same potential side effects on the central nervous system. Methamphetamine is a dangerous, highly addictive drug, Schedule 2 drug that is illegal in the United States, yet a similar drug with the same side effects is encouraged to give to kids from ages 6-15. Are kids really catching the contagious disease of ADD/ADHD? Or is it just that you can make a lot of money selling drugs? If this act is within the law, I’m sure we can make some room for Psychedelic therapy.
Alright, now its time for the REAL expert on mental-health to put his 2 cents in. My perspective on this issue, may be a little different. I remember as a kid watching the Maury Povich Show, and seeing these men who were absolutely miserable thinking that they’re going to be a father and forever be associated with a woman that they hate. Until Maury shouts out those magic words: “You are NOT the father!!” And all of a sudden this man who was once completely miserable, jumps with absolute joy. You have not seen joy until you see these men celebrating that they are not the father. Why were they so happy? Well its obvious, its because they were so miserable. Let’s say your base level for your mental-health is like a 7 (1 meaning suicidal and 10 meaning enlightenment), you got a decent job, a wife and a couple kids. That’s a pretty good base. Now you just got a notice that you are being falsely accused of fraud, and that punishment could be up to time in prison or a hefty fine. Suddenly you are now at a 3 or a 2. Your completely stressed out and worried about the future, but then suddenly you get a call that the case is dropped. Now your at a 9.5, you would be so happy, and jumping with joy like those men from the Maury Povich Show; but what changed? You still have the same wife and she didn’t get any prettier, you still have the same job, you didn’t make any more money, your kid didn’t get drafted to the NFL, so why are you so happy? Well, because you were once so miserable. In order for you to experience a 9.5 you had to experience a 2. My point is that perhaps in order to improve our state of mind, we need to experience a little suffering; think of a rock on a slingshot, the further you pull the rock backwards, the further the rock will move forward. So the next time you feel a little overwhelmed, or sad, maybe you should think about how great it’s going to feel once you conquer it.