Depression gene discovered?

[Kanadiana]

Depression runs in my family too ... Mom struggled with it her whole life. Who's to say how much is genetics and how much is conditioning. I dunno at all, probably 6 of 1 and half a dozen of the other in most cases.

I skipped baby blues and went straight for the post partum depression territories. Guess I'm programmed to do things in a big way LOL

 

[Kanadiana]

kanadiana i have read about inflammation playing a role depression as well. see http://www.instincttoheal.org/ i have the book by this dr and it talks, amongst other things, about inflammation. this book is excellent and i recommend it to anyone. there are a lot of excerpts on this website.

i think he is also the one that developed emdr, this is something that has caused a lot of skepticism in the field of psychology but it does seem to work and is becoming more accepted. i wish i had access to it where i live, i think it would speed up my recovery.

Thanks a lot BBC ... I'll definately check out this guys site and read what he has to say.

I've heard a lot about EMDR and it seems to work for some and not for others. One thing I recall is that when I was going through intrusive memories and flashbacks that I noticed sometimes that when my eyes were focussed in certain directions I could "remember" certain things with eyes "that way" but not "that other way" ... I was so intrigued I even played with that a bit and went WOW. Interesting! It was long after that, years, when EMDR was being talked about and when I read something about it I figured that i'd figured some of that out years before, through experience ... so I had no problem believing in the validity of eye movements triggering or accessing different parts of the brain and memory, or retrieving previously learned information.

We still have so much to learn about body/mind/environment. Being human sure is fascinating and mysterious still

 

[Into The Light]

kanadiana that is really interesting that you've experienced that yourself. this stuff just blows me away. there is so much to learn. i am surprised at how fascinating all this stuff is to me, and keep thinking there must be something i can do with it, i just don't know what. just keep reading and processing for now, i guess.

i hope the website is useful to you. most of the patient stories listed on the website are in the book as well. i always find patient stories really interesting too.

 

[Kanadiana]

Yeah it is interesting on the one hand, then on another it isn't. I think we're so autopilot in how we do things that we just aren't aware of how we do them ... simple things like when studying or trying to remember something and noticing our eye positions when we're thinking hard, and noticing the positions when we "remember" (how did we DO that anyways? LOL) ...

An example I think of regards auto-pilot once we've learned how to do something, is like tieing shoe laces. It becomes autopilot and we don't think about how we're doing it, we just do it. It takes a lot to learn how to tie show laces. I once was volunteering with psych outpatients and a lady had been released from a home and didn't know how to tie her shoe laces. Part of my job was to teach her how to do that. I was stunned to realize I didn't know how i accomplished it from the point of learning how to hold and position everything then to tie them. I had to slow down in order to be able to work from her level of knowing nothing to be able to know how i had to show her how. It really was a mind boggling experience for me. In a sense I had to dig my own brain to remember how I learned SLOWLY one step at a time. It was a totally humbling experience for me that I've never forgotten.

Its also interesting losing physical abilities I've had all my life as my arthritis and such does permanant damage.

I'm a bit foggy brained at the moment ... all my meds are just sort of hitting me right now with a brain fog DUH ... so will go now

 

[David Baxter PhD]

They sometimes call that "muscle memory". Playing a musical instrument is like that... or many athletic actions.

 

[^^Phoenix^^]

I'm not sure how this fits in but I just wanted to post it. I was just listening to "Quirks and Quarks" on CBC radio - it's a science show. A geneticist was being interviewed and she explained that "genetic determinism" no longer exists in genetics - their (geneticists) studies focus more on how the gene interacts with the environment. I guess this relates to how everything is interconnected and just because you have the gene for depression - it does not mean you will develop it - other factors have to be present.

Good point JM, I always forget it when talking about genetics.