Chemical Imbalances Don’t Cause Depression — Toxic Environments Do

6 February 2018

 - In Western society, we’ve been trying to fight this crippling stigma in one way. We tell depressed and anxious people: This isn’t happening to you because you are weak. It is happening to you mainly because there is a problem inside your brain.

Three decades after this approach began, where are we? Now 1 in 5 Americans has taken a psychiatric drug and every year, the depression and anxiety crisis gets worse, while the stigma isn’t shrinking. I spent three years researching this subject to find out why — and to see if there is a better way to find our way out of the stigma, and out of depression.

According to some of the most distinguished scientists in the field, depression is not caused by a chemical imbalance in our brains. The World Health Organization, in fact, finds that the causes are largely “social.” They are not primarily in our heads, but instead largely in the way we are living today. I found evidence playing out all around us.

For example, if you have no control over your work, you are far more likely to become depressed. If you are lonely, you are far more likely to become anxious. If you go through a traumatic childhood, you are 3,100 percent more likely to attempt suicide as an adult. This points to a very different way out of depression.