Bereavement

Thanks so much for taking the time to write up all your experiences/thoughts on this. It's so helpful to hear from others who have either been this depressed or have someone close to them who has been this depressed.

I think a HUGE hole in our mental health care is not understanding the difference between crippling anxiety and depression. The two can be polar opposites as to what parts of the brain are overactive/underactive--but the same meds are used to treat each condition: antidepressants. Antidepressants don't work as a panacea for everyone but that's all doctors seem to want to prescribe.

It was someone on DU who pointed me towards a new treatment from Stanford which offers a lot of hope. Called the SAINT method. Uses magnetic resonance to target the area of the brain that is under/overactive and it has a 90% success rate in treating depression. No medication and the results seem to be long-lasting.

We need more treatments than the "one size fits all" antidepressant route. One of the researchers involved in the study was quoted as saying "this will change the world".

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/saint-treatment-for-depression/