Sun, 20 Dec 2009
Anti-depressants and personality shift
Lisa pointed me to a Science News article discussing Paxil, a medicine prescribed for depression. The important bit:
“We propose that modern antidepressants work partly by correcting the long-term personality risk factors for depression,” Tang says.
The article explains that, even after "accounting for the extent to which each treatment diminished standard measures of depression," taking Paxil makes you less neurotic and less introverted.
Recently we learned that the placebo effect is getting stronger. What this research makes me wonder is, If we helped these people adjust these personality traits via e.g. cognitive therapy, and then gave them placebo, would they have the same high success in defeating depression as the Paxil takers?
Please understand that I do believe the lived experience of depressed people is terrible. I don't mean to diminish their suffering. I'm wondering here about ways how we can help people be happier.
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Fri, 11 Jan 2008
Need a drink
As I got on the BART to ride back home from Oakland today, I felt something that I'd heard about but had never felt before:
I need a drink.
I thought for another minute, and dreamed of a tall glass of some tasty cider. I felt extremely worn, and had just had what felt like a failed conversation after a meeting that, itself, left me feeling tired.
I've chosen to drink [alcoholic drinks] before, but never felt like using drinking as a tool to fix something that felt wrong. I've chosen to drink when I've felt tired, but those times (that time?) I didn't also feel unhappy at the time - just tired.
I remembered that only a couple of years ago the fact that drinking would change my mood was a scary thought, and in a moment realized, "This feeling right now now - this is what I was afraid of." I didn't feel afraid of it or even apprehensive about it while it was happening, though. "I guess I'll find a nice cider on the way home," I decided, my inner teenage voice notwithstanding.
Brain-fried, I sat through a BART ride that started with me going the wrong way. I got to my destination station, and there I found a water fountain. After only a few sips of water, I suddenly felt much less tired. Certainly enough that I no longer felt the "need" to drink anymore.
I didn't quite feel happy, though. But then I passed a cute girl on the walk home from BART; and she passed me, joined her two friends, and said to one, "How do you make that sound like a spray paint can?"
Then I heard what felt like the most joyfully whimsical sound in the world. I'm chuckling now thinking of it, and I laughed then. The girl in turn was pleased, and I heard her say as much.
After all that, I looked up at the sky and said, Thanks.
