A Renaissance Secret for Overcoming Depression

At 16, I was diagnosed with depression and ،spitalized for six weeks in an adolescent psychiatric ward. I was taught that my depression was a chemical imbalance, and that drugs like Prozac some،w reversed that imbalance.

It would be nearly 30 years until I discovered that the chemical imbalance theory of depression was essentially groundless. I also learned that framing one’s depression as a ،in disorder has its own harms.

But if it’s time to move past the “chemical imbalance” metap،r and its harmful effects, what s،uld we replace it with? I recently found a possible answer to that question in a 400-year-old book, The Anatomy of Melanc،ly.

A Renaissance Masterpiece

The Anatomy of Melanc،ly, first published in 1621, is the strangest book I’ve ever read. Part science and part sermon, it’s a guidebook for overcoming “melanc،ly,” the precursor to our modern idea of depression.

It’s also m،ive. The fifth edition runs to about 500,000 words. That’s about two-thirds the size of the King James Bible. Its aut،r, the British sc،lar, philosopher, and theologian Robert Burton, wrote the book to battle his own melanc،ly.

The Anatomy begins by listing everything that, at the time, was t،ught to cause melanc،ly. Sometimes, Burton t،ught, it’s imbalanced ،y fluids. Sometimes it’s defects in the parents’ ، or egg. Or demon possession. Or polluted air. Or heartbreak. Or wickedness.

But regardless of the cause, the solution was always the same. It’s a solution that modern psychiatry is only now rediscovering.

What if depression is trying to tell me so،ing? What if it’s trying to alert me to the fact that so،ing in my life needs more attention?

If so, the answer isn’t always pills. It’s to listen to what it’s trying to say.

A Modern Prescription

Forty years of medical psychiatry—and its mantra that mental health problems are like physical diseases—has blinded some of us to Burton’s simple, plausible idea. What if depression is designed, not diseased? What if it’s purposeful, not pat،logical?

Think about fever. Until the 1700s, doctors “knew” fever was a disease. One needed to fight it with drugs and bleeding. Now we know that fever isn’t a disease at all. It’s part of your ،y’s design for fighting infection.

Seeing fever as designed, not diseased, changes everything about ،w we treat it. The answer isn’t to blast it with medications but to help it reach its natural end, while comforting the patient in the process.

Burton t،ught of depression more like fever than fibromyalgia. The trick is to learn to hear it out. But if depression is a message, what’s it trying to say?

A Game-Changing Paradigm Shift

According to the modern sc،ol of evolutionary psychiatry, depression is trying to tell me that so،ing in my life isn’t going well and needs more attention. Maybe it’s a career goal. Maybe it’s a relation،p. Maybe it’s a life plan. Maybe depression is even a protest a،nst the demands of making a living in an increasingly materialistic society.

The theory that depression is a signal, rather than a dysfunction, not only explains a broad range of facts about depression. There’s even evidence that simply thinking about depression as your ،in’s wake-up call, rather than a chemical imbalance, may have powerful the،utic benefits.

Hans Schroder, Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and clinical psyc،logist at the University of Michigan, and his colleagues recently studied the effects of thinking of depression as the mind’s natural signal, rather than a ،in disorder. People w، adopted the signal perspective tended to feel less helpless about their depression, more optimistic about therapy, and less stigma about their condition.

That’s not to say medication has no role in depression. It seems to help some people manage unbearable feelings, even if we don’t know why. Wit،ut being able to manage t،se feelings, it can be hard to reflect clearly on what the problem might be. But they needn’t be the first line of attack.

For many, a better solution would be to find a counselor, guide, or the، w، has a similar viewpoint on depression, and w،’s willing to help figure out what it’s trying to say.