Depression: A Trauma-informed Psychology

Course contents:

1. Introduction: 06 min 49 sec

Depression – the world’s largest health problem; depression diagnosis rates increasing year-on-year, as is the prescribing of “antidepressants”; depression is a common concern among members of the general public; what exactly is this thing we call “depression”?; is the prevailing view of depression correct/valid/credible?

2. What society’s appointed experts say depression is: 48 min 56 sec

Who are society’s appointed experts on mental health; why are these society’s appointed experts; what do society’s appointed experts say depression is; the global mental health care hierarchy; depression is – a medical illness; a medical disease; a leading cause of disability and burden of disease globally; a mental illness; a mental disorder; a mood disorder; a biological – and therefore, medical – illness; a brain disease/brain disorder; a brain chemical imbalance; a genetic – and therefore medical – illness; a medical illness just like diabetes; endogenous or reactive; there is no cure for depression; what is clinical depression?

3. How depression is diagnosed: 17 min 51 sec

How the DSM developed; the bible of global mental health; how is depression diagnosed?: a box-ticking exercise; diagnosis – the doctor’s holy grail; the DSM and the ICD (International Classification of Diseases) developed in parallel; a brief history of the DSM; major differences in diagnostic practice regarding depression and PTSD; current depression criteria and guidelines relate back to the 1980 DSM III; the nine DSM depression criteria; the DSM is widely assumed to be accurate/ scientific/valid/beyond questioning.

4. How depression is diagnosed, a critique: 01 hr 02 min 52 sec

The nine criteria for depression diagnosis; the DSM as the bible in global mental health; how depression is diagnosed; why five criteria for a depression diagnosis?; “consensus”; “arbitrary”; evidence-based or faith-based?; the hierarchy of mental health professionals; how valid is the DSM? reliability versus validity; the explosive impact of DSM III (published in 1980); How “mental disorders” get included in the DSM; depression as an example of the medicalisation of human distress; no biological markers; what “antidepressants” do; “power imbalances” – the United Nations on mental health; two “total knowledge wipeouts”; a brief history of the DSM; “depressive reactions” included in early DSMs, removed in later editions; now when what “we know” actually means “we now believe” repeatedly resorting to logical fallacies.

5. Depression as a verified medical illness, a critique: 01 hr 11 min 23 sec

Is depression truly a medical illness/medical disease?; what exactly is a medical disease/medical illness?; is depression a verified medical illness/medical disease?; is depression really a biological – and therefore, medical – illness/disease?; is depression really/truthfully a brain disease/brain disorder?; what constitutes a medical disease/medical illness?; key characteristics of a medical disease/medical illness; how a medical disease is diagnosed; the three pillars of medical diagnosis; five verified medical brain diseases meeting the criteria for a medical disease; does depression meet the long-established medical criteria for a medical brain disease/illness; how depression is diagnosed; depression as referred to in medical pathology textbooks; who treats abnormalities of brain function?; brain is depression due to abnormalities in brain function?; is depression included in reputable lists of verified brain/neurological disorders?; who are society’s appointed brain experts?; neuroscience and depression; is depression a medical illness just like diabetes?

6. Depression, a chemical imbalance, a critique: 33 min 12 sec

Depression and brain chemical imbalances – the truth; characteristics of verified medical chemical imbalance diseases; examples of verified medical chemical imbalance diseases; normal and abnormal levels of chemicals; “but Doctor, where does my depression go every Wednesday?”; assertions by society’s appointed experts; false information; “Depression Delusion”; “a false story that took hold in the public mind”; “manifest nonsense”; “tones of absolute certainty”; society’s appointed experts’ ideal position; 85-90% of the public believe the “chemical imbalance” notion.

7. Depression, a genetic illness, a critique: 36 min 58 sec

Depression as a genetic medical illness, assertions from society’s appointed experts; what are genes?; what are genetic disorders?; gene mutation; the criteria for a genetic disease; a typical verified medical genetic disease; genetic testing; what genetic research into depression has found; why no genetic tests are carried out in relation to depression; does depression meet the criteria for a genetic disorder?; the validity of “genetic vulnerability”; the truth about depression and genetics; twin and adoption studies; doctors’ bias towards biology, and why.

8. Depression – a mental disorder/mental illness/mood disorder, a critique: 49 min 34 sec

What is “mental illness”?; three terms used interchangeably; the meaning of “mental”, “psychiatry”, “psyche”; are mind and brain the same thing? Is the brain really the control centre? what brain scans show; “mental illness”/“mental disorder” as constructs – “impossible to define”; the level of validity of the terms “mental disorder”, mental illness, “mood disorder”; what is a mood disorder? The cancelling of context; the medicalisation of human reactions.

9. Depression – Clinical depression, a critique: 31 min 44 sec

Clinical depression, a claimed medical illness; terms used interchangeably; is clinical depression a specific form of depression?; what the term “clinical” typically implies; what the term “clinical” conjures up in our minds; how the term “clinical depression” serves society’s appointed experts; beneath the surface, another picture emerges; what medical textbooks say – or don’t – about “clinical depression”; putting “clinical depression” to the test; bursting the bubble of “clinical depression”; medicalising unhappiness; “a medical intrusion into private emotions”; the “concept” of “clinical depression”; what happens when two courageous Irish researchers test the status quo, the prevailing “wisdom”; annihilating the messenger; applying scientific principles to the concept of “clinical depression”; “they doth protest too much” (William Shakespeare).

10. Endogenous and reactive depression; there is no cure for depression; depression and inflammation: 46 min 06 sec

Endogenous and reactive depression; external or internal causes of depression; depression and inflammation; logical fallacies; the dissemination of false information; how well trained are psychiatrists/GPs/Family physicians in mental health?; the dissemination of false information; how the public become grossly misinformed; “there is no cure for depression”; inflammation – the latest big new idea; misinformation, exaggeration and logical fallacies.

11. Is depression an actual entity, an actual thing?: 25 min 08 sec

The medicalisation of much of human distress; reclassifying large parts of normal understandable human experiences as medical/mental disorders; “there’s no reality to depression” (Dr. Thomas Insel, former Director of the US National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH]); leading psychologist resigns from DSM committees; “I’ve read 50 definitions of mental disorder/wrote one. None are helpful.” (Dr. Allen Frances, prominent American psychiatrist; 50% of people classified as “mentally ill”?; the psychiatrisation of emotional/mental health; disease-mongering.

12.Trauma and depression: 53 min 33 sec

Trauma underestimated and underplayed, “mental illness”/“mental disorder overestimated and overplayed; Dr. Bessel van der Kolk – “psychiatry really doesn’t want to see trauma”; much more than PTSD; Major traumas occur frequently; less obvious trauma can be traumatic (sounds obvious, I know); What is trauma? The high-bar criteria for PTSD; high-bar for PTSD, low-bar for “depression”; Is PTSD really “a different animal”?; It’s medically reviewed, so we can relax, right? Psychology joins in too; being human, doctors too can have their biases; Why four weeks for a diagnosis of PTSD? 100% of a group of GPs favour “depression” over trauma; divorce etc is “simply upsetting”, not traumatic, right?; trauma missed on a grand scale; what if trauma was the basis of mental health treatment?; trauma repackaged as “mental illness”; the origin of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).

13. Towards a better understanding of “depression”, 1: 47 min 34 sec

DSM creation – where the power lies; “depression” experiences/behaviours addressed on their own merits; “depression” – what is really going on; seek the “rightness”, not the “wrongness”; seven recurring interlinking themes; a significant role for therapy; accurately understanding their inner private world; wounding/ trauma; the effect of wounding on the evolving self; experiences/interactions and their impact; the emerging child; wounding can occur at any age; shock; distress in many forms; weakened/wounded.

14. Towards a better understanding of “depression”, 2: 59 min 09 sec

Coping strategies/defence mechanisms/protective strategies; regularly misinterpreted as “symptoms” of “depression”; psychic wounding; the purpose of defence mechanisms, and their down sides; why we may choose defence mechanisms; disconnecting from our wounding/distress; the need to be on guard; the range of “depression” defence mechanisms; a simple definition of happiness; honouring and dishonouring ourselves; comfort zones; wounding and changed priorities; needs and need-meeting; short-term gain, long-term pain; little wins/victories; living predominantly on guard; their best solutions; how anxiety is linked to “depression”; why eye contact may be difficult; distancing ourselves from ourselves; why “I hate me”.

15. Towards a better understanding of “depression”, 3: 1 hr 00 min 23 sec

Mindsets; the “I can’t” mindset; “what I have, I (try to) hold”; trust and defence mechanisms; self-fufilling prophesies; beliefs that feel like facts; choice and “mental illness”; the importance of critiquing/rigour; choice and psychosis; misinformation perpetuated; suicide; confusing belief with rigour; widespread misinformation; all human experiences and behaviour are purposeful; levels of awareness in choice-making; underestimating our choice-making; what happened to “learned helplessness”?; learned powerlessness; might every (medical) diagnosis of “depression” be a misdiagnosis?

16. Towards a better understanding of "depression", 4: 18 min 07 sec

Our most important relationship; the wounded self; features of a reduced sense of self; towards either extreme /either pole, rather than the midpoint; why the transition into adulthood can become so daunting; self-rejection and self-abandonment; the challenges of adulthood; distorted sense of self/reality; characteristics of a wounded self; why feeling “empty” makes perfect sense; Mount Everests; internal locus of control; distorted perception(s); not “inhabiting” self; not knowing who/what I am, I don’t know who/what I am not; personal radar systems.

17. Towards a better understanding of "depression", 5: 37 min 51 sec

The “depression” nine criteria revisited; making sense of “anhedonia”; that word, “normal”; the brain as servant, not master; honouring revised priorities; anhedonia, from a trauma- and psychologically-informed perspective; needs, need-meeting and anhedonia; Pandora’s box of unhealed emotions; unintended but predictable consequences; maintaining defences as a major priority; honouring our number one priority.

18. Any other business, 1: 49 min 31 sec

Trauma – minimised, compartmentalised, and re-described; taking the baton and running with it; parallels between physical woundings and psychic woundings; more on psychic woundings; unhealed trauma; the overall “colour” of one’s experiences; consequences – intended and unintended; the human Being keeps the score; background and foreground; the “motorway” of life; a straightforward definition of happiness; the correctness and purposefulness of experiences and behaviours; a psychology of comfort zones; it has to be Plan A; lowered stress threshold; eggs in few baskets.

19. Any Other Business, 2: 38 min 30 sec

The most intimidating age group; wounding precedes psychiatric diagnoses; relativity; inertia and momentum; a balance between anger and tears; helicopter view/ground view; persistence, endurance, determination, will-power; reluctance to initiate; mindsets becoming self-fulfilling prophecies; the pain and grief of “thwarted ambition”; turning on oneself, a common characteristic of woundedness; financial stress; “Seasonal Affective Disorder” – winter, and summer; why used logical fallacies are so seductive; “barristers” for the prosecution – and defence; the de-emphasisation/abandonment of “psychologicalmindedness”.