A story about pain

I am still sloshing my way through Johann Hari's book 'Lost Connections - Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression - and the Unexpected Solutions.' As I've mentioned previously, he sets straight the myth that much of the world's depression epidemic is merely the result of chemical imbalance in people's brains. And, to be clear, it's not that it isn't true in some cases, but he makes a good argument that the imbalance may be more a result than a cause.

Anyway, there is a LOT to this book - especially for me and many people I know. I've decided I'm just going to start posting some random stuff from it here and there, and hopefully one day I can put together more of a congruent overview of it all. So...

I found this quote quite intriguing at the beginning of chapter 3 (p. 38 in the kindle version):

Ironically, learning that depression and anxiety are not caused by a chemical imbalance made me feel unbalanced. Somebody once told me that giving a person a story about why they are in pain is one of the most powerful things you can ever do. Taking away the story for your pain is just as powerful: I felt like I was on a rocky ship and somebody had taken away the railings.

Wow. Yes! "Giving someone a story about why they are in pain..." How often do we see that?!? Seems to be what the pharmaceutical companies are built on, and marketing agencies, and... shoot - maybe even Capitalism itself! The problem is... what if the story we're given (or the story we believe) isn't necessarily true?

This is the crux of the book. And it sounds pretty legit to me. Hari spells out a number of 'disconnections' that are much more likely to be causes of our depression. Whether we need meds to combat the issue or not, unless or until we're willing to address the disconnections, we're never going to get over the depression.

I'll be honest, a lot of this hits home not only with me, but so much of this book describes my sister to a "T." She's been given a story that a couple of brain surgeries have rendered her incapable of living a normal life. I am not questioning they've played a part, but I also know that many of her issues were there long before the surgeries. Also, she went through a long series of fairly traumatic events RIGHT BEFORE she became disabled. This book touches on every one of them! So I'm hoping someday I can muster the courage to recommend the book to her.

Anyway, what I'm considering today is, what's the story I've been believing about myself? I'd say for the past several years it has to do with not having any value, not being good enough, not having what it takes. And, everyone around me is probably thinking, "Yes! So when are you going to do something about it?!" Yeah... I need a new story...