My girlfriend works in a psychiartry for people with depression and she told me that it has nothing todo with success.
people who suffer from depression because of environmental factors
Folks who have brain wonkiness can't fix it by fixing other life problems. But people who are depressed because their life sucks absolutely can see their mood improve by fixing other problems.
This is not at all what the field of psychology has identified as the "general sources"
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Presumably, it's always a biochemical issue, though sometimes the biochemical state may be triggered by events in the social context.
I will share that it is both more complex than many believe - and also less mysterious. "it's chemical" gets overplayed, while our relationship with our emotions is often left unexamined. There's a great deal of interconnectedness and sometimes cause & effect become confused or are tightly coupled. In the end, we're still learning, and everyone is different.
If you don't mind, what sort of patients does she work with?
Hm, even though I don't work in a psychatry, I would claim otherwise. But I think it depends on the definition of success.
So yes, there are lots of people having depression who are successful by ordinary standards, meaning good career and money. But maybe they focused too much on the money/prestige part and instead should have focused more on doing what they really wanted. But they didn't and therefore failed in life and now blame their brain chemistry for it, instead of their own choices. Much easier, sure.
Rank Theory tethers itself to depressive experiences in situations where social pecking order is the trigger. Basically, to help aide success and survival in a group setting.
Psychic pain hypothesis, for example, comes to a similar conclusion about the evolutionary value of depression, but does so without considering social pecking order.
We know depression can also be triggered just from screwed up biology. So "lack of success" really may not be the issue in a lot of cases.
It seems that depression forces people to search for problems that aren't there