Nine big myths about depression — busted

All In The Mind

ABC listen

Life Sciences, Health & Fitness, Science

4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 3 February 2024

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Now that we're more comfortable talking about mental health, it's time to address some misconceptions.

Is depression REALLY a chemical imbalance in the brain? What's the difference between being depressed and distressed? And are psychedelics the solution we've been waiting for?

Today, Professor Ian Hickie breaks it all down and reveals the biggest myths about depression.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	ABC Listen, podcasts, radio, news, music, and more.
0:07.8	When we talk about depression, it's almost like there's colloquial depression,
0:12.7	and then there's clinical depression.
0:15.5	So colloquial depression is the way we throw around the word in everyday language.
0:19.4	Like, ugh, I didn't get Taylor Swift tickets,
0:22.3	I'm so depressed. Or so-and-so's partner broke up with them, and they seem quite depressed.
0:28.5	Clinical depression isn't that. Of course, language is fluid. The meaning of words change,
0:34.4	and that's not a bad thing. But the muddying of the meaning of mental
0:38.3	health conditions like depression can leave us confused about what we're dealing with.
0:43.2	I spend most of my life now talking about the difference between distress, which is contextual
0:47.6	versus those who develop disorders.
0:50.1	Those where the context is the context, but it's not the real or the whole explanation.
0:56.5	And with depression, which is one of the more common mental health conditions,
1:00.3	not only are many people confused about what it really means,
1:04.3	there are all kinds of myths about it.
1:06.3	Like that it's just a chemical imbalance in the brain.
1:09.3	Or that treatment doesn't work? Or that treatment
1:12.5	leads to suicide? Or that psychedelics are a silver bullet. This is All In The Mind. I'm Sana Khadar.
1:20.9	And for our first episode of 2024, we're going to wade through all of that with Professor Ian Hickey.
1:27.6	I'm a psychiatrist and I'm the co-director of health and policy at the Brain and Mind
1:31.0	Centre of the University of Sydney.
1:32.8	He's also the author of The Devil You Knew, the Mids Around Depression and Why Your Best
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from ABC listen, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of ABC listen and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.