Can we ever understand what we mean by saying someone is depressed? Recordings in the Bible called depressed people demon possessed The “crazies” of those times were thought to be possessed by devils. Once, while I was a child my mom was talking in general terms about some relative or other who was thought to be sort of “nuts.” “Someone spoke up, “I think she is just depressed.” Then I spoke up asking for clarification of terms. I mean, the world was struggling through the worse “depression” we ever knew of but what does it mean when an individual is depressed? Mom went back to her ironing, and I figured that this level of medical inquisition might be a little much for a Centrahoma housewife and mom, Later on in my life, I asked a local doctor about a customer of ours who had shot herself. What caused her to do that, I asked. “She was depressed,” he answered. I was perplexed. “How?” I just didn’t understand the overuse of the word.

The doc explained it this way. Year after year this woman had been kept busy raising their five kids, keeping the house clean, cooking and coping singlehandedly with all their day-today problems. They all grew up and left. Every new day then settled into observing her “dear” husband eat his breakfast, do his chores and get in his pickup and go into town where he settled all his social and companionship needs over coffee with his farmer friends. Her day was spent watching the dust blow across the fields and up and down their road—and waiting for him to come home. One day she just took a gun and shot herself. Her coffee drinking husband was devastated and puzzled. “She didn’t have a worry in the world” he said. But my doctor friend said she defined depression.

But really, what causes all this depression? I didn’t then and I guess I still don’t know. Doctors now know that inflammation is a big cause. For example, the drug Interferon Alpha is the choice treatment for Hepatitis C, malignant Melanomas and some other things but the drug’s side effect is major depression. Nothing simple about all that but one part of the brain that takes a big hit from inflammation is the hippocampus—a part of the brain responsible for memory, emotional regulation and mood. In studying how it is that inflammation develops and affects so many people researchers are studying early childhood development as it seems to be a fact that early childhood trauma raises the risk for adult depression. So, again I should blame any depression I suffer on my family, the neighborhood bully or something like that. I’ll not blame my late brother Gerald, my closest advisor. Friend and counselor. Gerald had obtained a lot of great research on and about his girlfriends but that was about all.

Let me note this too, those pesky researchers say that kids who were abused and neglected by the age of 10 are (by the age of 30) showing they have an excess of these depression causing inflammatory molecules. This condition can also feed the likelihood of diabetes and a number of other diseases such as cardiovascular diseases. And of course, these factors and poor diets escalate the wild increases in our depression cases which leads many researchers back to diet. These researchers are mostly raging liberals, so this gets us to the popular (for them) Mediterranean diets. These diets are rich in produce, legumes fish rich in Omega 3 oils, and stuff like that. They didn’t mention my two favorite foods, Snicker bars and Diet Coke. Go figure Be sure and go to church Easter Sunday, it might help your depression.

Wayne Bullard, DPh

cwaynebullard@gmail.com