 Some of my past videos I've said things like what if there's nothing wrong with you talking to the people who have complex PTSD anxiety depression There's an article I'm going to share with you here today, and it's It's really really interesting. It's kind of asking some major major questions It's about a piece of research that's been published daily About how we think about mental illness at all and it's challenging researchers to think differently about mental Illness, and I want to share it with you because there's some really really important points that they make in this What if we're thinking about mental illness in entirely the wrong way? And what if the way we're thinking about it is kind of making people feel like there's something wrong? But the one what if it isn't the case? What if there's other reasons not to some sort of a maybe a biological flaw or like the disease model Where we're talking about and that has been relied on This is an article from Forbes magazine and it says researchers doubt that certain mental disorders are disorders at all Now they're talking about a piece of research If the the name of the research article is called mental health is biological health Why tackling the disease of the mind is an imperative for biological anthropology in the 21st century but the Forbes article kind of breaks it down and I'm going to share it with you here and I'm going to read through it and I'm gonna kind of Maybe talk about what I found really interesting in it, but what we're talking about here is is this model We have at the moment actually helpful at all so it starts off It says what if mental disorders like anxiety depression or post-traumatic stress disorder aren't mental disorders at all? in a compelling new paper by a logical anthropologists Called in the scientific community to rethink mental illness With a thorough review of the evidence they show good reasons to think of depression or PTSD as Responses to adversity rather than chemical imbalances responses to adversity This is along the line of thinking of maybe we're thinking about it wrong if we're talking about it being this chemical imbalance as a sort of a catch-all explanation for mental health problems and Maybe there's more to it and maybe we need to be focusing way more on the adversity Maybe it's a sort of an issue societal issue or the way society is organized and the adversity that comes with that and ADHD could be a way of functioning that evolved in an ancestral environment But doesn't match the way we live today So thinking put students in schools who are given this this label of ADHD Like there's something wrong with the student. What if it's something else that's taken place? adverse responses to adversity mental disorders are routinely treated treated by medication under the medical model So the medical model is that that chemical imbalance So why are the anthropologists who wrote this study claiming that these disorders might not be medical at all? They point to a few key points First that medical science has never been able to prove that anxiety depression or PTSD are inherited conditions There's no good evidence for that Okay, and that's a big big argument against the biological explanation the purely biological explanation for that because we know in terms of other diseases or physical problems that there is a Hurtability factor that's easy to prove or it has been proven Not so with these mental disorders mental health disorders Second the study authors note that despite widespread and increasing use of antidepressants Rates of anxiety and depression do not seem to be improving Okay So from 1990 to 2010 the global prevalence of major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders held at 4.4% and 4% at the same time evidence has continued to show that antidepressants perform no better than placebo That's a big sort of a negative for the explanation the purely chemical imbalance if it was about chemical imbalances all these Prescriptions for anti-depressants for instance would be making an impact it isn't it's not changing it Okay, now I'm not arguing here by the way that there's no such thing as chemical imbalance My point has actually been more about okay. Let's say there is even a chemical imbalance Well, what is the trigger for that? Is there something problematic in the person that makes that happen? Or is it this more adversity thing? Is it challenges in a person's life that make this chemical imbalance tend to come about? But anyway, they're saying here in this article that are in this research that it actually hasn't helped these conditions all that much Now I'm not saying by the way personally from my point of view that it's helped no one I've talked to many people have said it is helpful for them But overall here this study is suggesting that this the way of thinking about mental health is purely chemical imbalance Is maybe not the best way to think about it? Third worldwide rates of these disorders remain stable at one in 14 people yet in conflict affected countries Okay, where's a lot of maybe PTSD? possibilities for that an Estimated one in five suffers from depression PTSD anxiety and other disorders so it's way higher in places where these Challenges people face or adversity Is more likely to happen So taking together the author's posit that anxiety depression and PTSD may be adaptive responses to Adversity adaptive in other words like I've been saying in some videos. What if there's nothing wrong with you? What if the way your nervous system is responding is exactly the way it's supposed to be responding and these responses are actually healthy responses Okay, that anxiety you feel is a healthy response for a sensitive human being in an less than ideal environment Defense systems are adaptations that reliably activate in fitness threatening situations in order to minimize Fitness loss. They're right It's not hard to see how that could be true for anxiety Worry helps us avoid danger again. I've been saying this to the nervous system although it can seem excessive and Frustrating for us sometimes when we have this anxiety or excessive worry It's actually trying to keep us safe. It's a nervous system trying to do its job our job is to calm it down really and But how can that be true for depression we can see how anxiety it's working there But what about the pressure they argue that the psychic pain of depression helps us focus attention on Adverse events so as to mitigate the current adversity and avoid future such adversities same thing Okay Sometimes we have that hopelessness feeling or helplessness feeling with depression and again It's that the voice of the of the nervous system or that as I refer to it as the inner critic It's basically telling us don't move. It's it's kind of like that freeze response in the fight flight or freeze It's your nervous system is actually operating properly believe it or not So if that sounds unlikely then consider that neuroscientists have increasingly mapped these three disorders To branches of the threat detection system the nervous system safety is its number one job Anxiety may be due to chronic activation of the fight or flight system PTSD may occur when Trauma triggers the freeze response which helps animals Disconnect from pain before they die and depression may be a chronic activation Of that same freeze response. So PTSD and depression are things like stop. Don't Freeze. Okay. Don't go in there. Don't go back to that situation It's hopeless, right? that's what happens so The article here it says labels the way we're thinking about this labels matter our explanation for mental health has a huge huge impact on How we how deal with it so labels are something we internalize to defend Sure to define who we are and what we are capable of all too often label to limit us And that's why reconsidering how we label anxiety depression or ADHD is important. Does Someone have depression a medical disorder of the brain or are they having a depressed adaptive response to the Adversity so maybe it's not this disorder of the brain at all Maybe it's an adaptive response to adversity Adversity is something we can overcome Whereas a mental disorder is something to be managed The labels imply very different possibilities. Okay, so if it is this adversity we work on improving the environment and Cam in the nervous system to accept that the environment has changed because the nervous system takes some convincing about that Even if things have improved. So that's really really important to keep in mind Consider how we label ADHD a Generation ago boys with ADHD were labeled as bad boys and We're given penalties or detentions now we help kids with ADHD understand that they are having a learning difference Instead of detention we try to provide support in a variety of modalities and when we do the behavior problems often disappear label change To learning difference is vital Because it gives space for kids with ADHD to be good kids and to succeed yet ADHD is still a tension deficit and hyperactivity disorder Okay, so you change the environment you change the label you change the way the Condition or the experience is framed and it has a big big impact on behavior But yet it's still considered a disorder. What if it's more about adverse environment? What if it like it's about an environment that certain people can't adapt to and shouldn't be made adapt to in? Finland where Substantial physical activity is part of the school day rates of ADHD are very low Meanwhile in the US children are asked to sit still for the majority of the day and this is the case in Europe as well Elementary school students often get only 15 to 20 minutes of recess a day a far cry from the 60 to 90 minutes their parents had massive change in the environment for children maybe an Adversity added to their environment or adversity Kids want to be social kids want to move kids want to play. That's all they want to do pretty much Coincidentally, itty-hitty ADHD rates in the US have gone up Over the past 15 years and they're saying here. Maybe that's not a coincidence Maybe it's not just this a chemical imbalances have come out in a war Maybe things have changed in the environment ADHD is not a disorder the study authors argue Rather it is an evolutionary mismatch to the modern modern learning environment. We have constructed Edward Hagen professor of evolutionary anthropology at Washington State University and co-author of the study Pointed out in a press release that there is little inner Evolutionary history that accounts for children sitting at a desk at desks quietly while watching a teacher do math equation on a board One of kids aren't designed for this What if this old model of education where the kid comes in and sits there for 45 minutes or an hour Watching an adult explain something is so taric that may not apply to their lives and limiting the amount of movement and and social interaction they can have what if What if many kids aren't designed for that and a certain amount of those kids can't adapt to that and We're forcing them to adapt and if they can't we give them this thing called the disorder something to think about If ADHD is not a disorder, but a mismatch with a human environment, then suddenly It's not a medical issue It's an issue for educational reform now. We're getting into political stuff. Okay, and You know that's going to take a long time, but for on a personal level and the main reason I'm making this video is Realize this about yourself or someone that you love. Maybe there's nothing wrong with the person. Maybe it's just adversity in the environment That's a compelling thought given the evidence that kids focus and Cognition are improved by physical activity still we need to take the study with a grain of salt There's a large body of research showing other biological factors when it comes to ADHD for instance There is evidence that premature birth increases rates of ADHD later so again, there's this label of ADHD there and I think there's nothing wrong with that caveat there Keep that in mind. But again, that's just to my mind. That's another way of saying, okay There's this one-size-fits-all environment for young people in schools and some will be more sensitive and not able to adapt to that as others And maybe there's factors that go into that. But the issue here is Should we be trying to get children to adapt every child to adapt to the same environment? Maybe they're not supposed to Social reform or medical treatment. So study author Kristen Seimey a recent PhD graduate from WSU compares treating anxiety depression or PTSD With antidepressants to medicating someone for a broken bone without setting the bone itself Right, you got to get the basics right first Look at the adversity in the environment starts ask some questions about that She believes that these problems look more like sociocultural phenomena So the solution is not necessarily fixing a dysfunction in the person's brain, but fixing dysfunctions in the social world It's a fair criticism of the way we treat mental illness But the stated goal of the paper is not to suddenly change treatments But to explore new ways of studying these problems Research on depression anxiety and PTSD should put greater emphasis on mitigating conflict and diversity and lesson manipulating brain chemistry and That's not a bad word there. I think manipulating it. Of course it some people will say it's helped them and Okay, it helps people sometimes But there is this thing when changing the levels of medication and there's not really that much science behind that It's more of an experimental thing. So it's you could use that word manipulation of brain chemistry But what about the fact there's plenty of medical evidence for that? For that brain chemistry consider a recent study done in Turku, Finland researchers showed that The symptoms associated with depression and anxiety are connected to changes in the brain's opioid system already in Healthy individuals Can we reconcile brain studies like this with the biological anthropologist criticism of how we handle mental health? Actually, it says we can the changes in the brain associated with anxiety and depression are Evident but that doesn't mean that they can't be understood as responses to adversity Based on this we need to make changes in how we treat mental health or do we need to change it? Yes, and no, what says here when it comes to what labels we use a change is welcome and I agree with that Mental health recovery is part in part depends on whether patients believe they can get better Telling our patients that their symptoms may be tied to a healthy response to adversity could be very encouraging That's really the point I'm making in this video again. What if there's nothing wrong with you if you have PTSD or anxiety or depression? What if it is way more to do with the adversity you faced and your body hasn't betrayed you your body isn't letting you down? It's actually acting the way it's supposed to be and it feels very intense and overwhelming and difficult and challenging for us But to stick a label of dysfunction or disorder on it. What if that's really counter unhelpful counterproductive It's not good. It's not new to doctors. The mental health is impact impacted by adversity in my own medical training This person writes I was taught the biopsocio social model Biosychosocial model implying interconnected causes of these problems and that's fair Okay, I'm not saying either interest no such thing as a chemical imbalance for anyone But we need to consider all of these factors and look at for the majority of people what may be happening But until social reform actually does remove social causes of suffering which you know We're going to be waiting a while for that one Physicians must continue to provide the standard of care to our patients and the history of medicine is a story of healers Using the best treatments that they had at the time until better ones arrive so Very interesting paper there very interesting article written about the paper What I want you to take from this is to really Question the assumption that if you're going through anxiety depression PTSD or complex PTSD That there's something wrong with you that your body has let you down that your body body is broken or you're defective If you've got burnout for instance, it's not a great example. Is there something wrong with you? What if There's maybe for instance boundaries with certain things in your environment need to be put in place It's not that your body is having a Experiencing a disorder is your body is sending you signals That we could do we do well maybe to not label the disorder and test our listen to and stare to reconcile with so Really interesting article. I hope that was helpful if you any feedback on this or thoughts on it yourself, you can comment below and Hope it was good and I'll talk to you guys against you