 What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. And if you're new here, my channel is all about mental health. So if you would be so kind, make sure you hit the subscribe button. Go ahead and turn on the notification bell. I make a ton of videos. Anyways, this is a real quick video. I've never done this before, but I just had to talk to you guys about this. So there is a new book out called Lost Connections by a man named Johan Hari. Some of you may know this name or he may look familiar. He grew pretty famous for his TED talk talking about the truth behind addiction. And there's some other stuff I want to go in deeper on that in another video. But anyways, he just wrote a new book called Lost Connections. There's about uncovering the truth about depression. And like I said in my clickbait title, this thing is changing everything I thought about depression. And like, man, it's messed up. Like, I want so many people to read this book, but like, go into it with caution, because it's literally changing everything I thought I knew about depression. And what he's doing is he's, he investigates stuff. He wants answers. And something that is making me question everything, and I'm debating on whether even making videos about this is things that he's uncovering in this book. And I can really relate to his struggle, because the more he finds out, the less he wants to know. The way this thing starts out with the whole introduction chapters, like, these will suck you in. Like, he talks about how he was on anti-depressants for over a decade, continuously upping his dose. And he couldn't understand why he was still depressed and why he had to keep upping his dose. And he started researching it and going and talking to different doctors and scientists and things like that. And there are doctors and scientists who have been like, almost, almost excommunicated because of what they're finding out. And the problem is, is the story that we've been told about anti-depressants isn't necessarily true. Some of the things, just some real quick spoilers, something that they found is that 50%, 50% of the people who are on anti-depressants, if their symptoms start to decrease, it is purely a placebo effect. There was only about 25% of people who are actually benefiting from what these anti-depressants are doing. Through other research and other studies, what we thought we knew about serotonin levels as the cause of depression is not backed by science. There is no solid proof that serotonin is the cause for depression and it's causing some uproar within the scientific community. But this has actually been going on for a couple decades and I'm intrigued to see where this book goes because I'm trying to find out why these studies were done 10 or more years ago, but we're still kind of peddling the same narrative about them. Basically, some of the people talking about these SSRIs, these medications meant to increase serotonin, one of the issues is that the side effects of them is worse than what they're actually helping. So there's something called the Hamilton scale, a scale of 1 to 50. One is you're doing great, 50 is that you're extraordinarily depressed, you're about suicidal. What they have found is just to put in perspective for you, getting better night's sleep moves you six points in the good direction on the Hamilton scale. Anti-depressants on average move you about one and a half points. So the anti-depressant things that we've been learning aren't necessarily true, but what I love about this book so far is that after he kind of uncovers all this stuff, where I'm adding the book now, is that he's talking about the real sources, the real causes of depression. And we're starting to see that it's not necessarily these chemical imbalances. And the reason why this starts to make you question what you've known and it kind of makes you uncomfortable is because the story we've been told about this makes us feel better. You get told that the brain has a problem, this pill fixes that problem, and we're better, we're fine with it. But with this, we're uncovering the truth, but by uncovering the truth, we're able to get down to the real sources and the real solution. So right now in the book, the part I'm at, he's talking about a lot of the social issues and the countless studies that have been done to show how a person's environment is more so an indicator of depression than genetics or low serotonin levels or anything like that. And because of this is that we're able to start working on real actual solutions. So like I said, like this book is messing me up and I was really excited to come and just kind of make a rambling video about it. I'm not even going to edit this. It's probably going to sound crazy. I probably sound manic right now. But like, like, if you want to go on this journey with me, I'm going to leave a link to the book right below in the description and in the comments. Like, I would love if some of you out there who are interested in learning more about mental health like this is what I do. This is how I make content for you guys. So I would love if some of you joined me on this journey of reading this book that's messing up my brain. But through this, we're going to find some solutions. All right. So if you liked this video, give it a thumbs up. If you're new here and don't think I'm crazy, make sure you click that little round subscribe button. If you want to see some other less crazy videos of mine, make sure you click her top on one of the thumbnails right there. All right. Thanks for watching me with me. Again, check out the book. It's in the description and let me know what you think about it. All right. But I will see you all very soon. Bye.