On our ongoing love affair with the Quick Fix

'Deep Brain Stimulation' tested at UBC as depression cure

I cannot tell you how appalling it is to see pharmaceuticals, lobotomies, electroshock treatments, and now this being sold as accepted remedies to depression. It is downright tragic to see this as a billion-dollar industry. I can tell you that, as a sufferer of anxiety and depression, and as a friend to other sufferers, these treatments do not work! Much like "getting tough" on crime or censoring curse words, these are band-aid solutions that fail to address the core of our suffering. The only way to properly address the root causes of mental and emotional duress is by talking to the patient! Of course, even dialogue comes with a price tag. A professional therapist will be happy to listen to your troubles and help you cope with them, so long as you pay her/him by the hour to do so.

Needless to say, I've had it the people trying to shove the industry down my throat as a means to "get well". Chemicals and electric shocks and other tricks of the trade will not help my situation. We may be mentally and emotionally unwell, but we are not the problem. We are by no means "abnormal", depsite society's best efforts to pigeon-hole and push pills upon us.

This world is sick, and will continue to get worse if we let the industry push its quick-fix solutions on us and shuffle us off to work.