Old School Gamers

Very cool. I just got an email from my instructor telling me I got a B in my intro to logic class. I think I will post one of my papers that I had to write. It was actually pretty helpful writing it. It is just a ruff draft; the point was to work more on pulling info out of an article, and make arguments based on them.

I wonder whether depression really is a medical disease?

I accept, allow, approve, and even welcome this investigation because it can help bring some peace of mind to me during my treatment.

I read a article in May/June 2006 edition of ARRP Magazine entitled, So Tough It Hurts, which is also found online at http://www.aarpmagazine.org/health/depression_in_men.html It made several good arguments as to why depression is a disease, and should be treated as such. I will attempt to pick out fifteen reasons that will back this idea.

The goal of treating depression as a disease is to relive the pain and suffering caused by depression (final cause). The components that are treated are the feelings, emotions, mind, and chemistry (material cause). The unique feature of depression is that it can affect the health of the whole body (formal cause). The person that is primarily responsible for seeking help for the disease is the person that is suffering from it (principal agent). The depression may be caused by a situation, weather, no one particular factor, or may possibly be hereditarily pre-disposition to it (preparing agent). The person can receive assistance with treating the depression from a doctor, counselor, support group, friends, and family (assisting agent). The person will often times need cognitive behavioral therapy to help adjust the person’s mind set, medication to help balance the chemical in the brain, education to understand the disease and treatments, and encouragement from as many people as possible to continue with the treatment and not give up (instrumental agent). Many Doctors are now treating depression as a potentially fatal disease, and have done studies on the brain activity to better understand how chemistry affects the treatment of the disease (counseling agent). Many people see depression in relation to the increase in stress, loneliness, and lack of communication (induction). In many cases depression is like a fever, it varies in severity, can be potentially fatal, is an illness of a part of the body, every one will suffer from it in life to some degree, and is contagious (analogy). Depression can be detected by different indicators, such as long term change in mood, lack of enjoyable activities, avoidance of social activities, and even sleep disorder (sign). In the seventies depression was looked as being a purely psychological condition, now modern technology and studies of the brain show it really is a physical illness (history). Treating depression as a disease gives people the belief, idea, and hope that it is something they do not need to suffer from (motive). A person’s feelings of frustration, hopelessness, anger, and despair can be replaced with hope, understanding, and determination by looking at it as being treatable (passion). It has been found that 90% of the people that seek and receive long term medical treatment have significant relief (percentage).

My two favorite reasons for treating depression as a disease is that it is like a fever, and that a huge number of people can be helped by treating it with medical help.

One can argue that something that is potentially fatal depending on the severity, and is treatable for a large percentage of people can be looked at as needing medical treatment. Depression can be potentially fatal depending on the severity, and is treatable for a large percentage of people. It would not be unreasonable to treat depression as needing medical treatment.

Some people argue that they were depressed but were able to snap themselves out of it. Much like a fever, it affects everyone differently. Some people just need rest and chicken soup; others will become hospitalized or even die. It all depends upon the person and the severity of the illness. Some people are able to talk, think, eat, or shop their way out of a mild depression. Other people may give up and need hospitalization do to a lack of motive to live. Still others may die due to suicide, or a lack of will to live.

Many people argue that all one needs is love, faith, a vacation, less stress, a relationship, to keep from being depressed, success. Depression can infect any person regardless of age, gender, race, religion, social status, relationship, education, or professional background.

There is a common belief that a person will respond to threats of lose, such as friends, family, job, finance, or such things because it seamed to snap them out of the pity party before. Like a fever, what may have worked before, may not work in this case. In fact it is possible it may worsen the problem, or prolong it by mistreating it.