Lost connections
It’s been a while that I haven’t read a book that I liked so much, that was so well documented, so well written and so closely related to the author’s personal experience.”Lost Connections”, the book written by Johann Hari in 2018, offers a comprehensive, well-documented and wonderfully described perspective of the bio-psycho-social causes of depression and anxiety, followed by recommendations for prevention and treatment.The author starts from his personal experience in which he addressed his own problem related to depression and anxiety through the pharmacological solution of antidepressants, a solution that in the 2000s was very widespread in the Western world, starting from the premise that depression and anxiety are caused by a lack of serotonin in the brain. Following the historical and scientific thread, the author demonstrates that the idea of serotonin deficiency is actually an invention and a myth, which was taken over and amplified by the pharmaceutical companies, just to maintain and expand a market of antidepressants, to some extent downright alarming. For example, at the beginning of the 2000s, in Great Britain the consumption of Prozac began to become so high that the drug was found in waste water and later in tap water.
Starting from the exclusion from the DSM (the famous American manual of mental disorders) of mourning as a form of depression, the author emphasizes the fact that mourning is a form of disconnection from a loved one. Then why couldn’t other forms of depression actually be the result of other forms of disconnection? ¬¬ As the author puts it “I realized that depression is also a form of mourning – for all the connections we need but don’t have.” (p. 317).
Starting from this premise, the author describes several forms of disconnection that are listed and argued as the main causes of depression and anxiety:
• disconnection from meaningful work
• disconnection from other people (loneliness)
• disconnection from important values vs. materialism and consumerism
• disconnection from childhood traumas, lack of awareness and healing of unfortunate events from the past
• disconnection from social position and respect
• disconnection from nature
• disconnection from a safe or promising future
• there is also a genetic component of depression that can be triggered in conditions of adversity.
Identifying disconnection as the main source of depression and anxiety, it is not surprising then that the solution to improve these conditions is found in reconnection and restoring bonds. Thus, reconnecting with other people and doing something for others is the first solution identified, followed by reconnecting with meaningful work and reconnecting with important values. The author talks and cites studies about the use of meditation, prayer and psychedelic substances to overcome the narrow boundaries of our ego and reconnect with all that exists. Awareness and overcoming childhood traumas is another important way by which we free ourselves from the unpleasant events of the past and open our being to many other experiences that life can offer us.
Starting from the premise that “Depression is not a disease. Depression is a normal reaction to abnormal life experiences” (Allen Barbour, quoted by Johann Hari, pg. 149), the solutions regarding the relief and cure of depression are related to the lifestyle, the choices we make and the structure and social life as a whole.