Why Conventional Medicine Can’t Cure Depression
Tracy Kolenchuk, Contributor
Waking Times
Are you depressed? Anxious? Hyperactive? Attention Deficit? Psychotic? Delusional? Schizophrenic? Bipolar? Social anxiety disorder? Panic attacks? Do you have a disease? Has it been diagnosed? Is there a cure?
The DSM-5, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, is the official medical bureaucracy book of mental disorders. You might be surprised to learn that there are no cures for any mental disorder listed in the DMS-5. Not one. The DSM-5 does not recommend treatments, much less cures. The only reference to the word cure that I can find is “eventual cures for these conditions“. Cured is not defined for any mental disorder. At this time, by omission, according to the DSM-5, there are no cures. Maybe, someday, eventually, but today? Not.
How can this be true? Can this be true? Have all of the cures of modern medicine disappeared? Actually, it’s true due to a strange logic (or illogic) trick. I’ll use depression as an example, but you can pick your disease – similar rules apply.
Let’s suppose someone is depressed. Diagnosed with depression, using the DSM-5. Then suppose they are cured of their depression. How might this happen? Well, there are lots of causes of depression. If the cause is addressed, the illness is cured. That’s how cures work.
Nutritional deficiencies can cause depression. If depression is caused by a nutritional deficiency, then it can be cured by addressing deficiency. There are lots of different foods to address any nutritional deficiency. Lots of cures for depression caused by nutrient deficiencies. There’s only one small problem.
- If it was cured by addressing a nutritional deficiency – then it wasn’t really depression. It was malnutrition. The depression was just a symptom – not a disease. So it wasn’t a mental disorder. Mental disorders cannot be cured.
Or maybe the depression was caused by poisons, by drugs, or toxic chemicals. If so, then it might be cured by removing the toxic chemicals, by removing the drugs. Depending on the source of the poison, there might be many ways to address the cause, many ways to cure the depression. There’s only one small problem.
- If it was cured by removing drugs or toxic chemicals, then it wasn’t depression, it was poisoning. The depression was just a symptom – not a disease. So it wasn’t a mental disorder. Mental disorders cannot be cured.
But wait, there’s more. Depression might be caused by physical or mental abuse. If it was caused by mental abuse, gaslighting, or by physical abuse, then it might be cured by addressing the abuse. There’s only one small problem.
- If it was cured by addressing the abuse, then it wasn’t depression, it was abuse. So, it wasn’t a mental disorder. Mental disorders cannot be cured.
Chronic depression takes it a step further. Chronic depression has a chronic cause. If the cause is nutritional, or poison, or abuse, it might cause a short-term depression – cured naturally when the cause disappears. But if the cause persists, the result is chronic depression. A chronic illness is not cured by addressing the cause – it can only be cured by addressing the chronic nature of the cause.
For example, if someone’s diet is chronically deficient in nutrients, or chronically toxic, or if their social relationships are chronically toxic, resulting in physical or mental abuse – they might acquire a chronic case of depression. Feeding them a healthy meal or two, free of poisonous chemicals, with a group of supportive friends, might give some relief – but it will not cure. The chronic cause must be addressed. If someone is chronically depressed because they are chronically malnourished, and they are chronically malnourished because they are chronically poor – a few healthy meals will not cure the depression. It’s necessary to address the chronic cause, chronic poverty, which is causing chronic malnutrition, which is causing chronic depression.
But, same same. If the depression is cured by lifting the patient out of poverty, then either… “it wasn’t really cured – maybe it’s just remission“, or “it wasn’t really depression – it wasn’t really a mental disorder, it was poverty“. Real depression is incurable.
Are you getting the idea? The same concepts apply to many mental disorders. Anxious? Hyperactive? Attention Deficit? Psychotic? Delusional? Schizophrenic? Bipolar? Social anxiety disorder? Panic attacks?
If it can be cured, it is cured by addressing the cause. But if it is cured by addressing a cause – then it was caused by the cause. And if it was caused by the cause, then it’s not a mental disorder.
And that’s not all. If you cure your depression, anxiety attacks, ADHD, or any mental disorder – you can’t prove it’s cured. Because cured is not defined, there is no test for depression cured. No test for anxiety attacks cured, ADHD cured. There is no test for cured for any mental disorder. You might cure your depression. But you can’t prove it is cured. You might cure someone else’s depression. But you can’t prove it is cured. Proof of cured is not possible until cured is medically defined.
So look around. If you are depressed, or you know someone who is depressed (or has any other mental disorder), you’ll see lots of “medical news”. You’ll see recommendations for “treating” depression, for depression “prevention”, for “resolving” depression.
But you won’t see any claims of “curing” depression. You won’t find anyone who claims to cure depression – because depression cured is not defined, depression cured cannot be tested, depression cured cannot be proven. It’s official. All mental disorders are incurable. If a mental disorder is cured, either it’s not really cured – or it’s just been proven to be… “not a mental disorder”.
That’s the current state of cure, with regards to all mental disorders. Cured is not defined. Therefore, no cures are possible. If someone has a mental disorder, they can be “treated” with drugs that aim to reduce the signs and symptoms. But they can’t be cured.
If anyone claims to have cured their depression, panic attacks, psychosis, etc., the medical system’s response is “just ignore them. They must be crazy. Maybe give them some drugs to prevent a relapse“.
How to Cure Depression
If depression cannot be cured “officially” can it be cured? Of course, it can. Depression is only incurable according to the bureaucracies of conventional medicine.
If you want to cure depression, it is necessary to go outside of conventional medicine.
Maybe you noticed, in each of the above example cases – the depression was not cured by a medicine. It was cured by health. Depression caused by malnutrition is cured by a healthy diet. Depression caused by toxic chemicals is cured by removing the toxic chemicals. Depression caused by toxic relationships is cured by addressing the cause, not by any medicine.
The Elements of Cure
Every illness can be cured. An illness is cured when the cause has been addressed when, healing has completed, and when no more medicines are required.
Of course, sometimes, it’s more complicated. Sometimes, a case of depression is simple, elementary. But sometimes, a single case of depression has several causes. When a case of depression has many causes, it consists of many elements of illness. Each element must be cured by addressing the elementary cause.
Curing depression, sometimes, can be trivial. So trivial – that it is cured before it is diagnosed as depression. Sometimes, depression is cured – even after it has been diagnosed, but the medical bureaucracies are forced to judge it to be “in remission” or maybe it wasn’t really a depression “disease”.
Depression caused by malnutrition can lead to toxic relationships, to consuming toxic chemicals or drugs. Depression, simple depression, can become a downward spiral of illness. When a case of depression has a long and complex history – the cure can also be long and complex. But depression can be cured.
The fact that cured is missing, lost from the medical texts – is a deficiency of understanding, not a deficiency of cures.
About the Author
Tracy Kolenchuk is the founder of Healthicine.org. Author of two books about healthicine; Healthicine: The Arts and Sciences of Health and Healthiness Healthicine: Introduction to Healthicine.