I totally understand. There is no apparent cause for my depression. It hits me out of the blue. There has to be a cause but no one, including me can identify it. There is no chemical imbalance test for the brain. There are some medical tests to rule things out like hypothyroidism but nothing for the brain. I have never had major trauma, abuse, bullying, or anything like that. My family had it's share of problems but nothing horrible. I have spent the last 20 years working on my problems and childhood problems in therapy and in all kinds of ways. I have always handled stress very well if not depressed.

20 years later after working so hard and still getting very severe suicidal depressions that can last a long time I can only conclude that in my case it is very genetic and biological. Mental illness and alcoholism runs rampant through both sides of my family. Just because they don't totally understand the genetic and biological processes in the brain that might cause it doesn't mean they are not there.

I can be going along working, exercising, eating right, sleeping good, everything is going great and then get slammed with a major depression.

They are learning more and more about genetic markers, cell death and a smaller hippocampus, whacked neuro pathways, genetic polymorphisms, cell receptors, and so on implicated in depression.

Not everyone is born with their biology predisposed to depression or whacked brain function but we can't help it any more than someone seriously abused as a child or a soldier who has PTSD from war.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk