The Grief Exception - Looking Deeper for Answers
We generally accept that the mind affects the body. Anxiety, for example, will have negative repercussions on the physical, either aggravating current conditions or making us more susceptible to disease. But what of the world around us? Can we not be emotionally or mentally affected by external factors? Besides our own personal struggles, we are also bombarded with negative input and events from the world around us. Either can make us feel like we have little control.
I recently read an article in The Guardian entitled, Is Everything You Think You Know About Depression Wrong? (7 January 2018). Contained within were extracts from Johann Hari’s new book, Lost Connections (2018). He explains that in the 1970’s, the APA’s (American Psychiatric Association) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders listed symptoms for physicians to use as guidelines to diagnose depression. If you had at least five of the nine symptoms, you could be diagnosed as depressive and prescribed medication. The belief was that depression was caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain and the best solution was medicating the sufferer. Over time, doctors noticed that anyone who was grieving the loss of a loved one displayed similar symptoms to those of clinical depression. Under these circumstances, however, the symptoms were natural and happened automatically. Were they to prescribe drugs to every bereaved person who suffered a loss?
The APA went back to the drawing board to work out how best to address this issue. Their solution was to include a clause called the Grief Exception. They also very helpfully assigned a random period of one year as the recognised timeframe for one to go through the grieving process. Doctors then began to wonder the following. If grief is natural and sufferers share symptoms with depression, maybe depression is not caused solely by low serotonin levels (chemical imbalance)? What of those who suffer loss other than for a loved one? Losing a job. Loss of independence. Divorce. Bankruptcy. Maybe depression itself was not an internal brain issue but rather a reaction to the effects of the outside world? Unable to deal with the questions that were now being raised, the APA eventually removed any reference to the Grief Exception altogether. It seemed much easier to ascribe suffering to a brain malfunction rather than address the deeper issues, which is where the answers were now leading.
Hari conducted an interview with Dr. Joanne Cacciatore of the Arizona State University and a leading expert on grief. She believes that “when you have a person with extreme human distress, we need to stop treating the symptoms. The symptoms are a messenger of a deeper problem. Let’s go to the deeper problem.”
More and more researchers and scientists are openly recognising that anti-depressants only help treat symptoms. Medication certainly has its place and offers obvious benefits and your physician should always be consulted. However, looking deeper for answers such as the underlying issues that are causing us to experience pain and suffering, are paramount in moving towards the solutions and healing we need.
By Elaina Curran, HPD, DSFH, AdvPLRT, Clinical Hypnotherapist and Past Life Regression Therapist
Published in BS35 Local Magazine, April 2018 issue
