Hello all:
This post is for a small audience of the larger 24hourcampfire community.
I suspect that there are not huge numbers of therapists and other mental health professionals on the 24hourcampfire. The Campfire not seem to be the kind of forum that is likely to attract droves of them. However, given the size of our community, I think there must be a few of them lurking out there. This speculation is addressed to them and to those members who may know of teens suffering from depression.
I have had several conversations with co-workers regarding their kids and some of the "issues" their kids are working through. These conversations were often held in small groups of 3 so there were some dynamics that came into play. The child in question had been diagnosed with Major Depression. The first question that popped out of the third party's mouth was "Is he gay?"
So it appears that a commonly assumed chain-of-causality is that depressed teens are often depressed because they are gay. Popular readings on the subject repeat this chestnut to the point where it has become cliche.
I have a couple of family members who are clinically diagnosed as suffering from Major Depression. I did some research on the topic because I am nosy by nature.
I want to propose an alternate chain-of-causality. Most antidepressants fall into a class of drugs identified as selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (common trade names Prozac, Zoloft, Lexapro and others). This class of drugs can do weird things to the male libido.
I propose that depressed teens start out feeling overwhelmed and unable to compete. Then they are dosed with drugs that warp their libido. The only model society offers as an explaination for their initial opting out of the testosterone fueled demolition derby and their subsequent drug induced neutered state is that they MUST be GAY!
Conventional wisdom is that they are depressed because they are gay.
I propose that they think they must be gay because they are depressed and because of the side effects of the drugs commonly used to treat the depression.
All comments appreciated.
