Chronic Illness Q&A with Dr. B.

This question & answer column is for people living with chronic health challenges and their family caregivers, who want to learn to increase the odds of improving their health by learning to live with mastery & wellbeing.

I invite you to post your questions in the comments box below. When I get a certain number of related questions, I pick one that covers them all and I answer that one. I post to this blog three times per week.

Monday posts are relevant published articles. Wednesday posts are interviews—mostly video. Friday posts consist of questions about living better with chronic health challenges, and my answers to them.

Here is today’s question:

QUESTION: What do you mean when you recommend people stop trying to “get rid of” depression? If someone is depressed, why not use antidepressants to get rid of it?

ANSWER: Depression is emotionally and physiologically debilitating, so, I’m certainly not saying that you should just continue to suffer. However, considerable research now reveals that happy people behave in different ways from depressed people.

What the research shows, such as the studies mentioned in this column on 5/10 and 5/24, is that when you adopt the behaviors advocated in this column, which appears every Friday, your brain will begin to rewire and you will gradually get more joy out of life and you will do it by developing mastery of your own state of wellbeing.

Every Friday I describe these evidence-based behaviors to help you master wellbeing. I recommend reading about neuroplasticity. Also see neuropsychologist Richard Davidson. 

This website is offered as a free public service, supplying information that has been found helpful to certain people living with chronic health challenges. No treatment is offered on this website. The advice is general, and may or may not apply to your individual situation, and is not a substitute for psychotherapy or medical treatment.

What questions do you have about how to live better with chronic health challenges that are related to the relationship between states of mind and health? Just scroll down and type your question in the comment box. I will post a reply to your comment, but your question may not appear in this column.