A Different Prescription for Depression

Writer Andrew Solomon, in his own words, “lived for a long time with blinding depression.”

As he got better, he became very interested in treatments for depression. Although he started with a firm belief in the effectiveness of traditional Western treatment models, such as medication and talk therapy, he gradually came around to a much different point of view.

As a writer, his work and life allowed him to research different remedies, with the underlying philosophy that different things—sometimes, almost anything—may work for different people, because only we know when we aren’t depressed anymore. There isn’t always a quantifiable change, like a scan that shows that cancer is no longer in the body.

Solomon’s work opened him up to the understanding that depression exists across cultures, and has existed across time. And, through a friend, he connected with tribal rituals used for the treatment of depression in Senegal. His story, told in full on The Moth, shares his personal experience with one of these rituals.

Five years later, when traveling and working in Rwanda, he heard this statement from someone he met, after describing his experience in Senegal: “We had a lot of trouble with Western mental health workers who came here immediately after the genocide and we had to ask some of them to leave.

"They came and their practice did not involve being outside in the sun where you begin to feel better, there was no music or drumming to get your blood flowing again, there was no sense that everyone had taken the day off so that the entire community could come together to try to lift you up and bring you back to joy, there was no acknowledgment of the depression as something invasive and external that could actually be cast out again.

"Instead they would take people one at a time into these dingy little rooms and have them sit around for an hour or so and talk about bad things that had happened to them. We had to ask them to leave.”

When I read this account, it seemed to paint such a clear picture of other options, ones which we don’t always explore, for people struggling with mental health challenges. Time outside, in nature. Music, or other ways to “get your blood flowing again” (like dance or exercise). And, perhaps most important, “the sense that everyone had taken the day off so that the entire community could come together to try to lift you up and bring you back to joy.”

We, in the West, put people in dingy little rooms. We sit around for an hour (or a 50-minute hour) and talk about bad things that have happened.

One aspect of Solomon’s experience in Senegal that really stuck with me was what he was asked to say as he participated in the ritual to help him with his own depression: “Spirits: Leave me alone to complete the business of my life, and know that I will never forget you.”

Therapy's goal is to allow one to complete the business of life, never forgetting what has happened, moving forward with knowledge and understanding. But, without the other elements—nature, movement, spirituality, community, connection—it may be hard to reach that goal.

It’s worth considering how to bring a more comprehensive, holistic approach into Western spaces. It fits with what we know works: People who feel more connected to others have lower levels of anxiety and depression. What are some ways to start now?

Copyright 2019 Elana Premack Sandler, All Rights Reserved.

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