Cut Cleave Divide

In 2005 I found myself in a rut. I was starting my junior year at the Carlson School of Management with no idea why I was there or what I wanted to do with a business degree. All through my earlier life things had come easy. School, friends, happiness and fulfillment had all somehow balanced themselves on their own in my life. College shook them all out of place.
I was struggling and about to fail all my classes that fall. I had missed more classes than I attended. I knew I was depressed, but also believed it was self-induced resulting from too much booze, pot, and a horrible run of cards that cost me friends and money. Not knowing the stem of this self implosion worried my parents. They recommended I go see a doctor.
I told the doctor the results of this depression and left out some of the contributing factors. He saw the disruption in my life performance and immediately prescribed me an antidepressant and recommended I see a psychiatrist. He was quick to classify me like so many others who have been diagnosed. I never took the drugs. Instead I began to research a little bit about depression and its recent ascent to one of America’s biggest health problems. The psychiatrist, who I visited once, further classified me a low-utilyzer. I still don’t know what that means.
I couldn’t help but think back to those times when reading pieces of the works for this class and in some of our discussions about boundary work. I read years ago that depression cases now are ten times more frequent than in 1945. Is the world really that much harder on us now than it was on previous generations? I doubt it. Carl Elliot states “By regarding a phenomenon as a psychiatric diagnosis—treating it, reifying it in psychiatric diagnostic manuals, developing instruments to measure it, inventing scales to rate its severity, establishing ways to reimburse the costs of its treatment, encouraging pharmaceutical companies to search for effective drugs, directing patients to support groups, writing about possible causes in journals—psychiatrists may be unwittingly colluding with broader cultural forces to contribute to the spread of a mental disorder.” I agree with Elliot. I didn’t need to be classified that day at the doctor’s, I just needed a kick in the ass.
I could continue for another 500 words or so about Pinker and how he is sure this phenomenon is biologically driven and genetic. I could continue about how different social groups or settings where an individual’s problems become community problems (such as the Amish) report little to no major depression. Maybe they have better genes. Maybe they have better social practices. I don’t claim to have the answers and definitely don’t intend to suggest medication has not helped many people. I know I eventually got through that rut without medicating myself and am happy I never chose to take the pills my doctor was so quick to prescribe.