An interesting insight in chapter 14 is that depression is more like an adult-onset diabetes or obesity, which is caused by and lead to many other health problems. Therefore, just treating depression itself will not permanently cure depression or improve other aspects of health. This reminded me of the insufficiency of anti-depressant drugs or purely usage of psychodynamic therapy. In order to truly help a depressed person to move on to a healthy life, long-term efforts to help her or him to build positive social connection and get used to healthy life style should not be ignored or minimized.
Before reading this chapter, I was really unsure about the behavioral-centered psychotherapy: changing people’s behavior to treat mood disorder. I thought understanding what caused the depression is the best way to help patients. However, simply understanding what caused the disorder and learning to think rationally are not enough. Patients are easily back to their original statement before treatment because of their unhealthy habits and social alienated lifestyle. Therefore, for me, it’s important to reconsider how long a whole therapy should last, the effectiveness of group therapy at the later stage of the treatment and more importantly, the importance of adjusting social behaviors within a treatment.
In Chapter 13, the importance of behaviors regardless of biological sex is evident. Both women and men live longer when they are more feminine. It’s also very interesting that masculinity and femininity are based on occupation scores. It’s the risky habits effects the longevity.