I thought one of the most interesting ideas of Chapter 14 was about depression not being the cause of bad health, but a symptom of the dangerous lifestyle they were living. As someone who suffered from depression due to a traumatic circumstance, I see this very clearly. When our bodies undergo constant stress and are unable to find relief, we get exhausted and our bodies give up. When this happens and depression creeps in, it’s a sign that something in our life is very wrong and needs to be corrected or helped. When discussing receiving help after going into battle, we realize that men are more likely to be sent overseas than women. As we learned from the previous chapter, feminine individuals are more likely to reach out for help whereas masculine men are not. I would imagine that it’s masculine men going to war rather than feminine men, so they probably are less likely to reach out for help when they come back, leading them down a dangerous path of increased drinking and depression.
Chapter 15 was mainly just a recap on the entire book, going over what the big takeaways from each chapter were. Through all that fluff, I drew out the main point of the reading: our health derives from how we live our lives, highlighting the importance of the biopsychosocial model. We’ve clearly been focusing too much on the medical side of health and not enough on what is causing health issues in our social lives and emotional state. I found this pretty interesting because it really gives us back control to live a long life. If we want to be healthier, the steps have been laid out for us to act on. I for one know that there are definitely some aspects of my life that I would like to change to inflict a more positive environment on my life.
I also found it interesting that depression was a symptom of a dangerous lifestyle the people had been living. I like how you connected the book to your personal experiences as well. I think that most of the time when we go through a traumatic experience we tend to keep it to ourselves and not really talk about it which can affect our bodies in a negative way. It’s fascinating how much benefit seeking help can play in our well being. It would be interesting for a study to be done on women in the military and whether they tend to seek help more than men in the military, regarding their traumatic experiences. After reading chapter 15 I realized that the book is trying to help us gain control over our lives in hopes that we live longer. I definitely agree that their are some aspects of my life I would like to change to make myself “healthier” all around.