this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2025
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[–] KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

To be clear, I’m not claiming all depression can’t be influenced from external factors. And any BCI claiming to solve all depression should be treated like the plague. But there are types of depression that are solely a chemical imbalance that cannot be corrected through external means. And yeah, the “all depression is just a chemical imbalance” narrative is horribly flawed. But to claim none of them are a chemical imbalance is just as bad.

Our current treatment for such types of depression are essentially still in the stone ages. Throw something at it, see what happens, adjust as needed. If a BCI can work around such a situation and offer a direct and targeted approach to the issue, and it goes through extensive testing, I don’t see why this wouldn’t be a good potential solution.

[–] schmorpel@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 days ago

Our current treatment for such types of depression are essentially still in the stone ages. Throw something at it, see what happens, adjust as needed.

I know, and I guess watching a loved one being slowly destroyed by the trial and error that is 'modern' medication made me want to never consider it no matter how bad i felt - so this AI thing seems to be an even more dangerous trial and error method, because it seems even more invasive and less tested than the medication that's available now. On the other hand I've found self medication with plant medicine (yes, it's weed, weed, and more weed, but also quite a few other herbs I collect myself) quite efficient and safe. I've managed to keep myself going for a few bad years and have now reached the point where I went off it cold turkey - something my loved one never managed to do once he was hooked onto the meds. All done on my own terms, no doctor pretending they know better than me, giving myself the time I needed. So that's for a true stone age method, and given the fact our bodies are still working the same way as they did in the stone age I feel it might be safer than any novelty they have come up with in the last decades. Probably that's a controversial take on this, and I don't expect this to work for everybody (you need to have lots of time to be able to afford to rest and relax and have access to unlimited amounts of plant medicine).