online conference transcript

Dr. Richard O'Connor: psychotherapist and the executive director of a mental health clinic. He oversees the work of twenty mental health professionals in treating almost a thousand patients per year. Dr. O'Connor also has been through some very deep depressions himself and wrote a great book entitled He has also written a book on depression entitled: "Undoing Depression: What Therapy Doesn't Teach You and Medication Can't Give You

David: HealthyPlace.com moderator.

The people in blue are audience members.

David: Good Evening. I'm David Roberts. I'm the moderator for tonight's conference. I want to welcome everyone to HealthyPlace.com. Our conference tonight is on "Undoing Depression". We have a wonderful guest: Richard O'Connor, Ph.D.

Dr. O'Connor is a practicing psychotherapist and the executive director of a private, nonprofit mental health clinic. He oversees the work of twenty mental health professionals in treating almost a thousand patients per year. He has also written a book on depression entitled: "Undoing Depression: What Therapy Doesn't Teach You and Medication Can't Give You."

Good Evening Dr. O'Connor and welcome to HealthyPlace.com. Thank you for agreeing to be our guest. You went through several periods in your life where you experienced what you described as "powerful depressions". Can you tell us a bit more about that?

Dr. O'Connor: There is a history of depression in my family. My mother took her own life when I was 15. In my 20s and again in my 40s, I went through periods which I would call "major depression." I'm in my 50s now and feel pretty stable, but I live with the after-effects of depression.

David: During the very depressive periods, please describe what it was like for you.

Dr. O'Connor: I was drinking too much, irritable and alienating everyone close to me, withdrawing. Mornings were very bad, I would wake up hating the thought of facing the day and my life. There were times when I thought of suicide but couldn't bear to repeat what my mother had done.

David: What did you do about your depression?

Dr. O'Connor: I got help. In the first episode, I saw a therapist who really helped me find direction. In the second, I went through an analysis and got on medications. I still use antidepressants and have a trusted senior colleague I consult with when I need help. It's a shame that there is so much stigma about getting help.

David: Do you find that the medications help and which ones are you taking?

Dr. O'Connor: I think I'm like Mike Wallace, who says "I'm on these for life." I take Zoloft and Trazodone to help me sleep. But that's no endorsement. People's reactions to psychiatric medications are so idiosyncratic that it's impossible to say what works for me will work for anyone else. Besides, I may change them some time when I feel adventurous.

David: On your site, you say that "I believe now that depression can never be fully grasped by mental health professionals". That would be a scary thing, considering that's who many people who suffer from depression turn to. Why is that? And what is it that they "don't get"?

Dr. O'Connor: The rest of that sentence was "...who have not suffered from depression themselves." I didn't say that you have to have had it to be able to help people. But I don't think you can really understand the terror and absolute hopelessness that goes with depression unless you've been there.

David: Here are some audience questions, Dr. O'Connor:

debb: Do you think the psychiatric medications change the chemicals in our brain so that we will always need them?

Dr. O'Connor: The chemicals in our brain have been changed by our depression. We shouldn't think of brain-body as a one-way street. Every experience we have, every memory is stored in a chemical change in our brain. Bad experiences change our brain chemistry and make us depressed; good events can reverse the process. Medications make it easier for that to happen.

Riki: How does one function with depression when no medicines work?

Dr. O'Connor: Find a good therapist and join a depression support group. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people for whom the psychiatric medications don't work. Only about 60% of users will be helped. If we really want to recover from depression, we have to change how we go about living. Depression is something we get good at, something that reinforces itself. We have to "undo" the bad habits that depression has taught us.

Michael: I have a theory that depression is a call to challenge some core belief which we find in conflict with our current living condition or concept of reality. What do you think triggers depression?

Dr. O'Connor: Depression is a response to stress. Often a loss of a relationship, but other stresses as well. There is a vulnerability that is partly genetic, partly the result of childhood and adolescent experience. Enough stress in a vulnerable individual means depression. But I agree with you, depression is also a signal that we're not doing something right. Some basic assumption we've been making doesn't work for us anymore.

funlady: Do you find exercise as beneficial as antidepressant medications?

Dr. O'Connor: If people have the energy to exercise, it certainly is very helpful. You have to have recovered a certain amount from the depths of depression to have that kind of energy. I do believe it helps prevent future episodes, though.