charlotte dowson, page-101

Just on the popular concept that depression is the result of a chemical imbalance, there has never been any biochemical test that has actually demonstrated this.

Google something like "biochemical tests which demonstrate depression is caused by chemical imbalance" and you will come up with multiple references, all of which that I've ever seen agree that no such test exists.
Here is just one:
http://chriskresser.com/the-chemical-imbalance-myth

eg if your doctor suspects you are anaemic he can have you tested for iron levels: ditto eg thyroid function etc etc.
But there is no blood test which shows a deficiency in any neurotransmitter or other substance that is known to be the cause of depression.

The drugs do appear to work for some people, but why has never actually been properly established.

Sometimes belief is everything and the simple expectation that "this prescription will lift your mood" may be enough to enable many to feel better.

That said I absolutely do not want to imply that the overwhelming pit of despair experienced by some people simply requires a placebo. Neither do I want to suggest that the potent antipsychotic drugs required to alleviate some of the horrific experience of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are unnecessary.

I'm just suggesting perhaps that 'depression' has become an almost fashionable descriptor for the sadness and unhappiness which most ordinary human beings experience at times throughout their lives. I don't know why there is apparently some expectation that we should always feel happy and at peace with the world. It was never so.

There is imo these days an exaggerated tendency to medicalise ordinary emotion, possibly instigated by the subtle persuasions of the pharmaceutical industry and enthusiastically embraced by the too busy medical profession. Much easier to flick out a script with the bland assurance that this is the latest you beaut fix it pill than to spend time talking with someone to address what may need to be changed in their lives.

And on suicide, how would it be if we grant Charlotte Dawson the privacy in death that did not seem to ever be accorded her in life? For her, suicide was a valid option.

Let's be pragmatic and realistic. For many people, their lives offer little joy and much pain. If they decide, on balance, that they do not wish to continue such an existence, then let's allow them that choice in peace, rather than wailing about who let them down or failed them.