Neurodecolonization Blog
Michael Yellow Bird, MSW, Ph.D., is an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes and a professor and the director of graduate education in the Department of Social Work at Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA. His teaching, writing, research, and community work focuses on social work with Indigenous Peoples, decolonizing social work, neurodecolonization, neuroscience and social work, and employing mainstream and traditional Indigenous mindfulness practices in tribal communities to promote health and wellbeing. He can be reached by email at: mjy9@humboldt.edu
DECEMBER 2011
MINDING THE INDIGENOUS MIND & MINDING DEPRESSION IN INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES
Mindful Greetings Friends and Relatives,
The venerable Lama Yeshe once said, "Our problem is that inside us there's a mind going, 'Impossible, impossible, impossible. I can't, I can't, I can't.' We have to banish that mind from this solar system. Anything is possible; everything is possible. Sometimes you feel that your dreams are impossible, but they're not. Human beings have great potential; they can do anything. The power of the mid is incredible, limitless." This colums in the first of a two part series focusing on depressions and Indigenous Peoples. In this column I discuss what depression is, my experience with depression, its causes, costs, and incidence among Native communities and others. In my next column I will share why I have problems with the use of antidepressant medications to treat depression, and how alternative/complementary approaches such as mindfulness and traditional tribal healing practices can be used to knoct out this condition. I will also share some important research from a branch of neuroscience called cultural neuroscience that has identified a human gen for "collectivist behaviro" and how this gene creates greater well being and good health in a community and protects individuals against depression.
Depression and Me and Colonialism Makes Three
Recently, I had an email conversation with a former graduate social work student that is interested in doing research on depression and Indigenous men as part of her Ph.D. studies. Knowing my interest in the topic she asked if I would collaborate with her; I was happy to say yes. Our discussions brought back memories when I dealt with my own bouts of depression and what I learned over the years about its causes and treatment. Over the years I've come to understand that the vector for my depression were the many ignominious faces of colonialism.
Some time ago I was diagnosed with moderate clinical depression and experienced its unmistakable effects: I found it very difficult to concentrate on my work (I was working on my Ph.D. at the time); I kept having dreams of death, dead people, dead relatives, and traumatic swcenes (which I was told was associated with the PTSD that accompanies the direct and indirect witnessing of multiple deaths, violence, and loss). Traumatic memories of racism, abuse, and helplessness, long-stored away in my hippocampus, were reawakened with a vengeance. I woke up each morning and went to bed each night with feelings of anxiety throughhout my body. In the mornings I laid in bed longer than usual and had to push myself to keep moving, to keep thinking, to keep alive; I found little meaning in food or eating and I lost my appetite and wight without trying; I developed food sensitivities, skin disorders, and gastrointestinal distrubances; and I felt a deep sense of the blues and the weight of the world on my shoulders. There were times when I thought that I would never get better and I would live the rest of my live in these states.
I met with a doctor and was prescribed an antidepressant medication which I took for a few months. I felt like I improved and then went off the medication. Some months later the feelings of depression came back and I was prescribed another antidepressant by another physician. The side effects from this new medication were mild but troubling and I soon abandoned this drug. In both instances, my doctors told me I needed to stay on the medication if I was to get better and that I would get used to the side effects or they would go away. Intuitively, I knew that there were better, more effective natural courses of action that I could take that didn't involve antidepressant medications that merely suppressed my symptions. One of the main approaches I had employed before my prescription years was the practice of meditation. At the time it was not referred to mindulness. After my last fling with antidepressants in 2006 I returned to mindfulness preactices and found lasting relief. In the next column I will talk more about what unfolded through my mindfulness practices as I treated the depression that had invaded my mind, body, and spirit. Ever since my expereince with this condition I have maintained an active interest in its causes, incidence, and treatment. Overall, I have remained impressed with how minduflness and other traditional tribal healing practices have been used to succesfully treat depression, and in most cases, are superior approaches to the use of antidepressant medications.
I am pleased with my former student's decision to study the connections between depression and Native men. Depression not only affets Indigenous Peoples, it is a global phenomenon and is expected to continue to rise amon many different populations throughout the world. In fact, the World Health Organization reports that depression was the leading cause of disability and was the 4th leading contributor to the global burden of disease in 2000. The organization forecasts that by the year 2020, depression is projected to move into the 2nd leading cause of disability for all ages and both sexes. According to the medscape medical website, the current economic cost of depressive illness is estmated to be 30-44 billion dollars a year in the United States alone.
What is Depression?
Depression is a major public health epidemic plauging individuals and communities throughout the world. Psychologists refere to depression as a whole body illness. It causes intense emotional pain, helplessness, hopelessness, loss of sleep, and interest in life. It si strongly assoicated with suicide, throughts of death, chronic fatigue, sadness, and negative emotions. To cope, some suffere silently until they no longer can and turn to suicide or other forms of ciolence against themselves as a solution. Others turn to self-medication, finding comfort in food, sex, drugs, sleep, withdrawal, tobacco, or alcohol. Depression is thought to be influenced by many different (or a combination of) factors including: social oppression, toxins in the environment, allergies, dietary choices, and thinking patterns. These factors can play a huge role in influencing the chemistry of our brains and bodies and result in "chemical imbalances." The Insight Journal website lists the following chemical imbalances, which are believed to play a major role in emotional illnesses such as depression:
- Reduced availability of neurotransmitters like Serotonin, Dopamine, Norepinephrine, GABA, and Acetyelcholine.
- Increased levels of toxic neurochemicals such as Homocysteine.
- Lower levels of serum Magnesium, Zinc, or Potassium.
- Unhealthy, or deficient levels of essential vitamins such as B6, B9, B12, and Vitamin C.
- Undersupply of key factors like amino acids that are used to help transport neurotransmitter precursors into the blood-brain barrier.
- Increased cortisol stress hormone levels.
Depression. Who has it?
A large number of well-known indiviuals have experienced depression. I couldn't find any source that provided a list of "famous" Indigenous folks that suffer(ed) from depression, which is not surprising. But I sure found a large number of other folks that suffer from this condition, and the below group is by no means an exhaustive list: Oprah Winfrey (talk show host); Vincent Van Gogh (artist); Mike Tyson (boxer); Diana (Princess of Wales); Bobby Brown (singer); Beyonce Knowles (hip hop artist); Winston Churchill (Prime Minister); Terry Bradshaw (athlete); Halle Berry (actress); Thomas F. Eagleton (politician); Sheryl Crow (singer); J.K. Rowling (children's author); Rodney Dangerfield (comedian); Jim Carrey (comedian); Brook Sheilds (actress); Kurt Cobain (musician); Isaac Newton (mathematician); and Ludwig Von Beethoven (composer);. These are folks that have had a diagnosis of depression and havc made their condition public, with the probable exception of Newton and Beethoven. There are many, many folks that suffer with depression but do receive treatment. This is particularly true for Indigenous Peoples.
Kinds of Depression
There are different types of depression. Major depression is regarded as the most common form. Individuals with this type have a sense of a constant, overbearing weight of the world on their shoulders and do not believe there is anything they can do to relieve themselves of this feeling. They become withdrawn from regular activities and are often convinced that they will always be in a state of hopelessness. There is a loss of interest in most activities including sex, hanging with friends and family, loss of appetite, and weight loss.
In atypical depression individuals are able to experience happiness and moments of well being; however, they also suffer from fatigue, oversleeping, overeating, and wieght gain. This group often believes that external factors such as attention, success, and praise control their moods. Individuals with dysthymia, a mild but chronic disorder have less intense symptoms than those with other forms of depression. However, it can be more serious since it lasts for so long. This with this condition often experience loss in normal daily activities, feel hopeless, experience low productivity, and have low self-esteem. People with dysthymia are often regarded as being overly critical, constantly complaining, and incapable of having fun.
The Statistics: Indigenous Peoples and Depression
Indigenous Peoples suffer from depression more than any other group in the United States. Many argue, and I agree, that cultural, environmental, spiritual, and intellectual racism, all products of colonialism, are some of the main contributors to the high rates of depression among Native communties. No doubt that these forces are huge contributors to the chemical imbalances in the population.
In 2005, a report entitled, Invisible Tribes: Urban Indians and their Health in a Changing World, found that depression afflicts Indigenous Peoples in disproportionately high numbers. About 30 percent of the population suffers with the condition. Those that reported being the most affected live in cities. In a national study titled, Prevalence of Depression among U.S. Adults with Diabetes: findings from the 2006 behavioral risk factor surveillance system, which examined depression and diabetes. Indigenous Peoples were identified as the ethnic group having the highest prevalence rates of depression (27.8%). In comparison, from 2005-2006 the National health and Nutrition Examination Survey reported that 8% of Blacks, 6.3% of Mexican Americans, and 4.8% of Whites experienced depression. Looking at these statistics in another way, Indigenous Peoples have more than 3 times the rate of depression than Blacks; more than 4 times as much as Mexican Americans; and more than 5 times as much as Whites.
Native children and youth are more vulnerable to experiencing depression than other children. In a national study conducted by Kimberly Y.Z. Forest and others (2001) a toal of 36% of the Native youth in this large national sample were identified as suffering from depression. In this same study 22.9% of White, 18.5% of Asian children were categorized as being depressed.
The high rates of depression among Native youth play a major role in the high rates of suicide among this group since depression and suicide are stronly linked. According to a (2007) New York Times Wave of Youth Suicides and Attempts, "American Indian and Alaska Native youth 15 to 24 years old are committing suicide at a rate more than three times the national average for thier age group of 13 per 100,000 people, according to the surgeon general. Often, one suicide leads to another. For these youths, suicide has become the second-leading cause of death (after accidents). In the Great Plains, the suicide rate among Indian youth is the worst: 10 times the national average." While these statistics are disturbing and "depressing" I believe there is a way out of anything. As Lama Yeshe makes clear, our minds have incredible healing capacities and, in my estimation, they are the most powerful resource that we have to overcome depression and colonialism.
I dedicate this article to my big brother Chuck who passed into the spirit world on December 6, 2011. He suffered from the ravages of depression, alcoholism, and trauma and took his own life. Words cannont express what he did for me or what he meant to me; nor can they express his beauty, wit, humor, courage, and intelligence. I miss him terribly.
