TED Talk on Depression by Andrew Solomon Essay

Reaction Paper TED Talk on DepressionAndrew Solomons TED Talk on depression was one of the most powerful ones I have watched. He touched upon a lot of strong points and opinions about the mood disorder, and began with discussing his own experience with it. In understanding himself, he sought to understand depression, and interviewed many people of many different backgrounds and cultures. Through his journey, he has come to understand the disorder much better, and now he has shared his understanding in a thirty-minute, eye-opening and insightful TED talk.One point he addressed was that there is a difference between depression, sadness, and guilt. He distinguishes these three by first stating that grief is something you feel during a loss, that will get better with time. If an extremely long period of time has gone by, and youre still extremely sad, then it is probably depression. Depression affects your daily ability to do things, and it hinders normal functioning. Despite popular opinion, depression is not just sadness, it is extreme sadness to the point where it is too much to handle. A strong point he stated later on in the talk that stuck with me was when he said we use this same word, depression, to describe how a kid feels when it rains on his birthday, and to describe how somebody feels the minute before they commit suicide.Solomon also discusses the cultural differences in treatment of depression. In his journey to understand the disorder, he wanted to focus on different ways people were being treated. He traveled to Sengal and Rwanda, where there were very different rituals and methods for treatments. I thought what he learned in Rwanda was very interesting, because they were confused with out Western ways of treatment. Depression is a worldwide disorder, that is felt on different ranges by people of all different cultures from different countries. In Rwanda, they were confused by the idea of group therapy, and expressed the...

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