This Integrative Psychiatrist Wants You To Treat Depression Like The Flu

If you ask anyone on the street what causes depression, and come across someone who knows a thing or two about mental illness, you're bound to get an answer like "a chemical imbalance" or perhaps even "a serotonin deficiency."

This idea has been so effectively marketed to us that we almost unanimously accept it as fact. You might be surprised to hear this theory has not been well-documented in the scientific literature. Through blood test, lumbar puncture, and brain scan, the well-meaning world of mental health researchers has failed to document this so-called chemical imbalance of depression.

This makes evolutionary sense; thousands of years ago, if you were inflamed, it likely meant that you had an infection, like a parasite or a viral infection. It makes sense that the body's natural response would be to socially isolate (because you don't want to infect other members of the group) and rest so your body could focus its energy and resources on killing off the pathogen. Once your immune system finished the job, you would be back to feeling well again.

These symptoms that happen in response to inflammation bear a striking resemblance to the official criteria for major depression. Low energy, low appetite, wanting to withdraw from others, decreased libido, decreased concentration, sleeping more or having difficulty sleeping, low motivation, loss of interest in your regular activities, and a general lack of vitality or ability to feel joy. What it means to be depressed overlaps with what it feels like to be acutely inflamed.

Say your body is inflamed by gluten or industrial vegetable oils. When you eat these foods, your body goes into that same inflammatory response you would have gone into from the virus on the Savannah. You feel sick, tired, and sad; you're not motivated to work; and you want to isolate. It's the same inflammatory response either way. The catch is that our immune system isn't designed to handle this type of trigger. Our immune system is a powerful engine, ingeniously designed to fight off infectious causes of inflammation but not these modern sources of inflammation. Human immune software is woefully overdue for an update; it has no idea how to protect us from the inflammatory foods many of us consume meal after meal. In other words, our immune system can conquer the flu, but it can't beat back refined carbs, processed meats, high-fructose corn syrup, and red dye No. 40. It's just not designed for that.

Our immune system keeps chugging, but it never actually finishes the job and we keep feeling sick, with the associated low energy, sad mood, and lack of motivation. We never make progress toward beating the inflammation because, by the next meal, we ingest those trigger foods again, and it's back to square one with inflammation. Herein lies the modern plague: chronic low-grade inflammation caused by modern environmental factors like food that our immune system was not designed to protect us from.

For some of us, the flu of modern life has distracted our immune system so much that we actually do have chronic infections lurking beneath the surface. In these cases, you really do need to simulate the Savannah man crawling into his cave for a while to give your body the adequate rest for your immune system to address the issue. The running on empty, go-go-go lifestyle, where we operate in a state of bone-tired chronic exhaustion—masked by coffee, sugar, and sometimes Adderall—creates the perfect conditions for infections to get a foothold in your body. Give your body deep rest, and hopefully your immune system will do what it's designed to do to take care of these infections.

Even in the absence of chronic underlying infections, it's still critical to sync up your sleep with the sun and the moon. Our immune system functions best when we sleep in total darkness and when we're awake with exposure to sun and fresh air. If you live disconnected from nature, do your best to push your bedtime to approximately three hours after sunset, then simulate darkness at night and bright natural light during the day.

Once you've soothed the inflammation in your body, you'll hopefully be well on your way to feeling like you just got over your chronic flu. Ideally, you'll be feeling more energetic, more motivated, less depressed, and able to crawl out of your cave.