Symptoms

Years ago ("back in the day" as they say), people got sick with "fever," died of "fever." No one could be sure why some fever was worse than others, why some people died and others didn't.

Today, we realize that "fever" is only a symptom of a whole class of diseases, and that you get sick with influenza, pneumonia, mononucleosis, die of tuberculosis, opportunistic AIDS infection.

In fact, we've come to realize that fever is a defense mechanism against these diseases, and without fever we would probably be worse off than we are.

Modern medical science has lifted the shroud in physical ailments, but in the mental category, it seems we still live by the old ways.

People get "depression" and "autism." We don't know what causes them, they affect people differently, some people kill themselves, and many do not.

Sounds to me like we're talking about all kinds of different diseases, and what we're seeing are symptoms, or perhaps even defense mechanisms. Maybe that's why some antidepressants can increase rates of suicide: they remove the defenses before our bodies can handle the underlying problem.

We need to stop treating the symptoms and finding the problems.