Media lies hurt.

• Author: Puterbaugh, Dolores T.
• Position: PARTING: THOUGHTS

IT IS SAFE TO SAY that most people have long since given up on the idea of unquestioning trust for the media. After all, Walter Cronkite died in 2009. Hearing something over and over engrains it in our brains, even if it is not true. This is one reason so many people believe that, for instance, we know for sure exactly what schizophrenia is or what it is caused by (we do not). As a psychotherapist, I see the pain that sloppy journalism creates for real people on a regular basis. I do not mean transient worry; I mean the possibility of a lifetime of unnecessary anguish inflicted upon people who believe that the information hurled at them by the media must be based in truth.

Three examples will suffice to illustrate; you no doubt can generate plenty of your own:

People considering suicide always give clues about their intention, and thus friends and family have an opportunity to see it coming and intervene. According to A. Dadoly in a 2011 Harvard Health newsletter, professional estimates are that 30% to 80% of suicides are impulsive acts, with little or no planning beyond the immediacy of the moment, which means that family members usually could not have read the signs, and could not possibly have intervened.

Depression is a medical illness that is a lifelong condition. You always will be on medication because there is something wrong with your brain. The truth is, depression, or "major depressive disorder," as it currently is labeled, is a construct It is diagnosed off a checklist of symptoms. Meet enough of the symptoms for a two-week period of time and, bingo, you can be diagnosed, whether that sadness, uneven sleep, lack of energy, poor concentration, etc. is due to grief because someone you love has died, or to some other life circumstance, or, perhaps, something medical.

Some research indicates that most cases of depression will improve within seven weeks whether you do anything to treat it or not. Plenty of evidence shows that lifestyle changes such as proper sleep, diet, and exercise, plus social supports and a bit of emotional support via therapy, will create improvement in less time and leave you more resilient the next time life throws you a challenge (which, of course, it will).

You can find a wealth of scientific research as well as specific steps to apply that research to real life in Stephen Dardi's informative 2009 book, The Depression Cure: The 6-Step Program to Beat Depression without Drugs. There is plenty of other...