Psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, Founding Rector of Üsküdar Üniversitesi, was the live broadcast guest of the event titled ‘Depression and Recipes for Salvation’ organized by Marmaris District Mufti’s Office. In the program broadcast live on Facebook, Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan made important evaluations about the main causes, dimensions, and treatment processes of depression. Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan; “In depression, therapy is important along with treatment. Medication alone is not enough. There are thought disorders, various negative value judgments, and many erroneous thoughts that cause depression. If we find and remove them in therapy, we also ensure that one does not fall into depression again.” he said. Tarhan, stating that if our life philosophy is correct, we become more resistant to depression, noted that the virus of depression is selfishness, and where there is selfishness, there is loneliness, and where there is loneliness, unhappiness is experienced.
“In Positive Psychology, we call protecting against and preventing depression ‘psychological resilience’”
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, who explained the concept of psychological resilience through personality structures in the interview moderated by Mustafa Kılınç, stated, “In Positive Psychology, we call protecting against and preventing depression ‘psychological resilience’. Who has it? He tried to explain these people by making three analogies. Tarhan; “There are sponge-type people. They absorb everyone’s stress around them and always suffer. They always complain, moan, cry, there is sadness. They are unfair to themselves, they oppress themselves, but they are sacrificial and well-intentioned. If there is such a person at home, everyone’s joy and pleasure disappear. Second are Teflon-type people; they don’t burn themselves but burn those inside them. Teflon-type people are so selfish and think of their own interests that they take no responsibility. They say, ‘Everyone should serve me.’ They only pursue their own interests. These people also fear being ordinary. They can never feel comfortable because they have feelings of arrogance and superiority, saying, ‘I must always be successful, everyone must praise me, I am the best.’ They appear carefree, look relaxed, but constantly see themselves as walking on a high mountain. They live with the fear of falling at any moment. Think of a businessman who constantly postpones bankruptcy. He can’t enjoy life. Teflon types are like that. They always blame others. They appear flawless, relaxed, and carefree, but they are not happy. The third type are rubber-type people. These are healthy. They experience stress, they flex, but after the stress passes, they return to their original state. They are flexible yet durable. We need to make ourselves like rubber in the face of events. If you don’t do this, in one case you experience narcissism. You endure, you endure, and then you suddenly break. In the other, you absorb like a sponge, absorb, and eventually explode. Both become candidates for depression.”
“In depression, therapy is important along with treatment”
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, stating that they work on the thoughts that cause depression during the treatment process and thus prevent the recurrence of the process; “In depression, therapy is important along with treatment. Medication alone is not enough. There are thought disorders, various negative value judgments, and many erroneous thoughts that cause depression. If we find and remove them in therapy, we also ensure that one does not fall into depression again. If the feeling of sadness or distress has a reason, the state of sadness is related to that reason. Humans are not mechanical beings. We are not like robots. Melancholy, joy, sorrow are inherent to humans and are expected things. If there is such an emotional state, a person will immediately analyze it. They will say, ‘If there is a remedy for what I am sad about, I will do it, it’s not worth being sad. If there is no remedy, even if I am sad, the result will not change, so it’s still not worth being sad.’ If sadness has an object, we overcome the sad mood with a problem-solving method. If sadness has no object, meaning it is causeless, if the person cannot say it’s due to this or that, then this disease is major depression. There might be an initiating event, a stressor.”
What are the symptoms of depression…?
Tarhan, drawing attention to the main symptoms of depression, clarified the symptoms and stages that cause depression with examples. Tarhan; “There are 8 main symptoms of depression. The first is ‘not enjoying life’; for example, one doesn’t want to pick up a glass of water and put it somewhere else. For a housewife, washing a single glass seems like a monumental task; for a person, going to work seems overwhelming. In the morning, one wakes up thinking, ‘Why did I wake up today? How will I get through today until evening?’ and finds no taste or pleasure in anything. Living like this for three days, five days, or a month is so difficult that only those who experience it can understand. If your leg is broken, it hurts, but you endure it. You say it will pass with time. But this is something else; a person literally suffers, but psychologically. Just as we feel pain when our physical integrity is disrupted, we feel distress when our psychological integrity is threatened. We feel anxiety, fear. This is one of the sub-symptoms of depression. There is a feeling of sadness, loss of pleasure, sorrow, and grief. The second is the loss of the pleasure of life and the desire to derive pleasure from things in life.”
“One should not confuse depression with schizophrenia”
Tarhan, explaining the difference between depression and schizophrenia; “When we say schizophrenia, unlike depression, schizophrenia is a mental illness. Schizophrenia is a brain disease, and depression is also a brain disease. But a person with depression is aware of the illness; there is illness insight. However, a person with schizophrenia does not accept that they are ill. For example, a person with schizophrenia might say, ‘I am not ill, you are ill.’ Their reasoning is impaired, and a schizophrenic lives in a different reality. They live detached from reality. Therefore, the diagnosis of a person with schizophrenia and a person with depression are very different; they are easily distinguished. Currently, Turkey has made great progress in this regard compared to the past, with such an understanding of psychiatry, but not only in Turkey but all over the world, many psychiatric patients go to non-psychiatric medical fields before psychiatry. That is, they go to internal medicine before psychiatry, they go to other branches, and most of them turn out to have depression. For example, I never forget, my colleagues in internal medicine say that 50% of the patients who come to me are your patients. They give antidepressants and if it doesn't get better, they say go to a psychiatrist.” he said.
“When serotonin decreases in the brain, thoughts of death begin to come to mind”
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, drawing attention to suicide attempts seen in advanced depression and the effect of faith on the patient in such cases; “The brains of people with depression remember death more often. We are currently caught up in the allure of the world. Unless something happens close to us, death doesn’t even come to mind. But when serotonin decreases in the brain, thoughts of death begin to come to mind. Thinking about death is not enough for suicide. There might be thoughts of death, but after that, there must be an intention to die. One will say, ‘I can’t bear this life anymore. I want to die.’ There are those who pray, ‘Oh Allah, give me an illness so I can die.’ There are those who say, ‘It would be better if I got cancer.’ This becomes a desire to die. The person then starts making plans related to dying. If they don’t have something strong to hold onto, they commit suicide. One day, an educated family from Samsun came. Their father was depressed, and I said we should hospitalize and treat him. They couldn’t bear to do that to their father. The mother was a conscious person. They took the medication and left. The father, being from the Black Sea region, naturally couldn’t live without a weapon. When no one was home, he took the gun and put it to his head. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, he says, ‘I recited a salawat.’ He told this himself. He said, ‘Because when I am about to do important things, I recite a salawat.’ When he recited the salawat, he thought, ‘What am I doing?’ After that, he immediately put down the gun. Just then, his wife arrived, and they quickly brought him in. His faith in Allah protected him. Even if he had harmed himself at that moment, while saying, ‘It would be better if I died,’ there was a possibility that he would not be held accountable. We cannot predict 100%, but some do not have criminal responsibility. This can be said for advanced depressions, not for mild ones. Therefore, a person who does not lose hope in Allah’s mercy can better endure suffering and turn suffering into an opportunity.”
“If our life philosophy is correct, we become more resistant to depression.”
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, emphasizing the importance of spiritual analysis to prevent depression; “In such situations, what is truly important is preventive medicine. Curative medicine is both more costly and more difficult to treat. It requires more time, resources, etc., but this preventive medicine is much more important for a person not to get sick. Here, one’s life philosophy is very important. If our life philosophy is correct, we become more resistant to depression. Not only psychiatric illnesses, but 60-70% of physical illnesses are related to an incorrect lifestyle. Just as various diseases occur when one eats and drinks improperly and does not pay attention to what they consume, depression also emerges when one does not pay attention to their spiritual and psychological life.”
“The depression virus is selfishness…”
Tarhan emphasized the need to think focused on “How do I live to be happy?” and highlighted the importance of teaching people to be happy with small and ordinary things. Prof. Dr. Tarhan; “Instead of changing the world, change yourself, or start changing the world with yourself, we say. These are the teachings of our Anatolian wisdom. This is a form of expressing gratitude. To know how to be grateful, to succeed in being happy with the small things you have, means to thank the giver of that blessing. But what does Western philosophy, modernism teach us? It says, ‘Want more.’ It promotes self-centeredness; we are in an age of egoism. Can a person succeed in being happy in an age where selfishness has multiplied to this extent? If you are looking for the depression virus, its name is selfishness. Where there is selfishness, there is loneliness, and where there is loneliness, there is unhappiness. In this age, the philosophy of life has also changed. There are two types of happiness. Pleasure-oriented happiness, called the hedonistic calendar. Wealth, money, fame, sex, etc. one finds happiness with these. These are temporary; you cannot be truly happy with them.”