When I wrote about my experiences with ketamine therapy for depression a while back I had a pretty good idea what the reaction would be. People who are interested in medicine and science would likely read with interest about what is proving to be a promising new treatment. Other folks just wouldn’t be interested.
And then, of course, there would be the crowd of right-wing manosphere dweebs who like to make fun of folks with mental illness. My general policy with these guys is just to ignore them. Recently, however, I’ve come across comments like this:
And it’s obnoxious as hell to see my article being used against other folks struggling with depression. Ordinarily, the standard liberal-left response to this kind of garbage is to get upset about how offensive and intolerant it is — but instead of going there, can we just talk about how fucking stupid the right’s take on depression is? A few points:
It’s been about 70 years now since the first tricyclic antidepressants came out. That’s 70 years of anyone who knows a damn thing about this disease understanding that it’s an actual disease — not just a bad mood or a sign of weak willpower or a reflection of life choices or whatever you dumbasses think it is. We understood that depression is a disease a decade before man flew to the moon. What kind of backwards peasant-brain do you have to have to still be blaming people for depression in 2024?
Just as a matter of statistics a hilarious number of right-wing guys are flat-out lying about their mental health. Around on in ten Americans have had an episode of depression at some point in their life. And I genuinely cannot think of many things sadder than having to lie about it because I’m stuck in a culture of right-wing teenagers who have to pretend online that they’re all living top 1% lives.
Ketamine is one of the most commonly used medicines in the world. It’s on the World Health Organization’s Essential Medicines list. If you are talking about it as if it’s some kind of sordid club drug that ne’erdowell addicts have find a cheap medical pretext to use, it’s because you’re an idiot.
I realize that I am ridiculing the same people who think that race science is real and climate science is fake, so no, I have zero optimism that these basic points are going to shut anyone up. But if you find yourself dealing with any of the sort of freaks who try to run people down because they are dealing with depression, please remember: you’ll get over it eventually, but they’re stuck with peasant brain for life.