It seems like you have some sort of weird obsession about our “choice” or “non-choice” regarding our suffering. Forget about this whole idea of brain chemistry and throw it out the damn window because what you actually have here is your own thought projecting an image. The image that you are creating with thought is of an outside influence that you have no control over (brain chemistry). In reality our minds are self contained and the only way out of your suffering is through the same mind. You are really bothering me with this bullshit about how we have no choice. You’re in denial of actual facts. Basically you’re saying that our brain chemistry is taking us on a predestined thought trip.
You said that you could feel that the mood swing was going to come, but perhaps the preparing for it is what made it appear in your mind. No, we may not create certain thoughts or feelings willingly with a disorder but it isn’t about willpower, it’s about insight.
No, you are the one having a weird obsession about the fact that it is only thought and the we can make it if we really want it. I am not saying that insight is useless, I do think it is useful. What I am saying here is that you say it is only insight and I am saying that you don't know this for a fact. You are the one making affirmations and I am the one saying we should have more doubt than that and not tell people what they have or don't have.
You are the one saying that we can conquer everything through strength, insight, control. Yes, all these things are useful as I said, but they are not the solution to every problem. In Alcoholics Anonymous for example (and it's just an example), they say "Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference". They don't say "grant me the courage to change everything". That doesn't mean you have to give up and be depressed, that means that sometimes the best solution can come only if you give up on some things. They have 12 steps that are tools for recovery from addiction, and the first three are just about accepting that trying to change some things did not work until then, and they are the ground for the remaining 9 steps. The thing is, people who arrive in these meetings are totally depressed and they destroyed themselves precisely because they kept fighting as they did. A lot of them, if not the majority, have been told that to go forward in life you had to be strong, that if it doesn't work you just need to push harder, that everything is possible and if you don't make it it's your fault, that if you have negative emotions you are weak, and so on... a lot of them don't have tools to handle negative emotions and think that if they give up on the smallest thing then they will be weak for ever, complain all the time and so on. The truth is, it is
because they think like that that they end up depressed. They think it's the solution but its the problem. Not that courage is not important, but it's not the only solution to every problem. Sometimes you have to acknowledge that you can't solve a problem, and that
IS the beginning of the solution.
And I am not saying that brain chemistry is taking us on a predestinated thought trip. I do think that insight is important. I am defending the idea that B exists, and that doesn't mean I am defending the idea that A doesn't exist. If I say that we are not in control of everything in our minds that doesn't mean I think we are in control of nothing. If I am saying that diesel cars exist that doesn't mean I am denying that gasoline cars exist as well. If I am saying that dogs are nice, that doesn't mean I think cats are evil. This is absurd.
Insight is very important, otherwise going to a psychologist would be useless and I don't know why I would be paying for two complementary psychologists at the same time now. Last months I had 9 appointments with different therapists in order to find some with whom it works. I do not say nor think that insight is not important and if this is what you understand I am saying then you need to read again. And if I didn't think insight was important I wouldn't be talking here. All we are doing now is exchanging insight. Everything I am saying here
is insight.
What I am saying is that we are in control of some things in our minds but we don't have absolute power. Brain chemistry does affect everything. When we talk about brain chemistry we mean neurotransmitters. Absolutely every communication between neurons works with neurotransmitters, this is how synapses work. Everything in our brains is brain chemistry including our insights. If our brain chemistry is malfunctionning, our insights will be malfunctionning.
Everything I am saying is insight as well. Perhaps you could say that the trick is to stop thinking a mental trick will help us, and move on. To stop pushing against a wall and open your eyes because maybe there is a door right next to you. But if you are too afraid to stop pushing you will never find it. If it's time to tell the other person's truth, as you are doing with me, then perhaps you are too afraid of your own negative emotions, for good or bad reasons, and your running away from them at all cost with self generated hope is what is keeping you dissociated, who knows?
And no, I don't think mood disorders are caused just by expecting to have a mood disorder. People who have a manic episode and start running naked in the street or jump by the window because they think they can fly are not lacking insight about the fact tha humans can't fly. They can't control it through insight, otherwise knowing about gravity would be enough to save them. And between people who are just a little depressed and people who are completely delirious there is a whole range of possible experiences and at some point insight is certainly not enough. And you don't know where I did stand in this range so you can't know if I could have prevented or not with insight.
Maybe expectation plays a role in many things, but if you think that this is just how mood disorders work then maybe you have found the cure to mood disorders. Just by thinking for 20 seconds about Trith's comment on an anonymous forum you debunked decades of research by generations of specialists who have done years of study on that topic. Or, you are going full Dunning-Kruger.