"Serotonin" by Call Me Karizma

I'm super tired today so I chose something I don't have much to rant about. More "white boy rap." No story behind this - it showed up on my son's playlist and I thought it was catchy.

Break the fuckin' mirror 'cause I hate the image

Every single tear I cry is wasted liquid

I fucked too many girls to count, I ain't committed

I guess being an asshole was a bad decision

Thanks haters I love

You, no one above

You, I lost a thousand friends the past, like where's the undo?

Tweetin' like I ain't affected by the hate directed every second

Maybe I should take the weapon, pow

The song is about Karizma's struggles with anxiety and depression. It's a criticism of society's dependence on medication to make people happy. I was watching something recently about how in clinical trials, the placebo was as effective as anti-depressants in 80% of the patients.  The conclusion researchers came to is that your mindset when taking the treatment is just as (or more) important than the treatment itself. It took the placebo group about 6-8 weeks to reach the "happy" state, which is how long it usually takes anti-psychotic/anti-depressant medication to reach a stable state in the human system. Because it was a double-blind study, the mindset of the all the patients going in was that "it's going to get better." It doesn't matter why they think it's going to get better - the important thing is that they believed it would. You believe that long enough and eventually, your brain starts working to bring up your serotonin and dopamine to a normal level in most cases. No chemical assistance necessary.

I strongly believe in treating mental illness on multiple fronts - medication, therapy, and strong community support. That last one is key. Some people genuinely have different brain chemistry and they do need medication. I know from experience that lithium is a true miracle drug. However, there comes a point when you realize that all the medication in the world won't fix the parts of your life that you hate. That's where the therapy and the will to make better life choices comes in. And a good therapist will encourage you to be an active participant in your life. If you're lonely, take some steps to meet new people. If you're bored, take a class and learn something. A lot of unhappiness comes from being misaligned with what you want out of life. In order to stop being misaligned, you have to stop comparing yourself to other people and you have to stop chasing the next big thing - the next job, the next relationship, the next trip, the next purchase, the next whatever. Unfortunately, we currently live in a society where competing with other people for the "most impressive life" has become the norm. And that bar keeps moving - so much so that most people will never be able to keep up. But we're so jaded, we haven't even asked ourselves if that "perfect" life is worth keeping up with. Society is sick. And in a society that's sick, the most revolutionary act is refusing to succumb to the sickness. There's my deep thought for the day. Boom.

"Serotonin" Video