Jun 30, 2026 · 4 min · 1 segments
The medical system tries to reduce our problems down to simple, pragmatic descriptions and solutions. But does this always help? This is a snippet from my Wednesday 24/6 episode, *The Diagnosis…
Ross EdwardsHost
Having a long commute is not a medical issue, right? Nothing to do with neurology, that one.
If you put it together with other factors, could that be a significant factor? Of course it could.
This is one of the other things about like the standard medical paradigm that really pisses me off.
It's like a doctor could come along and their explanation for this person's state would be, oh, you've got a serotonin deficiency or something along those lines.
Well, listen, how does knowing I have a serotonin deficiency help me with the problem that I can't get out of bed in the morning? How does that help me? In my opinion, it doesn't help whatsoever because serotonin, what does that mean? That's got nothing to do with our everyday life.
It doesn't give us any useful information as people, right? And how does taking medicine change the fact you've got a long commute? It doesn't change anything.
Once you're taking your medicine, you'll just be taking it on your long commute now, right? So you've just got like another thing to look forward to, right? And anyways, so once you've got clear about your state and you've started to find like very concrete possible explanations for why this is happening, then consider, because listen, once you've done these things, you're starting to take the reins of it and you're starting to really ground the problem in everyday things that you can actually change, right? Now, I'm not saying the cause is always everyday things that you can change directly, but I think we would be very surprised if we just took full responsibility for these things, the change it could have.
I would then ask you to consider if being diagnosed with depression in this case, or it could be stress or anxiety or whatever, is actually helpful.
Like, is it going to help you overcome this problem of not being able to get up in the morning and hating your life? Or is it just going to sink you deeper? Really, like, really be honest about that.
Because you could just work with someone and they could just know about your inner state and they could help you address that without reference to a diagnosis.
And in fact, the diagnosis might just make you worse, right? Why do you want a diagnosis? If you want a diagnosis, why do you want a diagnosis? Why is it not enough to know what your inner state is, right? Why is that not enough? Why is it not enough to say, I don't want to go to work.
Why is that not enough? How is the label helping? And like, seriously, this is serious.
Having a long commute is not a medical issue, right? Nothing to do with neurology, that one.
If you put it together with other factors, could that be a significant factor? Of course it could.
This is one of the other things about like the standard medical paradigm that really pisses me off.
It's like a doctor could come along and their explanation for this person's state would be, oh, you've got a serotonin deficiency or something along those lines.
Well, listen, how does knowing I have a serotonin deficiency help me with the problem that I can't get out of bed in the morning? How does that help me? In my opinion, it doesn't help whatsoever because serotonin, what does that mean? That's got nothing to do with our everyday life.
It doesn't give us any useful information as people, right? And how does taking medicine change the fact you've got a long commute? It doesn't change anything.
Once you're taking your medicine, you'll just be taking it on your long commute now, right? So you've just got like another thing to look forward to, right? And anyways, so once you've got clear about your state and you've started to find like very concrete possible explanations for why this is happening, then consider, because listen, once you've done these things, you're starting to take the reins of it and you're starting to really ground the problem in everyday things that you can actually change, right? Now, I'm not saying the cause is always everyday things that you can change directly, but I think we would be very surprised if we just took full responsibility for these things, the change it could have.
I would then ask you to consider if being diagnosed with depression in this case, or it could be stress or anxiety or whatever, is actually helpful.
Like, is it going to help you overcome this problem of not being able to get up in the morning and hating your life? Or is it just going to sink you deeper? Really, like, really be honest about that.
Because you could just work with someone and they could just know about your inner state and they could help you address that without reference to a diagnosis.
And in fact, the diagnosis might just make you worse, right? Why do you want a diagnosis? If you want a diagnosis, why do you want a diagnosis? Why is it not enough to know what your inner state is, right? Why is that not enough? Why is it not enough to say, I don't want to go to work.
Why is that not enough? How is the label helping? And like, seriously, this is serious.