More Good News

This article is both vindicating and sobering. Vindicating, because I've been supposing to my therapist for a while now about the possibility that there is something structurally wrong with my brain because I'm depressed, and sobering because of information like this:

• The newest evidence indicates that recurrent depression is in fact a neurodegenerative disorder, disrupting the structure and function of brain cells, destroying nerve cell connections, even killing certain brain cells, and precipitating cognitive decline. At the very least, depression sets up neural roadblocks to the processing of information and keeps us from responding to life's challenges.
  
• Human emotions take shape in a neural circuit involving several key brain structures, including the hippocampus, the amygdala, and the prefrontal cortex. In depression, faulty circuitry fails both in generating positive feelings and inhibiting disruptive negative ones.
  

Emphasis mine.

Fascinating, yet scary.