Is mainstream TV a good anti-depressant?

TV sucks

I enjoyed watching This Emotional Life on PBS. It was a six-hour documentary on human emotions shown over three days.

In the second episode there was a scene where a young woman was being treated for severe depression. She was being given an evolved variation of the shock treatment that was made such a vision of evil in movies like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. According to the documentary the technique has progressed greatly and it has been scientifically shown that this therapy actually stimulates the re-growth of brain cells in the part of the brain where depression has reduced brain cells.

But the thing that got to me was that when the young patient came home from the hospital after her therapy treatments, she would park herself in front of the TV and zone out.

Let’s make sure you got that. In front of the TV!

I was startled to see that and wondered why the medical community didn’t have some alternatives for people undergoing treatment for depression.