Today I got a direct message on Twitter from someone telling me the following:

Postpartum Depression is not a disease. It’s a coping strategy.

Ok … thanks for the info …

I don’t know the therapist who sent me the message. I don’t want to malign her thinking. Perhaps she’s got a point, perhaps she doesn’t. I have no medical training, so how would I know?

What her tweet did bring up in my mind is all of the discussion about whether postpartum depression is real or not, whether it’s genetic or not, whether we can help it or not. These discussions tire me. I’ve seen this illness in myself and I’ve seen it in other people and I KNOW it’s real, regardless of the reason why it’s there. Do I understand exactly what causes postpartum depression? Nope. Does anyone else? Nope. Not yet, anyway.

We can get stuck there, arguing over whether it’s really an illness or what precise thing brings it about. We can choose to dig in, lockedin that dispute forever, quarreling back and forth and accusing each other of being wrong. (It’s genetic. No, it’s a hormone problem. No, it’s dietary. No, it’s caused by neurotransmitters. No, it’s due to the modern materialistic society of the West. No, it’s due to childhood trauma …) Meanwhile, women will continue to suffer and will still need help. At that moment. They can’t wait for the cause to be found.

Thankfully there are a small handful of ways women can be helped, enough of which work effectively enough to get us through the crisis.And there are scientists who are still looking into the causes of depression in general, refusing to get bogged down in the bickering.

Psych Central just reported on the work of scientists at Northwestern University who believe they have found that depression is not related to stress, and that the reason antidepressants don’t work for everyone is that they are targeting the wrong thing.

“In the second part of the study, Redei found strong indications that depression actually begins further up in the chain of events in the brain. The biochemical events that ultimately result in depression actually start in the development and functioning of neurons.

‘The medications have been focusing on the effect, not the cause,’ she said. ‘That’s why it takes so long for them to work and why they aren’t effective for so many people.’

What does this mean? I have no idea. I’m grateful they’re working so hard to figure this all out. I look forward to the day when we will know the cause of postpartum depression for sure. And that day surely will come.

In the meantime, we’ve got to go with what we’ve got now, choosing to reach out for help, weighing the risks of various treatments, working with professionals, and getting better.If you want an emotionally healthy family now, you don’t have the luxury of waiting for the exact right answer.