Originally Posted by
jfsully
Current diagnostic criteria distinguish between Major Depressive Disorder vs. Depressive Disorder Due to Another Medical Condition (which would include low T). I am not sure where you got the term "biological depression," as all psychiatric conditions have biological (brain) correlates. Maybe you want to distinguish between sadness or grief (normal adaptive responses to circumstances) and depression (an illness that interferes with function and can shorten and/or reduce quality of life)? The illness of Depression, by definition, may be a natural phenomenon like disease states in general, but it is not useful.
I'm going to leave it alone after this (hopefully) but my agenda in this thread is to encourage OP to work with his psychiatrist to find a med or med combination that works for his depression and psychosis without causing intolerable side effects, start or continue psychotherapy, and keep training.
The OP has reported having Psychotic Depression, which has a specific definition (ie, it's not just Really Bad Depression), and is a fairly distinct subtype of Major Depressive Disorder. It is not like sadness, being bummed, or feeling wrung out from low T. Untreated, or with inadequate or improper treatment, it can be dangerous and destructive. To give uninformed medical advice, or to suggest changing to an alternate class of medications, like MAOi, without any rationale other than "works for me" is potentially harmful to OP. This is probably not a helpful place to advance theories about the nature of mental illness or whether the drug companies overmedicalize normal experiences for profit, though that stuff is definitely worth discussing.
Sorry to be on a bit of a high horse, but this is an area that is important to me personally and professionally, and I have expertise to share. When it comes to strength training, I'm a grateful student around here and mostly read and learn, so I try to contribute when I do have an informed opinion. As a psychiatrist, I feel able to pull rank in a discussion like this, just as a professional barbell coach can and should school me all day about barbell technique and programming.