So many antidepressants, so much anger, so much exhaustion… So why are we still not well?
While antidepressant use in Turkey is breaking records, the collective mood of society is growing heavier by the day. Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Nazlıkul spoke to Gözde Sula about the reasons behind this paradox and the need for a new approach to mental health.
Antidepressant use in Turkey is at its highest level in history. Yet anger dominates the streets, burnout dominates homes, and a sense of meaninglessness dominates young people.
We spoke with Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Nazlıkul about the reasons behind this paradox, the limits of antidepressants, and why mental health needs a new paradigm.
Antidepressant use in Turkey and around the world has increased more than ever before. Yet society is more anxious, more angry. How do you read this picture?
Actually, this picture is telling us something very clear:
The problem isn’t just “being sad.”
Today, people tell me more and more often:
“I don’t feel anything.”
“I explode at the smallest thing.”
“I’m supposed to be getting better, but I’m falling apart even more.”
“There’s medication, but I’m not there.”
This is not classic depression. This is the body’s regulation breaking down. In medicine, we call this loss of regulation. In other words, the body can no longer calm itself, recover, or balance itself.
What exactly do you mean by loss of regulation?
I mean this:
The nervous system’s brakes aren’t holding, the hormone system is confused.
The sleep rhythm is broken, the gut system is in disarray, cellular energy has dropped.
You cannot expect the brain to function healthily in a body like this. Because the brain is not an organ independent of the body. If the body is in a state of alarm, the brain is in a state of alarm too.
So why aren't antidepressants sufficient at this point?
Let me say this clearly first:
Antidepressants are not bad medications. In the right place, for the right person, they save lives.
But antidepressants do not resolve trauma.
They do not erase years of stress from the body, do not repair insomnia, do not correct gut dysfunction, do not increase cellular energy production.
They do not rebuild the autonomic nervous system.
Most of the time, they simply turn down the volume on emotion.
But for today’s person, the problem is not the volume — it’s the foundation.
If the foundation is broken, turning down the volume only helps up to a point.
So is that the answer to why millions of people are on medication today but still don’t feel well?
Yes. Because most of the time, we are treating the symptom, not the foundation.
Today’s person isn’t just unhappy; they are tired, sleep-deprived, constantly on alert, living under uncertainty, surrounded by screens, and disconnected from nature and their own body.
Simply telling an organism like this to “feel good” is not enough.
Should we also read these outbursts of anger and intolerance in society within this framework?
Absolutely.
The rage we see in traffic today, the outbursts within the home, the intolerance on the street, the language of the mob on social media — most of the time, these are not ideological, they are biological.
Constant noise, constant speed, constant fear, constant financial worry…
The body perceives this as danger. If the perception of danger persists for too long, the nervous system stays in alarm mode.
A body that stays in alarm mode has no patience, no compassion, no capacity for deep thought.
There is only defense. There is only fight or flight.
You say it’s no longer possible to see depression as just a “psychological” matter. What does science say?
Science says this:
Depression is directly related to the gut, to inflammation, to hormones, to blood sugar, to mitochondria, to oxygenation.
Today, in many people with severe psychological problems, we see the same things at once — insulin resistance, hormonal imbalance, gut dysfunction, chronic fatigue, and low cellular energy.
In other words, these people are not just sad; they are physically unable to regulate.
So what does "regulation medicine" say?
Regulation medicine says this:
Illness is often not the breakdown of a single thing, but the inability to manage the whole.
The problem is not a single organ; it is the organism as a whole.
That is why diagnosis alone is not enough.
The nervous system, the gut-brain axis, the hormonal rhythm, microcirculation,
and cellular energy must all be addressed together.
A human being is not merely a thinking creature.
A human being is a creature that needs to be regulated.
Finally, what would you like to say to our readers?
If there is this much anger despite this many antidepressants, if there is this much burnout despite this much medication, then we have to stop and ask ourselves:
What are we treating, and what are we missing?
Medication is necessary.
But it is no longer sufficient.
The new era’s understanding of mental health must be one that puts the body at the center, repairs the nervous system,
and reorganizes how we live.
Because peace does not begin in the brain.
Peace begins when the body calms down.