Carly Schwartz Beat Depression for 7.5 Years Through Community After 9 Drug Regimens Failed
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · May 11
Carly Schwartz Beat Depression for 7.5 Years Through Community After 9 Drug Regimens Failed
4 articles · Updated · The Guardian · May 11
Seven and a half years after getting sober, Carly Schwartz says community and 12-step meetings—not experimental therapies—lifted her treatment-resistant depression.
Nine antidepressant combinations, ketamine infusions, intramuscular ketamine from an underground shaman, transcranial magnetic stimulation and nutrition-based interventions all failed to improve her symptoms.
Residential rehab became the turning point after Schwartz confronted her escalating alcohol and drug binges, which she came to see as blocking recovery while offering only temporary relief.
Church-basement meetings and other close relationships gave her lasting belonging and support, a shift she links to staying sober and depression-free.
Schwartz frames her experience against San Francisco’s wellness and tech culture, arguing that scalable mental-health products could not replace human connection even as some treatments help others.
With addiction now seen as a brain disease, are community support models treating the symptom but ignoring the cause?
The wellness industry failed to 'hack' her happiness. Can technology ever truly replicate the human connection essential for recovery?
If new brain stimulation therapies show 79% remission, was this woman's high-tech treatment journey simply ahead of its time?