Hey friend,

Western medicine treats depression like a chemical glitch.

SSRIs, SNRIs, dopamine modulators—everything is reduced to neurotransmitters.

But what if depression isn’t just a brain chemistry problem? What if it’s a disconnection problem?

Visit remote villages, third-world regions, or, even better, intact indigenous communities.

You won’t find the same epidemic of depression we see in the industrialized world.

Why?

Because people are embedded in webs of meaning, belonging, and reciprocity.

They depend on one another. They know their land. They live in rhythm with something larger than themselves.

But in the West, we’ve manufactured an artificial world of disconnection...

Disconnection from self

We’re taught to perform, to produce, to scroll—rarely to feel.

Trauma is suppressed. Emotions are pathologized.

Silence is terrifying because we don’t know who we are without noise.

Disconnection from community

Most of our relationships are transactional.

We hire help.

Pay for connection.

Swipe for intimacy.

We’ve replaced tribal belonging with individual branding…

Disconnection from place

What do you know about the land beneath your feet?

The soil, the plants, the animals, the indigenous stewards?

Everything we consume is shipped from thousands of miles away. Even our food has no roots.

Disconnection from nature

The majority spend 80-90% of their lives indoors, under fluorescent light, on screens.

We’ve forgotten that we are nature. Not separate from it.

Disconnection from spirit

In the modern world, science has become religion, and anything that can’t be measured is dismissed.

We’ve lost reverence for the unseen.

As society drifts further from spirituality, something essential begins to erode.

For millennia, faith and meaning have been the bedrock of human culture.

But when we reduce existence to data and algorithms, we strip life of its soul, and in that emptiness, everything starts to feel pointless.

Disconnection from meaning

When life becomes a pursuit of productivity, metrics, and achievement, we stop asking deeper questions.

Why are we here?

What matters?

Who are we becoming?

Yes, serotonin plays a role in depression, but why is there an imbalance in one's neurochemistry in the first place?

Pills won’t fix a culture that’s sick at its roots.

To heal depression, we need more than a pill produced in a lab…

We need to reconnect with ourselves, with each other, with the Earth, with spirit, and with meaning.

Because what we’re truly starving for isn’t just a chemical…

It’s belonging.

—Onjae

P.S. I know this newsletter is different from my usual.

Normally, I focus on actionable insights, but some things can’t be reduced to supplements or protocols.

This has been weighing on me, and I needed to share.

We’re losing something essential. As we increasingly shape our beliefs, perceptions, and lives around machines, it’s no wonder so many feel depressed, disconnected, and in despair.

Honestly, I’d be more surprised if they didn’t.

It brings to mind the Krishnamurti quote:

If you truly want to heal—if you want to thrive—you have to start by rejecting everything that strips you of your humanity.

Because real healing begins with remembering who you are underneath the noise.