I Got Botox to Help Treat My Depression [Video]

That Journal of Psychiatric Research letter to the editor also pointed out an “ongoing uncertainty about mechanism of action” meaning even those who are convinced of neurotoxin’s antidepressant power cannot tell you, exactly, how it works. Allergan’s Phase II clinical trial was based on the proposition made by Charles Darwin in his “Facial Feedback Hypothesis”: If you are unable to frown, you could be more likely to keep your expression neutral (or even smile!), and are therefore more likely to feel happy.

A few days after my first Botox injections, the neurotoxin calcified, rendering my forehead useless. My emotional inventory was limited to a handful of available expressions: closed-mouth smile, open-mouth smile, enormous cartoon grin. But instead of unbridled happiness and joy bursting forth from my every nose pore, I didn’t feel a thing. I didn’t feel bad, but I didn’t feel fantastic, either. To strangers, I looked like I was either feeling happy or …