Depression?
- Thread starter Sarkule
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That advice works so well, I'll just rush right out and do that!etherlance said:
... Wait, I did just chuck out the happy pills and now I can't physically get out of bed. Gee, that totally helped. And we DO "live with it", it's the "move on" that is hardwired into the depressed brain as "not happening". Just be grateful you don't have it and move on yourself.
They are actually more or less the same thing, only with varying degrees of severity and duration. Depression is always a psychiatric problem, the difference is in how it manifests and what caused it. In that way, teenage depression is no less "real" depression then an adults depression from psychological trauma or an elderly persons depression caused by lack of serotonine.Robyrt said:
As for the whole medication part, as someone who has six months left of studies before I become a Registered Nurse, I would strongly advice that you leave such decisions to licensed medical practicioners and psychiatrists. Modern medicine is a jungle and someone who is "self-taught" does not have the knowledge or the ability to make informed decisions on medication.
A sidenote is that many anti-depressants and psychopharmaca have severe side effects (this has been brought up earlier in this thread) and can lead to even more severe depressions or worse if taken without consulting a doctor.
SOMEONE is moving forward. SOMEONE has made commitments and plans for the future. SOMEONE is trying everything to see if works, from pills to no pills to new pills, from psychiatrist to family counselling to psychologist, from group therapy to gestalt therapy and even hypnotherapy and accupuncture.Silent Lycoris said:
What are you doing?
Actually, it simply isn't so. When I reached my absolute lowest recently, a lot of family and friends helped out, reminding me they cared and I wasn't alone. People that take your attitude are no help at all, and I hope your room mate had someone around with more empathy.etherlance said:
as seems to be a current tred here, remember there is a difference between being a bit down (which is perctly normal, every now and then) and having a peace of paper from your local shrink saying you have a problem. If you are just down then keep busy, with anything. if not then do what your psychowhatsamajiggy told you to do. /thread
That's some good trolling right there except the link you posted was a link to some new age psychobabble bullshit and you're confusing depression(a mental illness caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain) with plain negative thought patterns. If alleviating depression was as easy as re-programming your brain and reading self-help books(which in both cases requires very little effort) then it wouldn't be a problem.khaimera said:
People are assholes. I'm only half-kidding when I say that the road to wellness sometimes begins with understanding that deeply, so you can move on from it. Repeat it to yourself until you don't take their bullshit personally anymore.
As a sufferer of severe depression for many, many years, I can say that it is possible to "get over it" to a degree - eventually - but it requires retraining yourself, sometimes over decades, to think differently in certain situations.
I didn't have a doctor to go to, but I'm not sure how it would have helped to have one. Maybe cut down on the time it took me to become a more fully functional person. But a severely depressed person who remains so over years and years doesn't need a doctor to tell him he is clinically depressed. Just to write prescriptions, and believe me, I'm the sort who would have been worse off with the meds.
It's hard, but you can change the way you think and react, and therefore, the way your brain reacts chemically to situations, given time, a lot of work, and with a great degree of faith in yourself, and/or something else, whether it be religion or the Constitution or Spider-Man, or whatever. But it is difficult and it does take a long time and it requires committment. I had to make big decisions, such as staying out of romantic relationships for many years, and letting a lot of my past go, and I had to stick with those things and let go of my fear of change.
I still have small bouts with depression, and likely always will. It's chemical and it's wiring. But maintaining a full life with lots to do and be committed to, helps a lot. And, yes, so did getting fit. I was never really overweight (because I tended not to eat when going through the worst periods), but beginning a regimen of basketball after work during a really crucial time did a lot for me, as did getting back on the bicycle.
All those things helped me change the way I think of myself so that the chemicals and wiring don't get to win anymore.
As a sufferer of severe depression for many, many years, I can say that it is possible to "get over it" to a degree - eventually - but it requires retraining yourself, sometimes over decades, to think differently in certain situations.
I didn't have a doctor to go to, but I'm not sure how it would have helped to have one. Maybe cut down on the time it took me to become a more fully functional person. But a severely depressed person who remains so over years and years doesn't need a doctor to tell him he is clinically depressed. Just to write prescriptions, and believe me, I'm the sort who would have been worse off with the meds.
It's hard, but you can change the way you think and react, and therefore, the way your brain reacts chemically to situations, given time, a lot of work, and with a great degree of faith in yourself, and/or something else, whether it be religion or the Constitution or Spider-Man, or whatever. But it is difficult and it does take a long time and it requires committment. I had to make big decisions, such as staying out of romantic relationships for many years, and letting a lot of my past go, and I had to stick with those things and let go of my fear of change.
I still have small bouts with depression, and likely always will. It's chemical and it's wiring. But maintaining a full life with lots to do and be committed to, helps a lot. And, yes, so did getting fit. I was never really overweight (because I tended not to eat when going through the worst periods), but beginning a regimen of basketball after work during a really crucial time did a lot for me, as did getting back on the bicycle.
All those things helped me change the way I think of myself so that the chemicals and wiring don't get to win anymore.
I don't know why, but I laughed at your comparison. It really highlights how silly these people are being.TheSeventhLoneWolf said:
"What do you mean, you have terminal lung cancer? Man up and kick that metastatizing bastard's ass. Oh, you're saying you can't even get out of bed? Man, you are a right weakling."
Well I'm manic-Depressive or whatever the hell they call it these days. I get periods of extreme highs where everything in the world is great, and then the occasional 'crash'. I was on meds for bit but they made me nauseous and gave me insomnia. I took myself off the meds (those were some fun withdrawls) and started doing more meditative therapy (with the help of a shrink). I now identify when I'm crashing and try to work my way through it. So, I think you can "just get over it" but not by yourself and its not easy. Although its more difficult for some people (due to the chemicals in the brain itself) I think that they can work through it with help (from a shrink or meds).
I "felt" depressed (god knows if I was) for almost the last year, to be truly honest with myself more than anyone else, I hadn't been feeling good for a lot longer before that, but after seeking help multiple times and ending up ignored, I was left with so little to lose personally that I threw caution to the wind a little over two weeks ago and started going out a lot more often, and things have been much better since. Strange how things sometimes work out, eh?
That said, I hate people's insensitivity on the subject. It is NEVER as easy as just saying "cheer up", it may even work temporarily, but fact is, until whatever issues are had are resolved, it'll come back like a weed that's been cut but the root's remained healthy. It seems to me that people have a habit of making it worse with their ignorance, making the victims feel almost as if it's their fault, which is, tbh, debatable, but 9 times out of 10, it's simply events and problems out of a persons control that send them into depression.
That said, I hate people's insensitivity on the subject. It is NEVER as easy as just saying "cheer up", it may even work temporarily, but fact is, until whatever issues are had are resolved, it'll come back like a weed that's been cut but the root's remained healthy. It seems to me that people have a habit of making it worse with their ignorance, making the victims feel almost as if it's their fault, which is, tbh, debatable, but 9 times out of 10, it's simply events and problems out of a persons control that send them into depression.
I had depression for... eleven years, from the time I was six, and didn't know until I was seventeen. It made it impossible to focus, I was exhausted at all times, I repressed all emotion, I felt guilty at stuff that wasn't my fault, I felt like I was worthless, I had no ambition in a way you couldn't imagine, and I could not be happy. People don't seem to understand that it is actually a big deal and it is actually difficult to deal with. I barely remember those years for two reasons. First, I found NOTHING worth focusing on, nothing was worth my time because it was all too difficult and I was probably going to fail. Second, I repressed it. I actually think of it as a dark time because it felt like I was in a dark hole. All these symptoms I thought were my fault, that I was just flawed, incapable of doing anything, and nobody was stepping up to wonder why the eight year old was sitting in the corner with dead eyes and not saying a word while the others played. In fact, the people around me, with the exception of my mother, just helped force the feelings of inadequacy. School was next to impossible because whenever I tried to do math my mind would wander to something and I couldn't force it to stay on topic. English was the only thing I could do to any degree and I've become rather good at writing, but on everything else I'd be reminded of something horrible that happened to me and I would... recede. I'm incapable of serious connection with people still because I have difficulty trusting anyone and I'm afraid of fucking up. I can't work with people because I feel everything I do is messing up in some way and I get angry at them for not doing better. I still have a trick where I can repress emotion but I'm so afraid of it that I'll only use it when I feel a serious depression coming on.
I started therapy about a year ago and got through it almost completely better six months later. It is not something you can just "get over" and I get angry when people assume it is. Depression is incredibly difficult to deal with and it's fucked up my life. I'm trying to learn how to integrate into society after closing myself off for so long, and being told to get over it is a good way to get a punch in the ribs.
I started therapy about a year ago and got through it almost completely better six months later. It is not something you can just "get over" and I get angry when people assume it is. Depression is incredibly difficult to deal with and it's fucked up my life. I'm trying to learn how to integrate into society after closing myself off for so long, and being told to get over it is a good way to get a punch in the ribs.
It is popular belief that clinical depression, much like other psychological disorders (I'm refraining from the word disease, as it's too harsh a word in many people's eyes) like OCD are the patient's fault.
Hopelessly incorrect. Though it's true that a person's thinking manifests itself physically in the form of neurochemical compounds travelling between neurons and fluids, that does not mean that an abnormal disturbance (i.e. one that cannot be corrected physiologically) can be corrected by a certain method of thinking. It is true that negative thinking, combined with stress and a strong genetic influence, can lead to depression. But that's true for Crohn's, and I don't see people battering them to just get over it. Clinical depression is hard to diagnose, as there's only the patient's word to go at, there not being any laboratory work involved. However, a shortage of serotonin or dopamine is a physical fact that cannot be ruled away saying the patient 'should get over it'. There are factors that can contribute to recovery, for instance, social isolation is an effect of depression, and it fosters it at the same time. These vicious circles can contribute to the prognosis, but it doesn't say anything about the etiology.
Why can't we think away a shortage of a neurochemical? Phew, where to start.
First off, we're not wired to try something like that. Which means, we'd have to think of devious ways, much like trying to play a computergame from end to start instead of the other way around, looking for shortcuts along the way. Since every brain has a constitutionally different spatial organization when it comes to cellular connections, the odds of it ever happening are approximately ZERO.
So, everything's possible, but if your psychiatrist says you should get over it, he's a dick.
Remember: positive thinking helps in the prognosis, but in itself is way not enough to cure it!
Riding a bike after a heart attack is good to get your endurance back up, but we don't put people on treadmills when we believe their hearts are ischaemic.
Hopelessly incorrect. Though it's true that a person's thinking manifests itself physically in the form of neurochemical compounds travelling between neurons and fluids, that does not mean that an abnormal disturbance (i.e. one that cannot be corrected physiologically) can be corrected by a certain method of thinking. It is true that negative thinking, combined with stress and a strong genetic influence, can lead to depression. But that's true for Crohn's, and I don't see people battering them to just get over it. Clinical depression is hard to diagnose, as there's only the patient's word to go at, there not being any laboratory work involved. However, a shortage of serotonin or dopamine is a physical fact that cannot be ruled away saying the patient 'should get over it'. There are factors that can contribute to recovery, for instance, social isolation is an effect of depression, and it fosters it at the same time. These vicious circles can contribute to the prognosis, but it doesn't say anything about the etiology.
Why can't we think away a shortage of a neurochemical? Phew, where to start.
First off, we're not wired to try something like that. Which means, we'd have to think of devious ways, much like trying to play a computergame from end to start instead of the other way around, looking for shortcuts along the way. Since every brain has a constitutionally different spatial organization when it comes to cellular connections, the odds of it ever happening are approximately ZERO.
So, everything's possible, but if your psychiatrist says you should get over it, he's a dick.
Remember: positive thinking helps in the prognosis, but in itself is way not enough to cure it!
Riding a bike after a heart attack is good to get your endurance back up, but we don't put people on treadmills when we believe their hearts are ischaemic.
Just my 2 cents but I wouldn't wait around for someone else to help you get better, I've found the best cure is to impulsively distract yourself with things that make you happy, think of something you want to do and simply do it, don't give yourself time to dwell on the reasons why you shouldn't/can't/won't do it.Monkeyman8 said:
By all means do whatever the good doctor says but in the meantime it couldn't hurt to say...I don't know...go sky diving? And don't let yourself talk you out of it, you can be very persuasive when you want to be
As a great shoe brand once said "Just Do It".