Poll: What do you think of depression?

[Warlord211]

I had depression a couple years ago. I got over it, but I'm a rare case where I didn't need medication or anything. It was depression that was brought on by the environment I was in. I left that place and a year later I felt like a new person. I never really told anyone and almost committed suicide but that period is over and I'm happy to be around today.

 

[pixiejedi]

I've been fighting depression for at least 7 years. I didn't start any anti-depressants until over a year ago when I moved away from home. Its hard for my husband to grasp what that means though. He was raised in a catholic household so he retained some of the idea that you should just pull yourself up by the bootstraps and move on.

It was him though that made me get treatment. I would have killed myself I'm sure if I didn't have to get better for him. I've done therapy, they pointed at some of my many psychological unhealthy tendencies. For a while it even helped, but it feels like there is this black hole somewhere inside of me that can just pop open, and no matter how much a fight it, it always eventually managed to suck me in. Now that I am medicated the bad time of my depression isn't a black hole, its more like an endless desert of nothing. I can understand why the suicide warnings are on there, because those are the times above all else that I want it to end. It feels like there is no color or light and everything is just static. Before the meds I just was too depressed to try it.

So yes, depression is serious. Not all drugs work for everyone, nor does therapy. However criticizing someone who is seriously depressed and not just temporarily down is personally about it the most cruel thing and senseless thing.

 

[Kroxile]

I attempted suicide when I was 16 due to depression. Looking back at it it was an incredibly dumb thing to do. I had it MADE, but for whatever reason it felt like the world was ending to me at the time.

 

[crudus]

I suffer from depression. I have basically given up on getting help for it. People keep saying they are shocked and do more harm than good when they try to help. They can't seem to let me just be depressed or express it. Its faux pa or something.

 

[i7omahawki]

I suffer from clinical depression, and I have seen a lot of people dismiss depression on the internet. They say that depression is an excuse, or to "just get over it", but I know from experience that depression is very real and not easy to shake off. It seems to me people dismiss depression in order to protect themselves from it, and people that have encountered depression are more accepting of it.

Dear reader, what are your thoughts on this matter?

My understanding of it -- which is lacking compared with any expert -- is that it can be either strictly chemical/biological, where the brain is effectively causing it, or more social/psychological (or a mixture of both). Unfortunately, nobody I know who has it has had any kind of tests done to find out which they have! That means people who are suffering psychologically are being treated only medically, and kept on medication for extended periods of time.

I don't think in either case that is appropriate to say, "just shake it off", but I think that if it psychological then it is very much a realistic option to overcome it with therapy assisted, not replaced, by the appropriate medications...

I know a few people who have been diagnosed with depression, some of whom I believe truly suffer from it, but others who most likely use it as an excuse (to get away with not handing university coursework in, for example). Those who geniunely seem to suffer with depression, (from my experience which may not apply more generally) often talk themselves further into it, letting it restrict what they do when it doesn't seem necessary. I think in those cases it is helpful to have some 'tough love', though trivializing or denying it would simply make it worse.

Anyway, all that said, I think what you said about people 'protecting' themselves may be true, or perhaps denial is the better term. In the end though, I don't think that is a good response, since it prevents you from noticing the symptoms if you developed depression yourself.

The fact that depression exists is quite scary, that your outlook and mood aren't quite as controlled as you thought. But the fact that people battle and resist it is an affirmation of mankind's strength and resolve, I think...which gives me quite a lot of hope.

 

[Astoria]

Depression is a mental illness but it is way over diagnosed. If you're going through a sad time automatically its depression.

 

[SinisterGehe]

I suffer from depression because of the neurological and pain condition on my right hand, neck and torso... I can't sleep properly, I am unable to use my right hand properly and I am in constant pain and most of all I am losing my ability to play video-games... And If someone says that is a bad excuse of not doing stuff because I am depressed, I welcome them to join my world and see how shit it is to live like this, a world in which the simple task of using a spoon/fork/knife or hold pen properly is a fucking achievement...

I take Anti-depressants for 2 reasons, to relax my mind, release tension, help with depression and for the side-effect that the medication has: it increases tolerance for physical pain. I am getting pain counseling an psychological help to live and manage the physical and mental pain.

Tho there is different types of depression. I accept people depression if they really have a problem, but not depression like "My life is OK, I am healthy, I have friends, I have money and I have no real mental/health issues" - aka Emo depression... No one should play being depressed just because they can or want attention, it is not a thing to joke about really, it hurts people, it destroys lives and is a sign of real issues that should be dealt with.


But yeah: If you have a real proper issue to be depressed, I am OK with it, I might even try to help you with it since I know how it feels. But if you want to be depressed because you can or want attention I will slap you and tell you to act like a grown-up...

I agree with what you said here, but I would like to remove the bolded parts because the crux of the matter is not the nature of our outer reality (being healthy, having friends and money, etc), but what our inner reality enables us to experience. It's all chemical, thats why the chemicals used to fight it also mess us up. The only reality we can be sure of is that reality inside our heads. Depression carries with it a level of delusion. A person can have all the happy things in the world yet not be able to see all that.

If you suffer from delusions, then you have a issue. Delusions can be treated with social interaction or with psychological help. I think you didn't understand what I meant with that part. If there is person who acts depressed just for sake of being depressed, for an example to get attention. It is wrong. Basically faking depression is wrong.
But if someone suffers from delusions, chemical imbalance in brain, mental sickness etc... Then he has problems, that I accept as a reason for him to be depressed.

 

[aPod]

I've had depression, I would describe it as walking through knee high mud and you gotta just keep trudging along until you get out of it, however that may be for you.

I never took pills for it, and I'm against psychotropic drugs because i've seen some horror from them in my own family. If you can find away to triumph with your own will power and improving your life in healthier ways.

 

[Iggy Sent Me]

It sucks to have. Worst of all it often just hits you without warning, for no immediate reason. To combat it you need to keep up healthy social relationships. Even just a few will ward it off.

 

[thirion1850]

I overcame it. I know what it's like. And unlike my parents, I don't look down on or take lightly those that truly have this condition.

 

[loc978]

I've been through it, ups and downs for most of my adult life... yet I dismiss it. I've been diagnosed and re-diagnosed by shrink after shrink, and my current therapist says I'm just too schizoid to care that I'm depressed.
I say I'm just a natural-born hater. I hate a vast majority of human society and would love to go the mad dictator route to enforce my will on humanity, atrocities and all, for the greater good as I see it. The source of my depression is my lack of ability to do so. Ah well.

 

[Schizzy]

I've had bouts of anxiety attacks, personally. But my brother suffers bonafide depression.

So, yes, pretty real.

 

[SinisterGehe]

I suffer from depression because of the neurological and pain condition on my right hand, neck and torso... I can't sleep properly, I am unable to use my right hand properly and I am in constant pain and most of all I am losing my ability to play video-games... And If someone says that is a bad excuse of not doing stuff because I am depressed, I welcome them to join my world and see how shit it is to live like this, a world in which the simple task of using a spoon/fork/knife or hold pen properly is a fucking achievement...

I take Anti-depressants for 2 reasons, to relax my mind, release tension, help with depression and for the side-effect that the medication has: it increases tolerance for physical pain. I am getting pain counseling an psychological help to live and manage the physical and mental pain.

Tho there is different types of depression. I accept people depression if they really have a problem, but not depression like "My life is OK, I am healthy, I have friends, I have money and I have no real mental/health issues" - aka Emo depression... No one should play being depressed just because they can or want attention, it is not a thing to joke about really, it hurts people, it destroys lives and is a sign of real issues that should be dealt with.


But yeah: If you have a real proper issue to be depressed, I am OK with it, I might even try to help you with it since I know how it feels. But if you want to be depressed because you can or want attention I will slap you and tell you to act like a grown-up...

It is possible to be depressed "for no reason", until recently I had friends and a girlfriend who loved me. I was with my ex for 3 years, yet during that time I was still depressed.

The thing what I was referring to was more like; 'I am depressed just in sake to be depressed so I cna get attention". Underlying causes of depressions are something that should be taken seriously and treated. Example I was always thought to be a problem child, I had issues with getting along in social environments, I struggled with certain subjects in school but I was great in others, I was extremely talented in different arts for my age, I was stuck in routines and timetables and I was extremely "grown-up" for my age. 10 years later I get told I have Asperger's and I got help so I could learn to live in a environment that demand lot of social skills, in a worl in which I can not rely on timetables and routines everyday.
Back then I was thought that I am just "weird" and almost "socially stupid", but then they found a reason for my behavior and I got helped. After which my life changed.

The fact that you had a OK life when you look at it superficially. But maybe you had some subconscious issues bothering you, did you go and speak with a professional that could have figured it out? I hope you realize that there is much more to our behavior/feelings than we can consciously realize. You might had some haunting memory or a fear about future or something like that, did you have a stressful job? Or stress in school?
I started to suffer from depression all the sudden (which I got over in a year or so) when i subconsciously realized that I can not control things (such timetables, routines) and that many things in social environment are based on emotions, not on cold hard logic, I felt helpless in that kind of situation, I couldn't understand actions based on emotions. I felt useless, I didn't think that my actions had any results on anything, I felt small even in a small group of people. I still suffered about that, but the difference is that I got over it after a school psychiatrist pointed it out to me, I was able to work it out for the most parts. How the could I have known that my subconscious and conscious minds were fighting over something that seems easy and normal to others, seeing that I was just a child to who the Finnish grammar rules seemed impossibly illogical.

So, you might had some underlying reason that could have bothered you, subconscious mind is a powerful factor in our lives.But you weren't (I think) depressed without any reason, the reason wasn't clear. But you weren't depressed just for sake of being depressed or to get attention.

 

[Craorach]

I have all to much experience of depression, from all sides of the issue. A Paranoid Manic Depressive mother, borderline depression for myself at times and diagnosed depression for my wife prior to us meeting and during our first few years together after undealt with greif.

Depression, in its many different varieties, is a real thing. It is a terrible strain on the individual and their families. It can be overcome with proper concelling, support and perhaps medication.

However, it can also be a crutch.

I saw mine coming, I'd seen it in my mother in years, I knew the signs.. I was able to head it off by actively going out and seeking a better life.

My wife's was a direct result of her father passing away when she was young. Once we got her into councilling, and with me to support her, she has for the most part overcome it.

To this day we suffer from time to time, when life gets us down, when work is hard and people are mean.. but we go on, supporting each other and refusing to let it hurt us the way it once did.

My mother however uses it as a crutch. Heavily medicated for as long as I have known her, she uses her condition to avoid anything even remotely difficult or challanging, to forgive whatever hurt she may cause others and to blame my father for things entirely outside his control. She doesn't want to get better, because it takes effort to do so and forces us to face things we'd rather not.

Depression is massively over diagnosed. It seems these days you can be diagnosed with depression just for having a bad day or being upset about things it is reasonable to be upset about. It is also overmedicated.. even when real, medication cannot.. and should not.. be the only answer. Medication is there to support the recovery via other methods not to simply numb the pain forever.

 

[ilikepie59]

I had it for a couple of years, but a bit of medication and proper application of counselling and I'm now just a socially retarded introvert who doesn't get invited to parties. Not much has changed about my situation, but I do feel better about being a loner.

 

[damselgaming]

I dismiss it for an (admittedly) stupid reason. My mother suffers from it, and she is a *****, and she does nothing to combat it, and she is weak minded. Honestly, I think she just needs to cheer up or piss off. I know this is extreme generalisation but that's just the way I feel.

 

[Polarity27]

I dismiss it for an (admittedly) stupid reason. My mother suffers from it, and she is a *****, and she does nothing to combat it, and she is weak minded. Honestly, I think she just needs to cheer up or piss off. I know this is extreme generalisation but that's just the way I feel.

If anyone in that other thread wondered why I laugh at the idea that Escapist's commenters are of "unparalleled sophistication", replies like these would be why.

Sexism, entitlement, and ableism, all in one convenient cocktail!

ETA: Okay, I'll rescind the sexism since you can't be, but it's still a misogynist word choice.

Child, until you've lived in your mother's mind, you have absolutely no bloody clue what she's experiencing. None. The only redeeming thing is that you realize that's a ridiculous reason for dismissing it.

 

[damselgaming]

I dismiss it for an (admittedly) stupid reason. My mother suffers from it, and she is a *****, and she does nothing to combat it, and she is weak minded. Honestly, I think she just needs to cheer up or piss off. I know this is extreme generalisation but that's just the way I feel.

If anyone in that other thread wondered why I laugh at the idea that Escapist's commenters are of "unparalleled sophistication", replies like these would be why.

Sexism, entitlement, and ableism, all in one convenient cocktail!

ETA: Okay, I'll rescind the sexism since you can't be, but it's still a misogynist word choice.

Child, until you've lived in your mother's mind, you have absolutely no bloody clue what she's experiencing. None. The only redeeming thing is that you realize that's a ridiculous reason for dismissing it.

And until you've had your alcoholic mother put you in the hosptial and on the same night tell you that you should die, you will have no idea why I think of my mother that way.

I gave an honest reply and you have done nothing but show your elitist attude. Perhaps you should learn that personal experience can (shockingly) cause people to have a different outlook to your own.

 

[damselgaming]

I dismiss it for an (admittedly) stupid reason. My mother suffers from it, and she is a *****, and she does nothing to combat it, and she is weak minded. Honestly, I think she just needs to cheer up or piss off. I know this is extreme generalisation but that's just the way I feel.

If anyone in that other thread wondered why I laugh at the idea that Escapist's commenters are of "unparalleled sophistication", replies like these would be why.

Sexism, entitlement, and ableism, all in one convenient cocktail!

ETA: Okay, I'll rescind the sexism since you can't be, but it's still a misogynist word choice.

Child, until you've lived in your mother's mind, you have absolutely no bloody clue what she's experiencing. None. The only redeeming thing is that you realize that's a ridiculous reason for dismissing it.

And until you've had your alcoholic mother put you in the hosptial and on the same night tell you that you should die, you will have no idea why I think of my mother that way.

I gave an honest reply and you have done nothing but show your elitist attude. Perhaps you should learn that personal experience can (shockingly) cause people to have a different outlook to your own.

I'm so sorry dude, my mom is the same way. Just read my earlier reply to Polarity27.

I am a 'dudette' but thanks all the same.

And I totally agree, and if it is just an excuse she uses, then I have a totally skewed view on depression. But it is my only experience and until I something changes this for me then I am afraid that is my view.

 

[Polarity27]

I dismiss it for an (admittedly) stupid reason. My mother suffers from it, and she is a *****, and she does nothing to combat it, and she is weak minded. Honestly, I think she just needs to cheer up or piss off. I know this is extreme generalisation but that's just the way I feel.

If anyone in that other thread wondered why I laugh at the idea that Escapist's commenters are of "unparalleled sophistication", replies like these would be why.

Sexism, entitlement, and ableism, all in one convenient cocktail!

ETA: Okay, I'll rescind the sexism since you can't be, but it's still a misogynist word choice.

Child, until you've lived in your mother's mind, you have absolutely no bloody clue what she's experiencing. None. The only redeeming thing is that you realize that's a ridiculous reason for dismissing it.

And until you've had your alcoholic mother put you in the hosptial and on the same night tell you that you should die, you will have no idea why I think of my mother that way.

I gave an honest reply and you have done nothing but show your elitist attude. Perhaps you should learn that personal experience can (shockingly) cause people to have a different outlook to your own.

Nope, still doesn't make the ableism okay. First, you're not just hurting your mother with that attitude about depression, but *everyone else who has it*. Second, do you really think you're saying anything that people with disabilities haven't heard seven million times already? "I don't think it's real because I know that my mother/my brother/my friend/my roommate's third parakeet is faking and just needs to stop (being disabled)". I don't care what your mother did, it doesn't make what you just said not offensive.

(And FWIW, my mother was an alcoholic and abusive too. You're not the only one with personal experiences, you know. I'm also married to a man with the disease you think doesn't exist-- and you've not only invalidated his reality, but that of anyone who lives with and around him. Also? I'm disabled myself. With a disease that half the uneducated internet thinks doesn't exist-- apparently people are unable to read scientific journals now. Science, how the hell does it work?)