Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
OMG people! Depression is a clinical, diagnosed, real disease, just like diabetes or measles. It's not something that can be cured with God, money, more things to do, more support, rest, or certain foods or vitamins. It's not caused by modern society or too much sugar or a bad childhood. It's a chemical imbalance in the brain. It also isn't something that's always with someone - it can come and go causing mood swings that are quite different from the mood swings of bi-polar disease. It's also not something new. It's been around for centuries. Winston Churchill famously suffered from depression.
There are the regular blues that most people get from time to time, and then there's serious depression. You can have depression in the same way you have any other disease. You can go along and feel fine for days and months, and then wham, out of the blue you feel down, worthless, unable to function for no real perceived reason. It's hard to get out of bed or care about anything, including yourself.
Depression can run in families, like migraines or certain types of cancer. That means that some people have a predisposition to getting depression if everything aligns wrong. Many people can be predisposed to getting something but not ever experience it because it isn't triggered.
I ought to know - I have diagnosed depression. I was like this 10 years ago and I was like this 20 years ago and 30 years ago as well. I've had depression my whole life. On a good day (and there's not too many of those) I can function with the best of them, I'm upbeat and able to plan ahead and I get excited about things to come. But when depression hits me - and it can whack me right out of bed in the morning for no other reason than a bad dream - I don't get dressed, I don't talk to anyone, I don't do anything constructive at all and I stay holed up inside my room for a week at a time.
I would like counseling - not affordable for me. I would do better with a psychiatrist but I'm not exactly rich. I do best on the real Prozac, but that isn't affordable, either. So I'm stuck on generic Prozac (yes, I've tried other drugs) and it keeps me from jumping off bridges, but not much more.
So please don't trivialize depression. Don't say "Just try..." whatever magic potion you think will work. Don't tell depressed people it's all in their heads or to snap out of it. Don't complain about how someone who is depressed won't even try to work their way out of it. Because that's what depression does. It makes you not want to do or try anything.
Please stop promoting this falsehood.
The idea of "chemical imbalance" has been debunked in the literature. Please do a scholarly search on google.
Let me just say something about brain "chemistry" and depression. It is a known fact that we can program pathways in our brain. We do it by repetition and we call it learning.
There is a strong and quite credible theory that people who permit themselves constant negative thoughts and emotions can condition themselves into a state of chronic clinical depression. They are reinforcing a negative outlook and building pathways in the brain that produce an uncomfortable feeling state. Feelings of helplessness and hopelessness become habitual.
If a person is in an unpleasant situation long enough and doesn't develop healthy coping mechanisms in response a case of situational depression can become a stubborn case of major depressive disorder.
Now this is accurate. On the new research re: The brain and neuropathways, we can train ourselves to be depressed by our thoughts.
Your thoughts create your moods and feelings - so if you don't like the way you feel, work with changing your thought patterns.
My multi-quote function isn't cooperating with me. I'd like to comment on GBH and nb's posts.
As I posted about creating pathways in the brain I was aware of how blaming that statement can sound to someone who suffers from the very real malady of depression with a capital D. No 'splaining is necessary but I did give it a negative slant. I was in mind of some of our forum commentators who, if you told them you were going to visit Texas would answer, "Oh, nobody goes there anymore." (I admit to scolding and will try harder.)
It is a tragedy that a child in whom negative patterns have been created through abuse or lack of nurturing has to suffer for lack of tools to combat the negative environment. I suppose most of them try various things to lighten their mood with varying degrees of success.
Scientists have noted a significant genetic correlation but they have yet to identify a single gene and, like so many psychiatric issues, it appears it may involve a perfect storm of factors. Research is currently being done on defective serotonin transmitter genes as a part of the puzzle. So there is that chemistry issue. The question is how much does that apply to recuperation.
I do know that no one with depression wants to hear that they are responsible for healing themselves. And of course they don't have to do it by themselves. A number of things help or work. It's both good news and bad news. Whoopee.
And thoughts do create moods and feelings but moods and feelings also create thoughts and therein lies part of the problem with motivation for wellness.
Can a pathway be so well-worn that a brain is beyond healing?
For those of you who have been around for a while, have you noticed than in today's world that depression and anxiety is so common? I look at my current situation:
My mother is depressed and anxious. Four of my best friends are dealing with anxiety and depression. I can continue on with how many more people I know in that situation. It just seems like it's grown so much in some of the last few years.
It seems like so many people nowadays need validation, have very low self esteem, are insecure or overworked. Part of it makes me sad to see this, and I try to help as I can, but it just feels as if a lot of people are suffering now. I am 33 and 10 years ago, I felt like things were different and people weren't like this.
What gives? I wonder if this is how it's always been and I am just noticing now, or if we really have seen in the past decade an increase in depression and anxiety?
Frimp, there's always been a fair amount of depression around, but until IDK, 30-40 years ago, it wasn't diagnosed. Instead, people wondered why there was so much alcoholism around, and why so many women were on Valium, or whatever.
The more things change, the more they basically remain the same. And btw, I haven't noticed any difference between now and 10 years ago. People in my circles haven't suddenly become depressed or anxious. Their personality or basic nature hasn't changed. Maybe you've simply reached an age, when you're more aware of things like this?
My multi-quote function isn't cooperating with me. I'd like to comment on GBH and nb's posts.
As I posted about creating pathways in the brain I was aware of how blaming that statement can sound to someone who suffers from the very real malady of depression with a capital D. No 'splaining is necessary but I did give it a negative slant. I was in mind of some of our forum commentators who, if you told them you were going to visit Texas would answer, "Oh, nobody goes there anymore." (I admit to scolding and will try harder.)
It is a tragedy that a child in whom negative patterns have been created through abuse or lack of nurturing has to suffer for lack of tools to combat the negative environment. I suppose most of them try various things to lighten their mood with varying degrees of success.
Scientists have noted a significant genetic correlation but they have yet to identify a single gene and, like so many psychiatric issues, it appears it may involve a perfect storm of factors. Research is currently being done on defective serotonin transmitter genes as a part of the puzzle. So there is that chemistry issue. The question is how much does that apply to recuperation.
I do know that no one with depression wants to hear that they are responsible for healing themselves. And of course they don't have to do it by themselves. A number of things help or work. It's both good news and bad news. Whoopee.
And thoughts do create moods and feelings but moods and feelings also create thoughts and therein lies part of the problem with motivation for wellness.
Can a pathway be so well-worn that a brain is beyond healing?
Agree with effects of non-nurturing childhood on the brain, but we (each person) DOES have to heal themselves (if they want to heal). We are all responsible for ourselves. Luckily, there are a plethora of means available to assist one in doing just that.
Healing is different than medicating (which is the medical model bandaid approach, and the bandaid has toxic side-effects in this case).
I'm pretty sure the state of humanity today is the reason why almost everyone is sick. The worst part of it is that this is considered normal today. Human adaptation will consider anything normal, as long as it's just common.
Entire idea of money and work is not in par with human nature. Some people argue that every living thing on this planet needs to "work" almost 24h to survive. The difference is that this is another kind of "work". Working people are hugely dependant on the market and other people. Many people need to be fake to just afford living. And it gets worse, because we now need more money than ever to "survive". Of course, most of these things we buy today are not needed for survival per se, but feeling we have less than others is toxic for humans too. So, it's a lost game. Another thing is that 8 hours of work is way too much. Spending half of your time awake doing artificial things, which - if you only think a little about the sense of it, which most people don't ever do - tend to be useless or harmful, doesn't go well with consciousness. So most people go unconscious. The world today is sick, but human beings were always sick since they got their egos. But I believe it goes through the pain in a good way. Society becomes more and more conscious of how our minds work. Our generation won't probably benefit from this evolution, but maybe the children of our children will.
In the old days, women were said to become "hysterical" (the medical term), and sometimes institutionalized. That could have been hormone imbalance, mid-life crisis, bi-polar disorder, or whatever. But back then, you were just diagnosed in "hysterics."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mightyqueen801
I KNOW my grandmother suffered from depression, and that at one point it was so bad that she could not function. Yes it was exacerbated by her situation of caring for a special needs child in a time when there were no services for kids like that, but it was still severe depression, which was called, in that era, a nervous breakdown.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katiethegreat
"Modern-day hunter-gatherer bands—such as the Kaluli people of the New Guinea highlands—have been assessed by Western researchers for the presence of mental illness. Remarkably, clinical depression is almost completely nonexistent among such groups, whose way of life is similar to that of our remote ancestors. Despite living very hard lives—with none of the material comforts or medical advances we take for granted—they’re largely immune to the plague of depressive illness that we see ruining lives all around us. (In perhaps the most telling example, anthropologist Edward Schieffelin lived among the Kaluli for nearly a decade and carefully interviewed over two thousand men, women, and children regarding their experience of grief and depression; he found only one person who came close to meeting our full diagnostic criteria for depressive illness.)"
There is a great book that discusses how mental illness is interpreted over time and through culture, called “Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche." For instance, Western researchers might not find depression in the Kaluli people because the criteria for diagnosing depression was developed by studying subjects in a completely different environment.
Now this is accurate. On the new research re: The brain and neuropathways, we can train ourselves to be depressed by our thoughts.
Your thoughts create your moods and feelings - so if you don't like the way you feel, work with changing your thought patterns.
Most people are going to read your comment on a surface level and conflate it with the "positive thinking" movement. I don't believe that is your intention, but it opens up a point. The first question would be, what should one feel in any given circumstance? Should we always like how we feel, or can that be counter-productive?
Sometimes the struggle isn't how to feel better (presumably to meet some amorphous societal ideal of happiness and productivity). The struggle is whether or not to recognize our own agency with full knowledge of our (often unpleasant) position. The difference may be subtle, but important.
Loneliness is more of a problem now than it's ever been technology has both increased our awareness but has is so made it harder to connect in the outside world
^This
It is a pretty huge factor and you can't deny it
As for my own answer to this thread
Well I think a lot of factors come into play
First off, you have to realize we are living in some of the most culturally and economically transitional times since the late 19th century as of now
And I think this transition in turn is making a lot of people feel uncomfortable and that uncomfortability kind of can turn into many negative emotions for people
The next thing I can think of is people who grew many decades ago got too comfortable with their environment, and so the more you stay on that certain enviroment, the more it's to haunt you down as you get older.
3rd pep talk, consumer technology is also worsening off the relationship between for instance, men and women and kids and adults, and when you create very unbalanced social structures this can put a lot of stress on the individual.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
(I admit to scolding and will try harder.)
