This Cures Depression

mittenswillet

QUOTE :[/quote]
What you don't realize is that telling someone who is diagnosed with major depressive disorder, or bipolar, that they just need to "put in more than a half *kitten* effort" to think positively is like saying "you aren't trying hard enough". There were days I couldn't even find the energy to brush my teeth...the last thing I needed was to feel like MORE of failure because I didn't have the strength to suck it up and think happy thoughts.[/quote] END OF QUOTE



its called "fighting to survive everyday" hence why you "have" to try when your depressed and why i said more than half assed....

dunno about you, but i wear my mental boxing gloves every day....

elyelyse

QUOTE :
What you don't realize is that telling someone who is diagnosed with major depressive disorder, or bipolar, that they just need to "put in more than a half *kitten* effort" to think positively is like saying "you aren't trying hard enough". There were days I couldn't even find the energy to brush my teeth...the last thing I needed was to feel like MORE of failure because I didn't have the strength to suck it up and think happy thoughts.END OF QUOTE



its called "fighting to survive everyday" hence why you "have" to try when your depressed and why i said more than half assed....

dunno about you, but i wear my mental boxing gloves every day....

If I wasn't fighting every day, I'd be dead by now. Unfortunately, sometimes my "trying as hard as I can" only results in getting out of bed and moving to the couch. Sometimes "trying as hard as I can" means just keeping it together enough not to burst out crying at any moment over nothing, or everything. To you, that may look like only a half assed effort...to me, when I feel that low...it's a freakin miracle that I manage to do anything other than sleep.

I am in a much better place now than I was 2 years ago, but I still usually have a day a week that I don't even manage to leave the house, and I still have many nights when I cry myself to sleep. I spend a good part of every day convincing myself to do the things I need to do because I know they will make me feel better...but I am not always successful, and if someone told me I just wasn't trying hard enough it would be very difficult for me to avoid thinking "well, I guess I'm just a screw up then, I give up", which is pretty much the exact opposite of how you should want to make someone feel.

Meloonie

Don't feed the troll!

BinaryPulsar

I disagree with the OP (he has a very wide range of lack of understanding what he is actually talking about). I appreciate many of the replies.

For myself: I am a very joyful, always smiling person. People always comment on it. But, I do have ptsd from severe, long term, trauma in my past from an early age that was not treated in a timely manner. And I have struggled through on my own in my life, and hid it very very well. Depression is something I work on. I don't take meds. I did briefly at one time in the past (for one year) and it helped me tremendously.

lodiloohoo64

John, you are right on. I spent ten days locked in a unit for depressed, suicidal individuals. I learned so much in that week and a half. This is what I learned.

There are a load of folks worse off than me.
When your clinician tells you that you need to socialize with the others, translated, sit around and watch Opra with them, that he is obviously misinformed.
God can heal anything.
When your psychologist says that depression is forever, here are some pills, he is not correct.

Med free, on top of the world, hulahooping, and happy,

Lodiloohoo

Lesa_Sass

Sigh...........

This is the kind of crap that kills people.

uconnwinsnc

Sigh...........

This is the kind of crap that kills people.

I think we should just let this thread go away.

anaconda469

Don't feed the troll!

I agree.

SunofaBeach14

Please just stop talking.

That is some of the worst pop psychology I've seen in some time.

elyelyse

God can heal anything.
When your psychologist says that depression is forever, here are some pills, he is not correct.

Just curious...if you were diagnosed with a physical ailment that required you to take a medication, indefinitely, to keep it under control...would you have that same attitude? Or would you take the medication because you trust your doctor to make an informed diagnosis and medicate you appropriately?

Edited to add: psychologists do not prescribe any medications, they provide therapy. You need to see a psychiatric professional for medication.

law_of_inertia

I've suffered from severe depression in bouts since the ripe old age of 10 years old, due to what I'd imagine would be a powerful cocktail of both environmental and genetic predispositions. It peaked at 16 and led to me being diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder (Melancholic subtype). It got to the point where I could not get out of bed on most days and I completely lost the ability to concentrate or think clearly. Even the most basal activities like getting dressed in the morning leeched me of the little energy I had - even talking on some days seemed to demand so much energy that I often ended up slurring my words or saying things too quietly for anyone to hear because I was just so tired. When I did manage to get up and do something with my day, it typically didn't make me feel any better because I no longer had the capacity for obtaining enjoyment out of anything, even if it was once something I loved. It drained me and made me feel incredibly frustrated and helpless over the fact that I had completely lost my sense of self. Any personality I used to have was now completely and utterly gone.

I spent a long, long time trying to convince myself that if I could just be better; if I could just "think positive", or exercise a little more, or read more self help books, that I could just "get over myself" like just about every form of social media seemed to imply I could. I'd been convinced into believing that antidepressant medications were simply for the weak-minded - for people who "didn't want to face their problems" or "couldn't be bothered to do the work", and that if you took them you were just taking the easy way out. Every day that I failed to do all these things led to a staggering amount of guilt. When people lecture the depressed on how they're ungrateful and how there are people out in the world with far more problems than them who still manage to function, I don't think they realize that the depressed torment themselves over this already. My depression was the worst it's ever been at a time when, ironically, my life was at its most stable. I felt so guilty about how unhappy I was despite the fact that my wonderful mother was there to support me and that I had a team of professionals trying to make my life more manageable. It didn't help that the rest of the human population seemed intent on talking down to me and telling me how I should snap out of it because I had no "reason" to be depressed.

The fact is, some people do need antidepressants to function and get through life, due to being naturally predisposed to chemical imbalances. Some people spend huge portions of their lives suffering tremendously due to being fed lies about medication and feeling like they aren't bad enough to seek professional help. Some people do everything right - they exercise, they eat healthily, they go to therapy, and they still get absolutely nowhere. Frankly, unless you have a very, very mild form of depression - the kind that typically goes away by itself due to it simply being a normal reaction to, say, a loved one dying, "positive thinking" quackery just doesn't work, and it couldn't possibly work, due to the fact that major depression completely clouds your thinking. Antidepressants aren't supposed to numb you or magically make your problems go away - their usefulness is in the fact that when you're depressed, your mind is on a never ending loop of negative thoughts that goes on and on and on, and you don't feel like you can ever stop it or get out of that cycle. They are supposed to give you your own "voice" inside your head back that enables you to actually take a step away from the negative cycle and reason with it, rather than be drowned by it.

The sheer impudence of the people belittling those suffering from depression and telling them that they're just being attention-seeking is truly astounding to me. Especially since they very rarely come from a place in which they've truly experienced the horrors of severe, major depression.

SanteMulberry

There are two causes of depression 1) spiritual and 2) physical/hormonal. You have addressed the first one and it IS a very important one. Some experiments have suggested that what we think about actually influences brain chemistry! The second area is much tougher because we don't yet know enough about the physical influences on the brain and how it works. But one thing I DO know is that no one has a deficiency of Prozac. If the pharmaceutical companies were honest (and they are NOT) they will admit that their potions rarely help anyone other than a possible placebo affect. Often, people will feel much better mentally if they address their health by good eating and exercise. I would investigate VERY thoroughly before I encouraged anyone I loved to take antidepressants.

davert123

God can heal anything.
When your psychologist says that depression is forever, here are some pills, he is not correct.

Just curious...if you were diagnosed with a physical ailment that required you to take a medication, indefinitely, to keep it under control...would you have that same attitude? Or would you take the medication because you trust your doctor to make an informed diagnosis and medicate you appropriately?

Edited to add: psychologists do not prescribe any medications, they provide therapy. You need to see a psychiatric professional for medication.

It is difficult to believe but can be true for some people in some circumstances. I used to be a devout atheist, my belief system excluded God and ridiculed everyone who ever believed it God. I had clinical depression, GAD and PTSD for 20 years. I found out that the above statement was in fact totally true. My depression went away in an instant. I realise I was beyond lucky. I'm a integrative psychotherapist and I've worked with many people who have depression. The big issue that some people here haven't grasped while other have is that everyone is quite unique. Depression can be biological/genetic, food related, seasonal related, based on life history and usually a combination of all of them. It is a killer and wipes peoples lives away sometimes BUT there is hope even if the sufferer don't see it. Sometimes the darkest hours is just before the dawn etc. The problem as I see it is that people need to be treated as individuals. Just giving antidepressants isn't really the answer for most people. Talking therapies (like what I do) can work wonders but sometimes people need antidepressants to help them survive while they go through the therapeutic process. Some people (but not everyone) also need to understand that some of the food they eat (simple carbs, alcohol, coffee) can create depression for them if they are so disposed. I don't think there is much validity in people saying "do this and you will be cured" or "that wont work" because most people have no clue if the statement they are saying is true (I know if I said "do this and your depression will go away" here as a general statement it would be a lie). I think the best we can do is recognise that depression like any other human condition is complex and takes a lot of working out - perhaps by trying different strategies (most of which should include psychotherapy) before they hit on what works for them. I firmly also believe those with opinions on the matter should really re-frame the way they express it. If you have never had depression and you are not a qualified expert then your opinion if definitely invalid because you cannot possibly know what you are talking about (depression is a lived experience so by definition if you have never lived it you cannot know it). If you have had or are suffering from depression the most positive thing to do (I believe) is to give your testimonial and say this is what happened to me and this is how I feel etc. I know I was lucky for some reason, I wish I could bottle the experience I had (a 20 year depression lifting and never returning in about 2 seconds) and give it people but that is really my story. I know others that are far less lucky :-( Good luck everyone out there with this horrible illness.