A cure for depression?

[vashti]

People need to understand the difference between depression: the emotion, and depression: the disorder.

I think the only person who doesn't understand the difference is OV.

[DoesntMatter]

You just answered your own question. It isn't a disorder, it was a car crash. An external event that caused your life to SUCK more and you to hate it and thus be depressed.

Not a car crash, a depressive crash triggered for no apparent reason

[Gigabitch]

It isn't a disorder, it was a car crash. An external event that caused your life to SUCK more and you to hate it and thus be depressed.

No, that is a "trigger". Very often, depressive phases are kicked off by a triggering event, but they aren't actually the cause.

OV, are you one of those people who won't discuss the mind because it doesn't exist, scientifically? You should at least acknowledge that brain chemistry dictates how a person can or cannot function.

Question for Mish: how does doing "work" in therapy affect the depression cycle? It seems like rumination and processing trauma are quite similar, actually.

[Only-virgins]

No, that is a "trigger". Very often, depressive phases are kicked off by a triggering event, but they aren't actually the cause.

OV, are you one of those people who won't discuss the mind because it doesn't exist, scientifically? You should at least acknowledge that brain chemistry dictates how a person can or cannot function.

Question for Mish: how does doing "work" in therapy affect the depression cycle? It seems like rumination and processing trauma are quite similar, actually.

I already said that everything is controlled under chemicals in the brain. This would be than like saying that being hungry and happy are disorders as well since it is a chemical in the brain that controls that as well. I am looking for consistency in the logic of everyone here...no one seems to have that.

Not a car crash, a depressive crash triggered for no apparent reason

Nothing happens for no reason. Everything has a reason. Not knowing what the reason is doesn't make it not there.

[boobaa]

Sorry, OV, but I don't get where do you want to reach with your argument... Half of the stuff you say is totally irrelevant.

[Gigabitch]

I already said that everything is controlled under chemicals in the brain. This would be than like saying that being hungry and happy are disorders as well since it is a chemical in the brain that controls that as well.

If you're too happy, you're described as being manic, and it's a disorder, for sure.

[Only-virgins]

Sorry, OV, but I don't get where do you want to reach with your argument... Half of the stuff you say is totally irrelevant.

I am simply saying that depression is a mood. Like happy, excited, and sad. Actually its just another word for sadness. There is nothing there that needs curing except for the life of the person who is depressed. If you are poor you have something to be depressed about right? You don't need pills and psychologists...you need freaking money.

If you're too happy, you're described as being manic, and it's a disorder, for sure.

Or, you are just REALLY happy? Now there is a disorder I would like to have.

[boobaa]

I am simply saying that depression is a mood. Like happy, excited, and sad. Actually its just another word for sadness. There is nothing there that needs curing except for the life of the person who is depressed. If you are poor you have something to be depressed about right? You don't need pills and psychologists...you need freaking money.

I agree with you at some point. I already made my statement of what I think depression is, some of my posts ago.
Now what if this mood affects your way of living, so can't make any money and mood turns even worse? Of course, this can be changed, yes, if the person really really focuses. So you are right on this point, I think.

But what if its not about money? What if its about friends or just lack of attention, the feeling of being alone? Because thats what depression is, feeling of being alone, and that doesn't depend on money. Most of treatments, books, medications for depression are based on that definition since main tests about depression are based on isolation.
Now this might be not, but somehow its the only thing thats proven.

[Only-virgins]

I agree with you at some point. I already made my statement of what I think depression is, some of my posts ago.
Now what if this mood affects your way of living, so can't make any money and mood turns even worse? Of course, this can be changed, yes, if the person really really focuses. So you are right on this point, I think.

But what if its not about money? What if its about friends or just lack of attention, the feeling of being alone? Because thats what depression is, feeling of being alone, and that doesn't depend on money. Most of treatments, books, medications for depression are based on that definition since main tests about depression are based on isolation.
Now this might be not, but somehow its the only thing thats proven.

Thats all the same thing! what the hell! money is just as a valid reason for depression as loneliness. They are external environmental reasons for being sad/depressed and to change that feeling with medication is to artificially change your perception of reality. I think that a lack of friends is even a bigger pathetic reason for depression than money. You don't need medications and psychologists...you need freaking friends. If you can't get any than depression for you is a valid and normal feeling and you SHOULD feel it...just like you feel pain when you stick a finger in a fire. Your post only helps my point out.

[boobaa]

You are missing the point. So, I can't make friends. Now what? I should kill myself or live without friends and in the sad mood for the rest of my life?

[Only-virgins]

You are missing the point. So, I can't make friends. Now what? I should kill myself or live without friends and in the sad mood for the rest of my life?

You can always go out and actually try and make friends.
As opposed to taking a pill because you can't get friends? Pathetic, You can take medication...it does exist..I'm not arguing that there is NO help like that...hell they have pills to make your dick bigger I am sure they have stuff to make you feel joy joy fake feelings all day long.I am just saying it isn't a disorder..you just a person like most of the pathetic Americans who as soon as something bothers them they go to see a shrink. Feeling shitty is a big part of life...and you have no way of knowing that it will last for your entire life. I am sure that as soon as something really good comes to counter the bad event you will feel better. It is a part of our brain's positive and negative re-enforcement...your brain wants you to have contact with other people and it makes you feel bad when you don't. With your previous post I think it is you who misses my point.

[Mish]

Question for Mish: how does doing "work" in therapy affect the depression cycle? It seems like rumination and processing trauma are quite similar, actually.

From what I understand there is a similarity between them. As in it's a thought process. But the main difference seems that work related though process is a productive one; I.e. you are generating ideas and using problem solving skills to get tasks out of the way or you repeat manual labour to get an "x quota" finished. If you examine rumination, it's starkly unproductive. It doesn't have a beginning or a conclusion. It's a loop that keeps on going on and on and on and on. Because mostly when you ruminate, you don't use your thought process with an intent of finding a solution, you use your thought process with intent to mull over a worrying thought and it's unknown consequences. Because the consequences are unknown, the mind when ruminating tends to process it as a threat and thus examines all the risks only with no end point. One set of risks, bring forth another set of risks (real or imagined) until you end up back where you started and start mulling over the entire process all over again. (True story: when I told my ex she needs to get out of this process, she said the only way she can do that is if I knock her out in some way).

So the difference between the two that I can tell you is "work thought process" = productive, "rumination" = unproductive loop without a conclusion.

I read also that there are similarities between "Depression" and "Grief". They sometimes arouse similar symptoms. With major difference that eventually from grief you recover after you move on. But depression stays there (because the external circumstances that cause it don't change). I like to think that when you grieve, you grieve over a loss of someone, when you are depressed you grieve over a loss of self. Looking at depression in this way. As a normal, natural part of human psyche is refreshing, in a way that you realize that it's not a biological thing going haywire in your body. It's a natural process, which for one reason or another doesn't seem to end like it's suppose to.

[anachronistic]

... although I hate to admit it, I think I'm a little depressed.

I think it's because I realized every day is the same. It's hard to find happiness in reality because it's nonexistent. All you have to do is watch television; we're all only a few clicks away from hell itself. People get so shocked by everything; they are disgusted. And here I sit, silently, as if it were nothing.

It has become difficult to surprise me. It's a shame to know that there is merely nothing in this world that I live for. I used to have reasons for all the things I did, I wanted to reach out to people and help them understand, but the thought of it has become hopeless. Instead, I live for my imagination. I reference the nonexistent. My purpose is to do that which has not been done before: to explore the undiscovered. That is where my depression is cured.

It has been a very lonely life for me because everyone else seems so shallow and misunderstanding. I never had a chance to share my true personality with anyone because of it. It leaks out from time to time, especially in my writing. But I'm beginning to not care. I'll share myself now even if nobody understands it. When I look in the mirror I think I look more like myself than I ever did, now.

You have to discover yourself. That's what it takes. For me, no meds could ever purify my thoughts, no psychologist could ever talk me out of it; instead I had to recognize and accept everything as it is. Good luck to anyone that has problems like that.

[Kiechi]

You're a very cheesey person, ya' know that Moogle?

[anachronistic]

You're a very cheesey person, ya' know that Moogle?

Come on now, don't make me chuckle.