I mean, both can be true.
When I was a tween my family moved from Connecticut to Florida.
For a long time I was really depressed to the point where they thought I had Mononucleosis or I might need antidepressants.
Turns out I was just hot. It’s fucking hot in Florida. I was hot. I just didn’t understand why I felt so shitty, because I had never really experienced oppressive Florida heat and humidity.
Sometimes there are actual reasons and feeling depressed isn’t coming from inside you.
Ain’t that something, When you open your car door and it’s as if you were baking something, except they smell like steamy mildew, but that sweet hot heat blasts you in the face and it makes you think of the terminator movie.
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” J. Krishnamurty
I mean, it can be both
Ty worse, have you met worser?
you really mean that?
No.
What you gotta ask yourself though: If it is really, that everything just sucks so bad, then why isn’t everybody depressed.
I mean, I don’t even disagree. Everything indeed does suck so bad. But there’s a surprising number of people, that seem to cope with that fact way better than I do.
Turns out, I actually do have depression. If you suspect, that you do too: seek help. It won’t change that everything sucks so bad. But I already learned to cope a little better, and I hope you can, too.
There is a surprising number of people too dumb to see just how profoundly everything sucks and hence is going to suck even more
Then there is a number of people who have the capability to see but actively prevent themselves from it lest it breaks them
Two things can be true. And your depression can be because everything actually sucks. Instead of being because you simply believe it sucks.
Like I said, I don’t disagree with things sucking in general.
Perception is very important, though.
It would be possible to be perfectly depressed, even if things did not, in fact, suck.
But of course, it’s a lot easier to be depressed and to believe, that everything sucks, if that is actually reflected in reality.A big part of combatting depression, is to focus your perception on things, that don’t suck and changing the ones that can be changed, to suck less; instead of making yourself sick by fussing about the things you cannot change anyway.
I struggle with that every day.
Seeking help for depression is what lead me to a therapist. She helped me make the changes in my life circumstances that I needed to make my life suck significantly less. I am no longer chronically depressed.
Do you mind sharing, what kind of changes those were and how they were important for you to feel better?
I was letting some people take advantage of my strong work ethic and was therefore overextending myself. I needed encouragement to escape a bad living situation and move out to another city nearby. I was confused with about my sexual orientation following a series of advances from a gay person that didn’t seem entirely unwanted at the time. I also needed encouragement to speak to my doctor about some embarrassing health issues which turned out to be easily treatable.
I’m still being actively treated for anxiety and a panic disorder ancillary to PTSD following my volunteer work in the aftermath of hurricane Helene.
That really sounds like you worked out some important things. I can totally understand how those issues can wear you down, especially if you can’t bring yourself to resolve them. Glad you found someone who could help you deal with them. And I hope you can make progress on the rest of your issues as well.
Honestly, you sound like a good person, who deserves to be happier, just from that glimpse, I’ve read. All the best!
Thanks for the kind words! I hope this encourages you or someone else to pursue a better life! Have a wonderful day
why isn’t everybody depressed
It’s because they’re stupid and self centered.
That explanation falls a bit short. While it surely explains a lot of people, it doesn’t apply to everybody. There are definitely also people (some of whom I know personally) who are neither stupid & self-centered nor depressed.
Then they aren’t paying attention which makes them either stupid or self-centered.
I guess there’s no point arguing against a closed worldview.
I think, at least for Americans, they are absolutely brainwashed. They can’t imagine a different world and think this is the Pinnacle of human existence. Then it turns out they are so EVIL they don’t really care and ignore school children getting killed by guns and systematically raped by elites.
“I thought i had mono for a year, but i was just bored.” - Wayne
came here lookin for this comment lol
Getting on the eightfold path has changed my worldview and mood for the better. True story.
Edit to add: But even before that, just going anti-consumerist gave my mood a healthy boost. When I stopped buying shit, I stopped wanting shit. Felt good.
I recently thought my depression was getting way worse but actually it was just intestinal parasites giving me anemia.
So now I get to experience this shitty world with slightly more energy.
My senior year quote was from Doctor Who Matt Smith era, I think its a Christmas special or something. It goes “Why do you make them happy when they’re going to be sad later?” Rory or River asks, the Doctor replies, "Because they going to be sad later ". I’m probably forgetting the exact wording the episode aired 13 or 14 years ago.
If your environment is totally things that sucketh bigly, your noggin becomes Yugely scrambled and the mind therein disturb-ed. A disturb-ed mind is a depress-ed mind. Hie thee to one who may prescribe and partake of their services. It shall be a balm to a disturb-ed noggin.
Just one depression please.
I mean…. I still got antidepressants a year ago thinking it was just dopamine burn out. I feel like I have the motivation of my mid 20’s. It’s amazing. I’ve met so many of my neighbors and been to all the bars/breweries/restaurants with them.
If it were 1726, and we were hanging out by the livery stable, watching the carriages roll over the horseshit in the road, and we dreamed of a utopia, it would be the futuristic paradise in which we live today.
You might want to see a doctor.
Big assumption they be dreaming of working 2 job for a living wage with a nagging rectangle in your pocket that’s occasionally useful. No kids, mid to low shot of having a partner and the only way to get anywhere in socity is to go against the teaching of most religion and be a bastard. Yah real utopic, stop saying this stupid shit.
This is the problem with clinical depression. It’s a form of psychosis and if you try to talk the person out of it, they can become belligerent. You guys need professional help. You are in danger. There are mean people out here who will egg you on instead of saying “stupid shit”. They’ll feed you everything you want to hear and laugh at you as you spiral down the drain.
Actually said something, nice
Read a book. I recommend “Paris in the Terror” by Loomis.
But yeah you’re really suffering in a living Hell worse than anybody ever, oh wait, stop being ignorant of how truly blissful your life is compared to others in the past, or even today. Have you ever gone days without eating? What’s the longest you’ve been without electricity?
If you hate reading, catch a flight to Haiti.
The attitude of, fuck you others have you worse get over it. Is one of the worst attitudes to have. Lets say somebody is depressed and they vent about their issues. You turning around saying buck up princess, kids in africa are starving does a few things. First, it shows them you are an asshole, it also belittles their own struggles, makes them feel bad for feeling bad and can start - or continue their downward spiral. You don’t know what people are dealing with in the real world, or in their own minds. Your lack of empathy is appalling. Depression and bad lives aren’t a contest.
I have gone days without eating FYI, by choice but that’s a dif story, maybe you should stfu and stop makeing assumptions or you could not be an aragent tard, you could try doing that.
And what we have now is still leagues better then what they had in 1726.
*for some people
Yeah, shit does suck and having financial security is better therapy than therapy.
First, everybody should have financial security - it’s better not to have justifiably pissed off desperate members of society.
Next, everybody should have decent healthcare, physical and mental - society is not stronger having weak / broken members.
Then: people are still going to be depressed. People who have all the financial security, access to all the best therapy, no “real” problems in their lives still get depressed - like: Carrie Fischer suicidally depressed. She’s not an isolated case. Some of it’s genetic (runs in families), some of it’s environmental, some of it’s just mental. Most of it’s based in feelings of hopelessness / helplessness. The AA serenity prayer is very applicable:
…grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference.
Genuinely internally actualizing those three things alleviates a lot of depressive feelings. Not everybody can do it on their own, even with support many people still struggle. It’s likely underreported, but globally 1/100 deaths are ruled as suicides. Among ages 15-29 it is the third leading cause of death.
That should just be the bare minimum for everyone and whatever other issues can be handled by therapy, but instead we live in a world of constant, easily preventable trauma and the ones who have it the worst have the least access to therapy. Great system!
Success is the best antidepressant. Weight loss does wonders.
Don’t know about that. We hear about celebrities that had depression.
Celebrities, multi-millionaires, all kinds of people with what look like imaginary problems to outsiders - but those problems leave them with the same helpless feelings, unable to change the “unacceptable” things in their lives. Depression is “all in your head” no matter what your circumstances are. Suicide is a pretty undeniable indicator that it was real / serious. Suicide rates are higher in people with financial stress, but they’re far from zero all the way up the economic pyramid.
Yeah, but that’s a different mechanism of addiction to feeling good due to a surge of emotions.
But if that was true Elon would be the happiest person on earth.
Offer valid only up to $150k, turns out. After that, it starts going downhill.
*different cities may experience slightly higher or lower values, terms and conditions apply
After that, it starts going downhill.
No study suggests this. It keeps going up - you’re just hitting diminishing returns.
Above the $150K threshold (was $70K when they first widely published the idea, but inflation…) it really depends on what you are doing for that $150K, what kind of responsibilities you have taken on, stressors you have, and zero responsibilities or stressors is not a great place to be on the curve, people with no reasons to live aren’t in a great spot.
There’s a trillionaire that is desperate to get into pedophile parties, and between him and the common person, there’s a lot of millionaires and billionaires in those pedophile parties, so there’s clearly a downward trending curve.
Yeah but that’s because he’s a shit excuse for a human, and is fundamentally broken. Whereas a normie would self-actualize with the resources to do so.
Feel like that used to be true, now you need that and stability.
Maybe his happiness is so far up the scale it folded back in on itself and circled back to depression. Like getting a burn from dry ice.
unsigned integer overflow in real life :o
No, you’re picturing a linear curve on a graph (i.e. a straight line). Most systems in life do not behave linearly though. An S shape is probably more accurate, with happiness levelling off past a certain point.
I’ll agree with the S, but there’s also probably a bit of a bump up at the low end when you get into “nothing left to lose” territory.
Having financial security eases with financial worries to an extent but doesn’t entirely solve even that issue nor does it even begin to deal with the unrelated issues. One can be financially secure and absolutely miserable.
well I am financially insecure and miserable :(
They say misery loves company, you have a lot of that today…
I often think about how if I was financially secure for the future it would not change the state of my country or the world. I would be happier day to day to some degree but it would not change whats going on.
Turn that on its head: what if the world were to change where not only you, but everyone was more financially secure…
oh yeah that would be great. my dream scenario is a world where I am the lowest on the totem and that is not so bad a thing to be. I mean I can be content on pretty small amounts but its gotta be in a rational caring system.
“It all started the day I was born and then things went rapidly downhill from there.”
Title of my autobiography.
In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
