Why has suffering from depression become so popular now?
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Original post by EsStupido
50 years ago nobody really suffered from depression, nowadays its the in-thing to suffer from? Feeling a bit down? Are you a little bit upset? Can't see the light at the end of your ****ty little rainbow? My God you must be depressed.
Thousands of people now make careers out of telling others that because they won't man the **** up and face life, they must be depressed and therefore need counseling and drugs - which cost money. What a shock.
Pathetic. What is wrong with people nowadays?
Thousands of people now make careers out of telling others that because they won't man the **** up and face life, they must be depressed and therefore need counseling and drugs - which cost money. What a shock.
Pathetic. What is wrong with people nowadays?
Well that is a load of BS right there. Just because it was not widely reported 50 years ago does not mean you should deny its existence. Just because cancer has become such a well-known disease doesn't mean it has just sprung up from nowhere. It's the same principle.
There was much less research into mental health back then, and medical advancements have shown us how to identify and help treat people with depression amongst other physical and mental health problems.
There is more to depression than being in a bad mood, you need to be showing fairly severe symptoms that are interfering with your wellbeing for at least 2 weeks before a diagnosis can be given. Tax payers pay their taxes for a reason - do you complain about your free education (or lack of in this case) and NHS treatments that fellow tax payers have shelled out for? I don't think so.
Grow up, get educated and go away.
(edited 13 years ago)
Depression is a lot more than feeling down because someone got a B in an exam than a A those people piss me off
Depression is something that can prevent you from enjoying things that you used to enjoy like seeing friends/family not having motivation for doing anything and feeling like a failure in everything. Thoughts of suicide and feeling no one likes you or wants you around. Depending on the situation since different people are affected in different ways, it can take years for the depressed person not to realise they even have it. It's a lot harder to notice in your teens since a lot of teenagers think it's just a faze and grow out of it. But people who have gone through real turmoil in their life have underlying issues.
Signs that people who actually think are depressed should look for are
Persistently sad, anxious, empty or generally low mood
Everyone feels sad sometimes, has an anxious moment, or has a day when things feel a bit empty or low. However, when depression invades it seems to keep you feeling persistently sad, low, anxious or empty. Some people feel a combination of these four feelings. Others feel predominantly one of them.
Loss of interest
Do you find yourself saying "I can't be bothered," or “What's the point?” about things you used to find interesting or engaging? Depression thrives on cynical or 'bored' attitudes to life, and itself generates a sense of meaninglessness. This loss of interest can include loss of sexual interest, which can create strain in relationships, in turn allowing more room for depression.
Lethargy or decreased energy
Do you often feel unable to get up at the usual time? Or too lethargic to complete routine everyday tasks? Or do you generally find yourself less able to maintain your usual activity levels? Depression may be sapping your energy and taking root as you succumb to lethargy.
Irregular sleep or change in sleep pattern
It is very common for depression to have an effect on sleep, leading to insomnia and sleep disruptions like early waking. Sometimes there is a pattern of excessive sleep. Regular, sound sleep is essential for healthy functioning and sleep disruption is a particularly debilitating weapon in the depression arsenal.
Appetite or weight changes
Regular healthy eating is essential for general wellbeing. Loss of appetite and weight loss, or sometimes overeating and weight gain, can be a sign that depression is interfering with the healthy eating habits essential for maintenance of healthy mood levels.
Increased tearfulness
Crying serves a very useful purpose - stress hormones are released through tears. However, if you find yourself crying much more than usual for no clear reasons it may be a sign that depression is at work.
Restlessness
Do you find it hard to settle down to a task, or to sit still for any length of time? Some people are naturally energetic, but depression can bring a troubling sense of restlessness and inability to focus. Being constantly keyed up and over-alert in this way is very draining, in turn decreasing resistance to depression.
Poor concentration and difficulty making decisions
Depression is often said to be a problem of disordered thinking, with "automatic negative thoughts" crowding the mind. Poor concentration and/or difficulty making decisions can be due to 'blanking things out' or may indicate the need to address the thinking habits which are allowing depression a foothold.
Hopelessness and pessimism:
Having a generally pessimistic outlook can feel like the "safe" approach in an uncertain world - "Well, at least that way I won"t be disappointed". However, depression thrives on this negative attitude, increasingly robbing you of hope and leaving its characteristic "empty" feeling instead.
Feelings of helplessness
There are many uncertainties in life and things that cannot be controlled, yet many cultures emphasise the importance of individuals having "control" over their lives. Having bad things happen and not being able to prevent them can then leave someone vulnerable to the generalised feeling of helplessness that depression feeds on and perpetuates.
Feelings of worthlessness or guilt
Depression thrives on opportunities to promote over-harsh self-judgement and feelings of worthlessness and being of low value. It causes people to inappropriately blame themselves for experiences such as being badly treated or failing to meet unrealistic standards. This can lead to corrosive and unhelpful guilt.
Thoughts of death or suicide
Death is said to be the most profound issue facing humankind, and it is natural that it should be contemplated on occasion. However, the excessive negativity caused by depression can lead to repetitive, unhelpful dwelling on death. Depression also reduces problem-solving ability and causes increasing 'tunnel vision', falsely making suicide seem like a solution to problems.
if you have over several of these things at the same time and have felt it for several weeks then you should see the GP ans a counsellor would also be a good idea since it is confidential and they only share your information if they get permission from you first.
Hope people who actually suffer from it get the help they need and think more about the future and how you can make a difference to other people like you
Only because depression is mental not physical you think it's not real, people who have actually gone through it know it isn't.
Depression is something that can prevent you from enjoying things that you used to enjoy like seeing friends/family not having motivation for doing anything and feeling like a failure in everything. Thoughts of suicide and feeling no one likes you or wants you around. Depending on the situation since different people are affected in different ways, it can take years for the depressed person not to realise they even have it. It's a lot harder to notice in your teens since a lot of teenagers think it's just a faze and grow out of it. But people who have gone through real turmoil in their life have underlying issues.
Signs that people who actually think are depressed should look for are
Persistently sad, anxious, empty or generally low mood
Everyone feels sad sometimes, has an anxious moment, or has a day when things feel a bit empty or low. However, when depression invades it seems to keep you feeling persistently sad, low, anxious or empty. Some people feel a combination of these four feelings. Others feel predominantly one of them.
Loss of interest
Do you find yourself saying "I can't be bothered," or “What's the point?” about things you used to find interesting or engaging? Depression thrives on cynical or 'bored' attitudes to life, and itself generates a sense of meaninglessness. This loss of interest can include loss of sexual interest, which can create strain in relationships, in turn allowing more room for depression.
Lethargy or decreased energy
Do you often feel unable to get up at the usual time? Or too lethargic to complete routine everyday tasks? Or do you generally find yourself less able to maintain your usual activity levels? Depression may be sapping your energy and taking root as you succumb to lethargy.
Irregular sleep or change in sleep pattern
It is very common for depression to have an effect on sleep, leading to insomnia and sleep disruptions like early waking. Sometimes there is a pattern of excessive sleep. Regular, sound sleep is essential for healthy functioning and sleep disruption is a particularly debilitating weapon in the depression arsenal.
Appetite or weight changes
Regular healthy eating is essential for general wellbeing. Loss of appetite and weight loss, or sometimes overeating and weight gain, can be a sign that depression is interfering with the healthy eating habits essential for maintenance of healthy mood levels.
Increased tearfulness
Crying serves a very useful purpose - stress hormones are released through tears. However, if you find yourself crying much more than usual for no clear reasons it may be a sign that depression is at work.
Restlessness
Do you find it hard to settle down to a task, or to sit still for any length of time? Some people are naturally energetic, but depression can bring a troubling sense of restlessness and inability to focus. Being constantly keyed up and over-alert in this way is very draining, in turn decreasing resistance to depression.
Poor concentration and difficulty making decisions
Depression is often said to be a problem of disordered thinking, with "automatic negative thoughts" crowding the mind. Poor concentration and/or difficulty making decisions can be due to 'blanking things out' or may indicate the need to address the thinking habits which are allowing depression a foothold.
Hopelessness and pessimism:
Having a generally pessimistic outlook can feel like the "safe" approach in an uncertain world - "Well, at least that way I won"t be disappointed". However, depression thrives on this negative attitude, increasingly robbing you of hope and leaving its characteristic "empty" feeling instead.
Feelings of helplessness
There are many uncertainties in life and things that cannot be controlled, yet many cultures emphasise the importance of individuals having "control" over their lives. Having bad things happen and not being able to prevent them can then leave someone vulnerable to the generalised feeling of helplessness that depression feeds on and perpetuates.
Feelings of worthlessness or guilt
Depression thrives on opportunities to promote over-harsh self-judgement and feelings of worthlessness and being of low value. It causes people to inappropriately blame themselves for experiences such as being badly treated or failing to meet unrealistic standards. This can lead to corrosive and unhelpful guilt.
Thoughts of death or suicide
Death is said to be the most profound issue facing humankind, and it is natural that it should be contemplated on occasion. However, the excessive negativity caused by depression can lead to repetitive, unhelpful dwelling on death. Depression also reduces problem-solving ability and causes increasing 'tunnel vision', falsely making suicide seem like a solution to problems.
if you have over several of these things at the same time and have felt it for several weeks then you should see the GP ans a counsellor would also be a good idea since it is confidential and they only share your information if they get permission from you first.
Hope people who actually suffer from it get the help they need and think more about the future and how you can make a difference to other people like you
Only because depression is mental not physical you think it's not real, people who have actually gone through it know it isn't.
(edited 13 years ago)
Original post by Ventura7
im saying it is, but could depression just be made up and be some technical mumbo jumbo for feeling a bit down?
just a thought
just a thought
Urm no.
NHS:
Depression is a serious illness. Health professionals use the words depression, depressive illness or clinical depression to refer to it. It is very different from the common experience of feeling unhappy, miserable or fed up for a short period of time.
When you are depressed, you may have feelings of extreme sadness that can last for a long time. These feelings are severe enough to interfere with your daily life, and can last for weeks or months, rather than days.
A few people still think that depression is not a real illness and that it is a form of weakness or admission of failure. This is simply not true. Depression is a real illness with real effects, and it is certainly not a sign of failure.
And also a lot of the time it is due to a lack of serotonin, and SSRI's are prescribed in order to increase the uptake of this neurotransmitter which produces the happy feeling - this is based on evidence. Definitely NOT mumbo jumbo.
Though you can tell my aunt that, her friend committed suicide as a result of depression.
Also, my best friend was murdered by her dad as a result of mental health issues including depression.
EDIT: This isn't meant to be in any way harsh and directed at you only. It's mainly aimed at the other idiots such as OP who reckons it's an "in thing"
Original post by EsStupido
50 years ago nobody really suffered from depression, nowadays its the in-thing to suffer from? Feeling a bit down? Are you a little bit upset? Can't see the light at the end of your ****ty little rainbow? My God you must be depressed.
Thousands of people now make careers out of telling others that because they won't man the **** up and face life, they must be depressed and therefore need counseling and drugs - which cost money. What a shock.
Pathetic. What is wrong with people nowadays?
Thousands of people now make careers out of telling others that because they won't man the **** up and face life, they must be depressed and therefore need counseling and drugs - which cost money. What a shock.
Pathetic. What is wrong with people nowadays?
Trollfail.
To be quite honest depression is not a topic I can talk about seriously with out laughing. Same with eating 'disorders'. Obviously diagnosing REAL depression is completely subjective but on the whole I think a lot of people need to MAN THE F U C K UP.
I'm not denying it exists but I dont think it is as widespread as we are led to believe. Personally one of my ex-girlfriends should have been diagnosed with depression. I genuinely feel she had it, but she was too scared to go to the doctors about it. However I dont think many people who claim to have had it ever did.
Grow a pair and thanks for the negs.
I'm not denying it exists but I dont think it is as widespread as we are led to believe. Personally one of my ex-girlfriends should have been diagnosed with depression. I genuinely feel she had it, but she was too scared to go to the doctors about it. However I dont think many people who claim to have had it ever did.
Grow a pair and thanks for the negs.
I've suffered with depression and anxiety since I was a toddler. Two weeks ago, my GP looked me square in theceye and said she was worried about me, she felt bad for leaving me to cope and that she felt she had to give me SSRIs. They dont prescribe these things for no reason!
Original post by EsStupidoGo out and buy a dress sweetheart, I'm sure you'll feel fine afterward.
Original post by Miss Behaving
Wow - as someone who is currently going through depression, I just have one thing to say to you 'You're a dick'.
Agreed +1, just not a dress that's too short or revealing mind, to avoid inviting rape.
Depression is not a real disease, it is a normal human reaction to external stimuli. Doesn't the good book of DSM IV say that good mental health is to have an objective grasp on external reality? If so, the fact that people are severely depressed in responce to their environment is a sign of perfect mental health because they would be delusional otherwise which may well require sectioning.
(edited 13 years ago)
I agree that there are a lot more people now who are just feeling 'a bit down' and claim to be depressed to gain some attention. They're contributing to the number of people with views like you, who think people with ACTUAL clinical depression just need to 'get over it'. It's why people with depression try to hide it because they're too ashamed to tell anyone and get help. Depression IS a real illness, an often fatal one, and the attention seekers need to grow up and stop making things harder for people who actually suffer from depression.
Original post by Craig_D
Original post by Craig_D
I nearly crapped myself before thinking about that for a second.
Excellent. I'm glad you got it.
I genuinely did have it for a while. I had it for about two years, and I used to have hallucinations and contemplate suicide. I also had some very vivid and nasty dreams. I refused to go to therapy.
I think what it really was, was that I had finally got over the effects of an illness. Once the physical effects had gone, I was left with all the mental ones. I was a pathetic ass for a long time, but I always had good friends and family, and never became dependent on drugs or alcohol, so I hadn't dug a deep hole to climb out of.
I still maintain what got me to snap out is will power, but then I admit, because it was due to an illness, that's probably why it went away.
A lot of people do confuse depression with being down and that is really annoying. When you're depressed you don't just feel a bit sad, it's feeling so sad, anxious and scared you can't do anything else. It can control your life completely. You don't care about anything else. It's a mental illness, stop being such a dick about it. 
Original post by Pink_Chocolate xx
And also a lot of the time it is due to a lack of serotonin, and SSRI's are prescribed in order to increase the uptake of this neurotransmitter which produces the happy feeling - this is based on evidence.
And also a lot of the time it is due to a lack of serotonin, and SSRI's are prescribed in order to increase the uptake of this neurotransmitter which produces the happy feeling - this is based on evidence.
Hahahahahahahaha.
owait, you're serious?
Original post by Miss Behaving
Wow - as someone who is currently going through depression, I just have one thing to say to you 'You're a dick'.
This.
Original post by GodspeedGehenna
Hahahahahahahaha.
owait, you're serious?
owait, you're serious?
Yep, which is why SSRIs work
Original post by EsStupido
50 years ago nobody really suffered from depression, nowadays its the in-thing to suffer from? Feeling a bit down? Are you a little bit upset? Can't see the light at the end of your ****ty little rainbow? My God you must be depressed.
Thousands of people now make careers out of telling others that because they won't man the **** up and face life, they must be depressed and therefore need counseling and drugs - which cost money. What a shock.
Pathetic. What is wrong with people nowadays?
Thousands of people now make careers out of telling others that because they won't man the **** up and face life, they must be depressed and therefore need counseling and drugs - which cost money. What a shock.
Pathetic. What is wrong with people nowadays?
I doubt suffering from depression has suddenly become popular. people suffer from it, it always been there. It just they are more aware of it by that i mean it easier to recognise clinical depression now. help is also more easily available than it used.
Original post by Pink_Chocolate xx
Yep, which is why SSRIs work
Paracetamol alleviates my headache. Does that mean they are caused by a lack of paracetamol?
Why is it that SSRIs have a far from 100% success rate if depression is caused by a lack of serotonin?
Why is it that, despite SSRIs acheiving optimal blood level after a few dosages, require weeks for effects to be observed?
Why do drugs that increase serotonin re-uptake alleviate depression?
Why do individuals with sepiapterin reductase deficiency typically only show circadian dysrhythmia and not depression?
Why are drugs that act on alternative neurotransmitters (e.g. noradrenaline) also able to alleviate depression?
PROPTIP: The serotonin hypothesis has largely been abandoned by the neuroscientific community. The 'evidence' that you are referring to is most likely the product of the pharmaceutical industry and/or the misguided popular medical legitimisation of the disorder in the face of critics (not that it isn't of course).
(edited 13 years ago)
Original post by EsStupido
50 years ago nobody really suffered from depression, nowadays its the in-thing to suffer from? Feeling a bit down? Are you a little bit upset? Can't see the light at the end of your ****ty little rainbow? My God you must be depressed.
Thousands of people now make careers out of telling others that because they won't man the **** up and face life, they must be depressed and therefore need counseling and drugs - which cost money. What a shock.
Pathetic. What is wrong with people nowadays?
Thousands of people now make careers out of telling others that because they won't man the **** up and face life, they must be depressed and therefore need counseling and drugs - which cost money. What a shock.
Pathetic. What is wrong with people nowadays?
I'm not sure which is worse, that you think people didn't suffer from depression 50 years ago or that 12 people agreed with you so much they repped you.
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