What is depression?

pixiepeep

For anyone who knows what love or depression really are, the overuse of the terms is a little offensive (at least, I kinda feel something similar to being offended, but can't quite put my finger on it).

Frustrated? Me too. :p:

In reply to Ellsbells3032's post: clinical depression doesn't have to be constant. It can be intermittent and fluctuating - certainly not like manic depression, but you don't always have to feel like you want to kill yourself. Sometimes you can feel absolutely awful, sometimes you can just feel bored and fed up, sometimes you just sit there silently and not realise it. Depression isn't sadness. It is, as its name suggests, a kind of "pushing down", repression of happy emotions. Imagine living your life exactly as it is now but very rarely, or never, feeling a happy emotion. So, for instance, imagine a time when you were really happy, but something annoyed you. You'd still be happy, 'overall'. Depression acts like a kind of emotional "colour blindness" and just blocks out the happiness - the same person, depressed, would go from neutral (not happy, but not sad) to fairly annoyed. As another example, say you were under a lot of stress, but then spent an hour or so with someone you really like and hadn't seen for ages, and you had a good time. You'd be feeling slightly confused, but happy, maybe nostalgic, still slightly stressed, and maybe frustrated. A depressed person wouldn't be confused, or happy, would be very nostalgic (possibly to the point of crying, because of the lack of happiness), very stressed (for the same reason), and genuinely pissed off. And, if you re-evaluate the situation, the fact that they didn't get any lasting enjoyment out of seeing that person (instead just a temporary relief from the 'bad' emotions) might make them feel they've wasted the day when they could have been doing work or whatever was making them stressed, and they'd be more pissed off.

This is all very generalised though. Not all depressed people will get all of this... in fact, not all non-depressed people will feel as I described either. But I think of depression (clinical depression, which I suffer from, intermittently at the moment because it's clearing up slightly), as a literal "depression" of the good emotions. It has a huge knock-on effect on your life - the bad emotions no longer "cancel out" with the good, and doing things you used to find good can just lead to frustration and stress when you don't find them enjoyable any more and you waste your day. Certainly, hoping for depressed people to "snap out of it" will do no one any good, and may (again) not lead to the confidence boost that you think it will and rather lead them to think about their condition, get frustrated that they can't snap out of it and get upset that everyone else is having a better time than them. Best course of action with a depressed person is simply to be able to read the signs, and if they're looking pissed off, try and take their mind off what's pissing them off (or let them rant about it, depending on what type of person they are), and if they're stressed, leave them alone. But be aware that you will literally have to read the signs. Many people just won't tell you if they're depressed. :smile:

As well as this (I'm rambling myself now :smile:

), for me anyway, life seems very slowed down and sedated when I'm depressed. I can sit here for hours on end staring into space not even thinking of anything, but being generally emotionless and neutral, for hours without even noticing.

Reply 8

Peart

Clinical depression is caused by chemical imbalances n ****

but then theres being depressed as in being in a depressed mood, which is caused by bad **** happening n ****

****

****.

Reply 9

Darkened Angel

I had manic depression which lasted 3/4 months, really messes with your mind. It was caused by my constant lack of freedom, I come from a pakistani family and they cant seem to let go off some of their tradition and its gets really frustrating at times, especially this year in sixth form, I was unable to go out with friends late at night and other things like that. I gave up caring eventually and life just seemed pointless, I thought it'd always be like this and I had never ending thoughts of suicide, drove me nuts. But then I found out my dad would let me move out to go to uni if it was my only choice and that is a huge reason why did so crap at sixth form.

A lot of my asian friends are going through this at the moment, whether its manic or clinical. I feel really sorry for them especially since most of them aren't allowed to move out when going to uni so they're a bit stuck :frown:

Reply 10

dementedbunny

i've had manic depression too ^^ it comes back a lot when i get stressed. i have lots of external problems which make me depressed, but that doesn't count as clinical depression since i can actually pinpoint it's source.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_depression

Reply 11

By the way, for those not in the know, manic depression is now called bipolar disorder. Political correctness bull****, may help if you're googling it though. :smile:

Reply 12

dementedbunny

generalebriety

By the way, for those not in the know, manic depression is now called bipolar disorder. Political correctness bull****, may help if you're googling it though. :smile:

aha yeah but bipolar includes highs as well as lows which the OP might not have. but yes twas a useful piece of information you provided.

Reply 13

st8_of_mind

Some people use depression to make themselves sound pitiful and tragic. It's like some people brag about self-harm and abuse. Most of the true sufferers of depression or abuse never say they are to anyone. It's sickening that nowadays, such actions are deemed as 'cool' by some people.

Depression in itself I think varies depending on the person involved. I feel sorry for those with clinical depression, a state of melancholy like that must feel horrible. I have two sides of extreme emotions and one of them is depression but it's not constant so I can't imagine what it's like for those people.

Can someone explain manic depression, bipolar disorder rather, more fully?

Reply 14

st8_of_mind

Some people use depression to make themselves sound pitiful and tragic. It's like some people brag about self-harm and abuse. Most of the true sufferers of depression or abuse never say they are to anyone. It's sickening that nowadays, such actions are deemed as 'cool' by some people.

Please learn the difference between "many" and "most". How would you - nay, how would anyone know statistics on how many depressed people don't tell anyone, if they don't tell anyone?

st8_of_mind

Depression in itself I think varies depending on the person involved. I feel sorry for those with clinical depression, a state of melancholy like that must feel horrible. I have two sides of extreme emotions and one of them is depression but it's not constant so I can't imagine what it's like for those people.

Can someone explain manic depression, bipolar disorder rather, more fully?

As I understand it (and as the old name suggests) it's a cross between mania and depression. Half the time you're depressed, half the time you're the opposite (which I imagine would be less like being incredibly happy and more like being energetic, and that nothing could get you down, no matter what happened). But I don't know really, I am/was clinically depressed. Look on Wikipedia.

Reply 15

Darkened Angel

st8_of_mind

Some people use depression to make themselves sound pitiful and tragic. It's like some people brag about self-harm and abuse. Most of the true sufferers of depression or abuse never say they are to anyone. It's sickening that nowadays, such actions are deemed as 'cool' by some people.

Depression in itself I think varies depending on the person involved. I feel sorry for those with clinical depression, a state of melancholy like that must feel horrible. I have two sides of extreme emotions and one of them is depression but it's not constant so I can't imagine what it's like for those people.

Can someone explain manic depression, bipolar disorder rather, more fully?

It's partly similar to clinical depression, you go through times where you are really depressed and only see the down side of life. And then there are times when you feel either more than great or calm, then it goes back to depression.
The most annoying thing about it is you can go into 3 stages of moods and you never know when you're thinking straight.

When you're in the highly elevated mood you think you can do anything, that any of life's troubles is nothing you can get past, can be pretty dangerous if it's really bad. I've read you can even hallucinate during that stage, I never experienced that though, I just had thoughts of running away and getting away from it all, start a new life where I dont have a constant lack of freedom.

And when you're depressed it's the same as clinical depression, life feels like **** and more extreme depression can lead to suicidal thoughts. You also go through stages of insomnia, I went through a lot of that, nearly fell asleep in class :redface:

Read the article on wikipedia, it explains a lot.

Reply 16

squigaletta

generalebriety

Please learn the difference between "many" and "most". How would you - nay, how would anyone know statistics on how many depressed people don't tell anyone, if they don't tell anyone?

i think what st8_of_mind was refferring to was people who cut themselves and then show everyone because they feel it makes them meaningful, or the people who argue with there bf and then post on here that they are so depressed, a true sufferer does not do it for effect, which is exactly what most people do it for, they want sympathy and drama in their lives, suffers of depression however, would love to be free of their disease, and do not tend to draw attention to it, even if they do talk about it

Reply 17

Anonymous #3

pixiepeep

For anyone who knows what love or depression really are, the overuse of the terms is a little offensive (at least, I kinda feel something similar to being offended, but can't quite put my finger on it).

If most people knew what being depressed felt like, they wouldn't be so quick to label themselves. I suffered (still suffer, I'm not sure?) for 3 years with clinical depression (I'm much better now, but I'm stuck with it for life). I had a friend who used to tell everyone she was manically depressed without truly understanding what it was - I used to get quite upset that she was using my illness to get attention (I know I didn't suffer manic depression, although that is another name for BiPolar, which the doctors thought I might have at one point).

Feeling depressed, and actually being depressed are two very different things.

I was told there are different forms of depression - anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong though. There's the physical illness, and the psychological illness. The physical is caused by a hormone problem, where too much Seratonin is absorbed into the body too quickly, so it doesn't get the opportunity to keep the Endorphine (happy hormone) at a high enough level for us to get through day to day life. The psychological depression is usually the result of a traumatic experience, or series of problems.

I was told I had the physical variety, mainly as I developed it after a very nasty bout of gastroenteritis, believe it or not.

If you've got the seratonin problem, then anti-depressants will fix it, but the psychological version means that councelling is probable the best bet.

I hope I've not rambled too much!

I totally get what you're saying. I felt really low and suicidal for 2 years, though it was up and down: one minute I was singing from the rooftops and the next my legs were covered in blood. I cut myself and was so ashamed for feeling the way I did that I didn't tell a soul and I wanted to keep all the negative feelings to myself. Then a friend suddenly developed "depression" and told practically everyone she met how she had it without batting an eyelid and told me about it every single day trying to get sympathy from me while I had been depressed for ages and was silently struggling with it.

Also have another friend who reckoned he was manically depressed last year. He got over it in a matter of days. :rolleyes:

Reply 18

Darkened Angel

squigaletta

i think what st8_of_mind was refferring to was people who cut themselves and then show everyone because they feel it makes them meaningful, or the people who argue with there bf and then post on here that they are so depressed, a true sufferer does not do it for effect, which is exactly what most people do it for, they want sympathy and drama in their lives, suffers of depression however, would love to be free of their disease, and do not tend to draw attention to it, even if they do talk about it

Dont really agree with that, different people deal with it different ways. When I was going through it I talked about it a lot to my friends and made sure they knew I was going through it because I cant hold feelings like that in, I need to rant. I didnt go through the depression for the effect, I just needed friends to help me deal with it and I craved attention from people on a forum where I everyone knows me. Depression does weird things to people, just because some people draw attention to it doesnt mean they're not depressed, it just means they're feeling under apreciated and need to talk to somebody about it. Many people who suffer from depression get thoughts like 'Noone cares about me', I think that's part of the reason why some of them draw attention to themselves, so they know people do care if the react. Although they usually draw attention to themselves from friends, I doubt any sufferer would tell literally everyone they were depressed.

The only people who are faking it are the ones who enjoy being depressed, listen to sad music to help them get in a depressive mood then moan about how crap life is because they cant have this or that or their parents wont let them go to a party, etc.

I know two people who are currently depressed and they make their feelings known, one of them is going through what I went through and the other's mum just died. Dont generalise everyone to what you see certain emo kids do. It's not fair on those suffering.

Reply 19