I think depression is stupid.
 

To let you guys know, I don't have depression, nor did I ever. So maybe I just don't "understand", but I seriously think depression is stupid. If you have depression you most likely live in a first world country that has internet and medicine and good education systems. So why are you crying about it? We could just ship you off to some random third world country and make you appreciate the things you have in life. Hell the freaking people of said third world country are more happier then you are! They don't get everything they need, yet they're still happier, they still have the will to live life! So why on God's green earth are people complaining about depression! I honestly see people that claim they have depression as "You know I'm moody and have nothing to complain about, so I'm just going to complain about nothing my hole life". What's the deal with depression? Why of all things is this an epidemic?

Re: I think depression is stupid.
 

I'm not depressive, and I haven't ever been, but 3 of my friends are, and I can tell you it isn't as simple as you make it seem.
Sure, I don't think depression is the way on, but it turns out it's very hard to avoid for them. I have my moments when I feel down - sometimes I don't even know why - and all my emotions well up in me and I just can't stop myself from crying and feeling angry. I guess that for people with depression it's based on that principle, except they are constantly reminded (or thinking) of their problems.
So, I don't think it's fair to say "it's stupid" and "they don't know how lucky they are to live in a first world country". It's basically the same as going up to someone who's crying over a relative's death and saying "stop crying, it's stupid, think about all the African children who have nothing to eat." Seriously. First of all, it's good to let them cry off the frustration, and second of all, telling them they live in a good country will not help. The way I see it, you can only be grateful for something if you have lived without it.
Okay, so that's all I wanted to say. Sorry if I seemed a bit aggressive or whatever, it's just I feel quite strongly about it. :)

Re: I think depression is stupid.
 

Few things here. Depression is an illness. What you're doing is like saying to someone with cancer "Oh, but you live in a first world country, you should be happy". We don't choose to be sick, we don't choose to be depressed.

Depression is also often caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. That's right, your brain is screwing you over. So do you think that people are just making up having diabetes? That's your hormones screwing you over. Same thing, different organ.

I have a pretty damn good life. I'm in a secure career, I have amazingly supportive family and friends. I struggle with depression. My sister is on antidepressants, pretty much for life. With them correcting brain chemicals, she functions at a really high level (full-time mother, priest, and study). Without them? She can barely function.

Re: I think depression is stupid.
 

Depression is the way I understand it, is a disease, a chemical (which is your depression) in your brain that sorta just expands and dominate your mind.

Depression can be caused by a number of reasons:

1) The loss of a love one

2) Your life is going downhill (meaning you're not getting any jobs or anything that you need)

3) Or just like I said, you may be classed with a disorder regarding depression.

In most cases, the third reason is probs most common to my belief (or not).

I can understand why someone who never gets depression can see is depression as "dumb" but the way you view it is plainly out of ignorance, there's alot more to it than what you know about it. A lot more.
That's like hearing your friend saying she got a puppy and you say "Oh that's cute" but when you see the puppy, you squeal and adore it. What I'm trying to say is that sure, depression sounds bad but when you truly are experiencing it, it's a lot worse than you can ever imagine.


Just one thing, I don't understand what you mean that people in the third-word countries are happier than people the first world countries with depression such as myself. It's a funny statement, they do have it worse than us. (in my opinion)
I wouldn't say first-world countries are relatively "happy" places, it depends where you are going, you can go to the wrong alley and still get trouble mixed in with life. I know I'm being vague here but still...
Hell, just to prove it myself a point of my own. When I hear the news and hear any third-world countries have horrible problems and basically innocent people dying, I really get depressed by that because there's nothing I can do. (as a result, I stay away from the news, unless they start actually giving good news )

My depressions are largely based on self-doubt, the feeling of being a failure (due to a number of private reasons) because of that, I feel like I failed someone and other stuff followed by being plain lonely. I feel like a failure because I want to be at the point where I can help people, especially in third-world countries. Say what you want about my depression but my heart is in the right place and you must remember that depression is an unbalance chemical in your brain (Look it up, I'm not an expert of saying it medically), it gets worse.

Please remember that the mind is not always so as simple as your body. Especially even today, scientist are still trying to understand the "brain".

I'm sorry if I sound brutal or anything close to that. That's likely due to literally having woke up to replying on this thread.

(On a side note, there's a chance you may have depression in your life. A high chance, hopefully you'll begin to understand what's it like).

Bleh, other users can give better explanations than a lousy brain here that's still waking up. Follow their advice.

Re: I think depression is stupid.
 

Depression is often caused by chemical imbalances which we have no control of. People don't wake up one day and say "hmmm, I think I'll be depressed today, that will be fun"

Living in a first world country doesn't automatically mean you're living a good life. People are homeless, abused, struggling with an illness etc.

The brain is incredibly complex, we still know very little about it. It will decide to fcuk up on us occasionally.

You may find this interesting:

http://www.health.harvard.edu/newswe...depression.htm

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Re: I think depression is stupid.
 

As someone who is antipsychiatry and antipsychology, I don't agree with those saying it's a mental illness or "chemical imbalance". However, as someone living in a first world country, I have experienced depression and know that it is not so simple as you make it out to be. Depression isn't just feeling sad. It has a wide range of symptoms as well. I know that when I first had this problem, I could barely get out of bed in the morning. My limbs felt like lead weights and the veins in my head pounded so hard I got headaches every day. It's definitely something that will break your spirit when you are in physical pain and stress all day every day.

Aside from the physical health problems it brings, many people feel extremely stressed out with work, school, and their social or private life. Students are being overworked and getting less sleep than they used to. Economic problems force workers to increase their work load. Japan even had to invent words for this because it has become such a common occurrence- karoshi (worked to death) and karojisatsu (suicide from being overworked).

People also, as typically imagined, get this after spending long periods of time being isolated, bullied, neglected or abused, etc. Sometimes, it even happens as one is approaching old age or incurable/costly illness. Just because we have better technology, healthcare, education and so forth doesn't mean the problems don't exist. Also, you say that they don't get everything they need and are still happy. This is oversimplification, and might I add Guyana has the 4th highest rate of suicide in the world, according to Wikipedia. The US is at 34, UK at 37. Clearly the people of third world countries are not all rainbows and smiley faces like you seem to be implying.

Re: I think depression is stupid.
 

You sound so much like my mom when you express how "wrong" depression sounds. I cant even try talking to my mom about depression without her thinking im pretending. :( not everyone has a happy life. A lot of us have gone through mental struggles. Just because you haven't gone through depression doesn't mean you can just judge people by their depression disorder.

Please think things through before you post threads that are offensive to people with struggles.

Amanda

Re: I think depression is stupid.
 

Thats because you've never experienced it. People don't kill themselves for fun.

Re: I think depression is stupid.
 

I'd like to apologize for my behavior in this post. I am human and I do get angry at times.

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Re: I think depression is stupid.
 

I could rant forever about this topic, but to keep myself from getting worked up about nothing, this is all I'll say:

Saying someone shouldn't be sad because someone else has it worse is the exact same thing as telling someone they shouldn't be happy because someone else has it better.

Re: I think depression is stupid.
 

Re: I think depression is stupid.
 

This is the most ignorant post I have ever read. Yes, I live in America and I have a lot of things that a lot of other people don't have but I do struggle with depression. Just because I struggle with depression doesn't mean I'm not thankful for all the nice things in my life. Depression isn't something you choose, it's a chemical imbalance, it's out of our control. And just because someone has it worse than I do means that I have to be happy every day of my life? Do you honestly think someone would choose to be depressed? Do your research.

Re: I think depression is stupid.
 

First off, I am not offended by your post though I can see why some people here maybe.
I am glad you put this here because maybe it shows you are wanting to learn and if you are wanting to learn, there is a possibility that you have an open mind and want to change how you think about this.
No person, no matter if they have been depressed or not, can truly understand another person exactly (even if they have had almost exact experiences) because everyone thinks differently, has their own views about things and is different.
So while a therapist that has experienced negative events in there life and has decided to help others that have been through the same or similar situations, they cannot even understand perfectly.
Helping someone that is depressed requires compassion, empathy and listening. It requires medication where necessary to fix chemical imbalances and other therapies as well if the person is not agreeable to medication or wants to take a more hollistic approach.
I am willing to talk to you about this farther through PM if you would like.
I do not mind explaining things (if I can find the right words) and I am always glad when someone wants to understand me better before they go judging and criticizing.
Your post may have come across as judging but I view it is a rather direct, uneducated way of saying you want to learn more. You may not have worded things as nicely as some may have liked but there we are again: back to our experiences, they shape how we react, comprehend and take things.
I prefer to take an open approach before I go and tell someone they are ignorant because if someone has no idea about something, the only conclusion they can form is based off of their lack of education and telling them they have "lack of knowledge or information" would only be pointing out the obvious (definition of ignorance).
It is like people that are blind (as I am) that get upset when someone tries to help them. They start cursing or getting angry and tell the person off. The thing is, people try to help us because they think we are in capable and cannot see themselves in our situation. Do I blame them? No, I do not because I look at myself and I try to imagine myself in there place. If I saw someone walking down a road with a cane and knew that meant they could not see and I were sighted, I would get worried too and my humanly instinct to assist them would turn on and I would want to help. Not out of trying to cause a problem but out of wanting to make a difference.
Do I think that ignorance is right, no. But can I be mad at people for not knowing what they just do not know, no. Some people just have never learned what I have learned or what someone else has learned and some people have not had the same oppurtunities I have had or have not had to help them come to the same conclusions and understanding about certain things.
I think that now this is all I would like to say here.
Again, I am open to a PM about this if you would like to talk farther.
Do not feel bad about posting because I did something like this about a year ago in an online group I was in with other blind people. My goal was to help them but most of them told me off and got mad but overtime some of them realized that I was trying to make them think. Though our posts are vastly different, I believe we had the same goal: trying to understand others and become better people.
I know that some people here will read this and probably think I am crazy but this is just how I thought about this post (and all of the replies to it which I read and thought through).

Re: I think depression is stupid.
 

The main cause of depression is loneliness, and loneliness is not stupid. Humans are hard-wired to be social, but our society is extremely isolating.

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Re: I think depression is stupid.
 

That it is a chemical imbalance is a tautology. It is rhetoric to get people to use anti-depressants.

If they're fat, then their diet is likely contributing to their depression as well. Diet is a huge factor in depression.

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I just wanted to say I've been extremely depressed for a year now. I didn't choose to be this way, I didn't make it up to get attention, in fact I hate lots of attention. It's just the way I am. Please don't rant about how it's stupid, it's really not. Maybe it's more common in 1st world countries because of the pressure to be perfect and also our technology we can communicate in a more broad spectrum. In 3rd world countries all people are accepted and cared for and there's no perfect body type. We also don't hear about it as much because of lack of technological communications. Life is hard with depression and I can guarantee you nobody wants depression just like nobody wants cancer. So please, in the future do not lash out on mental illnesses, it's just the way some people are. I understand we are all imperfect and you may have just gotten off track at the time of this, and that's okay, we all do at times. Just please next time maybe don't say depression is stupid, it's hard for those depressed to hear especially if they already feel lonely and society makes them feel worse. Thank you and have a lovely day.