Poll: What do you think of depression?

[Panda Mania]

Depression is real. I know this because I have experienced it. (On a side note, I also know that antidepressants work at least in part because they definitely helped me out.) The people who dismiss depression as just "all in your head" would probably dismiss schizophrenia and other serious mental conditions along similar lines. They show their ignorance and/or stupidity by disregarding the multi-faceted realities of the human brain gone askew. I agree with the OP in that they would have a change of heart should a close friend/family member or they themselves become saddled with depression, or any other mental condition.

Some people think depression is over-diagnosed, at least here in the States. I don't know. I think it's a tricky matter since it's a part of the symptoms of many, many different illnesses. And it differs in each individual case... :\

But again, its graveness should be realized. When you're clinically depressed, it's not okay, it's not right; in fact, it feels like you're trapped in a bottomless pit, struggling to rise above and not despair and sink into the blackness. Well, at least that's how it was for me. Remember, just because there's not something wrong with your body doesn't mean you don't need help.

EDIT: Lol, sounded like a PSA at the end there. Still true, tho.

 

[psychowatcher]

Been diagnosed with depression. Saying it sucks is an understatement.

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

Dear reader, what are your thoughts on this matter?

The same as my thoughts on any mental disorder. It exists and isn't something that you just get over, but most people don't have it. It's the same as all of the 'popular' ones:

Fussy people say they have OCD
Fidgety attention seekers say they have ADHD
Upset pessimists say they're depressed.

It's always so you stand out a little and have some sort of character to you. It's also largely attributed to attention seeking, I think you'll find. They all exist, but not as many people who think they have it actually do.

 

[Shockolate]

My mother has it. My father had it. Both grandmother's have it. My grandfather on my father's side has it. My oldest brother has it. I have it.

My family's genes suck.

 

[jakeblues1295]

After being diagnosed with it when I was 10, after several suicide attempts, I can say that it is nothing to laugh at or dismiss.

 

[FalloutJack]

Depression is impossible for me. I have the wrong mindset for it.

 

[X10J]

I'm a psych student, clynical depression exisits.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

For a time, I was quite depressed. I used the depression line to get out of things, and really let it affect my life. Eventually, I came to a kind of introspective understanding that because I kept saying I was, I remained, and that the only way to move out of it was to move on. I honestly was holding myself back with it, and after letting go of that part of my life that kept me depressed, finding something new, and dealing with things that I'd been to scared for myself to do, I became much happier, spent less time moping, and more time doing things I like to do, rather than avoiding them because I felt emotionally empty. Depression is fine and all, for a brief period, but after that period, there must be something else you do. If you life seems like crap, and you don't change anything about your life, it's going to stay crap. You have to make the changes, or at least initiate them, in order to start being better. There is a period, varying depending on why you're depressed, where you're perfectly justified in feeling bad. After that, it's time to pull your pants up, crack your knuckles, and get the hell back into it.

 

[Infinatex]

I ignore it. People have enough to deal with, without worrying about everyone else's problems.

 

[Seanfall]

I think it's odd that so many of those 'anti-depression' pills have 'may cause thoughts of suicide' as a freakin side affect. Yeah...gee that helps.

I haven't been taught anything on psychology or medicine, so this is just my theory. I think that those medications inhibit parts of the brain to "dull" certain feelings. You'd probably feel depression less, but you'd be insensitive, and suicide would no longer seem "bad".

Dear god that's even worse! It means instead of just feeling sad you feel NOTHING. I'll the sadness if it means I still can laugh at the Three Stooges.

 

[Haydyn]

Wait, people actually try to dismiss depression? I could see AD(H)D, but depression of all things? It is entirely real. I've been treated for many disorders over the years, currently everything is just "Possible This" and "Possible That" without anybody coming right out and labeling it. Some days I will be on top of the world, other days unable to do anything, or feel positive. I've always thought it was Bi-Polar, but the last two months have been great. No mood swings, depression, or anything like that. It's not a lack of stressful situations by any means. I've just been able to overcome it and balance my moods.

Depression is very real, and very serious. It can be dealt with without medication, but for the most part medicating it is not always wrong. What's bad is that so many people are on anti-depressants. Not all of these people are going through tragedy or have a chemical inbalance. So many of them just don't know how to manage their stress well. I'm not going to speak for everyone, but there is no doubt I have some sort of disorder. I've been on a dozen different kinds of pills, and I had so, so many problems in school. Many thoughts of suicide, and one half assed attempt. I've just been able to control what I can, like avoiding foods and activities that unbalance my mood. Right now I love life, and medication free. So while depression is very serious, there are people who can get out of the slump, but just have not taken the actions to do so.

 

[LongAndShort]

I think depression is a serious issue, without a doubt, but without experiencing it myself at some of the lows that I've seen others hit I do find it difficult to comprehend. As such I have probably told people that they just need to "grow a pair" and get on with life when I shouldn't have. I try not to judge, but I do, and probably far to harshly far to often.

 

[000Ronald]

Well tell them you don't feel they've been supporting you, and that you need help. They may find it annoying, but if they care about you, they will help (or at least try).

Friends and family are supportive, it's the "professionals" that provide no help. They are emotionless creatures that go through a standard routine. They do not try to understand you as a person and earn your trust so that you let them through your shell. They merely ask how you feel, and how they can help you, and give you useless advice like "regulate your sleeping pattern, go for walks".

It's like a child solving one of those peg and hole puzzles. Instead of carefully analysing the shape of the hole and the possible pegs, it simply rams each and every peg into the hole until one fits. And if one peg doesn't fit you just need to push harder, right?

Really? My experience was the exact opposite. The psychologists were pretty much the only people who tried to understand me at all. On the other hand I do have Aspergers as well, and that might have something to do with it. Maybe.

I would tell you...tell them, too. Those people are there to help you too; hell, it's what their paid for. What could it hurt.

On the other hand, if they don't acknowledge it, or worse, tell you you're wrong? Get a new doctor. Come to think of it, that may have been what happened with me...I don't remember all that well.

 

[DanDeFool]

I suffer from clinical depression, and I have seen a lot of people dismiss depression on the internet. They say that depression is an excuse, or to "just get over it", but I know from experience that depression is very real and not easy to shake off. It seems to me people dismiss depression in order to protect themselves from it, and people that have encountered depression are more accepting of it.

I suspect the attitudes you've encountered on the Internet are a result of a few key aspects of clinical depression, and indeed most clinical psychological disorders.

1) Even people who may have these psychological disorders aren't sure if they have them or if they're just "going through a bad time in their life" (or similar rationalization for their feelings).

2) People outside the psychiatric community don't understand how these mental disorders are diagnosed, or if the diagnoses are reliable. After all, mental disorders are unlike any other illness. You can see the hardening of the coronary arteries in heart disease. You can see scar tissue forming on the liver in cirrhosis. How do you "see" if someone has a problem with their brain? Is there any, for lack of a better term, "physical evidence" of a neurological disorder that you can point to and say, "Now I know this person is sick"? Which is related to my next point...

3) The current attitude towards the medical industry in general is that doctors of all kinds, but especially psychiatric doctors, are waaaaay too prescription-happy. You hear ridiculous statistics about people being put on anti-depressants and kids on Ritalin, and you think "these mental disorders can't be that common". Rightfully so, I think, but people have a tendency to over-correct perceived problems. In this case, calling bullshit on the entire field of psychiatry, and thinking that even visiting a psychiatric professional makes them a patsy to Big Pharma.

You could even take it one step further (as I'm sure many do) and assume that Clinical Depression is just a buzzword Big Pharma came up with so they could sell pills to people who are sad, and just sad.

Couple that with a lack of understanding about psychological disorders and their diagnosis, and it's no wonder people doubt if there's anything "really" wrong with a person with a mental disorder.

4) This is one you might have to correct me on, but even if an individual legitimately has a clinical mental disorder, the drugs we have for treating these aren't always effective for everyone. I've heard of many individuals, both from my IRL acquaintances and on the Internet, that were diagnosed with a clinical mental disorder, took the drugs, and the drugs didn't help.

It further undermines the case for clinical depression because when I hear stories about ineffective treatments, I can only draw two conclusions. Either they didn't really have the disorder they were treated for, but the doctor they went to thought they did and prescribed to them anyway (a knock against the medical field); or that our means for treating these diseases are so limited that there may not be a lot of use in seeking psychiatric help in the first place.

For those reasons, the attitudes toward depression you've run into on the web make a lot of sense to me. I still don't believe they're right; I think clinical depression is real and I believe that it is a fairly common disorder (as such disorders go, that is. I'd expect 5%-10% or less of the population actually has it.).

However, I also feel that the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders is problematic at best. Seeing how common criticisms of the psych field are, I feel that I have good reason to believe that a lot of practicing psychiatric professionals are poorly trained, are being blatantly irresponsible, just don't have many tools at their disposal given our limited understanding of how the brain works, or some combination of the three.

I'd very much like to hear your perspective on the state of the field of psychiatric medicine, having dealt with it yourself.

 

[Musketman]

There's a difference between having clinical depression and just being plain old sad. Sadness is an emotion. Depression is a disease. Although it might not seem like it at a glance, the brain is an organ just like the heart or the lungs, and when there is some chemical imbalance in the brain, things can go very, very wrong. A lot of people aren't quite as sensitive to those who are truly depressed because they are looking at it as if it were an emotion, as something that one has some degree of control over.

The disease itself is difficult to identify because it's symptoms take such an abstract form. If someone has bronchitis, then he or she will exhibit clear, measurable symptoms. Chronic and severe coughing or wheezing, shortness of breath, pain in the chest etc. However, the most common symptom of depression is feeling "sad," or more commonly, "really really sad," which is a common emotion that is felt by everyone and, under normal circumstances, can be delt with fairly straightforwardly in a number of ways.

Of course, "sad" is quite a shallow description of the tempestuous ocean that composes all the symptoms of depression, bt the point is that it's easy to confuse the disease with the emotion. One key difference though that needs to be understood is that, as a disease, depression is debilitating. Sure, breaking up with a significant other or doing poorly in your school/job does suck, but you don't stop functioning because of it. You don't stop eating or find it impossible to get out of bed for days because of it. You don't refuse to speak to your closest friends for months or contemplate ending your own life, thus defying that most fundamental, primitive, and universal human instinct to survive that pervades our every moment of existence, because of it.

Depression is serious. If someone you know has cancer, you wouldn't tell them to "get over it." You would tell them to get help immediately, and if someone you know may have depression, please of please for their sake and the sake of everyone they know, convince them to seek help.

If you actually read through all that, I applaud your endurance.

 

[Aur0ra145]

There is such a thing as clinical depression.

That being said. Most people on this website do not have clinical depression. They are just having puberty/"I'm depressed because it's cool" syndrome.

Getting down every now and then is normal. But you need to pull yourself out of it as quickly as possible. It's your responsibility to make happiness for yourself. So get up and take responsibility for your own actions. Be proactive, have fun, go out, meet new people. Don't get all caught up in feeling sorry for yourself, fix it through your own positive actions.

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

I accept depression, and i experience it myself. However, i do not accept people who refuse to do anything to help themselves. No one else can make you better. No one can live your life for you. There is no medication that will make you take it. You have to put effort into your own recovery or at least your own coping.

 

[LITE992]

After I overcame depression a few months back I wondered to myself how I could have gotten myself into something like that. But yeah, it's a really nasty thing that changes you.