Is depression a disease, and how should we treat it?

[wub]

1) What is depression? Is it a disease? A mental disorder? Biochemical imbalance? A brain dysfunction? A psychological syndrome? An existential or spiritual crisis?

2) How should be depression be treated and handled, both by the individual and society as a whole?

[garethom]

1) No
2) Just cheering up or listening to inspirational speeches from underdog sports movies.

Before someone jumps down my throat, this is a joke.

I honestly don't know enough about it, I do think some people think they're depressed too easily when they're just a bit sad momentarily, and that can feed into some sort of downward spiral if it happens too often (but maybe that's how depression starts). Feel like the ones that are always talking about it might not have it, and that there are plenty of people in the background, sucking it up in public that are suffering behind the scenes.

[wub]

Feel like the ones that are always talking about it might not have it

Interesting view, considering the number of mentions of depression that there are on here from various users.

[Phigure]

well depression is a pretty broad term, it's fairly normal to have periods in your life where you feel down. but then there's scenarios in which, for no real good reason, an individual feels depressed for an extended period of time.

[Electric_Head]

I'm pretty surprised at how many members on DSF have depression.
Does the UK weather encourage depression?
Or is it drug related depression?
Considering we're from numerous different countries, depression confuses me.

[wub]

I'm pretty surprised at how many members on DSF have depression

Does your understanding of what depression is lead you to believe that everyone who says they have it actually has it then?

[Electric_Head]

I'm thinking, probably not.
I often think it's a self imposed state of mind.

[garethom]

I'm pretty surprised at how many members on DSF have depression.
Does the UK weather encourage depression?
Or is it drug related depression?
Considering we're from numerous different countries, depression confuses me.

I think there's a big focus on mental problems, which can only be a positive, but I think it can encourage some people to read a little about the symptoms and misdiagnose a rough patch as depression, which then might only make things worse.

[das_raunchy]

i've read that physical activity, proper diet, and sleep can help. from experience, block out or ignore the negative during the darker times. laugh, enjoy, appreciate. kumbaya

[joeki]

depression is not a disease, it is a symptome of capitalism. Solution? End our profit based society.

[garethom]

depression is not a disease, it is a symptome of capitalism. Solution? End our profit based society.

What?

[joeki]

it is a provocative statement. But if you think about it, a lot of the so called 'causes' of depression, a lot of it can be lead back to the pressure living in a capitalistic society exerts on people. Also, in this society of competitiveness a sort of mindset is created that adds even more pressure on people.

[jigglypuff]

charlie sheen

[Ficticious]

A failure of social activities, too much into yourself or what you're doing. and too much "jokes" or insults from friends/ outside world, or others may also slowly lead to depression and loss of self worthiness.

Just my two cents.

[Sexual_Chocolate]

its all very subjective.

[Phigure]

depression is not a disease, it is a symptome of capitalism. Solution? End our profit based society.

lol

[magma]

I have a bad feeling about this thread.

I went out with a girl who suffered from depression for 4 years... I still don't really understand it. I could see a lot of the traits exist within me, if dormant, I never really understood why our brains acted so differently when they were capable of acting to similarly.

I think socialisation has a lot to do with it or at least did with hers. A night out with friends would make my ex a different person for the whole week, but the longer she'd go without, the less she'd want to go... her depression had roots in a teenage trauma though; the only way to get over it was counselling - she had to pick through all the issues in her brain like a knotted ball of wool until they unravelled into something she could make sense of. It's a slow process.

Being a bit sad or bummed out isn't depression. Being cynical about the world isn't depression. Being suicidal isn't necessarily depression. Withdrawing from social circles whilst telling everyone you're fine might be.

I'm not sure what the definition of a disease is, but it's definitely a pathology. You should treat the brain like any other organ, if it's sick, it's sick; but you have to relate to it on its own terms. You treat eyes with lenses and light. You treat kidneys with dialysis. You treat a broken leg with a plastercast. It strikes me that throwing chemicals at the brain can only get you so far; they can lay more flexible neural pathways but they can't actually fire the thoughts along them in the right directions to learn lessons and create personality changes - the brain isn't a 'simple' single-purpose organ like the lungs or liver, you can't just build it back to strength, you have to think it back into shape too... treatment for issues with the brain should be utterly personal and should always stem from conversations between the patient and their Doctor/Psychiatrist.

[teamhobson]

Another potential snh war thread from Wub, quality stuff.

[magma]

BNanni lent me a really good book on mental illness - depression isn't one of the main themes, but it comes up. One of the most eye-opening bits for me was the current generally accepted method of diagnosis. We don't match symptoms to treatments, we match conditions to drugs... you try one drug, it doesn't work, you try a second drug, it doesn't work, you try a third drug, it does work... you have condition three! We're still babies at this area of medicine, it's a little embarrassing.

[garethom]

Another potential snh war thread from Wub, quality stuff.

Nah, it's been alright so far, barring Joeki's "provocative statement" about profit, but I've no doubt somebody will lose their shit.

SNH only has a problem when people will refuse even the thought of having their mind changed, or learning something from somebody else. Personally, I look forward to threads like these because I can learn from people that know more than me/have different thoughts on the issue.