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

[jayladders]

the reason there's so many supposed 'depressives' on dsf is that it is populated by narcissistic, self-pitying, unloved, overly sensitive underachievers who use a mix of false modesty, sentimental tales of their 'struggles' and ostentatious, glib liberalism to forge online friendships. when other people post that little 'hug' symbol they feel valued for once.

imo.

And just to be clear, I can assure you that if you called any of these people you are targeting, including me, any of the above adjectives, you'd be leaving the conversation missing your jaw. I was hoping you were a troll but you're a real guy. You need to go mate.

why did you message me this LOL

My choice of slang is indeed laughable to you? I'm glad you're having fun. Perhaps you should rejoin this forum with a different account and just learn from this.

trying to sound fancy by using 'indeed'

well yes, it is indeed laughable. the only thing that could have made it more pathetic would have been a threat of physical violence..............

I messaged you in private so that I wouldst have to embarrass you publicly, but so be it. I'm not threatening you with violence. I'm stating an outcome of an action.

Listen my young padawan: no one wants you on this forum. You are seemingly entertaining yourself. You make no one laugh, you make no one sad. You are a seperate entity from the community of this forum. Your attempts at.. Whatever it is you're even trying to do have failed.

Here's a sympathy vote for you: I just found out my brother in law died. I posted in a different thread saying it pissed me off. Does that make me self sympathising, vulnerable and weak? Or should you just assume that I have posted something that has pissed me off?

Get the fuck out of here you snarky little tnuc. I shall not waste my time with you, you are either a very accomplished and dedicated troll, or a sad motherfucker that fights a massively uphill battle. Either way, I shall take my English degree (yes, I have a degree in the language I so chose to butcher on a public forum to save time) and bid you a cold end, alone and 'depressed'. Farewell

[Forum]

This thread is going nowhere

[the wiggle baron]

it was! but then...yeah...herp derp

[jayladders]

it was! but then...yeah...herp derp

I tried to resist acting upon what this person said but in a thread specifically about depression, I just can't tolerate someone saying this kind of thing. Sorry if I seem to have sparked anything. I sill believe my depression related posts to be of discussion value

[leyenda]

Perhaps you should rejoin this forum with a different account and just learn from this.

But he's already on his 4th or 5th account...

[E-F]

the reason there's so many supposed 'depressives' on dsf is that it is populated by narcissistic, self-pitying, unloved, overly sensitive underachievers who use a mix of false modesty, sentimental tales of their 'struggles' and ostentatious, glib liberalism to forge online friendships. when other people post that little 'hug' symbol they feel valued for once.

imo.

And just to be clear, I can assure you that if you called any of these people you are targeting, including me, any of the above adjectives, you'd be leaving the conversation missing your jaw. I was hoping you were a troll but you're a real guy. You need to go mate.

why did you message me this LOL

My choice of slang is indeed laughable to you? I'm glad you're having fun. Perhaps you should rejoin this forum with a different account and just learn from this.

trying to sound fancy by using 'indeed'

well yes, it is indeed laughable. the only thing that could have made it more pathetic would have been a threat of physical violence..............

I messaged you in private so that I wouldst have to embarrass you publicly, but so be it. I'm not threatening you with violence. I'm stating an outcome of an action.

Listen my young padawan: no one wants you on this forum. You are seemingly entertaining yourself. You make no one laugh, you make no one sad. You are a seperate entity from the community of this forum. Your attempts at.. Whatever it is you're even trying to do have failed.

Here's a sympathy vote for you: I just found out my brother in law died. I posted in a different thread saying it pissed me off. Does that make me self sympathising, vulnerable and weak? Or should you just assume that I have posted something that has pissed me off?

Get the fuck out of here you snarky little tnuc. I shall not waste my time with you, you are either a very accomplished and dedicated troll, or a sad motherfucker that fights a massively uphill battle. Either way, I shall take my English degree (yes, I have a degree in the language I so chose to butcher on a public forum to save time) and bid you a cold end, alone and 'depressed'. Farewell

'stating an outcome'.... how incredibly macho and self assured.

you're right. I come on here when I'm bored to entertain myself. I didn't realise it was a pre-requisite that I also entertain others.

don't know cba to read the post. if it was over 5 lines long then yes, probably.

believing that doing an English degree somehow marks you out as an intellect is only further confirmation of your stupidity.


in the spirit of being constructive, however, and not merely entertaining myself.... here's a tip: your writing style is very clunky. you should work on developing something that you feel more comfortable with, rather than attempting to use a register you think sounds clever.

[jayladders]

Perhaps you should rejoin this forum with a different account and just learn from this.

But he's already on his 4th or 5th account...

Was unaware of this. Truly that is a strong level of dedication to being a sour bastard.

Troll shields engaged

On with the discussion

[E-F]

you should check out the set I posted in the history of grime thread as compensation for all the personal entertainment I've selfishly taken from my posts.

[dickman69]

EF rustles everyone so hard lol

[dubfordessert]

ok i'll be real.

1) there are lots of different types and causes of depression. diagnosing depression is based on symptom clusters not origin. the actual origin of any particular depression is not known.

2) social, political-economic and personal situations and stress clearly have an influence on incidence of depression. that doesn't mean it's not an illness anymore than the fact that obesity and stress can cause heart disease means heart disease isn't an illness.

3) given 2) there is no easy way to "treat" depression. any chemical treatment can only address the situation on the level of so-called brain chemistry, which unless you *assume* to begin with that depression is "purely chemical" (again, whatever you might take that to mean, little actual evidence for this), and cannot be said to be a treatment of the disease in any real sense. for instance, SSRIs that raise serotonin levels might have the effect of improving your mood, but that doesn't mean that depression is caused by low serotonin levels (again, absolutely no evidence for this). psychiatry and neuroscience are not at the point where they can do anything more than attempt to alleviate symptoms. paracetamol can alleviate the pain of a wound but it doesn't heal the wound. SSRIs are paracetamol for the mood, except not nearly as good at their job as paracetamol.

4) not all depressed mood = depression.

5) regardless of the cause of depression, if i) you cannot rectify it by yourself and ii) it causes a significant dent in your functioning, it can be called an illness.

6) there is no reason to create a dichotomy between "depression is an illness" and "depression is a weakness". the reason for the simple definition of illness in 5) is because the illness construct is one of the few ways our society permits people to not function at optimum productivity without blaming them for it. see the medicalisation of trauma for more of this. you CAN say that a depression is not an illness in some more restricted sense without being a prick about it.

7) any model of depression that denies outright that it can have an endogenous cause (i.e. be a mainly or entirely biological phenomenon, a "disease" in a very simple sense) is denying reality.

[dubfordessert]

the reason there's so many supposed 'depressives' on dsf is that it is populated by narcissistic, self-pitying, unloved, overly sensitive underachievers who use a mix of false modesty, sentimental tales of their 'struggles' and ostentatious, glib liberalism to forge online friendships. when other people post that little 'hug' symbol they feel valued for once.

imo.

And just to be clear, I can assure you that if you called any of these people you are targeting, including me, any of the above adjectives, you'd be leaving the conversation missing your jaw. I was hoping you were a troll but you're a real guy. You need to go mate.

why did you message me this LOL

My choice of slang is indeed laughable to you? I'm glad you're having fun. Perhaps you should rejoin this forum with a different account and just learn from this.

trying to sound fancy by using 'indeed'

well yes, it is indeed laughable. the only thing that could have made it more pathetic would have been a threat of physical violence..............

I messaged you in private so that I wouldst have to embarrass you publicly, but so be it. I'm not threatening you with violence. I'm stating an outcome of an action.

Listen my young padawan: no one wants you on this forum. You are seemingly entertaining yourself. You make no one laugh, you make no one sad. You are a seperate entity from the community of this forum. Your attempts at.. Whatever it is you're even trying to do have failed.

Here's a sympathy vote for you: I just found out my brother in law died. I posted in a different thread saying it pissed me off. Does that make me self sympathising, vulnerable and weak? Or should you just assume that I have posted something that has pissed me off?

Get the fuck out of here you snarky little tnuc. I shall not waste my time with you, you are either a very accomplished and dedicated troll, or a sad motherfucker that fights a massively uphill battle. Either way, I shall take my English degree (yes, I have a degree in the language I so chose to butcher on a public forum to save time) and bid you a cold end, alone and 'depressed'. Farewell

[hugh]

I wasn't depressed but then I read this thread, fanx you bellends

[Genevieve]

u kno sum peeople shud just get over it liek i get sad sumtimes 2 u kno n i dont jus sit round feeling sorry for myself lmao i just get out n meet my friends 2 gt my mind off of it u fking morans

[hugh]

u kno sum peeople shud just get over it liek i get sad sumtimes 2 u kno n i dont jus sit round feeling sorry for myself lmao i just get out n meet my friends 2 gt my mind off of it u fking morans

2rite spot on m8 innit

[hugh]

also I think a lot of bored people confuse long term boredom with depression. Get out and do shit every day and you'll be too tired to worry about whether you are depressed or not.
If you are depressed, go see a doctor

[hugh]

also, without being too provocative, I think middle class guilt comes into it a fair bit.

[E-F]

EF rustles everyone so hard lol

pack mentality

[esfandyar]

spend 5 minutes in a psychiatric hospital and ask that question again.

yeah.. are we talking about feeling depressed or are we talking about major depressive disorder?

if the latter, its hereditary, it has been genetically proven to be a real ailment, and some people have it so severely that they cannot function in a daily lifestyle anymore. depression is also co-morbid with many other diseases, most individuals who have depression also have other forms of mental illness such as bipolar disorder (both I and II), borderline personality disorder, PTSD, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders..

proper treatment for the disorder? im severely against SSRIs.. most forms of anti depressants anyways.. i took them for about 3 months of my life and they completely destroyed my libido.. took about a year for me to have a normal sex drive again. that was also around 5 years ago, there have been other medications since then which do not express those side effects anymore. but, honestly the best thing i have had experience with first hand is a good diet and a lot of exercise. however, there are cases of depression which are so severe that being medicated, at least at this point in medical technology, is unavoidable. i think im some cases, physicians still use electro-convulsive therapy to treat some people who have depression so severe that they do not respond even to medication.

[butter_man]

Round my ends the waiting list to see a psychologist is a year. Psychiatrist a few months. So you take the pills and continue a fairl normal (yet numbed) life.

[kay]

This thread is a bad idea.

I don't to get involved too much but I feel as though my input is valid given my fucked up mental state.

I was diagnosed with dysthymia when I was 13. Throughout my life, I've developed more problems, such as insomnia and anxiety. Numerous suicide attempts. My current therapist believes I have always suffered from depression as either a side effect of these other problems, or it being the cause.

Depression has numerous causes and factors. A chemical imbalance is first and foremost. Environmental factors are also important. What isn't important is being confused about 'being sad' and 'having depression'

I know too many people that think being sad is what depression is. My father also suffers from depression. His way of describing his 'depression attacks' that occur on a really bad day is 'like a blanket just coming over you and you know you can't get it off'

Edit: I know I'm a strange member of this forum, and I'm aware that I'm looking upon with querying eyes. I've suffered these things for a long time so I'm very used to openly talking about my problems. Maybe I can help other people by explaining my own situation etc.

Your dad's description of it sounds very familiar