151–160 of 215 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
People who suffer from chronic depression do so without regard to circumstance. It's a mental plague that follows one wherever they go, whatever they do. It has nothing do with reactions to anything. There's nothing reasonable about it.
I disagree. Mine set in after my first child.
I have had what seems to me to be depression for most of my life (40+ years). I have been fortunate enough to have a kid and, now, I guess I just don't have time to be depressed or something because most of my thoughts of ending life etc have, quite thankfully, gone away. I'm really not trying to be off-putting when I say this but I do sometimes wonder if some instances of depression aren't simply a cause of people n…
That also matches how treatment for depression often involves throwing spaghetti at the wall and see what method and treatment sticks. Even medication usually goes through trying different chemistries a month or two at a time and see what has any effect.
I've had friends who went out of depression by quitting their soul crushing jobs to start solo businesses. I expected they would slack a bit more and be more relaxed as self employed, but from the sidelines they looked way more busy, working way harder and longer than before. Except it seemed to work for them and they're still doing i years later.
Your story kind of resonates the same to me, and I assume the family building part can be proxied by different goals, stuff that actually matter and bring sense to what someone is doing in life and/pr a different human environment. It might not work for everyone, but I agree there must be a sizeable portion of "depressed" people who's cure are not more medication or less work, but radical changes in other aspects of their life.
What does "brain signals traveling" even mean? The brain is highly interconnected with both forward and feedback connections at all levels. Both of the mentioned regions are always active and always sending signals bidirectionally. fMRI is a slow, low resolution approximation of brain activity, so I'd really like to know what they are actually measuring as opposed to some clearly reductive analogy of what they suspec…
For instance if sending a strong sensory stimulation first triggers a higher activity level in one part before the other, that could be interpreted as directionality.
Other comments have proposed that depression may have multiple underlying causes, and thus may require different treatments. I'm curious about the other direction of thinking. What do SSRIs, psychedelics, CBT, and TMS all have in common? Suppose that there is one common cause, or one at least one cause that applies to 90% of cases. And it's treated by all these seemingly disparate methods. That's what tickles my curi…
My mental image of it is keeping a classroom under control by stopping every kid from talking to their neighbors.
I have had what seems to me to be depression for most of my life (40+ years). I have been fortunate enough to have a kid and, now, I guess I just don't have time to be depressed or something because most of my thoughts of ending life etc have, quite thankfully, gone away. I'm really not trying to be off-putting when I say this but I do sometimes wonder if some instances of depression aren't simply a cause of people n…
> really I think having kids gets looked down on It does? As someone who has decided not to have children, I feel very much like I’m the outcast. Particularly in the southern US. Also, here on HN where there are a shocking number of parents compared to say, Reddit.
I hate this idea that signals can move the "wrong" way. There have been few days in my adult life that I wouldn't have preferred to not be here. Depression sucks. Yet, I don't think people are right when they tell me I'm wrong to be depressed. I hear that some people feel their depression shouldn't be there and that they should feel happy, and in those cases I think this sounds like it could be an excellent solution,…
I believe I have some insight as someone who only recently made a breakthrough with lifelong on-and-off depression, and as someone who has had tons of therapeutic conversation (paid and otherwise). Once I finally realized that depression was something happening to me, literally an illness, and that it wasn't an intrinsic part of my personality, I sought medication. That medication had a near-immediate effect of makin…
From what you said I think we probably have slightly different manifestations of depression. Mine doesn't seem to be as absolute as it sounds like yours was. I was happy when I was a kid, it was only when I reached adulthood and started to disliked the way my life was playing out that I became depressed. This compounded with knowledge that life is just a pointless struggle basically makes me depressed constantly as I see no hope in it ever getting meaningfully better.
If I could live my ideal life – one where I wouldn't have to socialise with people and wouldn't have to work for a living (I'm autistic) – I'm fairly sure I'd be fine with my pointless existence (although maybe incorrectly). I probably wouldn't be irrationally happy or anything, but I'm sure I'd feel mostly neutral between situational moments of happiness and sadness.
But as it stands it's just all struggle for me because I dislike my life and cannot fix the problems I have. So while I could medicate myself to make my life more bearable I know I find it hard to find a balance when I take that path. Whenever I've decided to "fix" feeling depressed I've always ended up in a hedonistic spiral seeking my own selfish near-term happiness at the expense of everyone I love.
The best answer I've ever settled on is to simply embrace the sadness. So while I may not be able to be happy myself, I can still make others happy. And I think in this way my depression may even serve a noble goal because I've given up on my own happiness so entirely that maximising other people's happiness is the only thing that matters to me anymore.
But getting back on topic, I think in my case you could probably argue my personality is "wrong" – an optimal me probably wouldn't be autistic, and I probably wouldn't dislike socialising or being forced to work as much as I do. But my depression in my opinion is "right" since it's just accurately describing how I intellectually view the struggles of my day to day life.
I wouldn't deny that I could medicate the pain away, but I'm not sure that makes it "right" either – even if it doesn't feel fake.
But if you're just saying I should give medication a go because it might make me feel better, then I appreciate you sharing your experience. I definitely found it interesting that you described your medication as not giving you a fake sense of happiness. For what it's worth I used to abuse alcohol and while I was drunk that's exactly how I remember feeling and why I drank. Perhaps the right medication would be sustainable though... It's a place I'm a bit scared to even explore again to be honest. Prioritising happiness has never served me well.
My son, who is diagnosed with ADHD, anxiety, depression, and OCD, and who has been in talk therapy, on SSRIs, and other interventions for years, recently started LENS therapy, also called neurofeedback. (I'm on mobile device, otherwise I'd find the link.) It sounds a lot like a form of TMS. He's had something like 7 sessions, each lasting maybe 15 minutes. The results are nothing short of astounding for our family. H…
I have had what seems to me to be depression for most of my life (40+ years). I have been fortunate enough to have a kid and, now, I guess I just don't have time to be depressed or something because most of my thoughts of ending life etc have, quite thankfully, gone away. I'm really not trying to be off-putting when I say this but I do sometimes wonder if some instances of depression aren't simply a cause of people n…
I agree, I wonder if depression is not always rooted in some random, mental problem but rather a reasonable reaction to reality.
I have had what seems to me to be depression for most of my life (40+ years). I have been fortunate enough to have a kid and, now, I guess I just don't have time to be depressed or something because most of my thoughts of ending life etc have, quite thankfully, gone away. I'm really not trying to be off-putting when I say this but I do sometimes wonder if some instances of depression aren't simply a cause of people n…
I feel we have "depression" the same way we get "colds", try to rest hoping it goes away. Most of the time it does, and sometimes it's something else completely, but in contrast to colds, we have no good tool to properly diagnose the exact illnesses, and are probably lumping together myriads of different things under the "depression" umbrella. That also matches how treatment for depression often involves throwing spa…
There's lots of evidence that doing the opposite of rest - aerobically exercising - helps tremendously with depression (and lots of other issues).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I disagree. Mine set in after my first child.
I did not say that there is no such thing as situational depression.