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Depression lies

wilwheaton.net

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Re: Depression lies

#31

Post by lusr »

dkarl wrote: post #25
luriel wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Knowing you "have a problem" doesn't mean you or anyone understands the problem or what to do about it. And even if you know what to do, doesn't mean you can do it either, the psychological, social or just practical barriers can be impossible to climb. Medication has a statistical significant effect, but is often marginal at best, and most of the effect is placebo. And this assumes an accurate diagnosis, and don't co…

Knowing the problem is depression and learning to recognize how depression affects me has led to big improvements for me. It doesn't stop me from getting depressed and believing all the same old lies, but when the depression lifts, I get to enjoy not being depressed right away. Before I understood depression, the lies depression taught me tended to stick around. They were part of how I thought even when I wasn't depr…

Absolutely. I haven't seen anybody mention David Burns' book "Feeling Good" but it probably saved my life from a descent into insanity. It's my "bible" now. I knew something was completely and absolutely wrong with my self-destructive thought patterns but didn't understand what until I learned about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).

A sad observation: everytime I encounter a struggling friend with dysfunctional thought patterns, I work through their thoughts using CBT techniques (without mentioning that's what I'm doing). This almost always results in a calmer friend who starts feeling better about the situation, or at least more confident in their ability to deal with it.

I then tell them what I'd done to improve their emotional state and how they can learn to do it for themselves by pointing them to CBT and Burns... and a few months later I find they still suffer from dysfunctional thoughts and haven't bothered following my advice.

Funny thing is I was the same; it took a bout of severe depression and reading "Feeling Good" exactly at the time when I could introspect my severely dysfunctional thought patterns for me to accept my situation (having purchased the book a year previously but being dubious about its claims of my "mild" depression at the time). I don't know if this is social conditioning (only "weak" people get depression) or general ignorance of the fact that the mind needs "maintenance work".

Re: Depression lies

#32

Post by muriithi »

paulerdos wrote: post #13

I wonder how depressed people in the 3rd world manage to survive.

I went to college (here in Kenya) with two sisters whose family had a history of suicide. Both committed suicide after they had graduated.

The sad thing is that people rarely talk about mental health issues[1].

There is also a shortage of psychiatrists and when they are found most people cannot afford them.

[1] http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/31/health/frank-njenga-mental...

Re: Depression lies

#33

Post by ceol »

ryanmolden wrote: post #26
EricDeb wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure that the abbreviated sentiment that medication has little more effect than a placebo is useful in the realm of mental disorders. Depression/anxiety/ocd are very complex because they deal with the brain/mind, which is poorly understood. To suggest that antidepressants only have a placebo effect despite working in animal models of depression, severe depression, certain depressive subtypes, and less severe…

Who cares if something works through the placebo effect, as long as it works. I can't be bothered to look it up at the moment (on my mobile) but I do believe he is correct in that published studies in well regarded medical journals have purported to show just that (effect == placebo), but as I said, from the perspective of the person being treated, does it matter? I agree if it prevents people from seeking help that…

The consensus was that it works in severe cases of depression, but milder ones show little benefit.

Re: Depression lies

#35

Post by ceol »

jhuckestein wrote: post #11

one in four adults suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year This is something that frightens me. What is a "diagnosable mental disorder"? I'm willing to bet this statement was far from true 50 or a 100 years ago. Not because I think people got more depressed or anxious, but rather because we're looking harder to "diagnose" things. I think there's a big danger, especially in psychological afflictions,…

The winter blues are a real thing.[0] Wil could have very well been talking about that, which is fairly common. It's something you might not personally notice, but it helps to have someone else give their opinion.

[0]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_affective_disorder

Re: Depression lies

#37

Post by jmitcheson »

jhuckestein wrote: post #11

one in four adults suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year This is something that frightens me. What is a "diagnosable mental disorder"? I'm willing to bet this statement was far from true 50 or a 100 years ago. Not because I think people got more depressed or anxious, but rather because we're looking harder to "diagnose" things. I think there's a big danger, especially in psychological afflictions,…

I think you are right that these things were less common 50 or a 100 years ago, but consider this (first comment on the blog)

"It’s not a job that I want, or that I even feel really suited for, and it’s not paying what I need, but after 11 months of unemployment, you take what you can get. I’m not going to spill all my guts here, but life is really starting to suck for me, mostly because I’m shoulder-deep in debt and can’t see a way to scrabble myself back up. This is an important fact because with how little I make, and how much I owe, I no longer can afford health insurance."

How common was this situation 50 or 100 years ago? And 100 years ago people would have had better support systems from living in smaller communities. Modern life causes depression; I don't think it's necessarily an over diagnosis.

Re: Depression lies

#38

Post by ars »

ftwinnovations wrote: post #22
donniezazen wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have larger life threatening problems to deal with like earning their livelihood. There are always people around you and even if they can't help you they keep you distracted.

I've always wondered if that is the case. And if so, doesn't that mean there is a direct correlation between ease of living and depression? The less you have to worry about and deal with, the more likely you are to be depressed?

Yes, I would agree with that.

Humans were created to work, the harder they work the better they feel. Animals are the same way - if you give your pet an easy life, they will die early. Make them work (for example put their food where they can reach it, but have to work hard to get to it) and they live longer.

Re: Depression lies

#40

Post by bad_user »

kevinburke wrote: post #10

I'd also recommend reading psychologist Martin Seligman's book "What You Can Change and What You Can't", which covers a variety of mental health issues from sexual fetishes to fear of spiders to schizophrenia, and the treatment options available for each. Cognitive behavioral therapy teaches people to recognize negative thoughts ("I failed the test because I'm stupid"), dispute the thought ("If I'm stupid, how did I…

Does it really work?

My guess is that's just how slim people tell fat people that laziness got them fat and so they should do more exercise, i.e. people that never suffered from a certain condition giving advice to people suffering from that condition.

"I failed the test because I'm stupid" - that's just how I felt when I got rejected after an onsite interview with a certain company that's renowned for its hiring standards that yield many false negatives. Thoughts going through my head, like "I was unlucky" or that "I came unprepared", had no effect.

You know how one partner tells the other on the verge of a breakup "it's not you, it's me"? Did that line ever work in the history of man-kind?

The mind is like an onion, having many layers. You can only control the first layer and hope that your actions will cause a reverberation in the layers below. And if you strongly feel a certain way, sometimes there's no stopping it, unless enough time passes to forget about it or make it seem less important (I guess that's why we forget things).

     The teacher was in a bad mood when he graded the test
I'm seeing people throw blame all the time, precisely because it's easier to cope with failure. But it's not healthy to pass the blame, unless you have concrete proof that the teacher's mood was in bad shape and that her mood indeed had an effect on the grade. I'm not seeing this as being good advice. Sooner or later you'll start thinking the whole world is against you, when it's a lot better to recognize your own mistakes and not blow the failure out of proportions.

It's also healthy to recognize that maybe you're not as smart as everybody kept telling you since you were in kindergarten, and that in the real world wit is not a substitute for experience and hard work.

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