Depression is just mental conditioning. Once you become depressed for whatever reason, the longer you stay depressed the more you're teaching your subconscious how to function that way. So even when you go through happy periods while you're depressed, as soon as you turn your focus your subconscious will kick in and you'll find yourself thinking negatively about yourself or those around you.
So if you've been depressed for years it will take a lot of work to get your positive thinking patterns back. It's not impossible, and every achievement helps to make you feel more fulfilled. However if you don't try and do anything about it (because depression can drain hope and will) then it will slowly get worse and worse, and harder to fix.
It could also be related to serotonin deficiencies from bad diet, not enough exercise, or bad genetics. I don't recommend anti depressants as they don't always fix the problem, usually just disguising it for a while. However they do work for many people. The main thing with depression is how your mind works. Somewhere along the way you've trained it to be depressed.
So the best thing you can do is training your mind rigorously all day every day to think happier, and commend yourself for achievements. Eat healthy, vitamins, and get all the exercise you can. Breathing properly is important, and getting enough sleep. Don't dwell on the past, you can't change it. Don't worry about trivial things of little importance. Do this for a few years (how long depends on how long you've been depressed) and you will be loaded with serotonin and have a healthy subconscious to enjoy life.
From reading some of the replies it sounds like depression sucks, and it almsot got me feeling a little down. I don't know why anyone would keep themselves locked up in that state of mind. It sounds almost like they choose to be depressed.
I am going to enjoy this beautiful weather today and head to the beach. It makes me especially happy.
Why struggle to accpet theres something good about you when you know all that there are more negative things about you than good? Why find a talent you have that someone else can do 10x better and flawlessly?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
www.myspace.com/mpotatoes for all your Trans Siberian Orchestra listening pleasure
If you want to arrange it
This world you can change it
If we could somehow make this
Christmas thing last
By helping a neighbor
Or even a stranger
And to know who needs help
You need only just ask
Why struggle to accpet theres something good about you when you know all that there are more negative things about you than good? Why find a talent you have that someone else can do 10x better and flawlessly?
Best goal in life in my eyes is just selflessness. I won't pretend I'm very selfish in many regards, but I'm proud of all the help I gave to people, however meaningless it seems, and I know I made at least 1 person change her mind about suicide.
I find that is a much better goal. Some find this goal in their daily jobs, too, even the simple ones.
Sorry if I don't appreciate the gross over analyzed generalization of "depression", which obviously means nothing considering how much of it we have.
Means nothing? Those facts could help you if you stopped looking at everything in such a negative light. I'm just trying to help, and I can vouch for that information. It's about taking small steps, nothing is going to change instantaneously.
Those facts could help you if you stopped looking at everything in such a negative light. I'm just trying to help, and I can vouch for that information. It's about taking small steps, nothing is going to change instantaneously.
OK, first of all, those are not facts. There are very little facts about depression really, most is speculation.
The theory that dopamine and taking in less caffeine or eating vitamins and having exercise and sleeping helps with depression works in theory, but I would say it works on the level of not doing these things may trigger a depression, but they don't really help with an existing depression. I probably have the lowest caffeine intake in my entire college (which is addicted to Monster), I eat vitamins, I've been on the lacrosse team for a full year, and I maintained a pretty stable about 7-hour weekday sleep schedule (can't have more at my college). It did not fix my depression. At. All. Maybe I need to go all the way but that's very difficult to do in my current situation. I mean, the best way to fix this would be to go on this New Zealand biology trip but it costs 10k so it's not exactly viable. Sometimes the things you really need to do to fix a depression are not available.
And the happiness therapy thing doesn't work at all for the simple fact that depression IS a state where you lack stable sources of happiness + the negative emotions you get will always override any positive ones you try to get. That's kinda the whole point. So you're saying we should fix depression by not having it. No shit, Sherlock.
I mean, the best way to fix this would be to go on this New Zealand biology trip but it costs 10k so it's not exactly viable. Sometimes the things you really need to do to fix a depression are not available.
Yes and I need a million dollars to get out of my depression.
You should just consider Critter's post more carefully. There are a lot of things that contribute to a state of depression and every little help a person gets can be beneficial. It might not work for you(you seem more angry than depressed anyway) but it can help others.
@ Equinox - Well before you can do anything you have to discover the root cause of the negative emotions. There are people who have really shit lives yet they can be far happier than you are. It's because they don't take everything so seriously and they are optimistic. When they're not doing anything in particular their mind won't be going over bad things that's happened to them, they won't be thinking I'm unhappy about this, or my life sucks, or why can't I have this. They'll be thinking about people they love, entertainment, things that they are passionate about or just day to day activities. They only worry when they need it to get the job done. They only feel depressed for short periods during stressful times. Once it's done or they realise there's nothing they can do further they'll drop the worry and go back to whatever their positive subconscious likes to think about.
I'm saying that if you can reprogram your subconscious (you can with enough effort) then you will slowly begin to get more positive feelings from life in general. Focus on the happy feelings you get as much as you can, and as soon as you feel a negative thought coming stop yourself. If people annoy you that's their problem. It's only detrimental to yourself to let yourself worry about it. The idea is to see the silver lining in everything.
Even if you have a bad day, where you just seem to feel shit no matter what, focus on what you have to be grateful for, don't hold grudges (Jesus was right with forgiveness) and milk everything that makes you happy for what it's worth. Everyone has passions and people that make them happy. If you focus on them for long enough every day you WILL retrain your subconscious. Learn to have dreams and take small steps to see them fulfilled. Accomplishments are a great source of confidence and happiness. For every accomplishment make sure your mind knows what a great job you did, and remind yourself of that moment when you're feeling down. Whenever you slip up realise you made a mistake and you'll do better next time.
If you do this long enough your mind will stop defaulting to the fuck this it's not going to work attitude. You feel this way because you've trained your mind to treat yourself like this. You haven't always been like this (everyone's happy when they're a little kid playing with their toys, not a care in the world) you're like this because bad experiences in the past have reinforced your negative way of thinking. It's possible to fix depression plenty of people have done it before, but you won't be able to do it without even considering what I'm saying. It could also take years of forcing yourself to think this way before your subconscious learns how to think this way, then happiness will come more naturally.
If you want to believe that I'm spouting BS go ahead.Ultimately only you can cure your depression. All I'm saying is our mind is a tool that can be instructed. You want to stop seeing everything so negatively? Relearn how to use it as God intended. It could take years but nothing's going to change if you sit idle.
Yes and I need a million dollars to get out of my depression.
There's no need to exaggerate my post.
What I stated there is quite viable and there's nothing particularly wrong with it.
Things I need to do to get out of my depression, completely:
- drop college;
- be away from parents;
- have something to do.
That trip fulfills all 3.
Also includes a meal plan, plenty of sun, and plenty of exercise.
Yes, that requires money. 10k is not anywhere near a million, though.
You should just consider Critter's post more carefully. There are a lot of things that contribute to a state of depression and every little help a person gets can be beneficial.
Maybe you should read my post again instead. Critter is not saying anything new, and I merely replied that his methods are both speculation and unreliable.
Each depression case is unique and is fixed by different things. Fortunately, I know enough about psychology to know what will fix me.
Depression doesn't consist of little things. It's one large condition, that's the problem.
And, yes, I try to channel my depression into anger because that's much healthier than a depression, but Critter didn't list that in his advice at all, even though it's a very viable alternative.
I dont think I would rather be angry all the time than depressed. Although what would I be angry at? I have nothing to be angry at really so it would be kinda useless.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
www.myspace.com/mpotatoes for all your Trans Siberian Orchestra listening pleasure
If you want to arrange it
This world you can change it
If we could somehow make this
Christmas thing last
By helping a neighbor
Or even a stranger
And to know who needs help
You need only just ask
- drop college;
- be away from parents;
- have something to do
The thing is if you achieve these things you haven't solved the problem, just the cause. As soon as something bad happens in life it will all just come back. Also yes anger is a good outlet for depression, but love and forgiveness is a better outlet for me. When I love the people that care for me I feel much better than if I were to snap at them every time they annoyed me. If I did that I would just feel guilty and depressed.
Well don't you think your depression would just feed upon your anger? And i seriously can't work out how staying alone could cure depression, sorry. And Equinox's depression might not be the usual one. It might have some entirely rare root cause but whatever, tiny things like exercise, healthy diet and taking your mind off depressing things for a while would surely help. Like if i were depressed, just discussing it with someone would make me feel better. But then again i guess your depression is not that kind.
Anger never did anybody any good. That's for sure.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
''May the Gods give you the strength and power to bear the madness which flows through our minds.''
''Zubin, I've always imagined you as a crazy raver. The kinda guy that spends all night dancing to trance music while waving glow sticks and popping ecstasy.'' - Murderface
Well don't you think your depression would just feed upon your anger?
Depression doesn't feed upon anger. In fact, depression and anger are not related at all. If you are angry, you're not depressed, and you're fighting. If you're sitting sad and weeping and feeling sorry for yourself - that's where you're depressed. So as long as I stay angry, I'm OK. Then I spend less time thinking I'm wrong and stupid about a test and more about how the staff is unfair and the TA's are lazy and can't design an assignment in such a way that I don't have to go to them 50 times to decipher wtf they have written. You NEED to be angry to survive here and not blame everything on yourself sometimes, especially with my personality since I'm so used to blaming myself for everything.
And i seriously can't work out how staying alone could cure depression, sorry.
I don't need to be alone per se I just need to get away from my parents because their constant criticisms of everything I do drive me insane. Pretty much everyone I know also wants/wanted to get away from their parents so I don't see anything wrong here.
I was quite happy with my CS group, I just don't want to go home.
tiny things like exercise, healthy diet and taking your mind off depressing things for a while would surely help.
Did you miss that little paragraph where I was exercising for a year on a team sport? And my diet is 10x healthier than the diet of pretty much everyone around me. My depression has nothing whatsoever to do with my health.
Like if i were depressed, just discussing it with someone would make me feel better. But then again i guess your depression is not that kind.
The amount of people who can actually discuss depression is about 1% (Counselors). I know one such guy but unfortunately I am not in frequent contact with him because he is very busy. He is also depressed so he understands me pretty well.
Anger never did anybody any good. That's for sure.
Anger is a natural emotion. Excessive anger is bad. Filtering your emotions is good. Suppressing anger is bad. Feeling no anger at all at anytime is bad.
The thing is if you achieve these things you haven't solved the problem, just the cause. As soon as something bad happens in life it will all just come back. Also yes anger is a good outlet for depression, but love and forgiveness is a better outlet for me. When I love the people that care for me I feel much better than if I were to snap at them every time they annoyed me. If I did that I would just feel guilty and depressed.
Spouting things you read in some silly book. I believe you mean well, so I will tell you something, maybe you'll stop spouting these things:
most people in society, when they see something that's different from others, such as depressed people, perceive it as a personality fault. They are afraid depression will happen to them, so they convince themselves that it won't. They convince themselves that depression only happens to lazy, weak, emo people, so that they can consider these people inferior to them. This even happens to people who used to be depressed, just like people who used to be poor stop caring about the poor once they become rich.
Most books about depression are written with this idea in mind, I found. It's not there directly, sometimes it's even subconscious. At the end of the day, they all try to convince us that the only ways out are paths we cannot take, and all others do not owrk, therefore saying there's no way out. Like you right now, telling me something won't work, like you know SHIT, like you know ANYTHING except some rubbish you read in a book.
I'm not a book.
I'm real. I know how I work.
And I don't need your 'help' if all you can tell me is that I will fail.
Yes and I need a million dollars to get out of my depression.
There's no need to exaggerate my post.
What I stated there is quite viable and there's nothing particularly wrong with it.
Things I need to do to get out of my depression, completely:
- drop college;
- be away from parents;
- have something to do.
That trip fulfills all 3.
Also includes a meal plan, plenty of sun, and plenty of exercise.
Yes, that requires money. 10k is not anywhere near a million, though.
Just pointing out that you seem fixated one one solution like if it will work magic. Since it is currently beyond your financial means, it is impractical to even consider it as a solution. Furthermore, the trip itself doesn't fulfill anything that you cannot or won't achieve without it.
That makes your New Zealand trip as absurd as a spoiled brat whining about how he absolutely needs a slim ps3 and the old one just won't do.
You should just consider Critter's post more carefully. There are a lot of things that contribute to a state of depression and every little help a person gets can be beneficial.
Maybe you should read my post again instead. Critter is not saying anything new, and I merely replied that his methods are both speculation and unreliable.
Each depression case is unique and is fixed by different things. Fortunately, I know enough about psychology to know what will fix me.
Depression doesn't consist of little things. It's one large condition, that's the problem.
And, yes, I try to channel my depression into anger because that's much healthier than a depression, but Critter didn't list that in his advice at all, even though it's a very viable alternative.
I agree on one point- each case of depression is unique. That is exactly why there have been so many factors studied in association with it.
What you seem to completely overlook is that it can be several factors involved which is why it is important to know of them and at least try to eliminate/counter them in a systematic manner.
And no, you can't channel depression into anything. It is a state of mind- so it guides your actions, thoughts and behavior. Not the other way round, though I'll concede irritability is one of the symptoms. But-
You are frustrated, not depressed.
You've shown way too much motivation and enthusiasm in replying to this topic for instance and it is evident you still play and enjoy games from your activity on the forums. Pray don't banalize depression like you are doing.
And if you are depressed, you must be the happiest depressed person on this earth.
You never seemed to be the kind of person to be a tragedy queen. Hope you won't start now.
@ Equinox - The problem is your attitude. You act as though you're the only one who has ever been depressed before. Well as I said only you can fix your depression, so I'll leave you to it. You should be open to everything though.
I said that because Ive seen anger do some pretty ugly things within my relations and i know what it can lead to. And Equinox, sorry, but simplifying everything you need to start feeling good about yourself. We all feel bad about a lot of things all through our life but we need to start ignoring them at some point.
As for the anger-depression thing, i still can't see how your anger is doing you any good. It might get you out of depression (as you say) but it sure won't get you to start feeling good about yourself. Being angry and being carefree are two different things. Both get you out of deppression but the latter has no side effects.
Anger, defining it, just develops a feeling of hatred within you which develops over time and then takes any kind of impulsive form which is bound to be destructive. And if it becomes a habit then it can destroy your thinking mechanism entirely (which definitely is not your case). I really feel that to solve a problem you need to know the cause. So as none of us know the cause of your anger we might only be able to give a general idea of what we think might help you, which might not be of any use to you.
And by discussing things, i meant spending more time with people who care to share what you feel. Friends, relatives, anyone (not specifically the technical counselors).
Despite all your arguments, anger is not at all beneficial. And i still hold my views. You just need to adopt a new approach towards life.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
''May the Gods give you the strength and power to bear the madness which flows through our minds.''
''Zubin, I've always imagined you as a crazy raver. The kinda guy that spends all night dancing to trance music while waving glow sticks and popping ecstasy.'' - Murderface
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So if you've been depressed for years it will take a lot of work to get your positive thinking patterns back. It's not impossible, and every achievement helps to make you feel more fulfilled. However if you don't try and do anything about it (because depression can drain hope and will) then it will slowly get worse and worse, and harder to fix.
It could also be related to serotonin deficiencies from bad diet, not enough exercise, or bad genetics. I don't recommend anti depressants as they don't always fix the problem, usually just disguising it for a while. However they do work for many people. The main thing with depression is how your mind works. Somewhere along the way you've trained it to be depressed.
So the best thing you can do is training your mind rigorously all day every day to think happier, and commend yourself for achievements. Eat healthy, vitamins, and get all the exercise you can. Breathing properly is important, and getting enough sleep. Don't dwell on the past, you can't change it. Don't worry about trivial things of little importance. Do this for a few years (how long depends on how long you've been depressed) and you will be loaded with serotonin and have a healthy subconscious to enjoy life.
Why struggle to accpet theres something good about you when you know all that there are more negative things about you than good? Why find a talent you have that someone else can do 10x better and flawlessly?
If you want to arrange it
This world you can change it
If we could somehow make this
Christmas thing last
By helping a neighbor
Or even a stranger
And to know who needs help
You need only just ask
I find that is a much better goal. Some find this goal in their daily jobs, too, even the simple ones.
Means nothing? Those facts could help you if you stopped looking at everything in such a negative light. I'm just trying to help, and I can vouch for that information. It's about taking small steps, nothing is going to change instantaneously.
The theory that dopamine and taking in less caffeine or eating vitamins and having exercise and sleeping helps with depression works in theory, but I would say it works on the level of not doing these things may trigger a depression, but they don't really help with an existing depression. I probably have the lowest caffeine intake in my entire college (which is addicted to Monster), I eat vitamins, I've been on the lacrosse team for a full year, and I maintained a pretty stable about 7-hour weekday sleep schedule (can't have more at my college). It did not fix my depression. At. All. Maybe I need to go all the way but that's very difficult to do in my current situation. I mean, the best way to fix this would be to go on this New Zealand biology trip but it costs 10k so it's not exactly viable. Sometimes the things you really need to do to fix a depression are not available.
And the happiness therapy thing doesn't work at all for the simple fact that depression IS a state where you lack stable sources of happiness + the negative emotions you get will always override any positive ones you try to get. That's kinda the whole point. So you're saying we should fix depression by not having it. No shit, Sherlock.
It really doesn't seem to work that way.
You should just consider Critter's post more carefully. There are a lot of things that contribute to a state of depression and every little help a person gets can be beneficial. It might not work for you(you seem more angry than depressed anyway) but it can help others.
I'm saying that if you can reprogram your subconscious (you can with enough effort) then you will slowly begin to get more positive feelings from life in general. Focus on the happy feelings you get as much as you can, and as soon as you feel a negative thought coming stop yourself. If people annoy you that's their problem. It's only detrimental to yourself to let yourself worry about it. The idea is to see the silver lining in everything.
Even if you have a bad day, where you just seem to feel shit no matter what, focus on what you have to be grateful for, don't hold grudges (Jesus was right with forgiveness) and milk everything that makes you happy for what it's worth. Everyone has passions and people that make them happy. If you focus on them for long enough every day you WILL retrain your subconscious. Learn to have dreams and take small steps to see them fulfilled. Accomplishments are a great source of confidence and happiness. For every accomplishment make sure your mind knows what a great job you did, and remind yourself of that moment when you're feeling down. Whenever you slip up realise you made a mistake and you'll do better next time.
If you do this long enough your mind will stop defaulting to the fuck this it's not going to work attitude. You feel this way because you've trained your mind to treat yourself like this. You haven't always been like this (everyone's happy when they're a little kid playing with their toys, not a care in the world) you're like this because bad experiences in the past have reinforced your negative way of thinking. It's possible to fix depression plenty of people have done it before, but you won't be able to do it without even considering what I'm saying. It could also take years of forcing yourself to think this way before your subconscious learns how to think this way, then happiness will come more naturally.
If you want to believe that I'm spouting BS go ahead.Ultimately only you can cure your depression. All I'm saying is our mind is a tool that can be instructed. You want to stop seeing everything so negatively? Relearn how to use it as God intended. It could take years but nothing's going to change if you sit idle.
What I stated there is quite viable and there's nothing particularly wrong with it.
Things I need to do to get out of my depression, completely:
- drop college;
- be away from parents;
- have something to do.
That trip fulfills all 3.
Also includes a meal plan, plenty of sun, and plenty of exercise.
Yes, that requires money. 10k is not anywhere near a million, though.
Maybe you should read my post again instead. Critter is not saying anything new, and I merely replied that his methods are both speculation and unreliable.
Each depression case is unique and is fixed by different things. Fortunately, I know enough about psychology to know what will fix me.
Depression doesn't consist of little things. It's one large condition, that's the problem.
And, yes, I try to channel my depression into anger because that's much healthier than a depression, but Critter didn't list that in his advice at all, even though it's a very viable alternative.
If you want to arrange it
This world you can change it
If we could somehow make this
Christmas thing last
By helping a neighbor
Or even a stranger
And to know who needs help
You need only just ask
The thing is if you achieve these things you haven't solved the problem, just the cause. As soon as something bad happens in life it will all just come back. Also yes anger is a good outlet for depression, but love and forgiveness is a better outlet for me. When I love the people that care for me I feel much better than if I were to snap at them every time they annoyed me. If I did that I would just feel guilty and depressed.
Anger never did anybody any good. That's for sure.
''Zubin, I've always imagined you as a crazy raver. The kinda guy that spends all night dancing to trance music while waving glow sticks and popping ecstasy.'' - Murderface
I don't need to be alone per se I just need to get away from my parents because their constant criticisms of everything I do drive me insane. Pretty much everyone I know also wants/wanted to get away from their parents so I don't see anything wrong here.
I was quite happy with my CS group, I just don't want to go home.
Did you miss that little paragraph where I was exercising for a year on a team sport? And my diet is 10x healthier than the diet of pretty much everyone around me. My depression has nothing whatsoever to do with my health.
The amount of people who can actually discuss depression is about 1% (Counselors). I know one such guy but unfortunately I am not in frequent contact with him because he is very busy. He is also depressed so he understands me pretty well.
False. Anger is a very useful tool at times.
Drop the idealism already.
most people in society, when they see something that's different from others, such as depressed people, perceive it as a personality fault. They are afraid depression will happen to them, so they convince themselves that it won't. They convince themselves that depression only happens to lazy, weak, emo people, so that they can consider these people inferior to them. This even happens to people who used to be depressed, just like people who used to be poor stop caring about the poor once they become rich.
Most books about depression are written with this idea in mind, I found. It's not there directly, sometimes it's even subconscious. At the end of the day, they all try to convince us that the only ways out are paths we cannot take, and all others do not owrk, therefore saying there's no way out. Like you right now, telling me something won't work, like you know SHIT, like you know ANYTHING except some rubbish you read in a book.
I'm not a book.
I'm real. I know how I work.
And I don't need your 'help' if all you can tell me is that I will fail.
That makes your New Zealand trip as absurd as a spoiled brat whining about how he absolutely needs a slim ps3 and the old one just won't do.
I agree on one point- each case of depression is unique. That is exactly why there have been so many factors studied in association with it.
What you seem to completely overlook is that it can be several factors involved which is why it is important to know of them and at least try to eliminate/counter them in a systematic manner.
And no, you can't channel depression into anything. It is a state of mind- so it guides your actions, thoughts and behavior. Not the other way round, though I'll concede irritability is one of the symptoms. But-
You are frustrated, not depressed.
You've shown way too much motivation and enthusiasm in replying to this topic for instance and it is evident you still play and enjoy games from your activity on the forums. Pray don't banalize depression like you are doing.
And if you are depressed, you must be the happiest depressed person on this earth.
You never seemed to be the kind of person to be a tragedy queen. Hope you won't start now.
As for the anger-depression thing, i still can't see how your anger is doing you any good. It might get you out of depression (as you say) but it sure won't get you to start feeling good about yourself. Being angry and being carefree are two different things. Both get you out of deppression but the latter has no side effects.
Anger, defining it, just develops a feeling of hatred within you which develops over time and then takes any kind of impulsive form which is bound to be destructive. And if it becomes a habit then it can destroy your thinking mechanism entirely (which definitely is not your case). I really feel that to solve a problem you need to know the cause. So as none of us know the cause of your anger we might only be able to give a general idea of what we think might help you, which might not be of any use to you.
And by discussing things, i meant spending more time with people who care to share what you feel. Friends, relatives, anyone (not specifically the technical counselors).
Despite all your arguments, anger is not at all beneficial. And i still hold my views. You just need to adopt a new approach towards life.
''Zubin, I've always imagined you as a crazy raver. The kinda guy that spends all night dancing to trance music while waving glow sticks and popping ecstasy.'' - Murderface