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On the nature of depression
Depression sucks.
I know a number of people who deal with depression on a regular basis. The most common symptom I see when it comes to depression is unhappiness about a perceived lack of self-worth. This can be anything from, "I'm not worth spending this money on" to "I'm such a horrible person and I don't know why anybody even wants to waste time on a worthless slug like me!" There's lots of points in between too.
Just about everybody gets depressed now and again. Self-worth is a very hard thing to pin down but it comes from the inside. Introspection goes to the inside and questions and what-ifs until you're blue in the face - then it gets serious.
Some friends of mine say Depression Lies. This is actually pretty accurate.
When depression talks it talks about the bad stuff. It takes any bit of bad stuff and blows it up into a crisis of epic proportions whether it's a crisis or not. It takes anything questionable and paints it as bad stuff, then does the same thing it does to real bad stuff. It discounts anything good as being either an aberration or unreal.
Discounting real stuff as freak chance is bad enough. Warping neutral into awful is worse.
Depression can breed hopelessness. For example, there have been times I haven't been able to do any work around the house because it looks like a giant solid mass to get done. In truth it's been lots of littler tasks, but I couldn't see that.
Depression is not easy to deal with. If the above points sound like you on a regular basis, discounting the good whilst being miserable in the bad, I suggest doing the following:
1) Concentrate on what is. Yes, there may be bad stuff. There is also good stuff and it matters at least as much as the bad stuff.
2) Remember that it's not all one giant wave of stuff coming at you. Each little task you finish gets a little bit done, and that little bit comes out of the big mass. It's not quite as big after that.
3) If it's hard getting anything at all done, look at a single tiny thing - anything from a single dish to a single piece of trash. Do that one single thing. Wash that dish. Put that piece of trash in the trash. It's just one little thing. Thing is, once you've started doing that one little thing don't let it stop you from doing something similar again.
4) If none of the above work at all, or they don't work very well most of the time, please look into professional help. Professionals can help by listening and by prescribing any medicines that may be appropriate to help balance your brain's chemistry, because make no mistake it is a bit off. It's still up to you to do the work - pick up that piece of paper, for example - but it can be easier if you have a competent professional helping you get your chemical and hormonal balance back in line.
Depression's a constant fight, and the very hopelessness it puts in a brain saps the will to fight it. Even so, fighting depression is fighting the good fight. Reach out for help if you need to - it's probably closer than you think.
I know a number of people who deal with depression on a regular basis. The most common symptom I see when it comes to depression is unhappiness about a perceived lack of self-worth. This can be anything from, "I'm not worth spending this money on" to "I'm such a horrible person and I don't know why anybody even wants to waste time on a worthless slug like me!" There's lots of points in between too.
Just about everybody gets depressed now and again. Self-worth is a very hard thing to pin down but it comes from the inside. Introspection goes to the inside and questions and what-ifs until you're blue in the face - then it gets serious.
Some friends of mine say Depression Lies. This is actually pretty accurate.
When depression talks it talks about the bad stuff. It takes any bit of bad stuff and blows it up into a crisis of epic proportions whether it's a crisis or not. It takes anything questionable and paints it as bad stuff, then does the same thing it does to real bad stuff. It discounts anything good as being either an aberration or unreal.
Discounting real stuff as freak chance is bad enough. Warping neutral into awful is worse.
Depression can breed hopelessness. For example, there have been times I haven't been able to do any work around the house because it looks like a giant solid mass to get done. In truth it's been lots of littler tasks, but I couldn't see that.
Depression is not easy to deal with. If the above points sound like you on a regular basis, discounting the good whilst being miserable in the bad, I suggest doing the following:
1) Concentrate on what is. Yes, there may be bad stuff. There is also good stuff and it matters at least as much as the bad stuff.
2) Remember that it's not all one giant wave of stuff coming at you. Each little task you finish gets a little bit done, and that little bit comes out of the big mass. It's not quite as big after that.
3) If it's hard getting anything at all done, look at a single tiny thing - anything from a single dish to a single piece of trash. Do that one single thing. Wash that dish. Put that piece of trash in the trash. It's just one little thing. Thing is, once you've started doing that one little thing don't let it stop you from doing something similar again.
4) If none of the above work at all, or they don't work very well most of the time, please look into professional help. Professionals can help by listening and by prescribing any medicines that may be appropriate to help balance your brain's chemistry, because make no mistake it is a bit off. It's still up to you to do the work - pick up that piece of paper, for example - but it can be easier if you have a competent professional helping you get your chemical and hormonal balance back in line.
Depression's a constant fight, and the very hopelessness it puts in a brain saps the will to fight it. Even so, fighting depression is fighting the good fight. Reach out for help if you need to - it's probably closer than you think.
no subject
Ok. No offense, but I have an issue with this because I have learned differently. I also have to add something very important to your point 4) - seek professional help.
Professional help, i.e. counselling/therapy in this case can _help you change your thinking patterns_!
A lot of depression is down to well trodden habitual paths of thinking patterns. The way you are used to thinking you have learned. It can be unlearned, it can be changed!
Yes, for some people it may all be down to actual problems with the brain chemistry, but for by far most of us who get depressed and/or have problems with depression, it's down to how we think. *Especially* how we think when depressed. And *that* you can learn to change.
No it's not easy or pleasant or fast. It's not like a pill you can take to dull pain, it takes a while of constant working before it really startes to have any effect, and it needs constant "practice". But it does work. It certainly has done me loads of good. I still get bouts of being depressed, but I recognize them and I can now deal with them, because I learnt about my thought patterns and I learnt better ones. I'm still practicing those better ones, I fall back into old "bad thought habits" every so often - but I come out of them fairly quickly and on my own.
So - yes, Depression tries to get me to think in those old bad thought habits - but it is *my* choice whether or not I let it.
no subject
I'm doing much better on medication than I was for quite awhile on just therapy, even though therapy was far better than doing nothing and spinning out of control all the time.
The medication is not all of it; I still have a lot of work to do in therapy, retraining my thought patterns, as you said. But the medication is helping a lot.