Depression: It's All In Your Head!

[Hydra009]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spd-j7X620E
(skip to 2:13 for the main part of the video)

Her extreme oversimplification of the issue really bothers me.  Major depressive disorder is a serious long-term mental condition, it's not just feeling sad one day.  You can't just wish it away.  And it really bothers me when people apparently unfamiliar with it think you can just put on a smile and instantly cure it.  It doesn't work that way.

The analogy I use is asthma.  It can get really bad or it can be relatively mild, and you can go days or years between attacks.  And like asthma, there's no silver bullet or easy fix - there are things people can do to try to manage it as best as they can, but that's about it.  And what works for one person may not work for another person.

So if you come up to someone who's struggling to draw breath and make fun of them about it, that kinda makes you a dick.  Granted, people don't always follow their regimen and do a lot of stuff that's clearly bad for them.  But you don't get them back on track by kicking them when they're down.

So kudos to Skeptic for talking some sense on this issue.  I wish people had a little more understanding and sympathy towards people who are dealing with mental health problems.

[Baruch]

Was it prejudiced to use a blonde woman for this?

[GSOgymrat]

Her extreme oversimplification of the issue really bothers me.

Pretty much everything about Nicole Arbor bothers me.

I agree that many people don't understand mental health issues and if they did then perhaps they would be more sympathetic.

[SGOS]

I've wondered if "depression" is poorly named so that invites misunderstanding.  My father suffered with it on an off and was hospitalized when I was in high school.  I knew my father as well as you might get to know someone you have been living with then your entire life, and I was quite surprised when he was diagnosed with depression.  He didn't seem depressed.  He had lots of mental health issues to be sure, but being depressed or sad?  Never would have guessed.  The way he finally explained it to me was that it was a feeling of meaninglessness or pointlessness.  Things lost meaning for him, and he couldn't motivate himself to do necessary things because there didn't seem to be a point in it.  I don't know what you might call that, but it doesn't sound like my idea of depression.  Nor do I know what I would do about it.

Perhaps my father was misdiagnosed.  After all, it was in primitive days of psychiatry, and so early in the science that they ended up treating him with jolts of electricity to his brain.  It didn't seem to make him better, certainly in no outward way, but he was able to go back to work, which was probably for the best.

[Blackleaf]

Oh. It's that blond idiot again. She seems to have a habbit of doing stupid things that piss people off.

I've wondered if "depression" is poorly named so that invites misunderstanding.  My father suffered with it on an off and was hospitalized when I was in high school.  I knew my father as well as you might get to know someone you have been living with then your entire life, and I was quite surprised when he was diagnosed with depression.  He didn't seem depressed.  He had lots of mental health issues to be sure, but being depressed or sad?  Never would have guessed.  The way he finally explained it to me was that it was a feeling of meaninglessness or pointlessness.  Things lost meaning for him, and he couldn't motivate himself to do necessary things because there didn't seem to be a point in it.  I don't know what you might call that, but it doesn't sound like my idea of depression.  Nor do I know what I would do about it.

Perhaps my father was misdiagnosed.  After all, it was in primitive days of psychiatry, and so early in the science that they ended up treating him with jolts of electricity to his brain.  It didn't seem to make him better, certainly in no outward way, but he was able to go back to work, which was probably for the best.

Sounds like an accurate diagnosis to me. Depression doesn't always manifest as sadness. It just as often shows as anger or numbness. Some people are able to function with depression, while others struggle to do even the things that they enjoy. It just sucks the life out of you. Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) is one treatment for depression, but it's not the first solution any more. It helps by sort of giving the brain a reboot, but its effects are temporary. These days, we have drugs of various types that are meant to correct the chemical embalances in the brain associated with depression. It requires a lot of experimentation to find out what treatment an individual responds to best.

[Jason78]

When I describe it as one of my major internal organs not producing enough of certain hormones people usually assume I've got diabetes.

[PickelledEggs]

Was it prejudiced to use a blonde woman for this?

What are you talking about. The blonde woman is the person that oversimplified the subject and he's tackling the stupidity. It has nothing to do with her being a woman or being blonde

[Baruch]

What are you talking about. The blonde woman is the person that oversimplified the subject and he's tackling the stupidity. It has nothing to do with her being a woman or being blonde

Depression, no ... but not something a Feminist would appreciate.  One should never portray stupidity in blonde female terms.  If anything, they are smarter than average, so I hear (assuming it isn't a dye job or a wig).  Aren't you SJW anymore?

[Baruch]

"a feeling of meaninglessness or pointlessness" ... exactly, but people here describe that as realism or nihilism.

I suffer from that kind of depression, but I fight it pretty well.  It gets worse as you get older, as your clock runs out.

[PickelledEggs]

Depression, no ... but not something a Feminist would appreciate.  One should never portray stupidity in blonde female terms.  If anything, they are smarter than average, so I hear (assuming it isn't a dye job or a wig).  Aren't you SJW anymore?

?????

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[Baruch]

?????

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Maybe not you, but I expect howls of outrage from Shiranu ;-)

[Shiranu]

I was going to address the main issues I saw in the video, but there were too many and I just aint got the time for that.

From personal experience, that I don't think I have shared before...

I saw my first therapist when I was about 12, about a year before I started drinking to numb myself. It, frankly, did shit all to help. I then spent about 10 years blaming myself for feeling down, for having suicidal thoughts, for being extremely withdrawn (there were literally years where I don't think I said more than 50, 70 words a day, and I don't mean that as an exaggeration), for having alcohol problems as a middle schooler... all because I had never even been exposed to the idea that you could be clinically depressed and hearing society at large say basically the exact same shit that this woman is saying (or that you are just a whimp, you just gotta be happy instead and stop being so selfish!). I saw several therapists during this time, and none of them really helped at all.

For my 22nd birthday, I was told by my adopted mom that I was adopted because I was abused for about the first 3 years of my life, that there were days where I would be home alone from morning to night with just an aunt (hopefully) coming in to feed me or change my diaper, but she didn't want to tell me earlier because she wasn't sure how someone was suppose to deal with that. I am still slightly bitter about that to this day, because I spent my entire childhood blaming myself fully for being fucked up when I now know I have my piece of shit biological parents who left me during the most crucial part of my life to be alone to blame.

Anyways, I started doing anti-depressants 3 years ago after running away from home; I got extremely drunk on the roof of a 8 story building and intentionally fell asleep on the ledge, figuring if I fell off the side than fuck it... I would never know anyways. When I woke up the next day and sobered up, I went straight to my campus therapist and told them I needed to talk. I never mentioned that instance because I am far too ashamed of it to tell it in person, and left out alot more, but I told them enough about how therapy has never helped to get prescribed anti-depressants.

Weirdest. Sensation. Ever. Unless you have been depressed and then start taking anti-depressants, I really don't think there is a way to describe their effect. It was literally like I became a machine; there were no peaks in emotions, no divits... everything was just flat, steady... "meh". I would say it's easily the most rational and productive I have ever been, but it was also void of any happiness. It was just existing, and I don't like that feeling. But... having that feeling has helped me realise just how much of a disease my emotional swings actually are. They are not something I am "choosing", or "want"... they are a sickness. And yes, you can get stronger to fight that sickness... but that won't make it go away. You can get stronger so that the flu or a cold doesn't suck as much, but it's still going to suck no matter how much you want it not to.

But anyways, that is getting way too wall of texty... the point is, fuck this woman and fuck people who want to trivialize mental illness and make fun of or shame people for having it. It really is the equivalent of mocking someone for something like being physically disabled or having a serious disease.

[Draconic Aiur]

Was it prejudiced to use a blonde woman for this?

Sh isn't true blond as you can see brown hair from her scalp.

[Munch]

Isn't this the same whore who wanted to shame fat people.

Yeah I don't give people like this my time, she's an internet whore wanting attention by being outrageous, but unlike someone like deadpool, she has no charm to back it.

[GSOgymrat]

There is a lot of excitement about research indicating low doses of psychedelics can improve symptoms of depression and addictions. https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/5/21/17339488/psychedelics-mental-health-michael-pollan-lsd-psilocybin

There is also research using fMRI to diagnose different types of depression so therapies could be tailored to target individual differences in symptoms. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/brain-imaging-identifies-different-types-of-depression/