My bf was diagnosed with depression and he got better by figuring stuff out. We text every day. I see his point. Was curious about your input

Here are the texts:

Depression is not an illness. Its treated like one. Doctors give medications for it, but its -not- an illness.

Doctors are treating symptoms, not illness.

Depression is equal to the symptoms caused by lack of stimuli. Thats ALL.

Maybe someone abuses drugs, or doesn't get enough activity, or doesn't try to learn enough in a day, maybe eats the wrong kind of diet for their unique body, or they don't meet the challenges required for their maturity level...

All the causes of "depression".

Depression as an illness is not real. Its a politically correct term for improper environment.

That's pretty interesting DFG and I got to say that I never had though about depression like that before... :/ Hmm ...

Depression sucks. I suspect I may have had it this year while my husband couldn't do anything because he had hurt his back. Plus he wasn't getting better when he tried his best caring for our son when I go to work.

Depression is an illness, but people for some bizarre reason don't like to think of it as one - that would be fine if it wasn't for these same people often being the kind to spread around the idea that you can just "snap out of it" or that medication shouldn't be prescribed.

These are causes of depression indeed, why does that mean it's not an illness?

Depression is a pathological state of the human brain that causes immense suffering and should be treated as such.

I disagree.

People with depression actually have a more accurate perception of reality.

People without depression tend to have inflated self-images and look at the world through rose-tinted glasses.

Having said that it is clearly not healthy to have depresson, so if your brain is not producing the chemicals needed to create the positive illusions then medication should be taken.

Happy daze.

No they don't - someone with depression will usually see only the negatives, an accurate perception requires seeing the negatives AND positives.

Of course some depressed individuals may be unrealistically negative.

An accurate perception requires weighing the negatives and positives accurately. Who are you or I to judge that?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depressive_realism

I believe that this is what Heterodox is referring to.

There are different types of depression.  Some are reactive - they are in response to a situation such as death of a family member but the duration might be shorter.  Other people have bipolar which they have depression for no reason they can think of.

It is really unfair to say that all depression is the same and that is does not require medical attention.  

Doctors do tend to treat all depression with medication though because that is probably the easiest and they do not want to be responsible legally for something to happen like suicide, crime etc.  

If you want to call depression an illness it does not really matter to that person (because they are still going to be depressed whether they have a diagnosis or not) except for the stigma that society has against "mental illness".  

Probably there could be many causes of depression: environmental, nutritional etc but medical science does not really know to much about the brain.  Even for what is know about depression's cause is not getting fixed if someone is depressed because their job is terribly boring, their coworkers and boss constantly abuse them, their family abuses them etc.  No doctor is going to write a prescription to solve those problems but they are going to give them drugs.

Depression is chemically, regardless of cause, a deficit of certain neuromessengers (since emotional states are global modulation of neurological activity via neuromessenger levels).

It can be caused by several things, but all of them carry the risk of triggering clinical depression - a state that's distinct from mere saddness and can last a lot longer.

As for the meds - they can work for a wide spectrum of causes, and they do save lives. I have always found it stupid that so many people are opposed to what is one of the greatest breakthroughs in the mental health field ever.

Sometimes depression is caused by your environment. Losing a job can cause one, losing your spouse or child can cause it too or relationship break ups. Even bad marriages can cause one and bad relationships, bullying will also cause one, people not understanding you can also cause it. Hating where you live can cause it or being poor or broke all the time. Even being unemployed can cause it. Anything can cause it. Even medicine can cause it. My mother had cancer so she was getting kemo (sp) therapy for it and the side effect of it was depression so she was reading books all the time and was neglecting everything else around the house and didn't want to go out or even be with her own husband. So she got put on meds for it and she was herself again. It was a temporary fix for her until the therapy blows over.

Some people find it ridiculous they have to take medicine for their depression that is actually being causes by something happening in their life such as horrible spouse or being bullied. Some people see that as blaming the victim because they see it as them saying it's their fault they are depressed so they have to take medicine for it to feel better and they are like "why should I if it's being causes by my husband?"

It's hard to tell if you are depressed or just unhappy or just stressed out. I read an article online about a mother who was so severely depressed she decided to not take care of her kids and one of them died from dehydration and malnutrition and the other two kids were hospitalized and they lived. The mother is being faced with being charged for murder and child neglect. I found it sad and felt very sorry for her because I know what depression can do to you and effect you as a parent and that was one of the severe cases about it. I am sure she was a good mother and then the depression took over her so she became neglectful. That leaves me wondering with lot of questions though about the situation like did she know how hard it be for her husband to be away for long periods of the time before they got married and had children because he is in the military, why did she have more kids if she found that even being a parent to one or two kids is hard work, did she have family support, did her husband make enough money so could they afford a full time nanny, was she okay with three kids before her depression took over. It's amazing how many conclusions people jump to without asking themselves all these questions before assuming things and drawing to conclusions. But at least there were still people who were sympathetic about the situation while others were all judgmental about it.

I feel  it would make me a hypocrite if I judge the mother and say what she should have done  and that she was weak because I have been there myself except my son still ate everyday despite me forgetting and he still had liquids so he didn't lose weight and I never left him in his urine stained sheets because I changed him and didn't force potty training on him like the mother was doing to her 22 month old daughter and she gave up and left her in her urine soaked sheets because the girl kept on having accidents. I just thought "Maybe she wasn't ready for potty training so she should have put her back in diapers and try again later when she is a little older." That is what the mother should have done anyway during her depression, lay off the potty training for now. One is still early for toilet training and lots of one year olds still wear diapers, there is no rush. That would have been less stress for her and it's okay to hold off potty training. Some aren't even ready until they are close to age four. Some are ready when they are two and a half. I think parents get so excited about potty training, they start it too soon and then they get frustrated when it doesn't succeed when they can't get their child to go in the potty or when they keep having so many accidents. I wonder how parents did it back in the days when most kids be out of diapers by age two. Now today they are in them until age four and it's not uncommon anymore and some are in them until age two or three but I don't see many one year olds out of diapers. Parents trying to rush it and getting frustrated with their toddler just makes it even more harder. But the article just made it sound like the mother decided "I am not going to take care of my kids anymore, I will just lay here in bed and never get up to take care of my kids." Then she said she should have tried harder and she made a terrible mistake and someone said she felt no remorse. WTH? Wasn't her saying that remorse? It seems like no one has remorse when something bad happens and no matter what they say about it, it's never enough for people. I sometimes think it doesn't even exist.

I didn't think I had depression and now I wonder if I did because of all the stress I was under. My husband feels guilty for all of it but he shouldn't feel bad about it because it wasn't his fault. Why do people feel guilty for things that were not their fault? Feelings are a weird thing. I don't let myself feel guilty for things that I had no control over. I just push them out and ignore the feeling and I am better and don't feel them anymore. I can shut shut them off.

Medicine only treats the symptoms and not the underlying problem. It should be used with therapy but that would actually take work. Depression doesn't just come out of nowhere. They should use medication as a temporary solution while treating the underlying problem with therapy and/or change of environment.

My ex was depressed because he was away from his child all the time and could only see him four times a year and the drama with his ex and him having to keep fighting to get custody over their child and her playing games in court. Plus he missed her daughters and they were like his kids. He even raised them until she left him and alienated him from all of her kids. He has even lost jobs over his depression so they thought he quit. But fortunately he has no trouble with finding work and getting hired so him losing his job was not that big of deal. He could find one just instantly. Only way to cure his depression was if his ex just stopped with the games in court and the parent alienation and just have him have custody over their son and be allowed to talk to her daughters. But unfortunately you can't always get your way so the depression stays. Like what if someone was depressed over being autistic, the autism will never go away. Or what if someone was depressed over having a missing finger, they can't get a new finger. What if someone was depressed over having a stillborn, their child won't ever come back to life. What if someone was depressed over their boyfriend dumping them, their boyfriend may never get back together with them so the woman can try all she wants but that can just lead her to being accused of stalking and having a restraining order against her. So people have to learn to deal with it so they aren't depressed about it.

His response:

Depression itsself is not real. Its like if you cut your finger and dug in dirt with it till you got gangrene and you died.

Oh its okay to dig in the dirt with an open sore. I went to the doctor and he said to rub some iodine on it. I'm fine. *dies*

Same for depression. People understand the symptoms. They can even measure dopamine and other neuro chemical activity. Oh its an illness. I see physical **** changes in the brain huuuuur. Did they ever stop to think something else might be causing that? Like maybe being a **** hermit? Or watching waaaaaaay too much media? Or a complete boycot on physical activity? Or generally a bland and dull life devoid of goals and confidence building challanges?

Course not i dun wanna change my life thats too hard jus gimme a pill hurdurr

America. Nexus of depression cases and also nexus of weight problems. Coincidence? Cmon lets get real here.

Okay so for neutrotypical people the medication for depression starts working so they CAN work on their other problems in their environment that CAUSE their depression.  For autistic people and some other people they need help with solving their problems in their environment.  This is where the medical profession fails to recognize and treat the whole person.   At least they could refer a patient to a social worker or other professional that could help them.

This post was last modified: 09-18-2012 02:30 PM by M.