What do you do to cheer yourself up when you're feeling down? [Archive]

iJon

Jun 30, 2004, 09:28 PM

well i can try to help. Last year in september i posted a thread cause my girlfriend of 2 years broke up with me and it hurt very much. got some good advice but i was still depressed, so i will shed some light on what i did.

first thing i started hanging with the guys more and more. we would hang out almost everyweekend and we would do all kinds of things. go get pizzas everyweekends, go to our schools sporting events every friday, movies all the time, it felt real great. i also started blogging. i never knew how much i enjoyed writing until i started my blog. to this day i still blog and i am about to 300 pages now and its fun to go back read and see how much i have changed.

i have found myself this year happier than i ahve ever been after she left me and even after dealing with the wreck. i am more outgoing, dated many girls during this final year of high school (waiting for some real girls in college :)), went to europe, just got into skydiving, offroad alot. it took alot of time but i am extremely happy.

but a lot of this depends on what you are depressed about, whether its something like a girl, or a tragic event or whatever it might be, they all need different approaches when helping them. if you feel comfortable say what you are actually depressed about. we have a wide selection of people here on this forum and you may be surprised that someone may have gone through the same thing you did.

try to have fun and enjoy life. now im going to go back and dig up that old thread and see how much of a dork i was.

iJon

themadchemist

Jun 30, 2004, 09:38 PM

I'm with Doctor Q. If this has been a long-term feeling, then chances are, the short-term pick-me-ups mentioned here won't be of much use. You really should consult with a physician. After all, there's a possibility that the way you're feeling doesn't stem from anything psychological that could be dealt with in a typical manner; you could be experiencing a chemical imbalance of some sort. Whether it is psychological, physiological, or really nothing at all, it might be a good idea to ask someone who can make an informed diagnosis: That is, a competent physician.

Calvinatir

Jun 30, 2004, 09:49 PM

I go out to eat at a restaurant that i can't afford! :) always makes me feel better

Duff-Man

Jun 30, 2004, 11:03 PM

Duff-Man says....yeah...2 years is a long time so you should really being seeing a doctor about it. Perhaps you need to see a psychologist or counselor? Do you have any idea what has brought this on? The short-term cures for little depressions like "winter blahs" (for me it is going out and buying some new cd's and having a music marathon) are not the same as what you seem to need at this point...think about where you are at and what has brought this on, then go for the appropriate help.....oh yeah!

MoparShaha

Jun 30, 2004, 11:07 PM

Sit back and appreciate being alive. No matter how bad your situation is, at least you're breathing and not ten feet under.

That might sound harsh, and some [religious] people might not agree with this assertion. This simply helps me when I'm feeling down.

mymemory

Jul 1, 2004, 12:25 AM

Do tell. For the last two years I've been feeling really depressed.

So, just wondered what you did. :(

You wrote my words today dude, let me give you my experience because today I feel like crap, I am about to brake down in tears and it have been like that for a few months now, actually, for a few years but moving form my country to NY and if you remember, my episode with my german girl... I feel like crap. But those are cycles.

I was taking Lexapro for a month, that si what any body is going to prescribe you:
1. Because they have to cover their backs in case you hurt yourself.
2. It is a big comision they get.

Now, I quit taking Lexapro because I couldn't feel anything, as soon I quit I felt my body going up in energy! and then it went down a week later.

Now, you want solutions and I am going to tell you what I am doing...

1. Quit thinking about the things that make you sad, raplace those ideas very fast. Yopur body will fallow your thongs specially because it is already used to feel bad.

2. It takes time for your body to eliminate the chemistry that doesn't work. It is just like exercicing, after a while you just can't stop.

3. Remember that your body learn, you have something called Endorphines, those are hormons that react by pleasure. If you feel bad you will create endorphines and your body will want more. You will have actually to desintoxicate. There are other hormones involved in to that and all of them manage your way of thinking.

4. Read Deepak Chopra books or Brian Wise or any spiritual enhancing book.

The main thing is that your internal energy is very low and your body is taking control of your mind. You need to increase your moral, that mean your spirit!
1. Remember your achivements
2. Put goals in your live and work on them
3. Isolate yourslef from other opinion, enjoy yourself.
4. Get busy during the day, work out, spend time in you.
5. Be humble to yourself, never pretend, keep a low profile, do not abuse of you.
6. Surrender to God. At night and several times a day say: Got, I surrender to you. Put your problems in his hands.
7. Do not push your self on anything.
8. Crate goals based on your self, not on others.
10. Eat! and eat 3 times a day, that would be better if you are exercising. Do not eat fast food. Eat rice and things cooked in your house. Drink coffe in the morning, that helps, but just one cup.
11. Replace thoughts, dream big and dream you succeding and achieving.

Just think about this: What Steve Jobs may have in his mind during the entire day? He is successful because he thinks successfully.

12. and may be the most important: you are not alone, friends are hidding every where.

Be brave, do what you know you have to do. If you feel like going to the doctor then go, have the experience but we still a big deal to go in our lives, we are learning as when we were kids and then teenagesr and then young adults and so on, we are learning all the time.

Give you time and do not rush... but keep moving. :)

Bruce Lee, PhD

Jul 1, 2004, 06:45 AM

Do tell. For the last two years I've been feeling really depressed.

So, just wondered what you did. :(

Well, it sounds like others are going to give you good advice. But I highly recommend the following site for a quick laugh:

http://www.realultimatepower.net

belair

Jul 1, 2004, 06:48 AM

Just think about this: What Steve Jobs may have in his mind during the entire day? He is successful because he thinks successfully. . :)

Amen.

No but seriously you wrote sincere mail there mymemory.

I for myself had a hard time during the last year. I left Paris where I had been living for 5 years and lost my girlfriend in doing so. I also lost a lot of friends but it was the thing I felt I had to to. Life goes on, feelings fade.
I did everything to get myself going again.
Exercise, saw a therapeut for 2 months, went out, worked during day time, tried to sleep 8 hours per night. No more no less. I read some spiritual books spend time with friends. Life is truly beautiful even if it can be a bitch sometimes.

Just my 2 cents

ziwi

Jul 1, 2004, 08:12 AM

Return to yourself - Know yourself - how can you help yourself if you do not know who you are. We are all individuals and while we can have connections and attachments in life they should not be who we are they should compliment us. Take time and learn about who you are and what you want -it is not about being selfish, but finding the self and being able to connect to it and grow as a person.

Philosophic blob over...
Hope you feel better, but as was said before if you have had an issue for so long and it is evident that you can not handle this or conquer these demons on your own then seek help from a professional.

MacDawg

Jul 1, 2004, 08:26 AM

Just to add weight to what the others have said... 2 years is a different experience than the occasional blahs. If you are really concerned, you should see a professional for evaluation.

I found that reading about others helped me to understand myself and to realize that I was not alone.

The Noonday Demon - Andrew Solomon
Unholy Ghost - Nell Casey
An Unquiet Mind - Kay R. Jamison
Prozac Nation - Elizabeth Wurtzel
Girl Interrupted - Susanna Kaysen
Darkness Visible - William Styron

These would get you started...

Anybody else have reading suggestions?
I would be interested...

Chip NoVaMac

Jul 1, 2004, 08:28 AM

If it has been going on for two years, others are right. You should see your doctor.

That being said, if you can pay for the visits and any drugs that are prescribed out of your own pocket if possible. In the states the medical databases that insurance companies keep can hurt you in the future for certain jobs and insurance.

PalmHarborTchr

Jul 1, 2004, 09:30 AM

[FONT=Comic Sans MS]
75 mg. of this Rx product will help you. It takes about a week or more
to kick in but it will help you. It will help you deal with disappointment,
deal with depression......has none of the side effects of Prozac or Zoloft.
See the doctor and you will feel much better any other remedy than
stuffing your face with icecream,potato chips etc. I suggest you get
a gym membership too and work out on the eliptical trainer and
weights.
Remember........suicide is the ultimate expression of self piety.

decksnap

Jul 1, 2004, 11:46 AM

1. St. John's Wart. This is natural, and if it doesn't help, at least it won't hurt. Real drugs make me paranoid.

2. Mix up your daily routine, and force yourself to indulge in things more often. (No, not drugs) This includes spending a much time as possible with people.

3. Strongbad will always put a smile on your face!

www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail.html

jsw

Jul 1, 2004, 11:57 AM

In case repetition will help:

See a doctor and/or a shrink. I'd recommend the shrink first, since, if the cause is not medical, it's always better to fix the core emotional cause than it is to take drugs to numb you. That said, if the cause is medical, drugs can be wonderful - but, again, only if they're curing an actual imbalance, not if they're masking an emotional, non-medical issue.

Aside from that, I recommend exercise. Sort of a do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do thing, as I'm sitting here on my butt on my way to burning about 300 calories today (typing isn't too strenuous), but, when you're depressed, it is the single best solution I've found. You are not only distracted, but you become focused on something besides your depression, and you get into better shape, which is always helpful. You can exercise for free. It's not a drug. It doesn't mess you up. And it works. It's best to have goals with it, though ("I want to be able to do x minutes on the treadmill at a certain speed", "I want to be able to lift y pounds", etc.). Just don't make weight-oriented goals (body weight, not lifting weight), since it takes time to lose weight - if you even want or need to - and that can be discouraging. Simple, easy-but-not-too-easy to achieve goals.

Also, get out. Even if you are alone, go to the movies, go to the park, go to the beach if you can. Go to church if you're religious. Just be around people. Isolation is, in and of itself, depressing.

Keep us informed about how you're doing.

MacDawg

Jul 1, 2004, 12:04 PM

Monkeybat... we have not heard back from you in this thread. We would like to know how you are doing.

Also, a little more information about what might be causing your depression (if you know). I know in many cases you can't actually pinpoint anything. But any interaction would help.

You have gotten some good advice here, I hope you have checked back and gotten it.

PlaceofDis

Jul 1, 2004, 02:18 PM

a song in my heart equals a smile on my face

cheesy i know, but music is empowering to me personally
however, i agree that you should go see someone and talk about this since it has been going on so long. It might just be that you are stuck in a routine or something, you didnt give us much info, so as others have suggested change the way you order your day, ect,ect...

good luck and feel better

rueyeet

Jul 1, 2004, 03:32 PM

Everyone has periods of depression in their life. But if I remember rightly, anything lasting longer than 2-4 weeks (especially if it doesn't seem to be situationally triggered) is most likely clinical depression. Two years....that's not a good sign. You should probably look into seeing a doctor.

mymemory has a good point about the helpfulness of a spiritual (if not directly religious) outlook. Exercise is also a good tip; studies are finding that it's one of the most natural ways to relieve depression.

I don't know what to tell you....any more than I knew what to say to my roommate when she went through a year of clinical depression (suicidal thoughts and all). But she said it helped just to have someone to listen....If you can't get hold of a doctor, at least find someone (or several someones) you can talk to. Preferably someone who will really listen, instead of trying to judge or "fix" you. Sometimes I find I can work out my own thoughts more easily in conversation.

A depressed person is not capable of truly believing that things will get better, and that they're not alone....despite all rational evidence to the contrary. But it's true: Things will get better, and you're not alone. It might sound cheesy, but there you go. :)

JesseJames

Jul 1, 2004, 03:51 PM

Go bungee jumping or skydiving. Sensory overload dude.

Most righteous rush.

Can snap you out of a funk. :D :D :D

jayscheuerle

Jul 1, 2004, 03:56 PM

But I just look at or think about my daughter...

rainman::|:|

Jul 1, 2004, 04:04 PM

i've had problems with clinical depression for much of my life. i've just gone into official recovery in the past month or so.

For me, it involved being more active, cutting back on recreational drugs, eating better, exercising, and giving up caffeine. The former are things you may already do, but i would definitely suggest giving up caffeine. I've found that the use of stimulants makes depression worse, in the end. After a week or two of withdrawl, i feel a lot better now.

It's such an individual thing, it depends on every factor in your life. But if your depression is a result of biochemicals, you should definitely look at medication therapy. While not for everyone, the right prescription brings a world of relief to many people. Unfortunately, you may have to try a dozen drugs (for a few weeks, at least, each) before you find the right one.

If it's depression caused by your thought processes and situation in life, talk therapy is a helpful tool. But you know that.

I do hope you find a road to recovery from depression, it's such an overwhelming disease. But after going into recovery, all of the work i've put into it has paid off.

paul

Crikey

Jul 1, 2004, 09:32 PM

Wow, two years. I'd talk to a doctor and maybe a counselor. But I'd be biased against taking drugs, particularly long-term.

I was depressed one time and found that changing jobs helped a lot.

I was depressed another time and found that ending an unhealthy relationship helped a lot.

Now I have things I do to try to stay positively focused.

The best is dancing. I like social dancing (swing, tango, salsa, ballroom and latin dancing, with a partner and steps) because it has a structure and there's less of the "club scene" around it. Dancing really energizes your brain because it's so complex -- you have to attend to music, move gracefully with rhythm, and attend to a partner. It's like 100% CPU utilization for your brain, at least when you're learning. It's also social and gets you out of the house, and it involves music, which is uplifting. If you're female, there is the small disadvantage that more women than men participate in dancing. If you're male, that becomes a significant advantage. Learning to dance is like learning a language; it takes sustained effort and some time before you gain confidence. The effort is absolutely worth it. I haven't really been depressed since I started dancing, which says a lot.

Music is powerful. Take some lessons, learn to play an instrument, learn to sing, join a jam session or song circle or play at open mic nights. This really helped me emerge from a protracted depression once. If you listen to a lot of music (examples include Sarah McLaughlin, the Indigo Girls, and a lot of the angst-ridden grungy nu-metal stuff) you can hear that the musician is working out depression, sadness, or angst through the vehicle of the music. This is probably better therapy for the musician than for the listener. Learning to play and sing is also a long-term investment, but worthwhile.

Exercise is crucial to your health and your mood. Find something you like to do and stay active.

Enjoy nature. Get outside and hike or row or paddle or walk on the beach. Fresh air, sunshine, the beauty of nature, and exercise all together.

Eat good food. Go to a farmer's market, buy fresh food from the people who grew it, pay a little more for organic. Avoid fast food. Personally, a good meal at an Indian or Thai restaurant sets everything right with the world.

If there is something in your life bothering you, take steps to correct it. Maybe you're in debt, a troubling job or relationship, or maybe your house is just messy and you're avoiding dealing with it -- you don't have to tolerate unhappiness or feel helpless about it. You can do something about it.

Read widely. It stimulates the mind and the imagination, gets you out of yourself.

Travel does the same.

Meet new people, and form lasting friendships with some of them. You can meet people anywhere that people congregate based on shared interests -- at the library, bookstores, ski lodges, churches, dances, discussion clubs, open mike sessions, poetry readings, political protests, the City Club or Chamber of Commerce, the Apple Store, etc.

I wish you the best of luck in overcoming your depression. There were times when I wondered if happiness was possible, and now I feel pretty positive about life. I hope the same for you!

Crikey

musicpyrite

Jul 1, 2004, 09:34 PM

What do you do to cheer yourself up when you're feeling down?

Masturbate.

:p

Serously if you feel down all the time, see a doctor.
Couple of years ago my teacher took me to see the school nures as to why I was spelling so many words backwards, one thing lead to another and they discovered I had dyslexia, you never know.

I second what Paul said, drop the caffeine.

wdlove

Jul 1, 2004, 09:41 PM

I agree with Doctor Q. Whenever a person is depressed, they should go to see a doctor. It could be related to a medical problem, which needs to be ruled out first. It is very sad that you have suffered for more than two years. I hope that you will seek professional help immediately monkeybat.

jsw

Jul 1, 2004, 09:42 PM

i've had problems with clinical depression for much of my life. i've just gone into official recovery in the past month or so.
Congratulations! I know a number of people dealing with depression, and it's a long road for some to recovery. It helps to know that people have found their way out.

Unfortunately, you may have to try a dozen drugs (for a few weeks, at least, each) before you find the right one.
That is a very, very important point for anyone who has reason to believe that their depression might be helped medically: it takes time for the drug to work, if it is going to work. You can't just try it for two days and decide it isn't working. It's OK to not try drugs, but, if you're going to try them, use them correctly.

King Cobra

Jul 1, 2004, 10:09 PM

For me, seeing doctors didn't help me. Neither did prescribed medication. I was in a pretty much antisocial/depressed stage between the ages of 12 and 14.5 and then on/off at the age of 16. Turned out for me that seeing doctors did basically nothing to help me out of "there." It wasn't until after the doctor visits and medication that I slowly developed a positive persona.

Now I see two things about such depressed stages to consider aside from biochemical effects and time frames. The first is being able to remember exactly what caused you to break down from a formerly positive state to a more negative state of mind. If you keep focusing on some negative event or cause that you can't seem to avoid no matter what you do, you'll feel frustrated as if you are "stuck with" it for a long time. So if it's easy for you to remember the specific cause or causes (let's say a general cause), then once the cause doesn't occur for a while, or if its memory-based impact fades away, then you will be able to determine that. In effect, instead of being depressed, you will take notice of the effect not happening, you won't feel "stuck with" it, and you'll eventually [re]develop a more positive personality.

The second is an extended depression. Most extended depressions, or depressions over longer periods of time, have this in common: The original cause of the development of one's negatives cannot be recalled to memory. The problem with that is: If you enter a depression by feeling "stuck with" something, but you can't remember the underlying cause, you'll always feel you're "stuck with" something, and you keep paying attention to that in order to make a determination as to just how that depression started. Now this is my opinion, but I think it is worth a read and interpretation... Someone that stays in an extended depression is always focused on trying to figure out the underlying cause of the depression, and thus are always aware of the negatives that persist from being in it. So at times that someone just wants someone to tell him/her the underlying cause so bad just to get out of the depression, thus one aspect of "wanting attention" develops.

In both cases, however, it's best to focus on things other than the negatives. Now, in my own free time, I've been working up developmental mathematical formulae for some basic memory functions, and I have focused a bit on how to reduce quickly the effect of a memory on a person. After having thought about some of the relationships in my test formulae for many months, I suggest that if you are feeling depressed...get very involved in activities that distract you from being able to think about those negatives, and stay active until your depression is not just lessened, but seemingly gone. I strongly recommend that anyone that has taken my post seriously thus far reread Crikey's post (http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=914113&postcount=23) while keeping my above suggestion in mind. Crikey has some stories that sort of verify that if you're feeling depressed over a long period of time, just get involved.

Neserk

Jul 1, 2004, 11:23 PM

Masturbate.

Actually, that will help temporarily.

Neserk

Jul 1, 2004, 11:29 PM

Things like exercise will help alleviate the symptoms, at least temporarily but you really, really, really need to see a professional. There are two ways to go about doing that. I'd recommend getting a referal to a Psychologist (not a Social Worker, no offense to any social workers out there) who specializes in treatment of depression. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is the best therapy out there for depression. If using the CBT alone doesn't help the therapist will refer you to a psychiatrist. For most people the combination of CBT and anti-depressants works very well. The problem with just seeing your GP is that they tend to throw drugs at everything and don't really have a clue about what they are doing when it comes treating depression. A good psychiatrist will make sure you are in therapy while taking medication but not all of them are good.

virividox

Jul 2, 2004, 12:59 AM

i cant tell u what i dont do; listen to cold play or else ill be commiting scuicide hehe

rhpenguin

Jul 2, 2004, 03:41 AM

I usualy go down to the "cafe" and spark a j with my closest friends and chill in the zen room.. The zen room has an indor pond and lots of greenery. Its ultra relaxing and makes me feel right as rain.

God i love the relaxed marijuana laws in Canada...

boomtopper

Jul 2, 2004, 09:25 AM

i cant tell u what i dont do; listen to cold play or else ill be commiting scuicide hehe

Gary Numan has the same effect on me!

cr2sh

Jul 2, 2004, 12:21 PM

Two years is nothing.. I went through a fit that lasted nearly 4 years where I was on the verge of killing myself daily. I called it "high school". :)

Depression comes and goes.. and when its gone I typically am manic. So at least I have that going for me. Doctor's prescribe drugs or urge counseliing, and while both work for some, I've never found a medication (that didn't reduce me to a corpse with a pulse) or a psychologist (that I didn't want to laugh at).

The horrible thing is you build dependancies and addictions in trying to cope with yourself. drugs, relationships, sex. It can get pretty ugly...

What I've always had luck with is trying to identify EXACTLY what is upsetting me. Identify why it is and then deal with it in a gradual way till you find a solution. Don't over act, don't do anything that is horrible... if its a person explain it to them, if it still doesn't change - cut them out fo your life.

Lastly, for the "picker-uper" I'll listen to some Edie Brickell. She's so great.

monkeybat

Jul 3, 2004, 08:26 AM

scem0

Jul 4, 2004, 01:28 AM

hmmmmmmmm. When I'm just kind of "under the weather" I use porn to cheer me up :p .

When I am actually sad, reading a good book never fails to get my mind away from my troubles and give it time to re-align itself.

scem0

Neserk

Jul 4, 2004, 01:36 AM

I've seen a doctor. Didn't help, like what the other person said. There was never a "time" where I was positive. I think it's a chemical imabalance or something since I've never really been "happy" or anything. It's just the last two years since I left secondary school ("high school") that it has got worse since I distanced myself from my friends since then. No real social contact since. Yeah I got anti-depressents and stuff.. erm dunno what ones or anything. I quit taking them though since they just made me braindead though :p

What kind of doctor did you see?

If this is part of your "personality" it is most likely dysthymia and is treatable. You can also prevent major depressive episodes and learn to do things to help yourself.

anubis

Jul 4, 2004, 02:56 AM

I pop me 100mg of zoloft and roll up a nice, sweet fattie and take a few hits on it.

This of course isn't for everyone, so here's some more constructive advice:

1. Exercise. Running and swimming give me "runner's high", which is a pleasurable emotional response to exercise... the brain releases seratonin and dopamine into the brain. These happen to be the same chemicals released during sex. I go run a couple of miles if i'm feeling like i'm in an emotional slump and it makes me feel pretty good.

2. Go to a doctor and get on wellbutrin, zanax, paxil, zoloft, or prozac.

3. Get a hobby like model ship building, gardening, music production, or mountain climbing.

These are the things I do to make myself feel better. I wasn't feeling right for about 4 years, so I finally went to see a doctor. He diagnosed me with major depression, social anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and avoidant personality disorder. He prescribed me zoloft and therapy. Now i'm doing better.

comictimes

Jul 4, 2004, 05:28 AM

Whenever I start feeling down, I try spending more time with my girlfriend, since that helps take my mind off of whatever I'm unhappy about. Right now she's on vacation though :( . I also find a comic strip that I find really humorous and spend a few hours just reading comics. Right now my favorites are Zits and ctrl+alt+del (ctrlaltdel-online.com)

MacDawg

Jul 4, 2004, 06:36 AM

haha I love Homestar Runner.

Anycrap thanks everyone hehe.. I didn't read all of the replies though since I don't have enough time at the moment and I wasn't expecting so many. :eek:

I've seen a doctor. Didn't help, like what the other person said. There was never a "time" where I was positive. I think it's a chemical imabalance or something since I've never really been "happy" or anything. It's just the last two years since I left secondary school ("high school") that it has got worse since I distanced myself from my friends since then. No real social contact since. Yeah I got anti-depressents and stuff.. erm dunno what ones or anything. I quit taking them though since they just made me braindead though :p

And as for the things you said for me to do, "join a social club" - I could but I think I'm too "distant" from people now.. but I still might do guitar lessons since I should learn that. I can't really hold a convosation or anything though. The the blog idea, well, I don't do diarys or anything since I have nothing to write about, but I do write a lot to occupy myself.

..I'm so whiney. Thanks anyway. You're all bloody smart. :)

Glad you showed back up! And you aren't whiney...

As far as antidepressants go, as stated in other posts, it can take time to regulate and get the right one (or combination). If you really think it is a chemical imbalance, then it won't just go away, and many of the suggested things won't be a solution. Don't give up on doctors/antidepressants too quickly. I know it is hard to seek help, and nobody wants to take the pills, but just keep an open mind about it. You shouldn't be braindead from them, but there may be a good combination for you... you just have to find it.

Writing is good, and playing the guitar will be a good thing too.

Just don't give up and resign yourself to the state you are in... read about it and try to understand what's going on.

Doctor Q

Jul 4, 2004, 11:10 AM

Go to a doctor and get on wellbutrin, zanax, paxil, zoloft, or prozac.Mother Nature obviously played a practical joke on the human race, because the people who can benefit from these medications often feel that nothing can help them and are disinclined to seek help, which is the symptom that would be relieved.

Neserk

Jul 4, 2004, 11:34 AM

^ that is very true. Sometimes they need others or a crisis to get them in.

oreo

Jul 4, 2004, 04:01 PM

I find writing in my journal helps, just getting my thoughts straight. I've also got a song that helps to pick me up when I'm feeling down which is keep the faith by Michael Jackson, it's got some amazing words if you listen to it.

jsw

Jul 4, 2004, 04:15 PM

Another thing that might help:

Do you have any nieces/nephews/kids of friends that are, say 3-5 years old? Kids that age are a blast to be around, and they couldn't care less that you're older. Their focus on the immediate present can be wonderful.

Coolvirus007

Jul 4, 2004, 05:24 PM

go out and rent a dvd and call friends over! - this is only temporarily though. 2 years is something serious.

NusuniAdmin

Jul 4, 2004, 09:26 PM

Im depressed alot but im just a teenager :P. Usually to cheer myself up i watch my favorite movies which include a beautiful mind, the saint, road to perdition, and the 3 Lord of the rings movies. (yes im a teenager who loves the movie a beautiful mind and i understand it fully...something many of the peers do not). Also my music (heavy metal and punk baby :D) cheers me up a lot.

Sounds like you just need to find your serenity (or wutever its called). I did not feel like reading tons of posts so sorry if someone already recommended that.

mind my crappy grammar/spelling...i am really tired lately...having lots of bad dreams and nightmares lately and have not gotten much sleep :(

[edit: or just do what many people have recommended and just take some medicens and hope they dont ****** up your system. I have one friend who took some depression medicens and she (she is no my age..shes about 17) went through a period of time where she became anarexic (how the heck do u spell that?) because of it. She is just recently gaining her spirit back...just be carefull with those medicens!

jsw

Jul 4, 2004, 09:30 PM

Maybe you should post this on one of the PC forums, monkeybat. I mean, working day after day with such a soul-sucking operating system must depress them, and the very fact that they're still alive must mean they've found something that works for them elsewhere. ;)

Also, try seeing "Dodgeball". It's really, really stupid. But, man, it is funny. Not in a politically correct way. In a junior high school way. But funny.

Neserk

Jul 5, 2004, 12:08 AM

Also, try seeing "Dodgeball". It's really, really stupid. But, man, it is funny. Not in a politically correct way. In a junior high school way. But funny.

Excellent idea. Humor can definately help. IME it has to be funny-stupid humor. I once rented the Brady Bunch movies. I never laughed so hard in my life (I was feeling *very* crappy at that time). It gave me some reprieve and a break for a bit.

MarkCollette

Jul 5, 2004, 12:25 AM

Do tell. For the last two years I've been feeling really depressed.

So, just wondered what you did. :(

Think about suicide.

oreo

Jul 5, 2004, 12:31 AM

Over the last 18 months I've started to decide what I believe, which I'm also finding to be a great comfort to me.

monkeybat

Jul 5, 2004, 07:13 AM

I'm a teenager too, NusuniAdmin. 18. and blah blah.

K well I'll take all yer advice's anyway. Most of it I've obviously known before but it's good to see it in words and stuff. If that makes sense.

MacDawg

Jul 5, 2004, 07:39 AM

Maybe you should post this on one of the PC forums, monkeybat. I mean, working day after day with such a soul-sucking operating system must depress them, and the very fact that they're still alive must mean they've found something that works for them elsewhere. ;)

Classic... gave me a chuckle
My wife thinks I'm crazy when I laugh in front of the computer

MacDawg

Jul 5, 2004, 07:45 AM

I'm a teenager too, NusuniAdmin. 18. and blah blah.

K well I'll take all yer advice's anyway. Most of it I've obviously known before but it's good to see it in words and stuff. If that makes sense.

One thing to take from this MonkeyBat is that there are LOT of other people that feel the same. I know that doesn't take away the "blues", especially when they are deep rooted and long lasting, but just remember, there is a community of folks, a fellowship if you will, of those that have the same burden as you. Tap into it... many of your friends and family will never understand you, but the fellowship you find with those who have the same feelings will be a validating experience for you.

I posted a reading list for you earlier on... I hope you and others will consider reading some of the books listed there. I was always told that I was broke and needed to be fixed (and I still hear that often). I needed to be 'normal' like everyone else. But what is normal? If normal is what I see in most people, I'll choose to be me. :p Reading made me realize that I was not the only person that felt this way.

Good luck to you, and take small steps... just try some of the things suggested. We are all individuals and what works for one won't work for another... but there is hope.

Neserk

Jul 5, 2004, 11:23 AM

[edit: or just do what many people have recommended and just take some medicens and hope they dont ****** up your system. I have one friend who took some depression medicens and she (she is no my age..shes about 17) went through a period of time where she became anarexic (how the heck do u spell that?) because of it. She is just recently gaining her spirit back...just be carefull with those medicens!

Do you know if her meds were prescribed by a GP or a Psychiatrists? The doctors *should* have been watching for that and caught it before it became a problem. In the perfect world the problem was getting a prescription from a GP ;) But sadly, even psychiatrists do their job half-assed sometimes.

PS do you know what she was taking?

NusuniAdmin

Jul 5, 2004, 02:57 PM

Do you know if her meds were prescribed by a GP or a Psychiatrists? The doctors *should* have been watching for that and caught it before it became a problem. In the perfect world the problem was getting a prescription from a GP ;) But sadly, even psychiatrists do their job half-assed sometimes.

PS do you know what she was taking?

i have no clue what she was taking (woa my stupid safari is lagging badly....) but i am pretty sure it was prescribed by a psychiatrist

King Cobra

Jul 5, 2004, 03:15 PM

Think about suicide.
Actually, I contest against that thinking, and I'll quickly show why I have that opinion. I used to have that sort of thinking almost every week when I was about 14, and much of this past May/early June. What happened was all the activities that I enjoy/enjoyed didn't feel so enjoyable, or at least as much as I wanted. I kept focusing on self-destructive thoughts, as well as otherwise destructive thoughts, because I kept thinking back to how I can prevent all the negative things -- recalling negative thing A, negative thing B, negative thing C, etc. -- from happening around me again. But just recalling all the negatives took out a lot of the positives from the activities I like doing. Also, I didn't even feel like being in a positive mood during those times because I kept wanting to focus on how I can get rid of so many negative events, constantly recalling them first.

So if you're feeling depressed, I do not recommend thinking about suicide. Instead, I recommend getting highly involved in activities that distract you from wanting to think about the negatives.

Neserk

Jul 5, 2004, 04:54 PM

Neserk

Jul 5, 2004, 04:56 PM

i have no clue what she was taking (woa my stupid safari is lagging badly....) but i am pretty sure it was prescribed by a psychiatrist

Prozac, Effexor, & Wellbrutrin come with a warning in the drug manual about watching for significant weight loss as well as not prescribing them to someone who already has anorexia.

topicolo

Jul 5, 2004, 06:15 PM

Studies have shown that emotions can be triggered by merely imitating facial expressions. Therefore, if you want to feel happy, put a smile on your face and your brain will follow :).

Of course, this probably won't treat chronic depression, but it doesn't hurt to try

MarkCollette

Jul 6, 2004, 01:57 AM

Actually, I contest against that thinking, and I'll quickly show why I have that opinion. I used to have that sort of thinking almost every week when I was about 14, and much of this past May/early June. What happened was all the activities that I enjoy/enjoyed didn't feel so enjoyable, or at least as much as I wanted. I kept focusing on self-destructive thoughts, as well as otherwise destructive thoughts, because I kept thinking back to how I can prevent all the negative things -- recalling negative thing A, negative thing B, negative thing C, etc. -- from happening around me again. But just recalling all the negatives took out a lot of the positives from the activities I like doing. Also, I didn't even feel like being in a positive mood during those times because I kept wanting to focus on how I can get rid of so many negative events, constantly recalling them first.

So if you're feeling depressed, I do not recommend thinking about suicide. Instead, I recommend getting highly involved in activities that distract you from wanting to think about the negatives.

Hehehe... I wasn't advising for him to do that, I was just responding to his question of what I do :)

I don't actually try to think about suicide, it just sort of comes to mind. And then I think of all the reasons I have to live for, and try to focus on those.

For example, when feeling depressed, certain stereotypical thoughts come to mind, and then I try to refute them:

No one would care if I died. This is usually an example of taking for granted what I do have, which does include people who care about me. Family members, friends, coworkers, employers, etc. I'm not ashamed to admit, that sometimes the one thing I clinged to was that I'm good at my job, and so I had at least one good thing about me to make it worthwhile.

I'm a total ****** whose life is ****. Yes, things might not be going as planned, but there still a lot better than many people. Not just people in Somalia, but many people here too. It's really just an issue of having lost perspective.

I would like to stab myself to death with this sharp knife, and bleed all over the floor. I've noticed that people, who have mental/emotional pain, tend to want to feel physicaly pain, as a means of overriding the emotional pain. But, I try to remind myself that since I don't really want to die, that injuring myself would just be counterproductive to health and success later on. Plus, then the police might lock me up, which would really impede my plans of going out and having fun on weekends.

I can end it all right now. The world is full of so many different things one can experience, that even if one tried their whole life to do them all, one simply couldn't fit it all in. So, cutting it short, is just stupid. It would be like when you went to see the first Lord of the Rings movie, and it just stopped and rolled the credits. WTF!?!

I firmly believe that if you're truly ready to end your life, what you should instead do, is drop everything, or better yet sell everything, and just leave. Start a new life from scratch. Just imagine what kind of totally new life you want, and go for it. Remember that alot of the time, what keeps us from having what we truly want, is our satisfaction with the little we already have. So, if what you already have makes you want to die, just ditch it, move to another country, and try something completely different. For example, sky diving is only ~$100 or so, so why not do that. It's not like the danger is an excuse anymore. In fact, I would recommend doing a lot of dangerous things, so that you can either get scared ******** into wanting to live, or at least die in a cool way, instead of pathetic suicide. Like, I'd rather join some expendable death squad that fights terrorists, then just ***** out and slit my throat.

Anyways, just thought I'd share my perspective, on how I deal with it. It might sound a little cavalier, but that's just because I try to be honest with myself, and I have come a ways by now in getting past this.

Awimoway

Jul 6, 2004, 03:24 AM

Happiness is an interesting subject to me. I have thought and read a lot about it.

A lot of very good posts here. paulwhannel's caution about caffeine is a good one. I occasionally get very down for no apparent reason, and it is often after I have had caffeine. I know, because I really don't have caffeinated things all that often, but when I do … whammo.

But most of the advice seems to be directed at physical causes and cures. It might be something else, though. There are three other dimensions to life: social, spiritual, and intellectual. It might be social.

From what you said in your second post, it sounds like you might be a little be a little lacking in social interaction. Get out and meet people! Nothing lifts me like being with friends.

And it might be spiritual.

One of the best ways to cheer up is to stop thinking about yourself so damn much. Go help people. Find a cause you believe in and get involved. Join the Peace Corps or whatever you have in your country. Nothing cheers like being around small children (3-7 years). Maybe there's some service project that will let you spend time with them.

This is the "find yourself by losing yourself" approach to happiness.

Once upon a time, people did not consider themselves entitled to happiness. Happiness, they believed, could only be earned. By living virtuously. By living a good life. Again, that takes us right back to the social and the spiritual. Having friends to love, people to serve, or a god to get to know can all help. (As someone said, maybe some religion would do good. I know it's very important to my happiness and well being.)

And it could be intellectual.

One of the most interesting findings of happiness research is that people are often happiest when they are in a state of "flow". They lose track of time. They get totally absorbed in what they're doing. Flow is defined as a work in which you are neither over-challenged or under-challenged. So what are you good at? What do you like to do? Get busy doing it! And if you don't have any talents, hobbies, skills, then find some. You probably like Macs. Learn design, photography, music, or film-making. Those are all good Mac-esque activities. Learn to use Terminal. Or maybe something without computers. Remote control boats. Traveling. Cooking. Cultivating pot in your bedroom closet. :eek: Working on old cars. Clubbing. Whatever floats your boat.

I don't mean to diminish the potential physical causes — they seem to be the most common. But you asked, so there's some alternatives. :)

Oh, and one other thing from my studies of happiness. A lot of happiness is contentment. Which is a choice. It's an attitude. The whole cliche about the glass being half full or half empty. Most people who suffer terrible accidents and lose limbs return to the same level of happiness they had before the accident, within a week or so. Counterintuitive, but true. Happy people are half full people. That's just a fact.

Of course, sometimes it's hard not to miserable. When I was unemployed for 10 months, I wanted to drive off a cliff many days. But in the last couple months of it I stopped asking "why me?" and started asking "what can I be learning from this?" and I got much more serious about the arduous (for me), mentally exhausting process of finding a job and I found the exact job I had wanted. So who knows what can happen when you make the choice to make the most of a suck-*** situation.

Good luck!

MacDawg

Jul 6, 2004, 07:10 AM

Hehehe... I wasn't advising for him to do that, I was just responding to his question of what I do :)

I don't actually try to think about suicide, it just sort of comes to mind. And then I think of all the reasons I have to live for, and try to focus on those.

For example, when feeling depressed, certain stereotypical thoughts come to mind, and then I try to refute them:

No one would care if I died. This is usually an example of taking for granted what I do have, which does include people who care about me. Family members, friends, coworkers, employers, etc. I'm not ashamed to admit, that sometimes the one thing I clinged to was that I'm good at my job, and so I had at least one good thing about me to make it worthwhile.

I'm a total ****** whose life is ****. Yes, things might not be going as planned, but there still a lot better than many people. Not just people in Somalia, but many people here too. It's really just an issue of having lost perspective.

I would like to stab myself to death with this sharp knife, and bleed all over the floor. I've noticed that people, who have mental/emotional pain, tend to want to feel physicaly pain, as a means of overriding the emotional pain. But, I try to remind myself that since I don't really want to die, that injuring myself would just be counterproductive to health and success later on. Plus, then the police might lock me up, which would really impede my plans of going out and having fun on weekends.

I can end it all right now. The world is full of so many different things one can experience, that even if one tried their whole life to do them all, one simply couldn't fit it all in. So, cutting it short, is just stupid. It would be like when you went to see the first Lord of the Rings movie, and it just stopped and rolled the credits. WTF!?!

I firmly believe that if you're truly ready to end your life, what you should instead do, is drop everything, or better yet sell everything, and just leave. Start a new life from scratch. Just imagine what kind of totally new life you want, and go for it. Remember that alot of the time, what keeps us from having what we truly want, is our satisfaction with the little we already have. So, if what you already have makes you want to die, just ditch it, move to another country, and try something completely different. For example, sky diving is only ~$100 or so, so why not do that. It's not like the danger is an excuse anymore. In fact, I would recommend doing a lot of dangerous things, so that you can either get scared ******** into wanting to live, or at least die in a cool way, instead of pathetic suicide. Like, I'd rather join some expendable death squad that fights terrorists, then just ***** out and slit my throat.

Anyways, just thought I'd share my perspective, on how I deal with it. It might sound a little cavalier, but that's just because I try to be honest with myself, and I have come a ways by now in getting past this.

Interesting perspective...

We think a lot alike :) And that could be scary! :p

I think about such things too.

I think about loose ends that need to be tied up, and get so overwhelmed that I realize it would take me forever to "prepare".

I think about the effect on my kids... not so much that I would be missed, but just the stigma that they would be tagged with.

Interesting about dying in a "cool way" instead of slitting your wrists... haven't really thought about that, although wrist slitting doesn't have any appeal to me anyway.

I like your thoughts about instead of ending life, ditching the old one and starting a new one... worth a shot anyway!

Enjoyed your perspective, it was different.

Neserk

Jul 6, 2004, 12:03 PM

Awimoway

Jul 6, 2004, 04:27 PM

Why is it that if he was asking about a persistent cough we'd all be sending him to the doctor about when he has a serious medical condition we all feel free to tell him exactly what to do?

GO TO A DOCTOR! A REAL DOCTOR. Not your GP.

I've seen a lot of advice that is dismissive of the condition he is in. I've seen a lot of advice that is typical of someone who has never seriously suffered from depression. Being blue and being depressed for 2 years is NOT the same thing. I've seen ideas that will help temporarily.

Look for a permanent solution. There are at least 10 different anti-deperessants out there. Maybe more. If you keep looking you *will* find relief.

The problem isn't that you think too much of yourself or about yourself. Those solutions are temporary and only induce guilt in someone who doesn't need any more negative thoughts.

I have a feeling you're largely responding to my post. First of all, let me say that I mostly agree with you. I'd better put that in bold because you're such a tenacious fighter, Neserk, that I'm afraid you'll all-cap another strident response to even the tiny bits where we disagree as if I had just said night was day and black was white.

I'm merely suspicious of the assumption that any and all long term depression must, of necessity, be a physical ailment. Is it not even remotely possible that one could be in an externally lousy situation for two years that causes fully warranted feelings of sadness? Being out of school, uprooted from your friends, perhaps in a job you hate or perhaps with no job at all? I was depressed for about five years, in junior high and high school, but with good cause. I don't think it was physiological. I merely had few friends, I didn't fit in at school or at home, and life sucked. This isn't a rhetorical question. I'm genuinely interested in knowing what you think. Does all long term depression have a physiological cause?

However the guilt warning is a point well taken and I'll concede that to some extent my advice went overboard; I was wrong, and you are right. Happy, Neserk? :D One shouldn't be too hard on oneself. I have not had any kind of long term depression without any justifiable cause, but ever since I got hit by a car in Sept. 2001, I do get short term bouts of depression (a few hours to a couple days long) for no apparent reason, so I'm not completely in the dark on this. I had a nasty one just a couple weeks ago, in fact. When it first happened a lot, I assumed it was guilt for something I wasn't being honest with myself about. I have come to realize that they are random, physiological events that I need to just endure until it's over (since, for me, I can be confident that it will go away relatively quickly—if it lasted for weeks or years, it would be hell for sure).

But a lot of people these days will have you believe that all guilt is stupid and wrong. I don't agree. I believe that there are right things to do and wrong things to do in life and a conscience is a healthy means of discerning the difference, just as physical pain teaches you that banging your finger with a hammer is a bad physical thing to do. For healthy people, at least, (i.e. those who are not physiologically depressed), feeling depressed is sometimes the result of guilt and a healthy response is to do some soul searching and better your life (and sometimes the guilt is unwarranted, caused by an over-acute conscience or a manipulative person in your life, but I digress).

Again, I'm not saying that justified guilt is monkeybat's problem, I just wanted to make sure we had covered all the bases on happiness. Maybe I was stating something so obvious that it needn't be said and therefore shouldn't have been said. Was it irresponsible of me to bring up spiritual matters when it's highly unlikely that they are the cause (for example, that thinking about yourself is unhealthy and you should focus on others more)? Maybe it was. And if so, then I apologize.

But again, I was just making an effort to cover all the bases. Everyone had pretty much exhausted the overhwlemingly likely physical-cause angle. But there are other angles, however rare they are. It doesn't hurt to be comprehensive as long as the emphasis is in the right place. So if I failed to make the right emphasis last time, I hope this post has rectified that. :) Yes monkeybat should see a better doctor. But he asked, and there are many answers to the basic question of how to be happy. Perhaps not applicable to his situation, but there they are anyway.

topicolo

Jul 6, 2004, 04:43 PM

Why is it that if he was asking about a persistent cough we'd all be sending him to the doctor about when he has a serious medical condition we all feel free to tell him exactly what to do?

GO TO A DOCTOR! A REAL DOCTOR. Not your GP.

If you've seen some of the stuff that happens in psychiatric hospitals, you would n't call shrinks real doctors either

King Cobra

Jul 6, 2004, 04:48 PM

Ahh! Too many long posts with bold lettering and really big letters! *falls over* :D

Hehehe... I wasn't advising for him to do that, I was just responding to his question of what I do
I kinda figured. But as I explained only about nine hundred posts up, I didn't recommend it. You can think about suicide if you feel the need to, especially if you are not going to be able to do things you enjoy, but it's not always fun.

Neserk

Jul 6, 2004, 06:19 PM

If you've seen some of the stuff that happens in psychiatric hospitals, you would n't call shrinks real doctors either

I *have* seen it. And I would still call them real doctors. Besides, he doesn't appear suicidal, he doen't need to be admitted.

iJon

Jul 6, 2004, 06:22 PM

Neserk

Jul 6, 2004, 06:35 PM

I have a feeling you're largely responding to my post. First of all, let me say that I mostly agree with you. I'd better put that in bold because you're such a tenacious fighter, Neserk, that I'm afraid you'll all-cap another strident response to even the tiny bits where we disagree as if I had just said night was day and black was white.

uh-oh, you got me figured out. I was reacting to your post. But also responding to what I've been reading all over the place.

I'm merely suspicious of the assumption that any and all long term depression must, of necessity, be a physical ailment. Is it not even remotely possible that one could be in an externally lousy situation for two years that causes fully warranted feelings of sadness? Being out of school, uprooted from your friends, perhaps in a job you hate or perhaps with no job at all? I was depressed for about five years, in junior high and high school, but with good cause. I don't think it was physiological. I merely had few friends, I didn't fit in at school or at home, and life sucked. This isn't a rhetorical question. I'm genuinely interested in knowing what you think. Does all long term depression have a physiological cause?

From my long study of depression this is what I can sum up: Yes it is normal for teens to be moody (including depression) which seems to primarily be a function of the hormonal changes raging in their body.

As far as long term goes, yes it is usually more physically based than environmental. The exception is PTSD (Post Traumatatic Stress Disorder) which is a response to some major life event like being victimized.

The low-grade dysthymia he is describing often appears before adolescence (but not always) and is persistent.

The thing with depression (specifically dysthymia) is that it never seems to go away, except briefly. My dad is recovering from something akin to MS (called GBS, I posted about when I first found out) that physically knocked him off his feet and made it so he could barely function. I was *sure* he'd get depressed, but I've talked to him on the phone and no signs of it. For some of us that kind of thing would lead us to want to end our lives, for others it is an adventure. Yes, circumstance can effect, but some seem to have a biological predispostion.

One last thing on that: Chemically depression is depression. Doesn't matter if it "normal" depression as part of grief or if it depression for no particular reason, the brain chemicals are the same.

However the guilt warning is a point well taken and I'll concede that to some extent my advice went overboard; I was wrong, and you are right. Happy, Neserk? :D

*Faints* I think you are the first person on the net to ever admit to being wrong! :D

One shouldn't be too hard on oneself. I have not had any kind of long term depression without any justifiable cause, but ever since I got hit by a car in Sept. 2001, I do get short term bouts of depression (a few hours to a couple days long) for no apparent reason, so I'm not completely in the dark on this. I had a nasty one just a couple weeks ago, in fact. When it first happened a lot, I assumed it was guilt for something I wasn't being honest with myself about. I have come to realize that they are random, physiological events that I need to just endure until it's over (since, for me, I can be confident that it will go away relatively quickly—if it lasted for weeks or years, it would be hell for sure).

I think you got it. My mom never understood what I've struggled with my whole life. After she got cancer she had those days and weeks where she didn't want to get out of bed, etc. Then boom! She understands. Well, she kind of understands. She has had the experience but never the day after day, week after week, year after year. My "cure" has been (1)living in CA because the bad weather of the east coast midwest does a number on me, and (2) Celexa in the winter time. I also see a therapist regularly. Keep in mind I have struggled with this since before I was 10. It is likely to stay with me for my entire life.

But a lot of people these days will have you believe that all guilt is stupid and wrong. I don't agree.

I don't either. It serves its purpose. But people who are depressed tend to feel it much stronger and for reasons that they need not feel guilty for.

I believe that there are right things to do and wrong things to do in life and a conscience is a healthy means of discerning the difference, just as physical pain teaches you that banging your finger with a hammer is a bad physical thing to do. For healthy people, at least, (i.e. those who are not physiologically depressed), feeling depressed is sometimes the result of guilt and a healthy response is to do some soul searching and better your life (and sometimes the guilt is unwarranted, caused by an over-acute conscience or a manipulative person in your life, but I digress).

Physcial activity is certainly important and a piece of combatting depression or learning to cope with it depending on one's issue. And resolving guilt is also important. Because we all have certainly done things to feel guilty about!

Again, I'm not saying that justified guilt is monkeybat's problem, I just wanted to make sure we had covered all the bases on happiness. Maybe I was stating something so obvious that it needn't be said and therefore shouldn't have been said. Was it irresponsible of me to bring up spiritual matters when it's highly unlikely that they are the cause (for example, that thinking about yourself is unhealthy and you should focus on others more)? Maybe it was. And if so, then I apologize.

That was the one that got me ;) Depressed people do tend to pull into themselves but focusing more on others is not likely to help them. It is a symptom, not a cause.

But again, I was just making an effort to cover all the bases. Everyone had pretty much exhausted the overhwlemingly likely physical-cause angle. But there are other angles, however rare they are. It doesn't hurt to be comprehensive as long as the emphasis is in the right place. So if I failed to make the right emphasis last time, I hope this post has rectified that. :) Yes monkeybat should see a better doctor. But he asked, and there are many answers to the basic question of how to be happy. Perhaps not applicable to his situation, but there they are anyway.

True

Neserk

Jul 6, 2004, 06:39 PM

i used to think i was suicidal. then i realized i just enjoyed thinking about the reactions of people if I was gone. i dont have to think about it anymore, cause i gave people that feelings with my wreck last year.

Not sure how old you were at the time but I suspect it is normal. Especially if you are angry with people.

iJon

Jul 6, 2004, 06:46 PM

Not sure how old you were at the time but I suspect it is normal. Especially if you are angry with people.
yeah, well i grew up with bad acne during my jr high years, made me quite depressed, but acutane took care of that. then i took a big hit once my long term girlfriend left me. but in reality i was a senior in high school, still discovering myself and didn't really grip the situation as a whole.

after my wreck i learned what it would be like if i was gone, seeing the reactions of friends and family members, my whole school was in shock.

after this passed year ive learned alot about myself and i feel being through some of life's s***iest offerings (thats how they feel to me) has only made me stronger. i dont get depressed anymore, or hardly sad cause i have a new way of looking at things in life. ive seen to many of my friends my age waste their time with signicant others talking about marriage then when it ends they feel like they were the only person for them and their life is doomed, glad i've experienced that stage and over it.

iJon

MacDawg

Jul 7, 2004, 08:03 AM

wdlove

Jul 7, 2004, 08:12 PM

I don't think anybody here really discounted that a doctor should be consulted... that was the baseline for many/most posts. What was added was in addition to that advice, or some alternatives that might help if that route was not chosen. Seeking medical attention for a cough/cold, broken arm, brain tumor or something else doesn't quite carry the stigma of "depression". Yes, there is still a great deal of negative reactions to this, and many people don't seek help because of how others around them feel about it. This is not right, but sadly true. If MonkeyBat chose not to seek medical help for whatever reason, the additional advice was to help him along the way.

And I agree with some of the other posts above that meds are not always the answer either. Sometimes we are too quick to make pills the answer, when they are not. The complaint of many on meds is that it takes away their individuality, their life. The drive to make them "normal" makes them somebody else, somebody they are not. What is "normal" anyway. Many that are manic, etc. feel that the meds take away all of their creativity. Some of the most creative of people have been depressed.

Yes, I suffer depression, sometimes severe... sometimes long term, and no it isn't the blues. I have read and tried to educate myself on the symptoms, medications, and everything else, so I am not completely ignorant of my situation, but I have chosen (so far) not to seek medical help. That is my choice, and I do so for many reasons, which may or may not be valid for others, but are for me.

I would hope that you have a significant other that cares about you. Someone that if you got into real trouble would intervene on you behalf. Unless you have been actually diagnosed by a professional there is no real ay to know if you do or don't have depression. It's something that can be self diagnosed. Depression is a serious disease that needs professional attention. In the long run you are making a bad decision. I happen to be a medical professional.

Neserk

Jul 7, 2004, 09:08 PM

Depression is a serious disease that needs professional attention. In the long run you are making a bad decision. I happen to be a medical professional.

Thank you!

kainjow

Jul 7, 2004, 11:05 PM

I would have to disagree with depression being a disease. It's just an excuse, along with alcoholism being a disease.

WTF is up with this? Why can't people take blame for their own actions? Why can't they say "yea I screwed up <here> so now my life's a mess"? Obviously being depressed isn't always your fault (others making fun of you, things happening to you out of your control, etc). But I think most of the time it is something you could have controlled (not drinking so much, not having abortions, not getting gf's pregnant, not eating healthy and now being obese, etc, etc).

When I get depressed, I just start programming and then I get excited and I start to love my life, because programming is soo challenging. It's something that makes me think way more then ANYTHING else in my life. Nothing else makes me think more then programming. Maybe you should start to program. :D I love it. I don't know what I would do without it. And when I'm not programming, I think about programming. And when I'm programming I don't care at all what's going on in the world, even if my mom's pissed at me for not doing something she asked me too. I just keep initializing those variables and subclassing those objects! hehe

Like others said, go exercise, go be with people, do NORMAL stuff. Don't sit around by yourself watching tv. Ride your bike. Visit a nearby pond and catch some frogs. Read a book. Fly a kite. Do a puzzle. Make some pasta, then eat it. Give $5 to a homeless person. Or better, take them to McDonalds and give them something to eat. Pick up trash on the street. Volunteer at a soup kitchen. Start a new craft. Join a bingo club with old people. Go to the zoo and imitate monkeys. :)

Neserk

Jul 8, 2004, 12:20 AM

I would have to disagree with depression being a disease.

SPoken like someone who doesn't know...

sorryiwasdreami

Jul 8, 2004, 01:22 AM

Okay man, if you are still on the boards:

1. Get the ******* off caffeine (the blissful and fulfilling drug that makes you feel alive) and also contributes to the anxiety which fuels your depression.

2. Get the ******* off the computer.

3. Go outside in the sun; force yourself to go out. The sun makes vitamin D and serotonin.

4. If your sleeping habits are screwed (which they are, I'm sure) go to the store, or have someone go get you Melatonin; (you can buy it at supermarkets) it will make your brain tired at more accepted time intervals. It will take time to kick in.

5. Eat. Make sure you eat and drink. You need vitamins.

6. If you are especially anxious, drink wine. It will help you sleep.

7. When you look at things and say, "that looks like s***, attempt to separate the filter that is over your eyes making you see it that way. That brown filter is the depression and you can physically see it; figuring out how to dissolve that filter is the key.

8. Go inside yourself and meet the deepest, darkest parts of your inner being and become friends with them.

9. Get in touch with your spirituality and reach to new and distant spiritual places. God, Allah, Budda, Jesus, the stars, the trees, tarot, astrology, love, or whatever you want.

10. Attempt talking, if you aren't anxious, with someone you trust (if there is someone) who has had real depression. Wine helps here.

To those of you who will bash me for advising alcohol, if you have ever experienced real and chronic anxiety, you will know why. Exercise will help during the morning or daytime but when your body and mind are out of sync, exercise can further mess up your sleeping habits. I've never had trouble sleeping when I've consumed alcohol.

Awimoway

Jul 8, 2004, 03:15 AM

To those of you who will bash me for advising alcohol, if you have ever experienced real and chronic anxiety, you will know why.

Okay but depression is not necessarily anxiety. Neserk's reply to my long post really opened my eyes. People with depression are not merely people in a bad mood for any possible reason such as anxiety, guilt, lack of friends. They are depressed for one reason and one reason only: chemical imbalance.

They cannot escape it by merely thinking happy thoughts. The very question that is the title of this thread is misleading. There is no cheering up someone who has clinical depression. No amount of friends or ridding yourself of anxiety is going to change this. Anxiety or lack of friends, etc. might be the trigger, but for clinically depressed people once you're in the hole there is no ladder out except by restoring the chemical balance. And that takes medication, etc. Besides, the clinically depressed can and will feel depressed without any trigger at all.

I think all the non-medical advice is warranted insofar as it will help people avoid triggers to depression, however it won't guarantee that you can prevent it, especially if you're clinically depressed.

Essentially, those who have never experienced this kind of depression have NO idea what it's like (especially that atrociously unkind post by kainjow) and maybe ought not to say anything at all unless they have medical training.

sorryiwasdreami

Jul 8, 2004, 10:42 AM

Okay but depression is not necessarily anxiety...ridding yourself of anxiety is [not] going to change this.

I kindly would have to disagree with you on this. Anxiety is not simply the normal emotion of feeling butterflies on your first date. I mean, it is, but it is SO much more than that. It seems as though you may be dismissing anxiety as the first stages of depression and the ongoing force keeping someone depressed.

- Social (and any other) phobia
- Obsessive compulsive disorder
- Panic disorder
- Post traumatic stress disorder

are all forms of anxiety, all forms of chemical imbalance. One or more of these imbalances are almost always inherent in depression, so ridding one’s self of these anxieties (through medication, therapy, or whatever) will no doubt change and help the depressed state.

So, I agree with you ascertaining depression is a chemical imbalance. Fully. But somehow the brain has to become imbalanced, and one of the leading causes of that imbalance is anxiety, of the obsessive variety.

To clarify, I was in a major depression (manic) from 2001-2003 and can speak first hand about these things. Not that you can't or shouldn't; believe me, I have total respect for you as well as most of the posters on these boards.

King Cobra

Jul 8, 2004, 01:20 PM

7. When you look at things and say, "that looks like s***, attempt to separate the filter that is over your eyes making you see it that way. That brown filter is the depression and you can physically see it; figuring out how to dissolve that filter is the key.
For some reason I read that through quickly the first time, and I didn't think it looked quite right. I tried reading that a second time more literally, but that made things worse...

To those of you who will bash me for advising alcohol, if you have ever experienced real and chronic anxiety, you will know why. Exercise will help during the morning or daytime but when your body and mind are out of sync, exercise can further mess up your sleeping habits. I've never had trouble sleeping when I've consumed alcohol.
I propose a poll in which all viewers of this thread vote either "Take NyQuil if you can't get to sleep," or "Avoid NyQuil regardless." For anyone that has given NyQuil to a young child, you're in for a surprise: NyQuil is mostly alcohol.

MarkCollette

Jul 8, 2004, 02:01 PM

Hopefully we've all agreed by now that there are several triggers for depression, including:

- Malnutrition
- Chemical imbalance, beyond malnutrition
- Negative external events

Malnutrition can be caused by eating too much crap food, or too little good food. As well, as someone else mentionned, not getting enough sunlight.

Chemical imbalance would be that there is some condition where your body simply cannot properly regulate itself, even when you're taking proper care of yourself. This is where many people debate, since it's not always obvious if a drug is actually necessary, when one could simply need to take better care of themselves. Personally, I would recommend setting a fixed amount of time to learn how to take the best care of oneself, and do it. If the depression persists, then see a doctor, and bring in the tactical nukes.

Negative external events can include all the obvious things, like family problems, school and work problems, abuse, etc. For these, the options are really quite limited: fix the problems, remove yourself from the situation, or grin and bear it. But, aside from of all that, there's things, which are loosely related to the whole health/malnutrition. For example, fat cells have a property of storing chemicals in the body. So, if you're too thin, then you might not be storing enough of "good" chemicals, and if you're too fat, you might be storing too many of the "bad" chemicals. This is where a balance of exercise can really help with depression. It's also been shown that people who exercise can then better deal with stress. Also, if we revisit the whole sunlight topic, we can see that besides vitamin D production, and meatonin regulation, sunlight exerts psychological affects on people. This is easier to observe with females, who react much more negatively, and quickly, to "bad" weather, obviously before their brain could have changed any chemical production. I personally remember that when I stopped listenning to darker music so much, that it had a huge affect on my happiness. And my Dad, who is a salesman, is greatly affected when he does his positivity exercises, which include simple things like smiling, remembering positive memories, etc.

So, for anyone who thinks they might be depressed, I would simply tell them to do the following steps (not necessarily in this precise order):

1. Stop eating crap, and start eating well
2. Exercise at least twice a week, either to bulk up, or slim down, whichever applies to you
3. Try to have "normal" hours of being awake, asleep
4. Cut back on all the pathetic depressing influences in your life, and focus on the good stuff. Break all bad habits
5. Get outside and socialise with people. Being on the Internet, or phone does not count. Hug people.
6. Mentally evaluate what in your life is making you depressed. Make a list
7. Fix what you can yourself
8. Enter in a dialog with those who are responsible for the problems that you yourself can't fix.
9. Ditch all the crap that you can, which you couldn't fix. This is what most people do not do, since they think it's better to cling to their crap, since they might be more alone if they ditch it. Grow a pair of balls, and have faith that things will get better, eventually.
10. If you're still depressed, after some time, then see a doctor about some happy drugs

Baron58

Jul 8, 2004, 04:26 PM

1. Get the ******* off caffeine (the blissful and fulfilling drug that makes you feel alive) and also contributes to the anxiety which fuels your depression.

Very true. I had a 15-Diet-Coke/day habit for a while. I was an animated corpse, and the caffine was a major contributing cause to ruining a relationship. I've been falling (jumping...) off the wagon recently, though...

2. Get the ******* off the computer.

Not in my case. If it's a choice between the computer and acknowledging that my current surroundings exist, I'll keep reloading slashdot and news.google.com until I temporarily forget where I am.

3. Go outside in the sun; force yourself to go out. The sun makes vitamin D and serotonin.

True, but when going outside is a constant nails-on-a-chalkboard reminder of where you are, that makes matters worse.

5. Eat. Make sure you eat and drink. You need vitamins.

...except if you've gained 15+ pounds because your gf lives on bread/cheese/pasta and you can't maintain your high-protien/low-fat diet that made you feel *better* about yourself, eating is part of the problem.

7. When you look at things and say, "that looks like s***, attempt to separate the filter that is over your eyes making you see it that way. That brown filter is the depression and you can physically see it; figuring out how to dissolve that filter is the key.

That brown filter is Delaware, and there's an even browner filter called "New Jersey" just to the north of it. 'Dissolving' the filter is a no-brainer - just head south about 700 miles. The resulting unemployment wouldn't be good for my state of mind either, though.

8. Go inside yourself and meet the deepest, darkest parts of your inner being and become friends with them.

Already have. Name's Tyler Durden.

9. Get in touch with your spirituality and reach to new and distant spiritual places. God, Allah, Budda, Jesus, the stars, the trees, tarot, astrology, love, or whatever you want.

I've gone into my cave and found my power animal, and it said "find a new f'n career". The one thing I want, though, I can never make any progress towards getting.

Neserk

Jul 8, 2004, 05:25 PM

Depression (chronic) and Anxiety (the kind that is classified in the DSMs) are often found together. In some cases the Anxiety causes Depression. In some cases the Depression causes Anxiety. In some cases the are considered Co-morbid. The exist together w/o a cause/effect relationship. The last is usually recognized when in the same person you have both but not necessarily at the same time. The person may find relief from one and not the other, vice versa, or have both at the same time.

Serotonin is the *big* factor. I don't think anyone knows why the imbalance in serotonin causes depression sometimes and anxiety others. If they do know they forgot to tell me :D

Neserk

Jul 8, 2004, 05:27 PM

1. Stop eating crap, and start eating well
2. Exercise at least twice a week, either to bulk up, or slim down, whichever applies to you
3. Try to have "normal" hours of being awake, asleep
4. Cut back on all the pathetic depressing influences in your life, and focus on the good stuff. Break all bad habits
5. Get outside and socialise with people. Being on the Internet, or phone does not count. Hug people.
6. Mentally evaluate what in your life is making you depressed. Make a list
7. Fix what you can yourself
8. Enter in a dialog with those who are responsible for the problems that you yourself can't fix.
9. Ditch all the crap that you can, which you couldn't fix. This is what most people do not do, since they think it's better to cling to their crap, since they might be more alone if they ditch it. Grow a pair of balls, and have faith that things will get better, eventually.
10. If you're still depressed, after some time, then see a doctor about some happy drugs

You are forgetting one thing. People who are depressed often are exhausted after dragging themselves out of bed, assuming they can do that. A list like that would send me right back to bed! Others are barely sleeping and barely have the energy to sit up.

Neserk

Jul 8, 2004, 05:29 PM

are all forms of anxiety, all forms of chemical imbalance. One or more of these imbalances are almost always inherent in depression, so ridding one’s self of these anxieties (through medication, therapy, or whatever) will no doubt change and help the depressed state.

Depends on if they are comorbid or if the anxiety is causing the depression... not so simple.

So, I agree with you ascertaining depression is a chemical imbalance. Fully. But somehow the brain has to become imbalanced, and one of the leading causes of that imbalance is anxiety, of the obsessive variety.

other way around. The imbalance causes the anxiety ;)

To clarify, I was in a major depression (manic) from 2001-2003 and can speak first hand about these things. Not that you can't or shouldn't; believe me, I have total respect for you as well as most of the posters on these boards.

Mania is a high, not a low. Do you mean you are bipolar or that you had a major depresseive episode?

sorryiwasdreami

Jul 8, 2004, 05:31 PM

That brown filter is Delaware, and there's an even browner filter called "New Jersey" just to the north of it. 'Dissolving' the filter is a no-brainer - just head south about 700 miles. The resulting unemployment wouldn't be good for my state of mind either, though.

Exactly. And when I was in a major depression it was Pennsylvania. (Unemployed at that). I have to say though, going 700 miles south didn't help much. During my lowest point, I drove down to Florida, the land of beaches and beautiful scenery, and was still depressed.

Once you figure out how to see Delaware as Delaware and not as a pile of $h!t, that is remove the filter, you will be on your way. It took me years, but there was no one to explain it to me this way until near the end of my depression. You’ve got to trust me.

Your place of residence isn't bad like you think it is. Try your best to look at something there and see it as it truly is, not the way you perceive it.

This perception disconnect is inbuilt in all depressions. For example, anorexics see themselves as fat even though they may exist in the lowest body mass percentile for their age and height. Believe me, I used to be anorexic.

You are playing a mental game with your brain, which you can win. Once you can separate your visual perceptions from reality, and learn to believe that reality, you are on your way to becoming free.

sorryiwasdreami

Jul 8, 2004, 05:49 PM

other way around. The imbalance causes the anxiety ;)

I'm not sure. Maybe in a lot of cases it does. But for many people, anxiety begins at a very young age (5, 6, 7 years old) and conversely many are born with it; it can be genetic. I’m not saying that the imbalance cannot cause anxiety; surely it can.

Mania is a high, not a low. Do you mean you are bipolar or that you had a major depresseive episode?

I had a depression which at some rare points made me extremely excitable, and high, and with high self esteem. You can read a little about manic depression here: http://open-mind.org/SP/Articles/3.htm

I’m in no way trying to combat you on your points. I understand that depression is a different beast for each person, and speaking from experience, I can only describe mine and what worked for me.

MongoTheGeek

Jul 8, 2004, 05:52 PM

Holding an infant, especially one that is at the stage that all they do is eat and sleep. It reminds you there is hope in the world.

Neserk

Jul 8, 2004, 05:55 PM

I'm not sure. Maybe in a lot of cases it does. But for many people, anxiety begins at a very young age (5, 6, 7 years old) and conversely many are born with it; it can be genetic. I’m not saying that the imbalance cannot cause anxiety; surely it can.

Being born with it (genetic) and an imbalance is the same thing ;)

I had a depression which at some rare points made me extremely excitable, and high, and with high self esteem. You can read a little about manic depression here: http://open-mind.org/SP/Articles/3.htm

I'm quite familiar with Manic Depression (now known as BiPolar). If you had it you still have it unless you are on meds. There is no cure for it.

I’m in no way trying to combat you on your points. I understand that depression is a different beast for each person, and speaking from experience, I can only describe mine and what worked for me.

I'm speaking from education. Both formal education in Psychology and informal from Psychologists and Psychiartrists ;)

Neserk

Jul 8, 2004, 05:56 PM

Holding an infant, especially one that is at the stage that all they do is eat and sleep. It reminds you there is hope in the world.

Very True...

Frohickey

Jul 8, 2004, 06:29 PM

Depression or feeling down? Those are two different things.

I think that everyone feels down every once in a while. Thats what makes life interesting. Imagine if you lived your life like a Golden Retriever, now that would be boring.

As to what I do when I'm feeling down. I'm atypical of most, so when I feel down, I go to the range and send a few hundred lead slugs at the hillside. Very relaxing.

Baron58

Jul 8, 2004, 07:51 PM

Exactly. And when I was in a major depression it was Pennsylvania. (Unemployed at that). I have to say though, going 700 miles south didn't help much. During my lowest point, I drove down to Florida, the land of beaches and beautiful scenery, and was still depressed.

For me, 24 hours in Atlanta and it's like the last 3 years were a bad dream that never happened.

Once you figure out how to see Delaware as Delaware and not as a pile of $h!t, that is remove the filter, you will be on your way. It took me years, but there was no one to explain it to me this way until near the end of my depression. You’ve got to trust me.

Your place of residence isn't bad like you think it is. Try your best to look at something there and see it as it truly is, not the way you perceive it.

Ahh, so you're familiar with Kant (or at least have read Sophie's World). I know the distinction between 'Das ding an sich' and 'Das ding fur mich'. I came from a (big, clean, modern, fast-paced, cosmopolitan) city. I lived in an ultra-hip Bauhaus-type loft. I had a wonderful life right at my fingertips. I now live and work in two states, both of which are old, dirty, slow, run-down, rural, expensive... I can't enjoy the things I used to do, or the lifestyle I used to have, because it's such a farking effort to do anything here. I live with my gf in her 'colonial' development tract house, which is the epitome of everything I find disgusting in architecture and residential environment. I used to hate visiting relatives in rural South Carolina, because I had this unreasonable, panic fear that I would someday be 'stuck' in a place like that, unable to escape. Now I AM stuck in a place like that, unable to escape (unless you're hiring at my level in Atlanta, in which case I'll be there on the next AirTran).

For the 'Das ding an sich' concept (things as they really are), I believe that this area is quantifyably worse than where I would like to be. Both in things that you can measure statistically, like costs and availabilities, and in things that you can measure anecdotally, like poor service, rudeness and the general cultural flavour.

For the 'Das ding fur mich' concept (things as I perceive them), some people in this environment simply shrug and say "Meh... who cares..." There are other people I know who have transfered here, look around, and go 'WTF?!?', so it's not just me. In my case, I came here with no real opinion one way or the other. My perceptions are a result of the way things 'really' are, with constant negative reinforcements.

You are playing a mental game with your brain, which you can win. Once you can separate your visual perceptions from reality, and learn to believe that reality, you are on your way to becoming free.

So I have to hit bottom, give up, admit that living in this rural suburban hell is not bad, accept that this is all my life will ever be, and I'll be happy?

You know in horror movies, when the victim is trying to escape the zombies and you see him/her being pulled down by dozens of grasping hands -- That's how I feel with people constantly telling me "It's good here... you should like it here.... there's nothing wrong with here... what's wrong with you... you're just a selfish yuppie/snob/whatever...." All I want to do is run down I-95 screaming "AAAIIIIEEEEEEEE..... GET THE F AWAY FROM ME!!!!"

The depression/dysthymia (chemical, phisiological, whatever) is real. I'm aware of what my baseline 'feeling' is, for my whole life. The environment I'm in makes it so, so, so much worse. When I get out of the environment for days or weeks, I'm not 'cured', but it's an immense relief to get rid of that thing which is making it worse.

Neserk

Jul 8, 2004, 08:36 PM

The depression/dysthymia (chemical, phisiological, whatever) is real. I'm aware of what my baseline 'feeling' is, for my whole life. The environment I'm in makes it so, so, so much worse. When I get out of the environment for days or weeks, I'm not 'cured', but it's an immense relief to get rid of that thing which is making it worse.

I hear ya!

sorryiwasdreami

Jul 8, 2004, 09:43 PM

Ahh, so you're familiar with Kant (or at least have read Sophie's World).

As for Kant, yes I am familiar; although for me, philosophy is excruciating to read. What I said before about perception wasn’t referring to Kant’s writings at all and surely not to Sophie's World. I’ve never heard of the book until you brought it up (it looks enticing however).

Furthermore, while it may have sounded like I was attempting to offer ‘elixir’ for depression via philosophy, which could be arguable, I was not. In truth, this writer positively believes that this is a real illness, disorder, sickness, what have you.

So I have to hit bottom, give up, admit that living in this rural suburban hell is not bad, accept that this is all my life will ever be, and I'll be happy?

I’m absorbing a lot of Fight Club references here. I’m not really saying the above. This is what I’m saying, and you are going to tell me it’s more philosophy, I predict. Try this - or at least think about it.

Go outside your dwelling, as unbearable as it may be. Take a walk and find a flower that is growing (in the wild or domesticated on someone’s lawn, it doesn’t matter).

It doesn’t matter how much of an affinity you have grown for flowers, either; I’m just using this as an example. Now, look at it. Look at only the flower, separate from all stimuli and outside surroundings. Take it in. Take a minute on this. How do you feel about the color? The shape? The texture? The smell? The sound it makes when you put your ear up to it? Is the flower beautiful, or does the flower suck?

No matter what your initial and base feelings are for flowers, just let it be known in your mind what you think about that flower. If you think the flower sucks, it can be attributed to the pineal gland not producing the right amounts of serotonin to make you perceive that object in a positive manner. Serotonin levels have a huge affect on perception. This is the 'filter' I've been speaking of. See: http://www.antidepressantsfacts.com/pinealstory.htm

(I’m not trying to generalize that everyone should think flowers are beautiful. You can perform the same experiment by replacing flower with anything of your choice.) If you can learn to perceive the object separately from your serotonin/chemical levels, on strictly a sensory level, you can beat the depression with little medication. You seem very smart (probably not to your advantage whilst in depression). You may be able to begin balancing your serotonin and critical chemical levels on your own.

Again, I think we agree on depression being a chemical imbalance; what I’m not sure of is our views on the connection of the chemical imbalance to visual, aural, physical (etc.) perception.

For me, 24 hours in Atlanta and it's like the last 3 years were a bad dream that never happened.

Well, it seems as though all you need to do is make a change to your residence to a place where you feel comfortable and relaxed. I make it sound easy. You make it sound easy by your comment about taking the next air-tram to Georgia. So go!

MarkCollette

Jul 9, 2004, 03:26 AM

You are forgetting one thing. People who are depressed often are exhausted after dragging themselves out of bed, assuming they can do that. A list like that would send me right back to bed! Others are barely sleeping and barely have the energy to sit up.

I think that the first three things would give people a lot of energy.

Perhaps this is just me, but I find that my 20-30 minute workouts really give me a lot of energy for the day, and really help to wake me up in the morning. The trick is to not push it too hard, and make sure you have some small amount of fruit to eat, so you don't get dizzy.

Neserk

Jul 9, 2004, 10:15 PM

I think that the first three things would give people a lot of energy.

But you have to have the energy to *do* them. Many people don't understand that. It is like a budget. Looks great on paper but in real life, hard to do ;)

Perhaps this is just me, but I find that my 20-30 minute workouts really give me a lot of energy for the day, and really help to wake me up in the morning. .

True for most people. Again, it is getting the energy to do it.

MarkCollette

Jul 10, 2004, 12:53 AM

But you have to have the energy to *do* them. Many people don't understand that. It is like a budget. Looks great on paper but in real life, hard to do ;)

True for most people. Again, it is getting the energy to do it.

I can understand that people need some motivation. I simply tap into my animal instinct to fark some pretty girl. I know that if I don't do all those things then I'll die alone, whereas if I do them, then I'll at least enjoy the ride.

Maybe for someone else it will be to make a loved one happy, for for another it will be some reason we would never think of. However it is, people have to find the motivation to do the first steps, and then that should give them the energy to continue.

I barely keep a budget, but I sure as hell am following these steps.

Neserk

Jul 10, 2004, 01:20 AM

I can understand that people need some motivation. I simply tap into my animal instinct to fark some pretty girl. I know that if I don't do all those things then I'll die alone, whereas if I do them, then I'll at least enjoy the ride.

Maybe for someone else it will be to make a loved one happy, for for another it will be some reason we would never think of. However it is, people have to find the motivation to do the first steps, and then that should give them the energy to continue.
.

If only it were that simple... it just isn't...

KC9AIC

Jul 10, 2004, 08:43 AM

I've found that having something eternal to live for is very important. Being a Christian for me has given me an understanding of who and what I am, and how I should live. Understanding who I am helps me understand why I act the way I do. I have a purpose in life, which gives me balance and perspective. The promise of eternal life once I've finished my work here is even more rewarding.

Being in touch with God and being able to receive help from him is the single most unifying and encouraging force in my life. God can certainly help you through depression. He might not always heal you of it directly; he often works through doctors and medical professionals, but He still is a valuable companion in life. If you'd like to have a fulfilled spirit, and would like something higher than this world to live for, my experience has been that Jesus Christ can give it to you.

Please don't flame me for sharing what I believe, and that my personal experience has proven true.

Neserk

Jul 10, 2004, 10:25 AM

Being a Christian .[/SIZE]

Plenty of Christians suffer from clinical depression and dysthymia. It doesn't protect you from it. ANn for many it only makes it worse. I saw that in my mom when she had breast cancer. She suffered more than the average person because her faith made her believe that she shouldn't be depressed, because afterall, if she died she'd go to heaven. :rolleyes:

And don't get me started on the platitutdes for those who are chronically depressed and how if they were strong enough Christians they wouldn't be :rolleyes:

KC9AIC

Jul 11, 2004, 03:10 AM

Plenty of Christians suffer from clinical depression and dysthymia. It doesn't protect you from it. ANn for many it only makes it worse. I saw that in my mom when she had breast cancer. She suffered more than the average person because her faith made her believe that she shouldn't be depressed, because afterall, if she died she'd go to heaven. :rolleyes:

And don't get me started on the platitutdes for those who are chronically depressed and how if they were strong enough Christians they wouldn't be :rolleyes:

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. I know that depression strikes all sorts of people, even (especially?) Christians. And they should seek help for it. But having spiritual input and supernatural help can make recovery much easier.

Neserk

Jul 11, 2004, 11:40 AM

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. I know that depression strikes all sorts of people, even (especially?) Christians. And they should seek help for it. But having spiritual input and supernatural help can make recovery much easier.

In my experience it makes it worse. There is a huge guilt factor for Christians. In a different forum on a similar topic I have Christians claiming that if your relationship with God is on track you are more joyous :rolleyes: This is a common misconception that is taught. I'm not sure if it is a dysfunction among Christianity where people don't talk about how they really feel or if it is a way of covering up the truth. Either way many, many Christians suffer in silence out of fear of having their Christitianity judged by other Christians. Not everyone recovers from Depression. Many have to learn to live with it. Much the same way a person learns to live with losing a limb or becoming paralyzed.

wdlove

Jul 11, 2004, 07:41 PM

In my experience it makes it worse. There is a huge guilt factor for Christians. In a different forum on a similar topic I have Christians claiming that if your relationship with God is on track you are more joyous :rolleyes: This is a common misconception that is taught. I'm not sure if it is a dysfunction among Christianity where people don't talk about how they really feel or if it is a way of covering up the truth. Either way many, many Christians suffer in silence out of fear of having their Christianity judged by other Christians. Not everyone recovers from Depression. Many have to learn to live with it. Much the same way a person learns to live with losing a limb or becoming paralyzed.

Christians are just like anyone else. I do think that seeing a Christian counselor can be very helpful. That person can help you with your faith and disease. Yes. mental illness is a life long struggle. In my experience as a Christian you can get much needed support from fellow believers. They more than others are aware of human weakness.

Phobophobia

Jul 13, 2004, 02:11 AM

http://www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/8myths.htm

Don't bother with the psychologists, they don't actually help.

Neserk

Jul 13, 2004, 06:25 PM

http://www.angelfire.com/wv/geoall/8myths.htm

Don't bother with the psychologists, they don't actually help.

Actually, they do.

The "myths" you linked to are loaded with false claims and BS.

unfaded

Jul 13, 2004, 08:21 PM

Do tell. For the last two years I've been feeling really depressed.

So, just wondered what you did. :(

Well don't listen to Radiohead. Makes you ten times more depressed. Except for the Pyramid Song, which always brings me up.

Phobophobia

Jul 14, 2004, 12:50 AM

Actually, they do.

The "myths" you linked to are loaded with false claims and BS.

Which ones, exactly and why?

Doctor Q

Jul 14, 2004, 01:10 AM

Which ones, exactly and why?It's ok to voice a short opinion if some of you think psychologists are useless or useful, but if you want to have a longer discussion, one of you should start a separate thread.

Neserk

Jul 14, 2004, 07:53 PM

Which ones, exactly and why?

I realized after I posted who you are. There is no point in discussing it with you.

me_94501

Jul 16, 2004, 12:17 AM

I can't say I've ever really experienced an extended period of depression, but I do worry and get anxious a lot--often over nothing (my mom got the same way when she was about my age, I'm told). This is what I try to do:
-Get out of the house. Take in some sun, some fresh air, and some girls :D
-Stay off the computer if possible.
-Keep your mind occupied. Clean the house. Pull weeds. Wash the car. Read a book. Go play ball. Volunteer. You get the idea.
-Talk to someone. A therepist. A family member. A close friend. Anyone.

Hope this helps some. :)

pianojoe

Jul 16, 2004, 04:12 AM

Here's my personal emergency plan:

1. Smile.

2. Exercise.

3. Play the piano for hours.

4. Get laid.

5. Imagine that a good part of the human population of this planet has either nothing to eat, not enough water, or lives in constant fear that some soldier will knock on your door and shoot or rape your family, or some misguided troops will drop bombs on your head while you're taking care of the crop on your farmland.

There's a story about a tribe in Africa that I'd like to share:

Whenever a member of the community feels depressed, all other people (ca. 300) gather round his hut and send all their good feelings until he/she cheers up. If we all had 300 people who cared for us, we wouldn't feel depressed in the first place, would we?

ThomasJefferson

Jul 16, 2004, 11:41 AM

I fought the dragon for eight years. It started with a back injury, and pain that lasted day and night for seven months. After three injections into my spine the pain began to decrease. I went from running 10Ks (time 40:14) to asking people to open heavy doors for me because my back was so frail.

Then, the boss from hell arrived. The back slowly healed, but the work expectations increased. 100 hour work weeks became the norm, and still the boss wanted more. I did not want to leave the job because of the excellent health insurance. I was (and may still be) one injury away from surgery/disability. On top of that, I love what I am doing.

The only thing I had left was endurance. Several employees went the "I'm depressed, give me drugs route" to deal with the work situation. However, I developed a very strong anti-drug attitude during the experience with the back. I felt that each time I had to take something, I was admitting that I could not live my life on my own terms.

Sure, both experiences were depressing. But "I" am not that depression. I may be experiencing depression, as several other people were, but I knew that "I" was not that state of mind. I had to fight for my perspective and mindset daily. Some days I lost.

Life can be tough. Some events can leave you hurt, some can leave you crippled and you often don't get from life what you want or think you deserve. But, you are not those disappointments/pain. My focus is elsewhere. I believe that we are all incredibly beautiful spiritual beings and we are here to experience all the muck and the joys of this life. My reality is a Christian world view. But faith does not make pain go away. Frankly, I find some of those muck-denying, always sunny Christians to be far more screwed up than those who run to drugs, recreational or otherwise.

By the way, I am back to the point where I can run a mile without any pain.

... gone in search of coffee ...