A comment was posted in response to this post, I felt I needed a little more space other than the comments to properly answer the question. Plus, it's good information for everyone to know.
as someone who could have been punched in the face(o_O)
i think i can give myself the right to ask;
"soul-crushing sadness!!,Why!!?"
PS.
1)don't temme that u dont wanna talk about it because u did talked about it. (we r on ur blog)(fact!!)
2)don't ask who i am, just to maintain the illusion.(quoted from ur snappy answers!!)
:P
Dear Anonymous,
I thought the reason people who have depression suffer from "soul-crushing sadness" was reasonably clear in the post, but I shall attempt to explain further.
People who have depression are not simple feeling blue, sad, down in the dumps, that is a symptom of the disease. Depression is when your body is unable to correctly balance your chemistry.
Most scientists believe people who have depression have an inability to create the proper amount of serotonin, which is the chemical your body makes that gives you the feeling of happiness. Prescriptions for depression can either be thought of as serotonin supplements or as chemicals that cause your body to start producing it at correct levels. It is rather like insulin for diabetics, their bodies do not create the right chemicals to break down sugar while people who have depression do not create the right chemicals to register the feeling of happiness.
People who suffer from depression literally do not have the ability to be happy, and so they are sad all the time. As the imbalance gets worse, they get sadder and sadder. Sometimes they pull out of it, and sometimes they cannot deal with it anymore and suicide or begin committing self-harm.
There is little telling what might set of an attack. Sometimes it is outside influences, like a close one dying, or in my case, often if I get over stressed (I often have depression attacks around exams or after moving). Sometimes there can be little to no reason for an attack of depression.
Not all depression attacks have to be treated with medication either. I have found my depression to be much more manageable by eating a healthy diet with lots of vegetables and limiting my simple carbohydrate intake as well as regular exercise, a very similar recommendation for those suffering diabetes you'll notice. When your body is healthy, it has an easier time producing the right chemical balance. Plus, as anyone who's watched Legally Blonde knows: "Exercise creates endorphins, endorphins make you happy, and happy people just don't kill their husbands." (Okay, so maybe I should have cut that quote off earlier)
Sometimes though, the attacks are bad enough that you cannot regulate them yourself and you need medication to get your body chemistry back in balance so that you can feel happy again.
So why does depression exist? Studies have shown that those who suffer from depression also have the unique ability to see things exactly how they are. Almost everyone is a little optimistic in their outlook of how everything is, which can regulate decision making habits like getting a mortgage or loan or in a more hunter-gatherer case, think winter isn't going to be very long. People who have depression have the ability to look at things in a very realistic manner with an emotional detachment "I may be able to afford the mortgage payments now, but the job market is looking like it's going to get worse and I am not that secure in my job right now" or "The snow this winter has been late in coming, which means it will probably stick around longer so we should be more careful with our supplies". If you look at many of the great minds in history who did a lot to changed the world, they often suffered from some type of depression. You could see how this would be evolutionary beneficial to us as a species. The downside, of course, is that these same people can go spiraling down into equally unrealistic pessimism.
The point I am trying to get across here is that people who have depression as a disease and suffer from depression attacks feel "soul-crushing sadness" because of chemicals in their body. Not because someone is mean to them or they just broke up with their boyfriend or because someone they love just died, these things can set off an attack, but the reason people who have depression feel sadder longer than someone who does not is because they do not have the ability to produce the chemicals and hormones that would allow them to get out of it on their own. Which is why saying "just snap out of it" is so hard for someone going through a depression attack to hear, they literally DO NOT POSSESS the capability to do that. You wouldn't tell someone with peanut allergies to just get over it, it is the same thing with depression.
Hope that answers your question,
Andee
Well… I will try to get directly to the point (to avoid circumstantial speeches!) Before I get started, though, I want to point out that i wrote this reply with sincere intention. It is not (I’m right/you’re wrong) kinda replies, ok! (^_^)
ReplyDelete1st misconception:
At 1st u defined depression as a state with chemical imbalance and doesn’t resolve itself by itself. Actually this is the definition of “mood disorders” not “depression”.
So, the message is; on one hand, “every body gets depressed, sometimes quite depressed”. However, we call it disorder “chemical disorder” only when it doesn’t resolve itself by itself. On the other hand, “depression is a result of feeling of a void/or emptiness” not a result of being unhappy .
Then you started relating it to happiness in your 3rd and 4th paragraphs and this led you to the misconception of the treatment and that the treatment is for making patients happy.
While actually the treatment is not to make them “happy” because really if you think about it…. If taking meds will lead to happiness, well.., I’d be the 1st to stand in the line to get some of these magic meds ( btw, it’s gonna be an infinite line, right!).
Before I get to my next point, I’d like to mention that;
Serotonin causing the feeling of happiness is just a theory. There’s something called “serotonin syndrome euphoria” when there is excess serotonin in the body. So, using serotonin in cases of(“chemical disorders” not “depression”) is not to cause happiness but rather is to put the patients in a sort of sub-euphoric state just to make them euphoric enough “not to kill their husbands”, right!! and of course not to commit suicide.
About the paragraph, “So why does depression exist?” You didn’t answer that question.
ReplyDeleteThen in the same paragraph we come to the part where you mention,” the great minds in history”/” they often suffered from some type of depression”.
Actually I don’t know what this has to do with this conversation?! Can I use it as an excuse of being depressed??
I mean, even if it’s true, does it mean that I have to have “a dead fiancée, fail in business twice, have a nervous breakdown and be defeated in 8 elections” in order to become Abraham Lincoln?
Can’t I become Lincoln without going through all this suffering?
And about looking at the great minds in history (I’m gonna stick to Lincoln again as an example). Some people would look at Lincoln’s story as a story of great suffer and I wonder why they don’t look at it as a story of great perseverance!
Then in your last paragraph “they literally DO NOT POSSESS the capability to do that”. This is true for people who have the chemical imbalance disorder but not true for people with depression who actually have a cause to deal with -“the void/ emptiness ”-(misconception!). Which as you mentioned, “ in my case, often if I get over stressed”, quoted from your 5th paragraph.
If you still insist that there’s something wrong with you, check this out “Seasonal Affective Disorder”.
Clear sign was your statement about “snow this winter”.
Last but not least (If I talked your ear off, you can forget about this paragraph if u want. It’s just my philosophy and it goes like this);
What’s true happiness?
The word Happiness comes from the word “Hap”, which means; luck or fate.
That’s why “hapless person is someone who is unlucky or ill-fated”
So the idea of happiness is that; your fate is something you are actually pleased with
It is being pleased with what God has decreed for you. That is true happiness. People are depressed in the world because they reject their circumstances. It doesn’t mean they can’t change their circumstances but they are sad about the past. You can’t change the past. So, to loose your happiness over what’s happened in the past is actually not using the intellect correctly. So, the pursuit of happiness is the pursuit of moral and virtuous life that is something that is “pleasing” and the word “pleasure” which people associate with happiness comes from the same root of “please” and “placere” the original meaning was “to please another”. So, real pleasure is in the service of others. So, that is the real secret of happiness and in philosophy it’s called “the hedonistic principle”
That real pleasure, the real hedonism is the pleasure derived from serving others.
Even the poorest of the poor, because every body can serve. That’s why real happiness is in service.
Happiness is what we all are looking for. Because happiness is the only thing in the world that is an end and not a means. When you ask people;
*What do you want in life? I wanna be successful. *why? because I wanna make a lot of money.*why? because I want….such and such he will always find something.
But when u ask him to get to the final why? He will say because I wanna be happy. Then you ask him why do you wanna be happy?
THERE IS NO REASON TO BE HAPPY. THAT’S AN END IN ITSELF.
And that’s indicative of what we really want is ETERNAL HAPPINESS.
i hope that wasn't a "heavy duty"!!!
(^_^)
I suppose I could have cleared up a lot of what I feel is a misinterpretation of what I said by using the term "Clinical Depression". Which I have been diagnosed with and treated for, both with therapy and prescriptions multiple times.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you seem to be looking for a scientific article about depression. I am not a scientist, psychiatrist, psychologist or a doctor. I am someone who suffered and suffers from clinical depression. I am trying to be open and honest about my experience as a patient in a relate-able way so that people who don't understand the disease might be able to relate when the meet those who do.
I believe your body's health is very closely linked with your spiritual health. When your body is out of balance, so is your spirit (and vice versa). I believe that not only is my spirit a gift from God, but so is the body it is housed in. What do I have that He has not given me?
Therefore it is important for me to take care of not just my spiritual health, but my physical health. For me, that means being aware that sometimes I need to take steps to balance my chemistry so that I can feel happiness, not, as you seem to think, be happy all the time.
Dear Minty,
ReplyDeleteoh! So, u were actually diagnosed with it. i see now & i am so sorry for my "misunderstanding".
You know how some people just say how they are depressed and they just arbitrarily use the term "depressed".
and you know how other people(like me) just can't keep their big noses out of other people's business.
you do the math (^_^)
ps. about your last paragraph;
no i don't think that anybody can be happy all the time.
regards,
big nose
Dear Big Nose,
ReplyDeleteI wasn't clear in my posts. I will choose my terms more carefully in the future.
"Studies have shown that those who suffer from depression also have the unique ability to see things exactly how they are."
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to leave this here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depressive_realism) in support of that statement. I think American culture as a whole suffers from what I'd call overoptimism. If one adopts a realistic view of the future, a future wrought with energy shortages and the resulting economic contractions, and one has the audacity to express these concerns aloud, one is apt to be called a doomsayer or paranoid. I've even been called a burner, in reference to attendees at Burning Man, for some of my forecasts about the need to conserve.
I guess what I'm saying is that what the mental health professions regard as normal balances of neurotransmitters or neurotransmitter activity is fairly arbitrary, and is necessarily pegged to a particular civilization at a particular time. I'll speculate that normal levels of serotonin during the Great Depression were lower than those measured (if they were measured) during the postwar era. That is, normal itself is a moving target following the zeitgeist of the age.
And, looping back to depressive realism, I'd argue that being a bit depressed relative to the normal of our times can be a blessing, in that we can begin to prepare for a less rosy, but more likely future.
Regarding happiness, I don't think it's something you pursue directly, at least not successfully. Happiness isn't a goal; it's the reward for living a meaningful life. Of course, a meaningful life is fairly subjective, but I'd argue it has to do with setting goals and meeting them, and contributing to others.
Thanks for the food for thought.