> but I want to offer advice that I've figured out in my own experience, that lets you feel happy whenever you want to
Fun fact: Depression Does Not Work Like That.
Depression is insidious because it removes the will to get better. You don't lie around thinking "gee, I'm sad, I wish I was happy", whereupon your church newsletter list makes its entrance.
No: a depressed person simply is depressed. The idea that you could get better is both unimaginable and exhausting just to think about.
Depression progressively shuts all the doors until suicide seems, if you can be bothered to try it, the only sane thing left to do.
People with depression don't need to be cheered up. They need medical attention. Right now.
I don't mean to seem like I'm ragging on you personally, but you need to understand that variations on "snap out of it" and "put a smile on that dial!" don't work for a depressed person.
I've had bad online forum responses from people who were depressed before, when I posted this advice on how to fel happier, so I actually appreciate the feedback.
Still, I find it interesting that -- even though this advice would help many people to feel happier at will -- I get so much defensiveness in response. What is wrong with proposing a natural means to treat the symptoms of something, even if it does have a deeper cause? Is anything other than recognizing the need for a dose of drugs to correct a hormonal imbalance wrong? I'm just trying to understand the reaction, and I have no doubt that it's a genuine one. It goes far beyond the "drug industry + FDA vs natural remedies" thing. I mean, I find it fascinating: advice like that would be very useful to me and a lot of people who were not clinically depressed, like a psychological toolset to feel better, and which could, over the long term, actually bring about measurable changes in habits and confidence to feel better, and thus MAY, or at least has potential to, actually improve a long term condition.
I am just writing this to try to understand. Why do you intend to denigrate what I said by calling it a "Church Newsletter List". What does this have to do with religion? Am I not supposed to share my methods of feeling happier with someone who is Depressed (with a capital D, which was Diagnosed in the DSM-IV)? Am I not supposed to share ways I help motivate myself psychologically, with a person who is for example an alcoholic? I should just keep quiet about tools and technology that I have found useful to effect positive changes in myself, because someone is a Depressed, an Alcoholic, a Cripple, or whatever suddenly makes them "different"? Should I be scared of the moral "wrongness" to treat them with camaraderie, like other people I believe to be capable of understanding things? The only right thing to do is to refer them to a medical professional who will prescribe them drugs, and get the hell out of the way -- certainly never share any advice?
I listed 8 thing that you can try in your own life which will make you feel happier. It won't cure depression. I never claimed it cures depression. If you don't have the will to get better, you may not want to do them. But if you DO have the will to feel HAPPY in 10 mins, then doing them may help you, even if temporarily. What is wrong with that?
I just want to understand the reasons behind the reaction.
> I just want to understand the reasons behind the reaction.
Did you read what I wrote? Let me put it in the simplest possible terms.
You haven't been depressed.
You don't know what it's actually like.
Your list of exercises would not work for a depressed person and by thinking that it will you perpetuate the impression that depressed people are just 'putting it on' to garner sympathy and attention.
Depression is a serious condition that ought to be given medical attention.
Your list would appeal to non-sufferers, who might try to foist it on sufferers. What non-sufferers should be doing is dragging sufferers to see a doctor.
Insofar as advice like yours prevents people seeking help for themselves or others, it is actively harmful.
I guess I intend this list to be used as a set of tools. Just like recommending aspirin or mucinex to relieve symptoms does not mean people shouldn't see a doctor to see if they can't be prescribed antibiotics. What is the reason to treat depressed people specially so that this reasoning doesn't apply there too?
As a side question -- and I am really just trying to find out more -- you are extremely confident that depression must be given medical attention and only medical attention. Can you elaborate on that? What specifically do you mean by this? Is it a well known condition that can be treated in all cases? Or is it a cargo-cult-science type thing where some things are treated but over half the cases are just handwaving? When a psychologist says "you should see me again, how about next week" how do you know they are actually helping? etc. When a psychiatrist prescribes a drug, how do you know people wouldn't be cured without it? I am just asking how do you know, because I really want to have more information about it. And since you seem confident I want to ask what you know about this condition. Is it one specific disease or is it just a general guessing game by the experts, kind of like the drugs in these studies: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/12/13/101213fa_fact_...
Oh.
> but I want to offer advice that I've figured out in my own experience, that lets you feel happy whenever you want to
Fun fact: Depression Does Not Work Like That.
Depression is insidious because it removes the will to get better. You don't lie around thinking "gee, I'm sad, I wish I was happy", whereupon your church newsletter list makes its entrance.
No: a depressed person simply is depressed. The idea that you could get better is both unimaginable and exhausting just to think about.
Depression progressively shuts all the doors until suicide seems, if you can be bothered to try it, the only sane thing left to do.
People with depression don't need to be cheered up. They need medical attention. Right now.
I don't mean to seem like I'm ragging on you personally, but you need to understand that variations on "snap out of it" and "put a smile on that dial!" don't work for a depressed person.