Is Depression Selfish?

evanescence said:

People need to get a clue, and quit pretending like they have insight into something that they clearly haven't experienced.



Even if someone believes that everything is their fault, and that isn't always the case, it isn't selfish.



Exactly. I'm glad that at least someone gets it.

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Believe me when I say I get it, and I most definitely have a clue. I have quite extensive personal experience with depression of the very very dark kind- the kind that makes you wish you would simply vanish or not awaken in the morning. The kind that makes you so edgy that you can't concentrate, and it takes Herculean effort just to survive from day to day. I didn't say it was selfish, I said it's a very small world and the individual is enclosed on that world, which is composed of faulty perceptions of the world and one's place in it.

digsbe said:

I don't think depression is selfish. If anything, love is selfish.

Some people may enter into a state of depression because those they love have been relationally selfish, in that they haven't appreciate the depressed person or relationally abused them. Having a sulky spirit in order to gain attention is selfish, but in my opinion this is not depression.

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Anyone who takes the words of the Bible as seriously as you claim to should know that that love is not only not selfish, it's the opposite of it altogether.

lizzie said:

Anyone who takes the words of the Bible as seriously as you claim to should know that that love is not only not selfish, it's the opposite of it altogether.

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Perfect love as described in the Bible isn't selfish. But much of the "love" in our culture today is (even among Christians).

digsbe said:

Perfect love as described in the Bible isn't selfish. But much of the "love" in our culture today is (even among Christians).

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Then that is not love, but is dependence on another for one's own validation.

tryreading said:

But the feeling is not necessarily that everything is one's own fault, but it can seem as if that everything is against one. Everything is a struggle, even very simple things.

Changing the light bulb in the ceiling fixture is tough. Where is the energy to begin the work? And, due to slow thinking and distraction, finding the proper tools takes too long. Climbing the ladder is awkward, and lifting one's arms up to do the work takes too much effort, because they are so heavy.

Its hard to do anything with no strength, energy or optimism.

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And sometimes depression is not even being able to change that lightbulb. If I cannot even get out of the bed and all I wish to do is cocoon myself in my blankets? There is no way in hell I am getting out to change that bulb because I cannot! I am so thankful for my meds but even with meds I have days where it is rough and I probably should thank my doctors too but right now am pissed at my doctor and feel as if she wants to much from me. When I say I do not want to talk? I am a woman of my word and leave me the hell alone. Sometimes I think having to go see her is not helping me and do not understand why the hell my normal everyday doctor cannot just give me my meds! I can refuse! I am almost there!

lizzie said:

Believe me when I say I get it, and I most definitely have a clue. I have quite extensive personal experience with depression of the very very dark kind- the kind that makes you wish you would simply vanish or not awaken in the morning. The kind that makes you so edgy that you can't concentrate, and it takes Herculean effort just to survive from day to day. I didn't say it was selfish, I said it's a very small world and the individual is enclosed on that world, which is composed of faulty perceptions of the world and one's place in it.

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The article I am referring to did not imply what you just said. Nor did MaggieD-

Yes, but it needs to be.

Don't have a predetermined course of action where you criticize people facing depression just because they have it. It's a very self-centered mode, but sometimes, it's because they have not done enough of that self-reflection or haven't seemed to have found a good way to orient themselves. Other times, it's just a fact of their lives. Many of us suffering from depression are going to be chronic and it will swing in our lives quite frequently because it has passed down from our forefathers.

Kali said:

And sometimes depression is not even being able to change that lightbulb. If I cannot even get out of the bed and all I wish to do is cocoon myself in my blankets? There is no way in hell I am getting out to change that bulb because I cannot! I am so thankful for my meds but even with meds I have days where it is rough and I probably should thank my doctors too but right now am pissed at my doctor and feel as if she wants to much from me. When I say I do not want to talk? I am a woman of my word and leave me the hell alone. Sometimes I think having to go see her is not helping me and do not understand why the hell my normal everyday doctor cannot just give me my meds! I can refuse! I am almost there!

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I've taken certain antidepressants in the past. They help, one of them does. My problem is I work out of town most of the time, and its not possible to keep regular MD appointments, so I run out and have to do without for extended periods. Life is much harder without it, but what to do? My doctor won't allow refills unless I come in for a visit. Then there's the 2 to 3 week period needed to increase the dosage from the minimum to the needed amount.

I understand not being able to change the bulb. I do my job, and do it well according to the company. But when I'm home, bringing myself to do much of anything is a joke. There is no drive to do anything. Most people seem to get pleasure from doing things at home, improving their own house. But I don't have any ability, it seems, to do that any more, too much of a struggle to accomplish even simple things.

Hi All,
Some effective tips for everyone to reduce depression.
Do start light exercises like yoga and eat a well balanced diet. If you do not eat well take multivitamin regularly.
Share your problems with your family and friends and avoid caffeine, alcohol and other stimulants.

Francs said:

Hi All,
Some effective tips for everyone to reduce depression.
Do start light exercises like yoga and eat a well balanced diet. If you do not eat well take multivitamin regularly.
Share your problems with your family and friends and avoid caffeine, alcohol and other stimulants.

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I think those of us who have posted are past that level of advice.

Mental illness in general gets the "selfish" stigma a lot, and always has, because to healthy people it's hard to understand why a person wouldn't just change their behavior if they're not feeling well. But that's obviously not the way it works. Neural patterns and functions are hard set from an early age especially in mental illnesses with structural differences in the neurophysiology, like schizophrenia and bipolar. There might've been trauma, there might be poor diet, there might be an in-borne family trait.

Keep in mind that despite the inadequacies of modern psychiatry, we are still in a relatively more enlightened period of treating disease. Society spent hundreds of years locking away the ill, throwing them in jail, accusing them of possession or deviance, lobotomizing them, torturing them into "changing" -- all products of ignorance.

There's also zero, and I mean zero evidence that depression is caused by a "neurochemical imbalance". This misinformation is repeated often by doctors but it's untrue. There are no tests done to determine neurotransmitter levels which are reliable or show large demographic causal relationships. We also know this because the pharmokinetic assumptions behind related treatment models do not tend to provide lasting relief, i.e. SSRIs, SNRIs, etc. If it were a simple matter of neurochemistry then we could use things like nootropics and neurotransmitter precusors to correct depression. They don't work, usually.

Most of the emerging research shows that neurochemical downregulation is secondary to either genetic or environmental causes. If you've had a crappy life or you're socially isolated for a long time then that's going to change brain function. All the most cutting research shows that the vast majority of depression we are seeing in the modern world is the result of an increasingly socially isolated society combined with increased survival pressures and stress. When people have community, purpose, and support, depression rates are much lower. In other words the exploding depression statistics are due to a sick society, it's a symptom of a much bigger problem.