Questions about depression?

Question

Why is it that when someone asks a question about depression, the answers are always telling them to seek a psychiatrist and get on some type of medication? Why do we feel the need to disempower people by telling them that this CANNOT be overcome with their own willpower, but they need some type of assistance besides themselves to be cured?

My mother was always a depressed person. I had depression all through adolescence, and part of my adulthood. I had thoughts of extreme sadness, I was very withdrawn, lost interest in my appetite, and normal activities. I attempted suicide twice. I used to cut myself. I also had extreme social anxiety. If these are signs of a chroniclly depressed person, how was I able to overcome it with no medication or psychiatry? This is 2 years after realizing how to help myself. The amount of research I did in 2 years was able to get me out of a 13 year problem. It just makes me sad to see so many people with depression so dependant on other things. I'm not going to lie and say I'm happy all the time, I am still human. But I know how to change those emotions when they rise, and flip the off switch on them. It becomes easier every time I do it.

But I do understand that some people choose the method of medication and psychiatry, and I respect that. I still can't help myself from telling them that they have the power to face it alone, though. If it offends depressed people, should I just stop with the advice?

I can't lie to people and tell them that they can't do this alone, I'm sorry. When people ask the question, out of honesty, I have to tell them that they can. If they choose not to beleive it, it's up to them. But I can't stop giving people hope.

Answer 1

1.Out of all depressed peaple , some have more energy and intelligence and some have less energy and intelligence, so in first case no meds are required and they can take up their case solved on their own but in later case external help like counselling, psycho therapy,meds etc are essentially required.

Answer 2

Because while your drive and will to confront most anything in life is a vital component in failure or success, depression is a sneaky and persistent enemy, not easily addressed or banished. There are several kinds of depression and defining the root of the kind you're facing is not always a simple process. Dick Cavett once said that he had asked a depressed friend what it was like to live with it and was told "Its like seeing the cure in a magic wand on a table across the room and not being able to roust yourself enough to simply pick it up and use it." Excellent definition.
Unlike a missing limb, it doesn't SHOW to the naked eye and is therefore often viewed as laziness, weakness, crabbiness or many other things when its not; instead, its a creeping, invisible enemy as damaging as a spinal injury or neural disorder. In short, it $#@! you up and it oozes out to damage others in subtle, maddening ways by taking a large portion of your real, internal self away.
Even an honest person who has a fair understanding of how and why they came to be depressed is still beset by the problem, so its not unreasonable to suggest counseling and pills that might give them a better edge in controlling it to the greatest degree possible. A woman suffering post-partum depression or someone who has lost a loved one can come to terms with it and get past much of it, but chronic depression proper is an absolute, life-crumpling b*tch, so any tool that makes today a notch better is a golden thing. That can mean a lot when people are parroting "just cheer up" or "What's wrong with you, anyway?" Besides, there is often no cure at all, simply benchmarks of improvement along the way, where even a single better day or hurdle overcome is a major victory. Sometimes its not disempowerment, but a needed crutch that enables a hobbled person to make headway where they might otherwise be stuck on the couch, looking at that magic wand, out of reach. Make sense?

Answer 3

1) have you ever ever suffered from despair? Sure i have 2) if this is the case, was you ever medically diagnose with depression? Yes I was once three) Did you receive any form of treatment? If that is so - a reputation of the treatment you were on could be broadly liked. There have been a number of I was on, i do not do not forget the names, Lithium used to be the main one. 4) have you ever self harmed? No 5) have you ever made an attempt to take your own lifestyles? No, the cause i haven't is the fear of the strive being unsuccessful. 6) How lengthy did you suffer with despair? Melancholy just isn't some thing that just decides to leave in the future and no longer return. It is still there, it always might be. I'm equipped to admire it and take care of it higher than I was once a few years in the past. It is not going away totally, and it's essential that I comprehend that.

Answer 4

being a long term suffer of depression, had it not been for meds I would be dead by now. Did you know that a very high Percentage of alcoholics are really in fact suffering from depression? I tell people to go see a DR, because they are more able to judge the problem than a lay person over the Internet. Some types cannot overcome by the "suck it up" approach. Sometimes short term help is all that is need sometimes it is a long term answer of medication counseling and lifestyle change. It is very wrong to tell someone that their will power can overcome this disease, which in reality is a true and identifiable chemical imbalance in the brain and nervous system.

ONLY A PROFESSIONAL CAN TRULY GIVE THE CORRECT ANSWER.

I give myself as an example, one DR diagnosed me as a "bi-polar kind of guy" and put me on some strong meds; my regular doctor had me take some written tests and discussed them with me and took me off that very debilitating medicine and I am better for it.

Please, please I beg you to learn more about this problem before making any judgments about treatments for people, unless of course you are a Doctor. (Not trying to be a smart ***, just trying to get you to learn more about what you are talking about)

Answer 5

I have been fighting depression for the last 15 years. I have seen a psychologist and have been on medication. Don't you think that if I had the willpower to help myself, I would have? If you have never been depressed, you don't know what it feels like. You can't function, things you used to like to do are meaningless, you feel like life is not worth living. You find joy in nothing. The medication makes me feel more like myself. I again enjoy things and can get out of bed in the morning. When I first started to take the meds, I did think myself weak, but since then I have learned that sometimes you need help.

Answer 6

Over the last five years I had begun to have increasingly withdraw into a downward spiral of depression..

But now with the method I can fully focus my energy and thoughts into a decisive line on how to make my life better constantly. And it works like magic! I'm beginning to attract people to me once again and things have just been looking up since then.

Helping you eliminate depression?

Answer 7

Because there's always the possibility that the depression might be of the clinical variety. And that *can't* be overcome on your own. Believe me, I've tried.

The reason you can't overcome it on your own, is that you're fighting against yourself. So no matter how much you can fight it (which, by definition, isn't all that much, when you're depressed), you will always lose, because you can't win against *yourself*. Not without help.

ETA: --"disempower people by telling them that this CANNOT be overcome with their own willpower"
*What* willpower? There *is* no willpower. There is just misery and worthlessness and being completely lost. And when you're told to "pull yourself up," "get yourself outside," "get over it," "cheer up"... it only leaves you more lost and feeling more hopeless than before!

Answer 8

I think one of the key reasons on why some can endure depression and recover while simply can't, in other words, they need professional advice from medical doctors and medication which depends on their decision. I myself had my own suffering some five years ago since I encountered a very elusive decision regarding my advanced studies, that is, to quit or to continue. I knew one thing, everyone might be depressive but each has his/her own mental mechanism to manage the mindset, the age is also a key factor since younger people tend to manage their mind better with hobbies, exercises, social participation, etc. while senior people tend to deviate themselves to their world somewhere. Some doctors told me the symptom is normal for us all over the world like high blood pressure, heart desease, gout, etc. Therefore, I think you should take it for granted and live your life, take care.

Answer 9

well, because sometimes... we just can't. If we could, wouldn't we have done it a long time ago? i mean, who WANTS to be depressed? It is possible, people just say that cuz its the safest thing to say. Sharing the burden with someone does help but only if you want to, its not something that can be forced. And medications can alter stuff... If people can cure themselves of depression by themselves, then we wouldn't need medication or anything. But if we could, we would. Sometimes you just can't. Or, it isn't permanent, it might "go away" but it'll come back.

Answer 10

In many cases, clinical depression is tied to deficiencies of neurotransmitters in the brain. Medication can assist in these cases. Also, it is offensive and demeaning to many patients with depression to suggest they can "pull themselves up by the bootstraps" and make themselves better.

Often the best treatment for depression involves a course of medication (preferably temporary) and a series of counseling sessions.