Is depression fake?

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No the apathy towards living, feeling of powerlessness and grim realization that time will erode all we've striven to build in the end is definitely real.

Of course there are people who overplay their melancholy to draw pity but in a way they're not wrong about being unhappy because to be in such a mindset one would have to be living a truly pitiable existence.

Have most people in history ever really been happy even before processed food and anti-depressants?
 
Plague Dog said:
I don't know where everyone is getting the idea that depression is only treated with drugs.
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A lot of it is due to that being the first thing a lot of psychiatrists do. It's easy to forget that psychiatrists mostly exist to prescribe medication if you don't really know much about modern mental healthcare beyond the basics. They do a tiny amount of kinda talk therapy to make sure the medication is working and you aren't getting crazier. Therapists and psychologists generally can't prescribe medication.
 
It's most definitely real, but I often find depressed people do things that don't help the case that it is. Simply giving helpful advice or encouragement often gets you a "you just don't understand" and acting like they've been wounded. Mental illness as a part of your identity is older than the internet. There are people who have it and accepted it as a part of themselves they don't want to get rid of, and there are also the people who just claim they do and treat it like a cute personality quirk.
 
Matt Damon said:
I don't understand how anyone could become dependent on antidepressants.

In my experience, they have no discernible effect at all, much less one powerful enough to cause addiction.
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You can't get addicted to them like you can benzos or opiates but you need to wean yourself off some antidepressants (SSRIs for the most part), or the side effects can be severe as your body adjusts to the change in seratonin levels.

As for the OP, depression is real but the way we sometimes treat it is far from ideal and people are on antidepressants for too long without the root causes being dealt with. There is also a massive difference between feeling sad and actually being clinically depressed. If you're sad then antidepressants will not work. If you are actually depressed then they can work and should give you the medium-term relief from depression to allow you to address what is causing it.

There are a small number of people who are depressed due to a chemical imbalance. These people need antidepressants because without them they will kill themselves eventually. It's not their fault and it isn't common like I've said.
 
Hitman One said:
but you need to wean yourself off some antidepressants (SSRIs for the most part), or the side effects can be severe as your body adjusts to the change in seratonin levels.
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Maybe I'm a freak in terms of neurochemistry, but I never found this to be the case.

I've immediately discontinued the drugs like three times after being on quite high dosages and never noticed any effect at all.
 
Matt Damon said:
Maybe I'm a freak in terms of neurochemistry, but I never found this to be the case.

I've immediately discontinued the drugs like three times after being on quite high dosages and never noticed any effect at all.
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It's not unheard of. The weird thing about antidepressants is that we don't know what their mechanism of action actually is, we just know how they (should) work.

I totally understand why some people are skeptical about these drugs and I agree that they are over-prescribed, but they have their place in a proper treatment regime.
 
Being miserable when you live a miserable life (whether due to poor choices or poor luck) isn't a disease, but a reasonable reaction. HOWEVER: there are people with otherwise good lives and loving families who sometimes stay near catatonic in bed for many days on end, only rising to pass waste, drink water and maybe eat. That's not something a person can cheer themselves out of, and medical intervention is needed. This is an extreme example of course, but there's a middle ground where it can be really really hard to figure out the best course of action. Especially since depression, anxiety issues, chronic stress, substance abuse and various physical disorders and micronutrient deficiencies can all be confused for one another - or a person might have several of them.
 
The recent study basically kills the chemical imbalance theory. Big Pharma has been playing people for years like a piano with the chemical imbalance shit leading to millions taking SSRI's.

There is no depression caused by chemicals. Depression is not a brain disease. People get depressed because they have little hope during trying times. Of the people I know that killed themselves not one of them received an easy hand in their lives. All of them were in deep shit or struggling with some kind of serious tragedy. Obviously they didn't make the right choice but they were pushed by circumstance I don't believe they reached that point by chemicals.

I've never met a person who was depressed that had a great life. Ever. The people I know and knew who have a great life have great mental health and a positive outlook by no coincidence.
 
Sweetpeaa said:
The recent study basically kills the chemical imbalance theory. Big Pharma has been playing people for years like a piano with the chemical imbalance shit leading to millions taking SSRI's.

There is no depression caused by chemicals. Depression is not a brain disease. People get depressed because they have little hope during trying times. Of the people I know that killed themselves not one of them received an easy hand in their lives. All of them were in deep shit or struggling with some kind of serious tragedy. Obviously they didn't make the right choice but they were pushed by circumstance I don't believe they reached that point by chemicals.

I've never met a person who was depressed that had a great life. Ever. The people I know and knew who have a great life have great mental health and a positive outlook by no coincidence.
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I don't know the study but I did read Cracked (the book about psychiatry) that goes into stuff like that.
I think there are plenty of cases of people who are prone to depression that have nothing wrong with their environment but it is in their nature. It may not be a brain chemical imbalance, but neither is it a thing that they can just will themselves out of either. Some people have a defect of the personality that they're prone to certain moods much more than others.
 
From what I've seen, depression comes either from being overwhelmed by data, its' lack of coordination within the thought processes and lifestyle of the person, which leads to the brain shutting itself down to protect itself. Or a hyper-focusing of the centers of the brain that induce emotion in early life, leading to a neurological mapping focused more on emotions, and a later life that doesn't align with the programmed expectations. This is common in sheltered childhoods, as well as in nations like Wiemar Germany or post-9/11 america where the future that was promised quite literally evaporated. The latter is an easier to fix depression. The former is easiest, not easily, but easiest fixed through some sort of major neurological intervention. Psychedelics are good for this particular type of depression because it will decouple your ego from it's previously held 'notions' for lack of a better word. In the right environment, this will lead to a revival of the person's mind, as they are able to align what they need to with the fluid structure they have to work with before it sets back in place. The problem is this can also work in the opposite direction. MK Ultra operated often times in colleges and cults because the leader could coordinate with the people getting their LSD and then induce systemic pressure in a highly controlled environment to first induce extreme stress and then build the person back up along the preprogrammed lines they've been fed in the college or cult or otherwise. Whereas for the people, like myself and many others, who grew up being geared for a future that just isn't there. Religion is the path for you. You must learn how to die in order to learn how to live in these cold and brutal times. Otherwise you'll live your entire life paralyzed, alive, but dying a new death every day, a coward's death. Can't have that. Gotta keep that soul strong.
 
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