Five Simple Tricks to Stop Depression....Um, No Not Simple

[Two_Many_Cats2]

@msmith537

So in a way, not being depressed requires essentially become a completely different person.

Bingo. You got that right on the money. I personally believe that depression is simply a part of me.

[Thudlow_Boink]

Does that mean you believe that if you were no longer depressed, you’d no longer be you?

[DocCathode]

The following is metaphorical. It is NOT comedy shtick. Nor am I a furry or otherkin.

I think of myself as a strange bat. My depression is a lurking gator/crocodile waiting to reach up, snatch me out of the sky and imprison me in it’s belly.

Without the gator/crocodile I would be free to explore the sky. Plus, you would have to change a great deal more than my depression before I was neuro typical.

[Two_Many_Cats2]

@Thudlow_Boink

Does that mean you believe that if you were no longer depressed, you’d no longer be you?

Maybe I’d sort of be like an amputee. Anyway, I would be way different.

[zimaane]

@Thudlow_Boink

“Socializing” makes me think of people trying to make small talk at a party. Think of “don’t isolate socially” as meaning “have people in your life that you’re connected to (like close friends and/or family).” And yeah, easier said than done. But I can well believe that, to whatever extent you can do it, it’ll reduce your risk of depression.

I’d wager that even interacting on, say, an internet message board, is a helpful social connection. I’d be curious if there were any research to back this up though.

[DocCathode]

Speaking only for myself, the Straight Dope has gotten me through some tough times.

[echoreply]

@Two_Many_Cats2

I personally believe that depression is simply a part of me.

My wife is like that. Depression is part of her identity. When she finally found a treatment that put the depression into remission, she was very concerned that it had changed who she was.

From my external perspective, it had not changed who she was, it had just removed the depression filter. She still had a sarcastic and cynical outlook on life, except after treatment she was able to get out of bed and share her cynicism with other people.

When she is doing well, she recognizes that the absence of depression takes who she is, and makes it better. Since the treatment, depressive episodes have occasionally returned, and because depression brain lies, when she’s depressed she insists that curing the depression will change who she is.

@zimaane

I’d wager that even interacting on, say, an internet message board, is a helpful social connection. I’d be curious if there were any research to back this up though

I don’t know of studies directly about online interactions, but I do remember seeing studies that talk about even brief social encounters can make people feel better. For example, even when people say they don’t like interacting with a cashier or waiter, they report feeling better after having had a brief social encounters with a service worker.

I can remember stuff like “even people who claim to hate small talk feel better after a few seconds of small talk with a stranger.”

A brief search didn’t turn up links to even popular press articles, because apparently my search terms are wrong, and I kept finding academic papers about casual sex.

[scudsucker]

Thank you. Your description is excellent.

I am depressive normally, but I am undergoing a marriage break-up as well. This brings on a new wider scale and cognitively insurmountable level of depression.

Your every comment is accurate and in line with my experience. I tend (like many depressives) to turn away from the human interaction we actually really need.

[MrLee]

Sending out beams of sincere best wishes