Find a paper. Read about someone who just won a big jackpot; someone you don’t know, have never known, and don’t like or dislike. Don’t feel envy, don’t feel disappointment it isn’t you. Just shrug, because it has zero impact on your life one way or another. Be sort of vaguely happy for them, in an more-or-less completely indifferent way.
That’s what having great things feel like when depressed feels like.
My Depression rarely makes me feel sad. It makes me feel numb and overwhelmed.
That being said, getting paid makes me feel less numb. I like being able to pay my bills, and shopping is usually enjoyable when I have money to spend. So if you can get me out of the house (while not working) and I’ve got money in my bank account, yes, I do feel a bit better. I will even laugh and smile, although inside I’m still pretty numb. I remember what actual happiness feels like, and I just can’t quite get there again. It’s like making love and it feels good, but the orgasm just isn’t coming.
But (and this probably doesn’t make much sense) it’s not like money is the cause of my worries. I make enough to live, if not enough to save. Money problems, rationally speaking, are not the *cause *of my depression. But they do tend to be the target for my anxieties.
I guess that was a long winded way of saying I dunno. Care to send me a few million and we’ll try it out?
Beautifully put; your reply pretty much sums up my outlook
That.
I suppose if I had (effectively limitless) money I would have a lot less stress and might actually enjoy the challenge of doing something positive with the money. But I’d still know the money wasn’t earned by anything special I did. And so I would still be free to beat myself down and poke at all my insecurities and despicable qualities. I daresay the windfall would make it worse because it’d be one more hammer to use on myself–anything I accomplish with the money, even if it was objectively very very good, would really be to the credit of whoever gave it to me. And if I use it on myself, well then I’m just a leech. The money would likely end up being a great burden because I’d be expected to take action with it. Either to do charity work, and it would somehow always be for the wrong charity, or to be good to myself.
bashere & WhyNot describe a type of depression that makes it hard to care deeply about even positive things. Another type, like mine, is more active. Rather than a news story about someone you don’t know, imagine a news story about someone you absolutely despise and have no respect for. You’d pick and pick at their every turn, critique how they could’ve done it better, or sooner, or for someone more deserving. Never good enough, never right.
So when depressed, winning a $200 million jackpot would feel as meaningless if someone else won it, not you?
I have a hard time even wrapping my mind around that…but it makes sense.
As people are saying, depression is a complex disease. Often its also tied up with another issue - anxiety.
If either one of these are situational around money being tight, then money falling from the sky might cure it. Or, if the situation with money is more complex than simply tight - the existence of money creates anxiety, money creates stress and tension in your relationships - having money might make it worse. Overwhelming “what do I do with it” or create conflict “my friends and relatives used to hound me to help them out BEFORE, now this will create all this additional stress.”
But if you have chronic depression, you can be poor or rich and still be depressed. Maybe the euphoria from winning a bunch of money will be enough to kick your brain into gear in managing its chemical balance, but probably not - and probably not long term. If you have chronic issues with anxiety, you now just get to worry about something DIFFERENT, and variety is not the spice of life with anxiety issues.
More than anything else, my depression immobilizes me. I have lost great jobs, because I couldn’t muster up the energy to get out of bed every morning. I missed out on some probably wonderful relationships, because I procrastinated about calling the guy back. It’s like going through life tied down into a wheelchair, when you’re physically able to walk, even run. And no place is wheelchair-accessible.
But an unexpected windfall? My first response would be my inability to do a cartwheel . . . and an attempt at a wheelie would land me in the hospital. Then all the anxiety over the publicity, notoriety, taxes, investments, etc. My life would become instantly complicated.
I would have to rely on my partner for his stability. He has always been a rock to me, and this role would become even more critical. But I can picture myself sitting in my penthouse or yacht, still depressed . . . and depressed over being depressed.
Next time I am feeling depressed if anyone wants to come over and give me a handjob I will post the effects on my mood afterwards.
If I win $200 million, I’ll let you know. 
My experience is that depression is a lower default state, though my depression was always “atypical.” I was often capable of temporary happiness, but it wouldn’t last. This is more common in teenagers, I understand, though I was older than that when I experienced it.
There are layers to mood. There are emotions, mood, temperament. I personally think there should be an additional layer between mood and temperament, but depression seems more like a temperament issue (even though it usually isn’t permanent in most people, it can last for months or years).
The terms refer to how deep and long lasting emotions are. An emotion is a fleeting thing (anger at being cut off in traffic as an example). A mood is something that lasts a few hours or days. A temperament is your permanent disposition. Depression, since it isn’t permanent, but it is longer lasting than a mood, will color all your moods and emotions a few shades darker. Each layer affects the layer on top of it. However even when I have been depressed, I could get cheered up. It would just take more to cheer me up and the effects would wear off quickly.
Similar to a lot of other psychiatric diagnoses, real Depression in a medical context inherently involves a long-term, pervasive sadness that is otherwise unexplainable. If you are sad because your dog died, that’s not Clinical Depression, that’s being sad because your dog died. Clinical Depression is about being sad for weeks and weeks even when your life should be more or less normal.
In a similar vein, just because you occasionally like to step away from work and grab a cup of coffee and get up to date on chatter doesn’t mean you have ADD. Similarly, just because you might occasionally worry about whether layoffs are coming doesn’t mean you have Anxiety Disorder.
No, it doesn’t. *Sadness *need not be present at all to meet the diagnostic criteria. http://www2.nami.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Intranet/Homefront/Criteria_Major_D_Episode.pdf
(Otherwise, I agree with your post. Nearly all mental illnesses - and many physical ones - are not some weird foreign experience, but an unrelenting overabundance of perfectly common and normal experience that is distressing and interferes with the person’s life, relationships, etc.)
The only possible answer here is “it depends.”
On what exactly do you mean by jolting someone out of depression? Do you mean remission? Maybe. And I’ve had remissions last for years. Sudden good luck might do it, but for me the more likely critical factor would be the ability to do work that I find fulfilling and productive (as opposed to the shit day jobs I’m usually stuck with because I need the money).
Do you mean cure? No, almost certainly not.
Sudden good luck may not have any effect at all – one of the hallmarks of major depression is the inability to find pleasure in pleasurable things.
It may even have an adverse effect – it’s not like you can win the lottery, deposit the check in your bank account, and go on about your normal business. There’s a lot of STUFF involved, like lotto commission publicity, a lawyer and/or financial advisor if you’re smart, making decisions about what exactly to DO with all that money (investments? savings account? mattress? spend it all?). All that stuff can very easily lead to overwhelm, anxiety, and a desire to retreat and escape from the responsibility. (Hell, even perfectly healthy people would likely feel a bit of that.)
Sadness is relatively rare in my standard suite of symptoms. I often get more emotionally labile but the sadness is generally fleeting. The more common and serious symptoms are lack of mental clarity, easily overwhelmed, difficulty concentrating and keeping thoughts in my head, indecisiveness, lack of motivation, fatigue and insomnia (yeah, both at the same time), physical malaise or weakness sometimes with shortness of breath, inability to take pleasure in things, photophobia (sunlight makes my brain hurt), and an inability to cope with people or other frustrations. Sometimes I become more susceptible to cold, too. If I feel anything it’s usually either frustration or numbness.
I think the thing a lot of people don’t get about clinical depression is that these are physical symptoms, some of which happen to be centered around brain function.
I think if a depressed person suddenly came into a lot of money, they may have less worry, (as they can pay off bills, etc.), but I don’t really know the answer to your question. For example, if a person had Anhedonia they would be aware that something good happened, (getting a lot of money) but I don’t think they could actually feel the pleasure of it.
You are assuming that money will bring happiness and that depression is a state that a person can “snap out of” Both are incorrect.
You seem to have limited the possibilities here to two extremes: either winning the lottery suddenly cures someone of clinical depression, or this experience fails to produce even a fleeting feeling of happiness. Neither reaction seems likely to me, and I suspect the former isn’t even possible. Clinical depression is a disorder. It’s not caused by a lack of money and can’t be treated simply by getting more money, although of course the actual treatments for depression (therapy, medication) do cost money.
Beyond that, what research there’s been on the subject indicates that winning the lottery isn’t a guarantee of a happier life even for people who aren’t depressed. (Here’s a CNN story on lottery winners and happiness, and here’s one from US News & World Report.) And since many people with clinical depression struggle with feelings of worthlessness, guilt, and self-loathing, suddenly acquiring a bunch of money through sheer chance seems like it could make things even worse by giving them something to really feel undeserving and guilty about. People with depression also often feel as though they’re friendless or unloved, and again, winning the lottery seems likely to make this worse. A lottery winner is all but guaranteed to have a bunch of phony “friends” come around looking for a handout, an experience unlikely to help a depressed person believe that those who profess to care about them are being sincere.
I haven’t read the entire thread to see people’s responses, but…
Depression does NOT mean that you are completely incapable of ever feeling happy, of feeling joy.
There was a pic of Robin Williams on FB last week with some quote about fake smiles hiding the pain within. Fucking pissed me off. Even in my darkest moments of depression, I am quite capable of having fun, of having moments of intense joy. They do not break me out of a depressed state, they’re merely interludes in the darkness. I don’t put on a fake smile to hide my pain - I smile when something amuses me, or delights me or makes me happy, and yes that can happen amid even the deepest pain.
Depending on the type of depression they have such as mild, moderate or severe clinical depression, it lasts as long as they can usually feel good for. What it won’t do, is snap someone out of depression for good. I have seen people with depression react to great news, but it only lasts a short time in general and then they return to a depressed state.
The thing about clinical depression is that for many people it is largely due to brain chemistry which is why they take medications to get it under control. It’s not the same reaction for someone who has been depressed because they have been out of a job for 2 years and then gets a good job offer. That depression is from circumstances not simply because of brain chemistry.
My observation of my mother is that she reacts with positivity and excitement to good news, but over the subsequent days/weeks becomes increasingly negative about it, eventually reaching point where she sees it as a bad thing.
It would be “Yay, $200 million dollars, that’s amazing! I’m going to do this, buy that, go there!”, then “That sort of money is a big responsibility. I’ve heard people really struggle to adapt to how their life changes after they win the lottery”, then “87% of lottery winners are divorced within 2 years. Did you know that? Some random person told me”, then “This money is going to destroy our lives! We’ll end up divorced, it will come between us all. This is the worst thing that’s ever happened to us!”.
Or it will be a fixation on some random detail that’s not even a really an issue, like the tax on the interest on the money affecting blah blah blah and OMG disaster, just completely ignoring the fact that having $200 million in the bank makes a tens of thousands tax bill insignificant.