The view that depression can’t be discussed is what contributes to its prevalence. The stigma is enormous and a depressed person is more likely to be ignored than to be helped by others. Shouldn’t we try to change that mindset? Isn’t a mindset that only increases a depressed person’s social isolation something that we need to fix immediately?

.~.

How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world! That has such people in it! ”

godspeed and peace Len.

thank you for bringing us closer at such great personal cost.

And then there are those periods where it goes so far south that each day is a horrible and lonely battle. There is nothing beautiful in the world. You are worthless. You will never be content in life let alone happy. Nothing you do is worthwhile or good enough. The act of living becomes an act of battling, while exhausted, to simply survive day-to-day without any seeming hope of ever climbing back up out of the dark hole. Hell, you begin to wonder if maybe someone hasn’t backfilled it in on you.

As others have said, it is all too often not understood. I’ve had a very good friend (close enough to be considered a sister) and my closest sister each scream angrily at me when I’ve confided at how horrible the dark can be and what being there leads me to think of. I have a step father who likes to regularly tell me to “change my attitude”.

That said, I think society is getting a bit better at not stigmatizing depression. There is still a lot of it (as well as for other mental illnesses) however.

Though it may just be how hard anti-depressants are pushed in marketing and how many people now go to their primary care physician and ask for a prescription. The same sister that yelled at me freely talks with her two best friends about which ADs they happen to be on…

In light of something else that has been said, I have one sister who is so ignorant about the world that you cannot possibly have a conversation with her about current events unless it’s something she has seen on a reality tv show. She is a very content and even bubbly happy person. So am I the idiot?

In closing; Len, thank you for all you contributed to protect the notion of privacy and the right to free speech in your too short life. You were one of the good guys.

I guess I’m lucky to be a simple man just traipsing through life. (happy go lucky).
Ernest Hemingway said: “Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.” :D :-) :):-) Thank goodness! I missed a bullet there.

I’ve got to say I admire all the very intelligent people out there. I think they too have a shot at happiness. It comes through achieving independence, helping and serving others.

Modern SSRIs don’t zombie you.

Don’t y’all realize the N% of “teens who’ve tried X”
are seeking self-medication? That caffeine, ethanol,
are self-medication, behaviors that affect perceptions
via internal modulations.

That humans are tool users and have used psychopharms perhaps before farming or writing?

If you accept that the mind is a function of the brain, which
is meat, you pretty much have to give up some of your Randian
tabla rasa, emotions as rational response, beliefs, as clean
and perfect as they were. And there are numerous tools to demo that brain modulation affects mind. (Heck, Ayn smoked and took amphetamines, she should have had more clue.)

Anyway even for teatotallers and xian scientists and mormons —if you think you have depression try an SSRI it can be diagnostic. That in itself is enormously liberating —it wasn’t “you”, you experienced misbalanced circuits. Like diabetes.

Insert HST quote here.

Take care of yourselves. fluoxetine (eg) is generic, cheap.

no, I don’t own stock, etc. since it helped me a bit, i have
an obligation to proselytize. don’t get scientologist on me.

Keep learning until you come out the other side.

Take care of yourselves. fluoxetine (eg) is generic, cheap.

no, I don’t own stock, etc. since it helped me a bit, i have
an obligation to proselytize.

I’m glad it helped you, but this doesn’t give you an obligation to proselytize. Antidepressants do not work for everyone and the side effects can be severe (nausea, dizziness, brain zaps, weight gain, etc.). I think that antidepressants are an option to explore. If they help you, good. If not, then they shouldn’t be used against you. If you have tried 5 different types of anti-depressants (including scaling each one up and down), and nothing has worked, then the patient shouldn’t be deemed to be non-complaint just because they don’t want to feel sick from the side effects and withdrawal symptoms.

I’ve personally been on a ton of ADs over many years. All kinds of dosages and combinations. Never worked for me. Not the new stuff. Not the old stuff. Not the combos. Not ECT either.

For me, the mood stabilizer Lamictal is keeping me from dipping so low that things get really dangerous. That’s about it med wise.

Otherwise the thing that is helping me is finally having lucked into finding a therapist that is accepting, sharp, challenging and somehow gives off some vibe that I picked up upon that told me she was trustworthy.

I’ve shared with her and worked on things that I had never even admitted to myself.

That is where I have had the most help. The med regimen I am on now just helps a bit. For me it’s the therapy that has been the most helpful.

Still in a bad place, but I have a better handle on things than I have ever had before in my life.

Long way to go, but at least I seem to be moving forward.

From the other room, my girlfriend asked, “What are you depressed about?”

“That’s the whole point,” I said. “When you’re depressed about something, it’s called sad.”

I find it a strange construct “lost his battle against depression” while the alternatives aren’t much better…

Of course that assessment doesn’t convey the sheer emotional chasm that grips a spirit in the grip of depression, when you feel like no one and nothing can help you escape its death spiral and the temptation to give in can be overwhelming.

Though it can’t mean much coming from a stranger, my thoughts are with his friends and window.

“That’s the whole point,” I said. “When you’re depressed about something, it’s called sad.”

That sums it up very well.

I don’t think it’s a black/white condition. It’s a spectrum. I’m not a medical doctor, but I’ve read several dozen laymen-level books on neuroscience and depression in an attempt to understand what goes on inside my own brain. My best working hypothesis is that everyone has slightly idiosyncratic neurochemical balances, and in those of us with physiologically caused mental disorders such as clinical depression, those balances are more out of kilter than in those without (though I doubt there is a bright line between the two groups). I also believe it is probably somewhat hereditary in many cases.

Major Variola is correct that no one should avoid asking their doctor about treatment. Medication doesn’t work for everyone, but I’ve watched it make life livable for at least two people in my life. If you have a physiological condition and medication can help, you should at least give it a try. For myself, I found that therapy and various kinds of meditation were the things that helped me. Why one thing works for some and another works for others, I do not know, but I know it is those that ask for help who learn to cope with it.

But I know exactly what Mazoola means. Whenever I was at my lowest, and all emotion would become an undifferentiable void, the worst part was the confusion. I had no external reason (and wrongly believed I had no right) to feel that way. Yes I had troubles, but they didn’t begin to explain it. It’s that feeling that your fighting something you can’t even name that is the absolute worst. If you feel that way, I almost guarantee it is neurological. You wouldn’t “just deal” with a tumor, and you should “just deal” with clinical depression.

When I read the cause of Len’s demise, my heart sank in distress, sympathy, and understanding. Requiescat in pace, Len; we will honor you in our memories.

Alter Ego