Depression

[Cromey]

That's a good question, if there is a certian person who you think is getting 'down', what do they like to do?

 

[Czesia]

Originally posted by: Cromey
That's a good question, if there is a certian person who you think is getting 'down', what do they like to do?

Not much of anything, just keep busy and keep to themselves. I'm sure that that is the main problem.

**Edit: spelling.

 

[naddicott]

Depression has a few different varieties of different magnitudes.

Situational depression (someone ran over my dog, I feel bad). It can be a perfectly normal thing. Almost everybody experiences light depression at some point of their life. They usually come out of it themselves. This is the only variety that the famous "just snap out of it" line has much chance of working on.

Disthymia. When someone gets lightly depressed on a regular basis, but is still able to function in society for the most part. Might take a little longer pulling out of 'situational' episodes than fully healthy people.

Clinical Depression. Often started by a legitimate trigger, but a mix of brain chemistry / poor coping skills keeps the depression around much longer than normal. Often unable to function anywhere near what someone would consider normally. Untreated clinical depression can still go into remission on its own, but on a scale of months or years rather than days or weeks for most people. If someone with clinical depression doesn't want to bear through that hell for that long, they should seek help (therapy and/or medication).

That's a big oversimplification, but you should try to figure out what part of the spectrum you're dealing with. No point in drugging somebody up just because they're sad their dog died or they recently broke up with their S.O. (such things have happened - some family doctors aren't very good at mental health issues).

Google would be good too.

 

[Cromey]

Originally posted by: naddicott
Depression has a few different varieties of different magnitudes.

Situational depression (someone ran over my dog, I feel bad). It can be a perfectly normal thing. Almost everybody experiences light depression at some point of their life. They usually come out of it themselves. This is the only variety that the famous "just snap out of it" line has much chance of working on.

Disthymia. When someone gets lightly depressed on a regular basis, but is still able to function in society for the most part. Might take a little longer pulling out of 'situational' episodes than fully healthy people.

Clinical Depression. Often started by a legitimate trigger, but a mix of brain chemistry / poor coping skills keeps the depression around much longer than normal. Often unable to function anywhere near what someone would consider normally. Untreated clinical depression can still go into remission on its own, but on a scale of months or years rather than days or weeks for most people. If someone with clinical depression doesn't want to bear through that hell for that long, they should seek help (therapy and/or medication).

That's a big oversimplification, but you should try to figure out what part of the spectrum you're dealing with. No point in drugging somebody up just because they're sad their dog died or they recently broke up with their S.O. (such things have happened - some family doctors aren't very good at mental health issues).

Google would be good too.

 

[Czesia]

Originally posted by: naddicott
Depression has a few different varieties of different magnitudes.

Situational depression (someone ran over my dog, I feel bad). It can be a perfectly normal thing. Almost everybody experiences light depression at some point of their life. They usually come out of it themselves. This is the only variety that the famous "just snap out of it" line has much chance of working on.

Disthymia. When someone gets lightly depressed on a regular basis, but is still able to function in society for the most part. Might take a little longer pulling out of 'situational' episodes than fully healthy people.

Clinical Depression. Often started by a legitimate trigger, but a mix of brain chemistry / poor coping skills keeps the depression around much longer than normal. Often unable to function anywhere near what someone would consider normally. Untreated clinical depression can still go into remission on its own, but on a scale of months or years rather than days or weeks for most people. If someone with clinical depression doesn't want to bear through that hell for that long, they should seek help (therapy and/or medication).

That's a big oversimplification, but you should try to figure out what part of the spectrum you're dealing with. No point in drugging somebody up just because they're sad their dog died or they recently broke up with their S.O. (such things have happened - some family doctors aren't very good at mental health issues).

Google would be good too.

Thanks.

 

[cornbread]

They recently released some study info showing that in many cases, sugar pills work just as good as the prescription garbage. That goes to show a few things:
1. Few depression cases are actually caused by a chemical imbalance...
2. The pill-popping society of today is so bad that people's minds actually believe and feel like the pills they are given are actually working...
3. With many people suffering from true depression caused by a chemical imbalance, most of the antidepressants out there aren't effective enough to help...
4. The pharmaceutical companies know all of the above, and decide that if they market the popular antidepressant drugs, they know they will make more money, than they would if they actually developed helpful antidepressants for the people that are truly suffering.

For *most* people suffering "depression", they would benefit a lot more if they actually tried to help themselves without a "magic pill"..

The true cure for most cases of depression which don't truly involve a chemical imbalance, is to exercise, eat right, stay healthy, and learn to cope with and talk about any problems they are having. And in true cases of depression, that would also help along with proper medication.

You'll never hear that from most doctors, nor will you EVER hear that from any pharmaceutical company, because they want you to keep coming back for more.

Edit--
Here's a link about the placebo effect with antidepressants...
Linky

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

Originally posted by: coldcut
When they start gaining weight or can't sleep.

I basically stop eating, so gaining weight is not something which is likely to happen to me, and I make sure I am not going to lie awake (don't want to give myself time to start thinking about life (and death) even more) by playing online games until I am so tired that I immediately fall asleep.