Julia
In Memoriam
- Joined
- 10 May 2005
- Posts
- 16,986
- Reactions
- 1,973
No, Rick, it is never a waste of time to contradict what is wrong, whether that 'wrongness' derives from ignorance, misunderstanding, or even at times simple nastiness.Wasting my time but hoping others will understand.
I'm relieved to see this post, Wayne. Thought you'd undergone a radical change to your usual understanding.I didn't read the post correctly and would like to reverse my affirmation with apologies to anyone suffering depression. Sails and Rick are spot on.
Satanoperca, maybe if your original post had been along these lines you'd not have drawn the criticism and disagreement you have.Read my post further up and I don’t think I stated telling people to “get over it”. Rather they need a firm hand and guidance to develop routine in their lives to manage it. Also like to state, that depression is a natural part of life, everyone will experience it in some point in their lives. It is when it takes control over their lives and happiness leading to many months of ill feelings that there is a problem.
I do wonder how many of you have fought this illness, I have firsthand experience of it over two decades. I understand all the complexities of dealing with and learning to live with depression. I work hard to maintain an active and happy life, it is always in the back of my mind the horrible feelings of desperation when I have had a bad depressive period.
In the majority of case a good foot is needed, however there are always outliners that need professional medical treatment.
I would simply ask any person suffering depression:
1) what is it that has made them feel that way (often they do not know or wish to talk about)
2) what have they done to prevent the feelings from arising ( need to address why the feelings are there, face their demons. In some cases there is no reason but a chemical imbalance in their brain chemistry. In this case often they only treatment if the depression is sever is medication
3) Do they exercise regularly? The benefits of exercise in releasing endorphins in the brain are well documented
4) What food do they eat? Food/fuel is vital to a healthy mind. I can often tell if a depressive period is approaching or I have already entered as my mind/body moves away from healthy food into sugar and preservative rich foods. The more crap I eat, the worse and the longer the depressive period.
5) Do they smoke, drink and take drugs (generally a give in for most depressed people) this is when medication can give them a window to bring structure back into their life and slowly take back control.
The reality is, treatment is often very difficult to find and diagnosis is often incorrect making it harder for a person to persist in getting better.
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Fire away people.
I can at least partly see what you're saying. I have concerns that we are experiencing somewhat of a medicalisation of ordinary human sadness.
This is not in the least to suggest much depression is not intractable and needs medication. But we do seem to jump on the bandwagon of "oh he must be depressed" whenever someone displays a diminished mood.
Anti depressant drugs, whilst very effective for some people, are pretty potent and can cause significant quite dreadful side effects. I've known three people who, when experiencing a period of what I'd describe as 'normal sadness' following the breakup of a relationship, post natal depression and grief at the death of a mother, were prescribed anti depressants. All these three experienced quite terrifying suicidal impulses which they'd certainly not had before starting the medication.
So, I'm with you in first trying conservative, sensible measures like lots of vigorous exercise, healthy eating and avoiding too much alcohol.
And I simply don't believe we should regard ordinary variations of mood as symptoms of a mental illness. Surely we should not expect to be 100% happy all the time?
All that said, I do feel for Mary Jo Fisher as quite obviously anyone in her financial situation does not need to steal groceries, and further someone so in the public eye would be wanting to avoid negative publicity, so surely we need to draw the conclusion that she was not in control of her emotional/psychological state at the time.
Lastly, it's just sad that such an event has been so widely publicised. I can't begin to imagine how much more difficult this will make everything for her.