depression

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bradzilla: Oct 15, 2004

roomtone posted:

this might piss people but but i'm really sceptical that a lot of what people talk about as depression is anything more than a functional response to a life that has become lovely, combined with a bit of peer pressure to acknowledge the world is hosed up.

there's so much talk about mental health nowadays that i think it's the first thing people turn to in order to explain what's wrong with their lives, partly because a lot of the times the problems are so complex and intractable due to their economic roots, but also because i think it takes a bit of responsibility off you to personally do anything about it. i did it myself for a long time and it's only when i changed my perspective on this stuff that i've felt better.

but it's a process i went through - had to realise that yeah, capitalist society has played a role in isolating me like this, i'm not broken for finding work extremely draining. then had to realise that these things don't mean i get a prize for having the worst possible reaction to them by only seeking escapist means to feel better. i wasn't depressed at all, i had learned helpnessness about my life and was using a bunch of excuses - capitalism, alcoholism and 'maybe i'm depressed?' - to justify it and continue seeking low quality kicks where ever i could without actually having to try.

i'm not saying anything against seeking mental health help if you haven't done it, but i did it for a long time and it honestly didn't get me very far because my problems weren't clinical. they were material and personality based, and those things CAN be changed with the right attitude and a bit of concerted effort. people who work in mental health have a limited remit, they can't address the complex social reasons you are in the situation you are in many cases because they can't actually do anything about them. so they give you CBT therapy, maybe put you on some antidepressants - these are the tools they have, but they might be useless to you.

if you have a real mental illness, then okay, but i'm not talking about that and i think inside, you know if you are kind of bullshitting it for the reasons i've alluded to. i know some people on here have serious mental illnesses and i'm not talking to everybody with this.

i'm also not saying people aren't legitmately unhappy, but i am saying that 'the world sucks!! life sucks and can't be improved!!' is a cultural meme right now. people will regurgitate this sentiment while putting absolutely zero thought into it, putting aside how legitimate the complaints are (i am a socialist, i agree). but that's something happening that is happening on a social scale. still a real problem, but as far as improving your own life goes, not the same thing at all.

precision you have some specific complaints about being lonely and you seem more pissed off about your life situation than depressed about it to me. i think you would feel much better if you started identifying some small things you could do to make benchmarked progress. they don't have to be big or come straight at the loneliness thing but as soon as you start doing things and see any kind of positive result, you'll probably feel differently. not fixed, maybe, but in a different mental space where the available moves will feel different and may include things you have not considered at all so far.

durrrrr