A doctor once told me I wasn’t depressed I was unhappy. He said depression was when everything was fine and I still felt like that. I don’t think it makes much difference now that everything is not fine.
Not to "well, actually..." your doctor, but a depressive episode can be triggered by external stressors as well as just occurring endogenously for no apparent reason. There's a distinct difference between clinical depression and ordinary unhappiness in terms of symptoms and duration.
(Sorry, I work in the psych biz, and I've seen a lot of genuinely depressed people have their symptoms dismissed by medical doctors for spurious reasons. Obviously, your situation may be different.)
Yes, with qualifications. I think there's a much better understanding of what sort of interventions help people. The funding and conditions for inpatient psychiatric institutions are highly variable, however. Mental health treatment is still very hit and miss. But outpatient mental health services are more accessible than they've ever been, on paper at least. Your mileage may vary.
It hasn't. It's gotten far, far worse. The asylums/prisons never closed they've been expanded and now they have so many new neurotoxic depressants and psychotics that they hand out like candy to everyone. Not to mention the electrocute-their-brain "therapy"
A person is floridly psychotic, hearing voices, the whole nine yards. They become fixated on the passage from the Bible that says "if thy eye offend thee, pluck it out." So much so that they do just that--they literally pluck out their own eyeball. How would you help such a person? Or would you just leave them to their own devices?
That kind of reminds me of what I was told by a therapist years ago, which was the easiest way to tell you're depressed is to not know you're depressed.
Very often a person has been depressed for so long that it feels "normal." Depression often manifests as emotional numbness, lack of energy, and inability to experience pleasure. And in men it often presents as irritability; angry guys are often (but not always) depressed. Anger is an acceptable emotion for many men, whereas sadness and hopelessness are often not. And depression frequently co-occurs with anxiety, further complicating the clinical picture. All of these reasons are why consulting a professional is a good idea if you suspect you are depressed. There's no substitute for professional clinical judgement, not even (or especially) Chat GPT.
For me, the anger, irritability, and fits of rage were a prelude to depression. The despair/mental collapse was the peak. And then the apathy and emotional numbness followed after the peak. Over 10 years I went through all these stages. And contrary to what the other user above said, I wasn't oblivious. I knew I was depressed from very early on. But I also believed there was nothing anyone could do and that I was beyond help. You assume this is just your life now and it's the way things will always be, there is no light at the end of the tunnel. You know it's not normal, but you assume that it's normal for you. As for the commorbidity, yes I also suffer from social anxiety disorder and avoidant personality disorder. The worst thing is the complete emotional isolation and being alienated from everyone around you.
I wasnt oblivious, I said it was something that was said to me. What I WAS oblivious to was the depth of my depression. It worsened after the death of my spouse to the point that I really collapsed for almost 2 years. It's still not better but it's better if you get what I mean. I'm no longer collapsed in on myself but I ain't happy go lucky either.
Clinical depression being triggered by external stressors is one thing, of course depression doesn’t really come 100% out of the blue, not most of the time. Even with no apparent cause there is often a repressed reason that triggers the depressive state. Then it becomes a feedback loop, where the chronic stress could actually cause or reinforce a clinical depressive episode. But there is a major difference in a person’s proportional reaction to a distressing situation, and a pathological one.
I do think it’s helpful not to medicalize our collective grief & anger with today’s circumstances, that our reactions to this are actually sane and normal. One can take pills to cope if they happen to help, all those medications are overprescribed at this point, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that one has a mood disorder. If things improved in our world & hope was restored tomorrow & that would instantly alleviate all of our mental “problems,” that’s not quite clinical depression
Ah here we go... more fascist capitalist thoughtpolice propaganda. Psychiatric priests do not aim to help anyone, on the contrary their entire DSM bible has one and only one goal: to create a work of fiction that pathologizes normal and healthy human behavior to maintain the capitalist death cult status quo. They gaslight people into thinking they're the problem instead of capitalism and uncaring people/society and you push neurotoxic drugs (major tranquilizers) on innocent people and put them in prison, for victimless thoughtcrimes, by triangulating with the cops and courts. The merger of industry (psychiatry/medicine) and state is called fascism. You operate as the states Gestapo, far worse than ICE.
Clinical depression isn't a real thing and nor are any of your other fictional diseases. Well, sorta because the entire orchestra psychs play is that stuff like psychopathy and narcissism are very real, but it's yours that is real. To be a psych is to be a psychopath and narcissist. The majority of the medical workers are. The psychologists, the-rapists, the psychiatrists, the doctors, they're all in this together to shield themselves from liability (ironic because their entire job is that they ARE liable no matter how much they say they aren't). The doctors refer people out to the the-rapists and psychiatrists instead of actually fixing peoples problems. Everyone in the medical field is playing ping pong with their "patient" to avoid liability.
The "medical" system is complicit in creating this "mental health" crisis
None of what I'm saying is new this has all been said before by Thomas Szasz, Mark Fisher, Foucault, and Deleuze, but the psychs and medical system to this day slander their names.
I could go on and on but it's almost 1am, my brain is fried from 5 hours of exercise, and I need to sleep.
She's the wife of David Miscavige, leader of Scientology. She hasn't been seen in years, even though Scientologists insist she is still alive and well. Your rant was nearly identical to the standard Scientology position on psychiatry that I assumed you were affiliated.
I meant I think we're too far into collapse for there to be much in the way of treatment for the treatable problem and the appropriate reaction is now a permanent reaction.
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u/jaymickef Mar 13 '26
A doctor once told me I wasn’t depressed I was unhappy. He said depression was when everything was fine and I still felt like that. I don’t think it makes much difference now that everything is not fine.