Hello everyone,


This might seem like a really simple question. Why are we depressed? I think many would say it's our biochemicals that are out of whack (this isn't to include situational depression and/or bereavement). I'm inclined to agree with this answer, because of how sudden a lot of the shifts in my own moods seem to be. I could be having a really great time with friends, go to bed that night, and wake up a completely different person the next day. I firmly believe this HAS to be biochemical, otherwise I don't know how I could even make sense of it. But this isn't really what I'm driving at with my question....

I believe the reason we're all put on this earth is to attain some sort of happiness, and to help others do the same. I think the very reason of our existence is love and happiness. Yet for some reason....
we aren't able to attain this. We, for whatever reason, aren't able to be happy. Now I'm certainly not implying that depression is the worst disease in the world, especially when we consider some of the extremely debilitating and deadly diseases that abound throughout the planet. Yet depression is unique, in that its sole act is simply robbing a person's ability to be happy. It's almost laughable really, like something out of a Superman comic book. Some mad scientist invents a machine that sucks all the "happy" out of a person, and leaves them as dejected and lifeless zombies. However, unlike a comic book, we don't have any superhero to come and save us at the end of the day. Many of us fight against it as much as we can, but in the end it feels like an exercise in futility.

One interesting aspect of human civilization, from its very inception even, is that we mark our existence by strife and conflict. The only way it seems that we can truly appreciate the human condition is to see how truly bad things can really get. I've always firmly believed that nothing brings people closer than shared misery. Love is a big unifying force in and of itself, but I believe misery is something uniquely human that is actually stronger than love in its ability to draw one person to another. Are we depressed for a reason? We've been robbed of, to my mind at least, the very fabric of that which makes one want to continue living. We all go on, hoping against hope for a better tomorrow, but is there any real reason for it all? Doctor's tell us a variety of answers, from heredity, diet, exercise, blah blah blah etc. Yet there certainly is no consensus, no "depression germ" that invades our brains and causes this feeling. Studies come out seemingly every year that point to some new causal relationship for depression, and the kicker being that a new and improved medication is just around the corner that will solve all of our problems. But the medications themselves are so very flimsy and unreliable. When we compare anti-depressants to pretty much any other medication in the world, it comes up far short of its proposed goal. "6-8 weeks you may find therapeutic effect, though this might sometimes take many more months to see. Not to mention that the host of side effects your bound to experience, as well as the fact that the medication might not even work for you at all!". Well....that sounds pretty s***ty. So I'm just going to say it again and then i'll shut up...........Why us?

Hi DarkTower

There are so many reasons and causes of depression throughout the world.
I too believe that we are all here to help others in some way or another, but not everyone thinks like that and each one to their own. We all have free will and can choose whichever path we wish too.

I guess each person within themselves can answer the Question, "Why are we depressed?" for themselves, as each person is different.

It is an illness, a sad, sad illness...

Trace

Part of it I think is the lens at which we look at the world. For example, if someone in Africa has AIDS and a daughter she can't feed (sorry to be so stereotyping - just an example) no one is asking her is your life a black hole? I suspect some of this is awareness. In the past, people labeled all mental illness the same and slapped people into asylums. Now we recognize disorders from Tourette's to Aspergers to OCD, etc. I suspect depression has always been around, but we are such a globalized society now - and with the web - the knowledge and awareness of its degree is more readily available. I think the nature of how we deal with difference has changed in general. Things used to be hidden behind closed doors and now this awareness is there and available if that makes sense. There is more support out there to say "I'm not hacking it - life is too tough and reach out".

As far as why us - if you look deeply enough - you will discover with some exceptions that everyone has their cross to bear. It may be insecurity, it may be a physical impairment, poor relationships, battle wtih weight, etc. And to each person dealing with that thing at the time - it is, by comparison, the most horrible thing happening to them. Obviously some people get a better deal than others. You have asked a question people have always asked, which is "why?" The question for the ages.

DarkTower, I really enjoyed reading your post and see what you're getting at. I honestly don't think there is a purpose to life, we as human beings just try to rationalize one. It sort of seems to me all these ideas about happiness, love, chasing money and jobs, are things society deem as accomplishments, so we just use those things as a basis to measure our purpose in life. But its all artificially constructed by human thought if you really think about it...

Hi again,

Maybe you're right in that there is no purpose to life, but rather it seems we all WANT happiness out of life. Perhaps it's that unifying desire amongst us all that leads to meaning? Society may deem many of these accomplishments, such as increased wealth or job status, though I think love and happiness are universal in that human beings would crave these two things no matter what.

I do think that depression is something biochemical, a disease that simply attacks another area of our bodies like so many do, in this case our neurotransmitters. I think it's the search for meaning in depression that has caused me so much frustration. I keep hoping that there is some grander reason for it all, something I'm supposed to learn or perhaps it leads me down another road in life I would normally have never seen had I been happy all throughout. But in my heart I feel that it's just simply another affliction that affects a large number of people in the world, and when we find the right combination of medication/therapy we'll have solved it and move on with our lives. Whenever I do get better (keeping fingers crossed), I'll definitely try and encourage others going through this same ordeal to persevere, and to let them know that people care about them and their well-being. If a greater sense of empathy, compassion, understanding, and sincerity come from my time with depression, then that certainly is a good silver lining in the cloud. Though I wonder if it will all be worth the lost years, broken relationships, spilled tears, and heartache..........

--DT

Hi there, I don't know why we are depressed but I think there could be several posible reasons. It seems to me that no one really understands depression. There is the chemical imbalance theory. But if this is so, then why don't drugs to a better job of fixing it?

There is the Hypoglycemic theory that states it is something to do with our nutrition and that we aren't feeding ourselves correctly which is causing the problem. I tried to post the link but it won't let me. Have a look on google for hypoglycemic depression disorder.

Then there is the theory that we have this illness due to our past and things that we have not dealt with and that have shaped our thinking and the way our thought patterns process.

I personally don't think in my lifetime they will come up with an naswer and til then I for one just have to suffer. I look to within for ways of dealing with it. But I don't find any.

I also don't thin we are here for any particular reason. I am not religious or spiritual. I was spiritual once but certainly not anymore. I think that as someone has already said, humans have to rationalize everything and can't accept that sometimes there is no reason.

DT I really liked what you had to say. "All the lost years" I feel depression is going to "waste" my life. I don't think I will ever get past it. One of the scariest thoughts is spending my entire life this way.
Scary...

First of all, great thread Darktower.

Here's a few comments I have:

1) I agree with Nicky in that perhaps the diagnosed cases of depression have gone up rather than depression occurring in a larger percentage of the population.

2) Maybe our society is struggling to cope with the Information Age. Never before has so much information been available to the average person. We are constantly bombarded with huge amounts of information through school, TV, and now the internet. All that thinking and analyzing in our lives might lead to more anxiety and depression.

3) I liked your comment about how everybody seems to strive for happiness. It seems that as the ages go by, happiness is something that is increasingly thought of as an achievement in life rather than a state of being. Back when we were cavemen, happiness was enjoying the sunshine and the fruits of the land, something that you naturally let happen. Now, happiness is something you are rewarded with once you finally get that job/partner/money/house/success you've always wanted.

In part i believe these factors can play a role:

1 Changes in the way we live compared to how we used to live millions of years ago - society is evolving faster than we are.
2 Technological advances and a fast food culture means we are less active and less physically fit than we used to be. It also means we deal with stress differently to how we used to millenia ago.
3 Additives in food, for some reason i dont believe they are always good for you. How do we know that consuming large quantities of them isnt affecting our body chemistry in those who are sensitive to them or in the long run?
4 The way we view the world - faulty thinking
5 Pressure from society to conform to what it wants us to be instead of following our own hearts and being accepted for who and what we are
6 Chemical imbalances within the body
7 increase in the number of people coming forwards regarding their depression
8 increased study of the subject (psychology) and articles on the news
9 increases in the population but im not sure how the figures compare when done as an average percentage of the population as opposed to individual figures. If they are the same ie 50 years ago 10% of the population was depressed compared to 10% of the population today (even though 10% of the population is a higher number of individuals than 50 years ago) the occurance rate of depression is actually the same).
10 Desire and want - its on the increase in a highly materialistic world. Many times people have what they need, but they dont have what they want and so they can become depressed over it. Some want can be beneficial, it can be motivational, but if you let it consume you to the point where you become depressed over it, then it tends to be bad for you. I agree somewhat with the buddists.

Millenia ago if you had what you needed to survive (family or a tribe, housing, food, clothing etc) then you were considered succesful and probably would have been happy. These days we want more than we actually need to survive - we want a fast car, two holiday homes, a large bank balance and the latest gadget on the shopping channel that you dont really need at all). We are bombarded with images of what we should want and who we should be. I dont feel its healthy for us. We are no longer greatful for the little things in life such as having a family, having food to eat, having a warm house to live in and so. We always want more, because whatever we have, its never seems to be enough these days.

Bring a cave man (and his family) into the modern era and give him a freezer full of food and a warm bed in a centrally heated house with a wardrobe full of clothes and i have a feeling he'd be ecstatically happy (for a while, until he discovered the shopping channel anyway). Give that to modern man and well, no, its not enough for him, he has to have all the unneccassery trimmings as well.

Then again, its all relative, but we do have too much time to sit around and think these days. Our ancestors would have been out hunting for food right now, not sat with a cigarette in their mouth, drinking coffee and posting online like i am. If you didnt go out and hunt for food, you wouldnt have survived whether you were depressed or not. We really should be greatful that we can just amble out into the kitchen and grab a bowl of cereal for breakfast every morning. In many ways we have so much more than our ancestors did and yet we are still unhappy, and in some instances even more unhappy than our ancestors were. Now they really did have a hard life in some ways. Their concern was surviving, not what resturant they were going to eat in tonight or whether or not they were going to make company director this year.



This post has been edited by Moonlight_Magic: Jun 20 2008, 02:16 AM

I don’t believe either that there is a grand purpose to it all but this is the only chance I have to see what it is about and what I can get out of it.

Given that and finding myself in the unfortunate position where there is a chemical warfare going on in my brain, I am determined to survive it and make the most of what is left over to me.

I don’t know which roll of the dice brought depression to my door of all people but I accept it and I am surviving it and I will carry on getting all the help I can get.
I live in Africa and is by default one of the very, very few people on this continent lucky enough to have internet and access to help like a Psychiatrist and world class medication like anti-depressants.

I am very, very grateful for that because I had no choice in when and where I was born 42 years ago. I was just lucky and I am not going to waste this good fortune of being alive and being here right now.

This post has been edited by Mimen: Jun 20 2008, 02:12 AM

I totally agree Magic,
but i'd also like to add all the chemicals we use now as opposed to years ago, in cosmetics, cleaning materials etc.
i have a severely autistic son and autism is on the increase too and no-one has come up with an explanation as to why, I've often thought about these and food additives as a possible culprit


Torch xxxx

Oh Torchwood, I admire your love and care for a child in such condition. When I was in elementary school my school did something that might have been controversial ... there were actually 3 different autistic children in my class, but the teachers made them sit in the same class with all the "normal" kids. I actually developed a friendship with one, and I'll never forget one day when everyone was outside playing he was sitting by himself and watching everyone else run up and down. The look on his face almost told a story - its like he actually knew something was "different," about him. I don't know why, but that image always plays back and its pretty painful, even though I am not the one who was autistic. Anyways, sorry, I don't want to go off on some tangent.

This post has been edited by Magicseaweed: Jun 20 2008, 12:22 PM

I enjoyed the thoughts by all the posts on the thread. I have no answers myself, but I lean towards some sort of chemical imbalance myself. Where I get frustrated in learning about depression is that it seems the causes are so varied that there will never be a solid understanding of where it comes from. Seems just about anything can trigger it, from diet, to genetics, to life experiences, etc. Seems too random to ever pinpoint correctly.

I continually fall into the trap of reading about symptoms on the internet and believeing I have *everything* I read about :)

My vicious cycle goes like this: I got allergies late in life, tuens out hay fever related allergies can trigger depression or at least some of the symptoms. Food allergies can do this too. I get the chronic fatigue symptoms that also overlap with depression, and both can seem to point to each other as the trigger. It seems impossible to sort out which might be the cause, which the effect. Same goes for my recent bouts of insomina; depression & insomnia go hand in hand, and either could be the trigger for the other. Yikes.

The changing physiology of my body as I grow older also introduced new factors that I might not even be considering. I went years thinking I was getting colds (which I rarely did before) until my Dad off-handedly mentioned I might have allergies. Took some OTC allergy meds and poof - colds gone. My depressive episodes are something that had occisionally happened before in my life, but now they happen more frequently and for longer duration. I am concerned that I may have some sort of chemical or dietary reaction that wasn't present when I was younger, and how the hell could that be tracked down?

It just seems that depression is too across the spectrum to be reliably hunted down and eliminated. It's too vague to offer a starting point, and too intangible for a doctor to be able to make a name for eradicating it. Cure for cancer? Visible disease, visible results. Depression is like a ghost, a shape-shifter, a chameleon.

The worst part for me is that it appears and disappears with the same lack of logic or triggers. I can't tell when it's going to happen, or when it will be over. I can't tell how long it will last in between bouts.

I went through a good two weeks of heavy duty depression, then magically it went away two days ago. It's peeking back around the corner again though, and I can't tell if it's going to jump me or keep on it's way until the next time.

With such a vague M.O., I think we are not in very good luck of determining the cause, and therefore a cure. My uninformed mind says it's brain/body chemistry/imbalances. I believe it's similar to an allergy or a cold/flu, only acting upon the brain (ultimately) instead of other bodily systems. But I'm just an artist, so what do I know ;)