I spent my adolescence and teenage years obsessing about this question: Am I depressed or just deep?When I was nine, I figured that I was a young Christian mystic because I related much more to the …
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I had the same experience as you when I read Against Depression for the first time. For the first time, I felt certain that the depression wasn’t because I wasn’t trying hard enough and wasn’t because I was a bad person. It was a tremendously healing book for me.
This is a very interesting perspective. I can’t wait to see the documentary.
Does the DSM account for personality traits-the positive ones, not just the negative,such as those revealed from Meyers Briggs tests?
But I wonder if in cases such as this, if the person was repressing or denying, then the ability to do that later wore off.
“Typically, such a person will say: ”I don’t understand it. I went through — ” and here he will name one of the shameful events of our time. ”I lived through that, and in all those months, I never felt this.”
It’s a fine line sometimes – the depth we get from thinking hard and seeing life without the rosey glasses, vs the pain we experience when it becomes all-consuming and overwhelming and we cannot find a way out.
It’s why, I guess, I credit my mood problems as a mixed blessing – never good when I’m really unwell and not eating, sleeping, unable to think or concentrate; but a force for good and for uncovering the things people who never get depressed just don’t see.
I think we have such a skewed view of creativity sometimes. At its core, the act creation is a manifestation of joy, hope, and love, not despair. Yet we often privilege the “depth” that despair brings, and dismiss the beauty of joy as “superficial” or “easy.”
I think it’s easy, in some respects, to despair when faced with darkness. It’s a hell of a lot harder, and takes a hell of a lot more creativity, to find joy and hope.
Depression can be tolerated, even appreciated. Artists throughout history have suffered it, and their creativity has benefited. If it impairs function, then steps should be taken, but that does not always mean striving for a ‘happier’ frame of mind. Sometimes it just means accepting the low feelings, stopping the battle against them, and learning to work and love and live in spite of feeling down. Some people, like me, undergo years of medical and therapeutic treatment (including CBT, DBT, and every other method I could find) and still feel depressed. The best thing that has ever happened to me is learning to accept the low moods, and even channel them into creative writing. If one wants to get rid of depression, and can, then go for it. But treatment is often unsuccessful, and it helps to have a plan B.
Highly sensitive people, often artistic, prone to depression, feel deeply for and with others, and sometimes meet the criteria for depression. I like what Lisa and Will said, regarding using dark moods in some creative, constructive way. Moving from the helpless/hopeless depressed state, to one of activity. Action is the enemy of depression. So some amount of hopefulness usually precedes action. Then, in a state of flow, creating, writing, moving, sometimes a bubble of happiness emerges.
If creativity stems from the right brain, and emotions are somehow compartmentalized in the right brain, wouldn’t it make sense that those who are right brained thinkers would be more affected by emotions? Empathy, sensitivity, sadness…
Maybe the world is set up for left brain thinkers, and us right brainers have a more difficult time in a world designed for those who process emotions and thoughts somewhat differently.
?
I can remember profoundly depressed and hopeless feelings by age 7. As it happens I went through hellish abuse for years, my own private holocaust. I’ve struggled since childhood to get past the pain and despair and I just wish I could get past my past. My husband is sick of me being this way and thinks I am just lazy. I just wish I could feel OK and stop feeling like the apocalypse is just around my corner. My life sucks and I have been trying in therapy, diligently, for 15 years.
I guess I am either a rotten, weak, whiner or this frickin depression is kicking my a**. grrr…
Sometimes, people confuse being depressed with being philosophical. If I had a dollar (well, maybe $2) for every time I hear “I am not depressed, I am just realistic”, “Anyone who isn’t depressed isn’t paying attention”, or “Life has no meaning and I am going to die, how can I be happy?” I could likely support a hardcore latte habit. Depression can have such an effect on your world view.
There are a few basic existential realities we all confront: mortality, aloneness and meaninglessness. Most people are aware of these things. A friend dies suddenly, a coworker commits suicide or some planes fly into tall buildings-these events shake most of us up and remind of us of the basic realities. We deal, we grieve, we hold our kids tighter, remind ourselves that life is short and therefore to be enjoyed, and then we move on. Persistently not being able to put the existential realities aside to live and enjoy life, engage those around us or take care of ourselves just might be a sign of depression.
My only son died last year, my two daughters are both struggling in problem marriages, my own marriage is less than rewarding, and my doctor tells me I am clinally depressed and in need of drugs to combat my disease. I feel sad about these live events. Sad is much better than having a pathological condition that needs therapy and drugs. All too often therapists are eager to play down life events and take the position the client simply has psychlogical problems if they are unhappy.