Depression doesn't work like that...
this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2023
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It does for me at least. Getting a good job that pays well which I don't despise helped me immesurably even though I am still depressed at least I am not so depressed that I am 2 steps from offing myself anymore.
Depression can have many reasons, some are biochemical, some are due to external factors (sometimes a mix).
Universal Basic Income.
Not having to worry if I can really afford that next meal goes a long way.
I really think this is what the solution can be boiled down to for a lot of people. The rat race just to survive (not even thrive) is killer on the mood, where you feel like you are headed towards existentially, and utterly depletes the energy.
Why even bother trying to pursue things we actually enjoy? Or find out what we do enjoy? Too tired from work. Don't want to leave the house again if I can help it. It costs so much to do anything. Honestly, if I didn't end up having some decent people to hang out with at work I wouldn't have anyone close by. It's ridiculous.
And how it's become impossible to even imagine a life without that kind of pressure.
Umm... It's clinical, so dopamine.
Well I will most likely never not be depressed and currently I think all my criteria are fulfilled but if you want a list of a few things:
Enough money that living day to day isn't a struggle
A job you don't hate
The gym. Not cardio. Cardio sucks! I hate cardio.
A roof over your head with no tension
Family and friends even if thats downplayed in my mind sometimes.
I think nothing.
I’ve always suffered on and off with the mighty duo of depression and anxiety.
I was then diagnosed, and medicated, with ADHD and things have certainly gotten better, particularly in terms of decision making and not making poor ones. Drug usage has dropped significantly.
I was able to train and land a job in my ideal job (software developer). I now drive and have a car. Yet I still don’t feel happy.
Like I can sing on the way to work and shout good morning to the cows as I drive past them, but still I feel empty at times.
Even though I have my dream job, I have a feeling that there has to be more to life than this and also I get so down about perceived injustices in the world, although that has gone down since leaving Reddit.
It's different as I grow. But right now, affordable mental health support and a friend.
I moved to a new state and have no friends and work from home.
I'm trying my best but... I wish it was easier
It’s so hard to find friends after a big move. I moved to another state in 2021 and still haven’t made any friends other than people my wife was already friends with. Although I still struggled with depression even when I had a big friend group. Affordable mental health support has done the most for me. Having the opportunity to talk to an amazing therapist every week for more than a year has done absolute wonders for my outlook.
That said, I still live with depression. I’m on a medication that helps me have fewer of my worse days and more of my better ones but that doesn’t always work and it’s only a supplement to regular effective therapy itself.
Learning to live with a disorder is an amazing step in the process. If depression was easy to eliminate, the world would be a much different place
Sometimes I have a hard time coming to terms with the fact that if I never had depression I would be a fundamentally different person, and there are good qualities of mine that I don’t believe I would have acquired without that exact factor in my life. Like yes I would prefer an existence free of the pain depression has put me through but that person would not be me. Living with depression is a fact of my life. There’s a lot of help out there and I have benefited greatly from it but it will to some extent always be an ongoing process.
This is very very true! I take medication and it's great but it's not enough. Mental health support (therapy) is so important
It really is. So many times I have mentioned how great therapy has been for me and how glad I am that I found the right one for me, only to have people tell me they never would’ve taken me for someone who needed one. I always reply that it’s my firm belief that even the healthiest of mentalities can benefit from good therapy.
Agreed. Also we all have our eyes on so much these days (we see ALL the news from everywhere) there is no way that doesn't affect people. Plus here in the US, the divide between rich and poor grows. The stress of seemingly innocuous every day life has it's toll and I don't think a lot of people recognize that in them selves yet.
I totally agree, mental health for everyone even for people who are healthy!
Moved to a new city for university. Managed to find some friends there. One moved away and another just quit on our group, so I just have the one friend that actually lives here now. Now, I also have roommates and we're on friendly terms, but we don't really do stuff together, you know?
Anyway, I quit university after changing my subjects around and still not feeling like I belong, and now I genuinely have no idea how I would even meet new people. Like, I'm decent enough at making friends in the right environment, like a classroom or something, but I'm not very good at keeping in touch or making new friends outside of that environment.
I have some great online friends, known these guys for like a decade at this point, and some back home, which is close enough to visit, but, you know, you don't always want meeting up with friends to be an event, you know? Sometimes you just wanna hang out without buying a train ticket.
Yeah I get that. I'm in the same boat about making friends. I'm great at it in situations where I see them everyday. But working from home... So I'm trying to meet up with a gaming group at a store once a week. Monday is my first official day so I'll see how it goes
Not much, honestly (though a hefty sum of cash would probably make life a bit better).
My brain just doesn’t quite experience a healthy baseline level of happiness and non-anxiety without a bit of help from meds and therapy.
Money. I feel my depression holds me back from networking and seeking and gaining higher paid employment. A lot of glass half empty and "I wouldn't be considered" thinking
No more pain 24/7. No more medication. Just normal health, that would actually work for me.
Drugs worked for me. Specifically anti-depressants for years. I was fortunate enough to be able to stop after about 5 years, with no major relapses. Coping with undiagnosed depression for decades prior to treatment may have given me overpowered tools to deal with minor depressive episodes once the drugs were stopped.
Depression is circumstantial, been trapped in overcrowded slums below poverty level. What I need is a safe, clean, stable place to live, and help finding a job. Instead I'm surrounded by drug addicts, screaming, violence, overcrowding, filth; social services meager, bureaucratic and strained. It wears one down.
I need society to be better
Money and good health insurance. Seriously, it would help me out so dang much.
I have pretty bad PTSD, which has made it near impossible to make real, human connections. If I could get out of my own head, I feel like my life might be able to improve.
I have a house of my own, though. I feel like having your own space contributes a lot to self-improvement and peace, tbh. I am extremely fortunate.
.
> What could be done practically to change your situation?
for me things have always been kinda problematic since we are not good financially, i even had to leave the career i wanted to pursue and took software engineering since my family thought "that's what brings money to the table" and not the career I wanted to pursue.
so money, lots of them. so that i could buy things that i always wanted to, so i could finally see the fruit of the struggle i have been going through at the cost of choosing a career I don't even like. but the sad thing is my desire to buy things will vanish as i become old and earn a good amount of money then, and this thought have been going through my mind for sometime.