Has anyone turned to philosophy to try and help their depression/ anxiety.

[Spike Spiegel]

Partially due to my educational background, I have read a fair bit of philosophy from Max Weber, to the ideas of stoicism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Among others like Pascal ,Ortega , Bentham, etc. Many philosophies deal deal with tempering desire, or accepting suffering or trying to understand ourselves and our place. Sometimes I try to apply their thinking to my life when I start to get in a depressive spiral. In a attempt to make sense out of how I feel, with varying results. I was curious if anyone else here has turned to some form of philosophy during times of depression and anxiety, and if it helped at all?

 

[paintedbutterfly676]

I'm not good at understanding philosophy, but I could see how it would help. I mean, it's all about outlook, right? It can just be so hard to focus on those outlooks when you start to spiral. I hope it continues to help you!

 

[AllCatsAreGrey]

Yes. Philosophy has been a lifelong special interest for me. Many times it's helped me through some trying times. Sometimes it broadens perspective, lessoning the weight of internal struggles. Other times it's simply a pleasant diversion. It's an area of study that's never complete - there's always more to learn and other ways to look at the things you think you know.

A perennial text that has been helpful for me is Camus' "The Myth of Sisyphus" where he makes the bold statement, "There is only one really serious philosophical question, and that is suicide."

For the past several years I've been working on a philosophy paper based around this. It's a personal effort to bring together things that interest me and direct my research. It's a way to gather my will to stick around, so it's a recovery project of sorts, I guess.

 

[bodhi2]

Partially due to my educational background, I have read a fair bit of philosophy from Max Weber, to the ideas of stoicism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Among others like Pascal ,Ortega , Bentham, etc. Many philosophies deal deal with tempering desire, or accepting suffering or trying to understand ourselves and our place. Sometimes I try to apply their thinking to my life when I start to get in a depressive spiral. In an attempt to make sense out of how I feel, with varying results. I was curious if anyone else here has turned to some form of philosophy during times of depression and anxiety, and if it helped at all?

I've been toying in Buddhism my whole life and there have been many times when it helped change my thought patterns. But it's not working anymore. Now I find it all meaningless.

 

[Lookoutbelow]

Yes, I've studied a lot of the same ones as you. Taoism, Buddhism, Zen. They help a great deal when I am already in a good place. They don't help at all when I spiral to my dark place.

 

[cosifantutti]

I've dipped into it. It doesn't help me at all. I do know someone though who finds it helpful though his mental health problems are somewhat less than mine.
Tbh over the years I've used philosophy to a small degree and although I still get ill I probably deal with it better.

I realise I'm contradicting myself but both points are true.

 

[platypusfan]

I have looked into multiple philosophies for this reason, and I am still in the process of doing so. I have mostly explored Buddhism, and it sometimes helps, but what I have noticed is that it took awhile for it to make a dent. Like a year. The other one that was able to change my outlook a little bit was absurdism. While these things can sort of bring a change of outlook, I feel like to actually make a difference you have to keep at it for years and years. Like with Buddhism, it has helped in moments, but it can't help when I am absolutely overwhelmed. However those who have practiced for their lifetime won't even reach a point will things get that overwhelming. Some I have looked into, like stoicism, are a little harder to apply to my life. And some I feel like I need to look into more, like the different forms of nihilism. So in the end I think it depends on the person's experiences, like if you are willing to see the practice through for multiple years, and if you are willing to research the one that most aligns with your entire life experience, then maybe it has the potential to change things.

 

[dreamscape1111]

Yes! It's completely transforming my life from the inside out.



Through videos like the one above, I completely changed my lifestyle around.

I began meditating for 20 min. every morning, changed my diet, started exercising and reading lots of books on spirituality & self-actualization.

Now I'm no longer addicted to porn (at least not as much ) & video games, have significantly improved happiness and peace levels, anxiety is nothing like it used to be, and I'm in my first relationship learning new things everyday.

I never expected to get this far back then googling "why am I depressed?" But now that I feel like my cup is filling I'm inspired to give back to the world and am building a life purpose around life coaching and personal development.

It's definitely possible for everyone, the only question is what are your standards for yourself.
If I can do it, everyone can, trust me.

 

[quietwater]

Partially due to my educational background, I have read a fair bit of philosophy from Max Weber, to the ideas of stoicism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Among others like Pascal ,Ortega , Bentham, etc. Many philosophies deal deal with tempering desire, or accepting suffering or trying to understand ourselves and our place. Sometimes I try to apply their thinking to my life when I start to get in a depressive spiral. In a attempt to make sense out of how I feel, with varying results. I was curious if anyone else here has turned to some form of philosophy during times of depression and anxiety, and if it helped at all?

I did! I love philosophy, I even study it personally. I really like even the very concept of "philosophy" itself! I study and enjoy it not because I try to feel understood though, not even because I want to make sense out of my feelings, so we have a quite difference experience here. I like philosophy because I love understanding people's thoughts. Every person, every philosopher, everyone, has an enormous world inside their head, and I want to see it.
Maybe it's because, deep down, I too crave for understanding and I'm searching for understanding of myself in other's minds... but this is more of an unconscious thing!
Personally, philosophy helped me a lot in troublesome times, it's nice to see someone talk about it :)

PS: I really like Gorgia, Plato and Hegel, if we're talking about personal faves :)★

 

[81-Z@P@D]

I don't think it helps my depression or anxiety, but it does help me make sense of it, and realize that they are perfectly normal within modernity.

 

[hopelesswanderer]

I've tried and like you, found 'varying' success. When I'm clear headed, like a morning after a rare night of good sleep, I can read stoic texts and genuinely believe what I'm reading and find applications for it in my life. But when I'm under the cloud, it doesn't come to mind or help me stop spiraling at all. It feels like a waste of time to study stuff that doesn't help me when I need it. So I struggle maintaining interest and discipline to study when it feels like I'm not getting anywhere.

 

[Shiva_Story]

i've been impressed by the talks of Allan Watts and he pointed out in one of them:
"The most fundamental philosophical question is: To commit suicide or Not"
perhaps i should put it in my signature

 

[PeterRabbit]

I read the entirety of Seneca the Younger's letters - Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium. It was incredibly helpful for me. Naturally, its stoicism. It showed me that whatever I was facing or going through had already been done thousands of times in others lives in the past. I felt like the way to handle those things was absolutely distilled down to the very core of what should be done.

It kept me going through some of the most absolutely trying times of my life. What happened to me along with those letters fundamentally changed me as a human being.

 

[moondazed]

As someone pointed out, "The Myth of Sisyphus" is a good one, or anything by Camus really. It's a little bit of a slog but it's enlightening.

Recently I've been reading Native American / Indigenous origin stories and philosophies. Currently the book "The Fourth World of the Hopi". It's nice to pull away from the modern capitalistic/European mind frame, and realizing there is a near infinite way of looking at the world outside of our sad society.

 

[kitch]

My latest excursion ( tip toeing around the edges of philosophy ) is "When Einstein walked with Godel" by Jim Holt.

I've been listening to the audio book ... it mingles the ideas with the personal lives of the 'big thinkers' .... it reminds me of the Bill Bryson personable accessible vibe and I'm enjoying it.

The biggest break through for me was a few years ago , still clutching my fundamentalist superstitions , listening to Ernest Beckers "The Denial of Death" .

Changed my life .

Thinking about thinking ... pondering ... being amazed and delighted at 'just being' ...
I think that is an admirable state of mind.

I just remembered the kids book of two rabbits chatting ...

"What are you doing ?"

"Just thinking".


:)

 

[real human being]

Alan Watts' ideas have helped me a lot and stuck around with me for many years up until today. He's really helped me with taking life less seriously and given me a personal sense of meaning as to what being a living thing in this world is all about, and how suffering and pleasure and everything else is part of this amazingly complex game of life.

 

[FadingSunshine]

I use nihilism a lot as a coping mechanism, mostly to be able to assign values to MYSELF rather than the values society assigned on me. For example, society says I should get out of bed and be productive, but nihilism says I can be in bed all I want, because in the end nothing matters, so there will be no consequence/difference no matter which option I choose. It also helps promote internal validation over external validation. If you think about it, it really doesn't matter what other's think of you, as long as you are happy with yourself. Therefore I don't have to worry about other's opinions about me because they hold no weight over me other than the made up value of being "socially acceptable".

In the end, I use nihilism to neutralize negative emotions/situations, but when I'm actually happy I won't think nihilistically, so that even if I know deep down nothing matters, I can still enjoy the moment.

 

[AllCatsAreGrey]

I don't think it helps my depression or anxiety, but it does help me make sense of it, and realize that they are perfectly normal within modernity.

Very much this. The philosophers I like tend to engage in - sometimes even dwell in - places of loneliness and despair. Examining negative states can be very meaningful. A great example of this is Emil Cioran.

I highly recommend:
"The Temptation to Exist"
"The Trouble With Being Born"
and
"The Heights of Despair"

So in the end I think it depends on the person's experiences, like if you are willing to see the practice through for multiple years, and if you are willing to research the one that most aligns with your entire life experience, then maybe it has the potential to change things.

I think this is a great point. I tend to see philosophy more as a verb than a noun - it's something you do. My favorite philosophers are ones that demonstrate how to think, rather than what to think. It's usefulness in ones life is determined by application and contemplation.

 

[UtopianSoliloquies]

We don't live in an a priori world, and to so much as think requires that we make assumptions about stuff--about us, the universe, and everything in between. Philosophy, like any other form of thinking, builds upon these assumptions we hold and attempts to draw logical conclusions from them, and whilst logic is concretely valid or invalid, the soundness of our base assumptions is very much determined by our own subjective emotions. In my experience, philosophy is often cathartic in and of itself to do, but when it comes to living by a more positive philosophy or one that helps me cope with my experiences, very often the fact that I am in a headspace where I need such things means that I will have qualms with accepting at least one of said philosophy base assumptions as sound, if I even have the energy to suss out those axioms to begin with.

 

[deathviahanging]

Partially due to my educational background, I have read a fair bit of philosophy from Max Weber, to the ideas of stoicism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Among others like Pascal ,Ortega , Bentham, etc. Many philosophies deal deal with tempering desire, or accepting suffering or trying to understand ourselves and our place. Sometimes I try to apply their thinking to my life when I start to get in a depressive spiral. In a attempt to make sense out of how I feel, with varying results. I was curious if anyone else here has turned to some form of philosophy during times of depression and anxiety, and if it helped at all?

i have! i love philosophy it's become a coping mechanism and it's helped a lot. sometimes just exposing yourself to certain books will help too but the knowledge can be a double edged blade as the same philosophies can get rlly deprecating