Is there hope for depression, yes or no?

[Final_frontier]

Yes or no?

 

[devil]

lol hell no

 

[JimFord99]

Nah, probably not. Too many external influences I think. It is easier to get depressed than not.

 

[Stan]

maybe

 

[Numbtopain97]

NO

 

[wanttodie]

no

 

[SinisterKid]

I was hoping to be depressed so I could kill myself, so the answer is a resounding YES!

What a totally fuckin ambiguous question or maybe I am just stoopid

 

[bigj75]

really depends on the individual. some people overcome depression and some don't.

 

[woxihuanni]

It's just that there is no cure for any mental health problem when the only thing you seem to think about is that problem.

 

[TowerUpright]

At best it subsides for a while. But, I've been told that if depression is caused by an external event, there's a chance for it to completely resolve.

Unfortunately, many of us have chronic depression. I've lost hope: of a cure and of everything else.

 

[dandan]

Maybe.

For 20 years I was diagnosed as depressed, bipolar etc... I've had about ten weeks depression-free, thanks to Testosterone shots and Dianabol. I came here today because 20 years took a toll on me , and even I feel okay today the truth is I missed some opportunities and I lack some skills and experiences which make me feel hurt right now, similar to when I was depressed, but not exactly the same.

 

[H2H2]

You have a much higher chance of long term success if your depression is caused by some life xircusntances you can fix or something yuo are giving too much importance at the moment but will eventually grow out of with time and age.

For everything else, I think there is no way to know in advance since the strategy is basically to try one drug after the other and see if any one of them works. And you have no guarantee that what works for you today will work tomorrow. That level of uncertainty makes very difficult to plan for the future in a responsible manner since you never know when depression is going to come back and break you apart and strip you of the selfsteem of providing for your family or being a involved parent or husband/wife or basically everything else that gives a human being meaning and direction in life.

 

[-Link-]

If you are still alive, then there is hope...

 

[dandan]

I'm so sorry to have to agree with you, I've spent 20 years trying drug after another , a few times I thought I might be fixed, couple times I thought I found a solution but lasted shortly and became addicted , to benzo's and then with adhd meds.

I've been good with Testosterone and a steroid called dianabol , but I have my N in the fridge , even that I know I can be okay, damn I won't let go that N because if what you said, I know it can come back , no wait ... Thats not proper thinking,
Yeah sure depression could come back
But if I can keep it up with testo and dianabol I will

 

[DepressionsAHo]

Depends on the person honestly. For some yes, for others like most of us, no

 

[restingspot]

It depends on a lot of stuff. You (depression is primarily due to a chemical imbalance in the brain), the environment you live in (can exacerbate your symptoms), and your current situation (finances, relationships, schooling, etc.). Some people can crawl out of the hole, but for some it's equally as likely that they can crawl out...only for someone to be there to boot them back down.

 

[Alchemist]

Not really. At most one can fool oneself that is not there. But it never leaves and it's always ready to come back the moment you realize the truth and the delusion comes down.

 

[GreyMonkey]

Yes.

Have to turn and face and heal the pain of the trauma that caused the depressed personality. It's not easy and most of us who are depressed believe we are already in pain so the idea of turning and facing that pain is so terrifying as to seem ridiculous.

Basically we have to heal our damaged inner child.

 

[Slate128]

It depends on the severity. Is there hope for cancer?

 

[Temporarilyabsurd]

I've connected with the idea related to humiliation ... demoralization .

It might be just me , but looking back on early 'failures' that just seemed to build up over time , the demoralization idea is something I can relate to .

Is that a type of depression ?
Have I become habituated to 'failing' , and being demoralized ?

For me I think depression is a sneaky dark beast that has a host of causes and manifestations ...

( For example - maybe I did things in a manic seemingly proactive way in the past , in order to
theatrically disguise my depression ? Reaching for and persueing goals I really didn't want , in a
deeply unhappy state 'because I had made a commitment ' ? )

All of this is self absorbed rambling ( my speciality ) ... but I'm alluding to the idea
'depression' as being a very slippery creature .

I think I thought of it once as smeagles 'precious' , right ?

My secret power that separated me from everyone else ( the normal people )

Very strange relationship with ones self .

I think it can be cured , but for most it wont be as the perversity of the human creature
seems to know no bounds !

We are wilful in identifying with our 'character ' however self destructive that may be .

I'm as chipper as a spring bunny today , simply because I had some spring sunshine .
It was that simple .

Later tonight I probably won't want to wake up tomorrow .

So , yeahnaa .

 

[mathieu]

Some people have an episode of depression and get over it, so I'd say there's hope for some.

 

[Jon86]

This is like asking, 'Is there hope for getting burned?' Well how badly have you been burned? did you burn your thumb on the stove or are you barely surviving from 3rd degree burns over your entire body?

 

[GreyMonkey]

Depression, as I understand it now, is a failure to meet the level of stress that one is being presented with.

Stress when heavy enough is registered as trauma. Stress can also be internal, such as shame and inner critic - which are usually habituated responses to earlier forms of stress/trauma.

And it's cumulative when not processed properly.

Our culture doesn't teach us how to process trauma adequately and many of our parents failed to model it appropriately at the same time as likely not providing secure attachment thus causing impaired bonding.

Depression is a low energy state in response to too much stress then. Either from cumulative unprocessed stress, or acute like losing a loved one or a job or ones savings.

Often it's preceded with a high energy state, anxiety, fear, shock and once that energy is burnt up the system collapses.

I posit that the reason it's so hard to do basic self care when depressed, yet cognitive functioning like posting on here or researching suicide methods are possible, is because there is a point where one has turned against themselves. It's almost like a preparing to die state. Like a freeze and expect to be eaten. The will to live has left.

That's why suicide becomes such an attractive choice at this point.

I think the pain has become greater than the capacity to deal with it.

So to heal depression means three things need to happen:
1. Reduce the amount of stress coming in
2. Process the backlog of unprocessed trauma
3. Widen the window of tolerance/increase resilience to deal with future stress

1. Happens with support from others, from getting finances in order, leaving toxic relationships, etc.

2. Happens with a good therapist (and most suck and don't know how to actually do this kind of deep inner child work - but if you find a good one it can really help over time)

3. Happens with self development practices: meditation, exercise, eating well, learning new skills, developing self esteem, etc.

It's not easy. Not at fucking all. It's an arduous climb through all that accumulated pain and discomfort. It's going against all the habituated avoidance tendencies. It's taking one fucking exhausting step after another. It's wading against the current that says it's too hard, too much, I'd rather be dead.

It means truly choosing to live. Again and again and again. And it might very well be easier to die. It might be too damn hard to do it.

Limbo fucking sucks though.

 

[thx1138]

Every case is different, because depression is not a typical disease. It's not like pneumonia where you know what the problem is and just take drugs until it's solved. Not even the best psychiatrists in the world have a clue what the hell is going on in the human brain.

It's absolutely stupid when they say: "depression is caused by lack of serotonin and happiness hormones." That's like saying "blindness is caused by lack of sight".

 

[Letmego. Please]

Well according to my shrink yesterday when she offered me a hospital bed (i declined) Yes.

And from 48yrs worth of life, i can say Yes.

Ok so i am at present according to said shrink 'severely depressed', i know that, it is'ant my first go around with this, but the point being that in-between the depressive episodes that can last a few years there is & has been many stable happy years to punctuate the darkness, & when they have been there i have lived them to the fullest. That is what i have always held on too.

The only question now is, is enough, enough.

 

[ManWithNoName]

I'm so sorry to have to agree with you, I've spent 20 years trying drug after another , a few times I thought I might be fixed, couple times I thought I found a solution but lasted shortly and became addicted , to benzo's and then with adhd meds.

I've been good with Testosterone and a steroid called dianabol , but I have my N in the fridge , even that I know I can be okay, damn I won't let go that N because if what you said, I know it can come back , no wait ... Thats not proper thinking,
Yeah sure depression could come back
But if I can keep it up with testo and dianabol I will

When you say testosterone are you doing testosterone replacement therapy? Or are you increasing you testosterone via natural means?

 

[Rachel74]

Suffering 22 years so NO! But that is my opinion. I have battled so hard that in the end you get so tired that you give up.

 

[LMFAO FOCKERS]

Depression, as I understand it now, is a failure to meet the level of stress that one is being presented with.

Stress when heavy enough is registered as trauma. Stress can also be internal, such as shame and inner critic - which are usually habituated responses to earlier forms of stress/trauma.

And it's cumulative when not processed properly.

Our culture doesn't teach us how to process trauma adequately and many of our parents failed to model it appropriately at the same time as likely not providing secure attachment thus causing impaired bonding.

Depression is a low energy state in response to too much stress then. Either from cumulative unprocessed stress, or acute like losing a loved one or a job or ones savings.

Often it's preceded with a high energy state, anxiety, fear, shock and once that energy is burnt up the system collapses.

I posit that the reason it's so hard to do basic self care when depressed, yet cognitive functioning like posting on here or researching suicide methods are possible, is because there is a point where one has turned against themselves. It's almost like a preparing to die state. Like a freeze and expect to be eaten. The will to live has left.

That's why suicide becomes such an attractive choice at this point.

I think the pain has become greater than the capacity to deal with it.

So to heal depression means three things need to happen:
1. Reduce the amount of stress coming in
2. Process the backlog of unprocessed trauma
3. Widen the window of tolerance/increase resilience to deal with future stress

1. Happens with support from others, from getting finances in order, leaving toxic relationships, etc.

2. Happens with a good therapist (and most suck and don't know how to actually do this kind of deep inner child work - but if you find a good one it can really help over time)

3. Happens with self development practices: meditation, exercise, eating well, learning new skills, developing self esteem, etc.

It's not easy. Not at fucking all. It's an arduous climb through all that accumulated pain and discomfort. It's going against all the habituated avoidance tendencies. It's taking one fucking exhausting step after another. It's wading against the current that says it's too hard, too much, I'd rather be dead.

It means truly choosing to live. Again and again and again. And it might very well be easier to die. It might be too damn hard to do it.

Limbo fucking sucks though.

Your response frames everything as strictly a choice to fix it. While that may be true for some, for others it may not be a choice. For those who have disassociated from their trauma in order to function, there comes a point where there is no ability to access recovery. Why? Because the person who has dissociated typically does not have any feelings towards it, such that empathy or sympathy are inaccessible. When basic feelings are inaccessible one becomes incapable of healing because existence becomes very black and white.

Some don't have feelings towards people or even themselves. These types of people have been trained to exhibit sympathy and empathy based on what society has demonstrated as appropriate actions and words not because it actually has an affect. For these people nothing matters, everything is ineffective. If a person has no connection to their actions or words such that actions or words just become "the right things to do" then there is no possible method by which that person could use tactics to heal. The therapists words and the persons words and actions toward themselves are ineffective.

These types of people "fake it til they make it" which is I find a stupid because in the case of dissociation people just wind up covering it up which is the cycle by which the dissociation began. These people are equivalent to a functional addicts. All functional alcoholics and drug addicts eventually become disfunctional. Its just a matter of time.

Society has developed long term treatment programs for the addict because part of the treatment involves staying away from the physical substance. But for the person who has dissociated, staying away from the disfunction reinforces the current state. As such, the reverse is the correct treatment. But how does one force someone to tap into something intangible that is outside of themselves hence the dissociation? Virtually impossible.

 

[GreyMonkey]

Your response frames everything as strictly a choice to fix it. While that may be true for some, for others it may not be a choice. For those who have disassociated from their trauma in order to function, there comes a point where there is no ability to access recovery. Why? Because the person who has dissociated typically does not have any feelings towards it, such that empathy or sympathy are inaccessible. When basic feelings are inaccessible one becomes incapable of healing because existence becomes very black and white.

Some don't have feelings towards people or even themselves. These types of people have been trained to exhibit sympathy and empathy based on what society has demonstrated as appropriate actions and words not because it actually has an affect. For these people nothing matters, everything is ineffective. If a person has no connection to their actions or words such that actions or words just become "the right things to do" then there is no possible method by which that person could use tactics to heal. The therapists words and the persons words and actions toward themselves are ineffective.

These types of people "fake it til they make it" which is I find a stupid because in the case of dissociation people just wind up covering it up which is the cycle by which the dissociation began. These people are equivalent to a functional addicts. All functional alcoholics and drug addicts eventually become disfunctional. Its just a matter of time.

Society has developed long term treatment programs for the addict because part of the treatment involves staying away from the physical substance. But for the person who has dissociated, staying away from the disfunction reinforces the current state. As such, the reverse is the correct treatment. But how does one force someone to tap into something intangible that is outside of themselves hence the dissociation? Virtually impossible.

Virtually impossible yet not entirely impossible.

The reason for dissasociation is an escape from pain, it's the same as addiction. Addiction really is just a form of dissasociation, a coping mechanism to avoid the pain of traumas.

Depression I think of as not that far along the spectrum. It's not as far as bipolar, and less than schizophrenia.

Many people who struggle with depression are often quite intelligent. There are many on here who are intelligent. And yes that intelligence is often a dissociation, such that cognitively there is functionality yet at the emotional level is where the dysfunction lies. Confronting the pain of the traumas and all the layers of shame and resentment and self hatred and self judgment that have developed as a result is terrifying.

It's not easy and yes difficult enough to be virtually impossible.

Yet that wasn't the question.

Can depression be beaten.

Yes.

Yet it requires a choice and willingness that is completely counter-directional to what the depression is doing.

So will many who have significant recurring major depression get through it? Unlikely. Very few. Changing ourselves is ridiculously hard, especially when we are on such shaky ground to start with.

 

[Shamana]

It really depends on the invidual and the cause of the depression. Sometimes it's also worth recognizing that depression in some cases in just the reflection of a shit life. I believe that depression can get better, but it really depends on the cause. Most episodes of depression are temporary. Here on SS you probably find the most severe and chronic cases.