Alexei_Kirillov
Waiting for my next window of opportunity
- Mar 9, 2024
- 1,009
Depression technically falls under the "mood disorder" category, but does this seem like a misnomer to anyone else? Wouldn't it make more sense to call it an "energy disorder," given that the defining symptom is a lack of energy, fatigue, and lack of ambition?
The term "mood" makes it sound temporary and has a negative connotation imo, almost as if you're incapable of regulating your own emotions. In reality, more often than not depression is a chronic state of being, not a transient mood. If it was indeed just the latter, then the fix would be becoming happier, but if it's the former, then it's recharging your life-battery (or for the more spiritually minded among you, revitalizing your lifeforce) -- which is a very different thing from finding happiness.
This characterization of depression is probably partly responsible for the misconceptions laypeople have about it, ex. parents who think you can come out of depression by "changing your attitude." If they were told their child was suffering from an energy disorder, not a mood disorder, I think they'd be more likely to take it seriously and to understand it better.
I think this redefinition would also make it easier to digest the idea that depression might actually be an evolutionarily advantageous set of behaviours that helps you survive in a particular circumstance by essentially putting your body into hibernation mode. Viewed this way, depression is not a sign that your brain is "broken" or "imbalanced"; rather, it would be an expected reaction to undergoing a high-effort activity that was not followed up by an equally restorative activity. The phenomenon of depressed people not wanting to get better is also better understood under this framework, because we understand that getting better requires energy that they don't have to spare.
Just something I've been thinking about lately, haven't looked at it from all angles yet. What are your guys' thoughts? Do you agree? Disagree? @Forever Sleep
The term "mood" makes it sound temporary and has a negative connotation imo, almost as if you're incapable of regulating your own emotions. In reality, more often than not depression is a chronic state of being, not a transient mood. If it was indeed just the latter, then the fix would be becoming happier, but if it's the former, then it's recharging your life-battery (or for the more spiritually minded among you, revitalizing your lifeforce) -- which is a very different thing from finding happiness.
This characterization of depression is probably partly responsible for the misconceptions laypeople have about it, ex. parents who think you can come out of depression by "changing your attitude." If they were told their child was suffering from an energy disorder, not a mood disorder, I think they'd be more likely to take it seriously and to understand it better.
I think this redefinition would also make it easier to digest the idea that depression might actually be an evolutionarily advantageous set of behaviours that helps you survive in a particular circumstance by essentially putting your body into hibernation mode. Viewed this way, depression is not a sign that your brain is "broken" or "imbalanced"; rather, it would be an expected reaction to undergoing a high-effort activity that was not followed up by an equally restorative activity. The phenomenon of depressed people not wanting to get better is also better understood under this framework, because we understand that getting better requires energy that they don't have to spare.
Just something I've been thinking about lately, haven't looked at it from all angles yet. What are your guys' thoughts? Do you agree? Disagree? @Forever Sleep