Gilda

"All" pretty much invalidates your argument at the start. There are drug and attention seeking hypochondriacs, and I don't doubt that some of the former will use depression as an attention getting device, but to say that everyone so diagnosed is faking it is both flat out wrong and frankly more than a little insulting.

The drug seeking I don't quite understand. How exactly would that work, faking depression to get pills? The most common classes of medication given to depressives aren't the type of drug that make you high. The only positive effects generally seen are on people with depression or related disorders, they're expensive, and they come with a host of possible negative side effects. There is no pleasant narcotic or stimulant effect, and the newer, more powerful versions tend to be more specific to the disorders. The sole positive effect for most is the relief of symptoms the person with the deprssion or anxiety disorders is feeling.

What happens with depression is that, regardless of the initial cause, stress, a history of abuse, problems with biochemistry, once it's gone on long enough, it throws the neurochemical processing in the brain out of balance and the medication helps to put it back where it's supposed to be.

Even if we accept your assertion that it's simply a matter of not having the will power or courage to get past it, wouldn't that indicate that outside help is necessary, in the form of family support, therapy and/or medication? If someone doesn't have the willpower to get past it on her own, and I agree, many don't, then it can't reasonably be said to be her fault.

That is a close-minded attitude towards this particular subject. Clinical depression and related disorders are caused in the long term by a neurochemical dysfunction in the brain. Willpower and courage are helpful, but they won't change the neurochemical functioning of the brain or undo dysfuntional thought patterns. Some people are incapable of functioning at an ordinary level without medications. Others can function, but do much better with professional help and/or medication.

Wonderful. You've found ways of coping with everyday situational depression. Everyone gets that sometimes, and knowing coping skills is a big help. Excercise, music, talking to family members, meditation, all of those can be good ways of coping.

You do realize, I hope, that there is a big difference in degree between feeling a little blue at times and clinical depression. Everyone gets a little down now and then. Not everyone has long lasting, intense, recurring cycles of it. They're similar in kind, but not in degree. Any disorder has lesser and greater degrees that require different interventions.

In other words, you help them work through their problems. Good for you! There would probably be fewer depressed people if more family members/friends were aware of what was going on and did what they could to make the situation better. That was even one of the points of the article posted.

If you're talking to them about what's bothering them (and with depression, it really doesn't have to be anything specific), I assume you do this because you think that talking about their problems will make them feel better, or you can offer advice that might help them feel better. That's what a therapist does, with the difference being that the therapist has extensive training in how best to deal with specific types of problems and in how to teach others specific coping strategies.

If the type of amateur talk therapy you offer can be helpful, and I agree that it can, what's wrong with a professional doing the same basic thing, but with the benefit of extensive training and professional distance? What about those who don't have someone supportive around to talk to, or whose family/social circle is toxic rather than supportive?

Ritalin isn't an anti-depressant, so your experience with it is hardly relevant to the subject, and if a therapist was prescribing it for depression, he's an idiot. I'm sorry that the therapy wasn't helpful to you, and happy to see that you've apparently managed to solve your problems on your own. Not everyone is capable of that, and many, myself included, do benefit from therapy.

Your personal experiences are helpful and illustrative, but you're making a hasty generalization, which is a logical fallacy in which you argue from too small a sample to a general population. In this case, because therapy wasn't helpful for you, you assume it won't be for anyone, and because you were able to overcome your problems without professional help, everyone can.

It's a very common argument, and one that makes powerful emotional sense: If I can do this, anyone can. You can do anything if you only work hard enough at it. Those make good for good motivation, but they aren't universal truths.

Not everyone is the same. Some can find peace and a way out by themselves and through family and friends. Others need professional help, or benefit better and get quicker or better results from professional help and/or medication.

There is no "one size fits all" was to deal with depression.

And when I talk about therapy
I know what people think
That it only makes you selfish
And in love with your shrink
But oh how I loved
Everybody else
When I finally got to talk
So much about myself

--Dar Williams

Gilda

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