Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community  

Go Back   Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community > Chatter > General Discussion


 
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 09-20-2004, 10:43 PM   #1 (permalink)
Crazy
 
Location: New Orleans
Depression: genetic or lifestyle?

My girlfriend says that she feels depressed and is trying to tell me that it is because it runs in her family. Her mom and sisters have gone to the doctors and been told they have depression. i say that if she is depressed it is because of her life, like the way that she was raised and what is going on in her life. i know that she has a lot going on with work and school so i say that is what could cause the depression. i was wondering what some other people thought about this, so let me know.
thanks
bbbbbb555 is offline  
Old 09-20-2004, 11:47 PM   #2 (permalink)
Future Bureaucrat
 
KirStang's Avatar
 
For some reason, i get mood swings. Good events compounded will make my day great (e.g. good weather, good songs on the radio, good test scores). However, then seeing my "ex" that i'm not over yet and completely losing a intramural football game will ruin my day. (Read: Really happy, then really unhappy).

To counter-act this, i usually try to remain in a positive mindset. So, what i really think it is, is how your personality is. If you're one with really high standards (probably raised by parents that way) it is easy for you to not meet them and fail. Also, if you tend to make mountains out of molehills, it will lead to depression.

What i think it really is, is genetics mixed with personality. Some people just have chemical imbalances in them, so are more prone to depression. Being raised w/ despondent and negative parents will probably also make one more easily depressed.

As for your girlfriend, since she's in school and is working, she's probably handling massive loads of stress (when i worked and went to school i also felt really shitty, and i began to get eczema, apparently caused by stress). Which makes her more prone to depression. Try to be bright and happy for her, and influence her in a positive manner, and maybe she'll be less depressed...?
KirStang is offline  
Old 09-21-2004, 05:31 AM   #3 (permalink)
Insane
 
aurigus's Avatar
 
I agree with KirStang. It's a little of both - Nature vs Nurture.

It can be more prevelent but depending on the lifestyle it never shows itself. Or it can just be overwealming no matter what.
aurigus is offline  
Old 09-21-2004, 06:07 AM   #4 (permalink)
Fucking Hostile
 
tinfoil's Avatar
 
Location: Springford, ON, Canada
Depression also apparently runs in my family, though I think it's partially mindgames. My grandmother has been treated for depression for decades. I think that her depression was impressed upon my mother and her siblings at an early age rather than being genetically handed down to them. This, of course, led to my mother passing on some of the same traits to my sisters and I, though it is my youngest sister that seems to have absorbed the most of it. A severe case of post-partom (sp?) depression mixed with a reaction to some birth control injection led the doctor (a general practitioner, after a 15 minute visit mind you) to diagnose her as bipolar and give her some heavy duty meds. I firmly believe she was misdiagnosed and the rise in depression and other related ailments is more related to the attitude and mannerisms of parents in a childs formative years.

I also firmly believe that most cases of depression and related ailments are more suitably treated by having a sitdown with a qualified shrink than by a bottle of pills. One of my sisters and I took this route, the youngest took the medicated route. Both my sister (who went to the pros) and I are leading productive lives making good money with great prospects. I am married, my sister not but she doesn't want to be just yet. My other sister is a single mother with no job living with a nice guy who she treats like shit... well, she is for now. Apparently she broke up with him for some unknown reason and now plans to move in with my wife and I. Great. I got to enjoy my new house for a month and now I have to put up with my sister and her kid.

Sorry for the rant. Depression is, in most cases, lifestyle. I can't say all because I am by far a qualified individual so I can only go by my own experience but I firmly believe that if one's parents show signs of depression in a childs early years then that person has a much greater chance of developing it.
__________________
Get off your fuckin cross. We need the fuckin space to nail the next fool martyr.
tinfoil is offline  
Old 09-21-2004, 07:33 AM   #5 (permalink)
Junkie
 
Location: The Kitchen
From my experiences with family and loved ones who suffer from depression, I'd have to say that it's a little of both. Shortly after my best friend tried to kill herself, I found out that almost every female on her Mother's side of the family was on antidepressants. Several of my family members have been on them as well. Like tinfoil said, maybe some of it has to do with personality traits being picked up on over generations, but I would guess that the chemical imbalance that causes depression would be genetic.
So I guess some people are just genetically predisposed to depression, from there it's up to them to recognize it and seek help, which isn't always easy since depression tends to make you want to isolate yourself from everyone.
Be strong for your girlfriend, find her a doctor to talk to, someone who can help her find ways to deal with stress and adversity, preferably without medication. If the early warning signs go unnoticed, things'll only get worse for her.
rockzilla is offline  
Old 09-21-2004, 08:21 AM   #6 (permalink)
Junkie
 
Location: Sydney, Australia
It's possible that your girlfriend has doubts about her own mind. That is, having close relatives diagnosed makes one wonder whether they too might be suceptible or suffering from some kind of mental illness. When your blood relatives are diagnosed you wonder about your own sanity - just like the family and friends of cancer patients are extra vigilant in checking for lumps under their skin.

When you see mental illness in people close to you, you wonder what presence of mind you'd have in their shoes. You stubbornly like to believe that YOU would have the willpower to get through it without medication but deep down you know that if you were truly ill, such stubborness would only cause suffering for yourself and others.

Your girlfriend should hope and pray that she ISN'T suffering from clinical depression. It's natural for her to think about depression though - to empathise with her mom and sisters. The best thing she can do is read the literature, understand depression from a rational and clinical perspective.

I believe there are ways to help yourself if you are still healthy but nevertheless at risk. Physical fitness and mental fitness go hand in hand. Feeling GOOD by running laps or lifitng weights can stave off depression as well as heart disease...but if you are already ill you need to do what you would do if you were physically ill - see a doctor.
Macheath is offline  
Old 09-21-2004, 12:02 PM   #7 (permalink)
Insane
 
Location: Plano, TX
Depression is a product of both genetics and environment/lifestyle.

I'll write more about this later, I'd have to think a lot more about what exactly to say...
__________________
"The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by those who don't have it." - George Bernard Shaw
Shizukana is offline  
Old 09-21-2004, 01:53 PM   #8 (permalink)
Crazy
 
Location: New Orleans
thanks for all of the advice, and i agree with most of you that she should see someone to get some help and talk to them, and that taking some kind of medication is probably a bad idea.
bbbbbb555 is offline  
Old 09-21-2004, 05:58 PM   #9 (permalink)
Junkie
 
meembo's Avatar
 
Location: Connecticut
I believe clinical depression has organic roots. Everyone has the blues, but clinical depression can kill you, sometimes very slowly. Their are remedies for either case, and contact with a professional can turn most cases around.
__________________
less I say, smarter I am
meembo is offline  
Old 09-21-2004, 09:34 PM   #10 (permalink)
Baffled
 
alicat's Avatar
 
Location: West Michigan
I really hope I don't piss anyone off with my post. However, I first read this thread earlier today and here I am about 12 hrs. later feeling the need to comment because of the ill-informed or just downright ignorant things I've read on this thread.

Clinical Depression is notsomething you can control. There is a hugedifference between just being "depressed" and being "clinically depressed". I have experienced both. People need to understand that when a person is "clinically depressed", the chemical's in their brains/bodies are screwed up. They need medication to help stabalize their minds. There is a massive gap between someone who says "I'm bummed" because a chick they asked out said "no" and someone who has just lost an extremely close family member, or a job when they have 8 people to support or something along those lines. Tough life situation's can trigger real depression.
To all of you who have never experienced being "clinically depressed", you can't possibly have any concept of what it is like.

If you can, try to imagine feeling like your entire being is nothing but cosmic dust. You don't count in the grand scheme of things, because you really might not exist. Your whole life and existence might really be a hoax. You feel like there is no point in being on this earth because you're just going to die anyway. O'kay, that might be exaggerating (and simplified at the same time because there just is no way to explain the depth of your thoughts/pain/feelings), but the feeling of your life being surreal seems just like that (I'm sorry for using "you", "your" or "you"re" in place of "I', that's just the way I word things). You feel so numb to life that it seems like you are not really here on earth, you're just some celestial ooze that thinks it's actually been in physical form for some time. This is just my experience and certainly not something I felt all the time (maybe 30%). I can't even put into words the helpless feelings I experienced when I was clinically depressed (and I certainly don't mean to imply that other's have experienced the same things). I felt utter hopelessness and helplessness about my place in life and the world, and it was certainly not something anyone could fix by just talking to me. I was never suicidal because no matter how low I got, I loved my family and husband too much to want to leave or hurt them, and I'm a complete wimp when it comes to pain or death. Not being able to check out almost made it worse to deal with.

It's awful to experience clinical depression. It only hit me about 4 yrs. after my first and only child died. I started working full-time for the first time ever in my life three days after his funeral because we really needed the income and the job opportunity was there for me. I was never really fully able to grieve for him because of starting work, therefore I think the grieving was delayed and it (nature, life) caught up with me.

My Mother is Bi-polar and I won't even go there (because I could literally write a novel). I think I inherited (genetic and lifestyle?) the tendency towards depression ,although, after being on some unbelievably strong drugs for 8 mths. and quiting them, I havn't had a day of depression in the 3 yrs. since.

Tinfoil: I don't quite agree with you but I have been in your sister's shoe's. I had been on one anti-depressant for three yrs. that wasn't cutting it. I went to a so-called "psychiatrist" (sp?) (I called the office three times to confirm she was one and it turned out later she wasn't) who freaked out on my first visit and said she could'nt help me and that I should check myself into the (right next-door) hospital. I did so the next day and (like your sister) had an interview that maybe lasted all of 15 mins. They checked me in and within 40 mins. I heard my name being called to the desk. I went there and was told to swallow about 6 pills in a paper cup. Mind you, I had only taken one anti-depressent for the previous 3 yrs. I took the pills (including anti-psychotic's!) and proceeded to be stoned out of my mind for about a month until my Hubby, Dad and Sis put their foots down and said "something's not right here". They came with me to the "psychiatrist's" office to confront her and it turned out they had screwed up the dosage on 3 of the drugs I was sent home with. As I said above, I only took the drugs for 8 months before quitting them. I don't know if I naturally came out of the depression (some never do like my mother) or if the drugs knocked something right in my brain, just that I havn't needed them since.

Depression is a huge quagmire that needs to be delt with on an individual basis, and not treated lightly or just shrugged off as something people "just need to get over with and buck up"! My $0.02.

Ali
__________________
'Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun, The frumious Bandersnatch!'--Jabberwocky, Lewis Carroll

"You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late."--Ralph Waldo Emerson
alicat is offline  
 

Tags
depression, genetic, lifestyle

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



All times are GMT -8. The time now is 08:23 AM.

Tilted Forum Project

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
© 2002-2012 Tilted Forum Project

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360