how can you say that and also chat the other bollocks you are talking? does the fact that what we call "mental disorders" are culturally and socially situated and maybe even caused, mean that you can think your way out of them? even if something is not an illness, that does not mean it can be resolved purely through some particular mental activity.Rönin wrote:I've been involved with deeply depressive people very close to me and I know my statement is reductive and may seem uneducated (though I've had advanced psychology/criminology classes) but I still think the biggest problem of civilised people is that they have too much freedom to choose what to do with their lives and they get lost in it. I think culture influences mental disorders and the way you approach them. One particular man used to tell me his life was going nowhere and he wanted to hang himself, he was on Xanax for 10+ years and seeing a psychologist. Couldn't help but think it was typical to resort to such things when you can set your mind straight by constantly reminding yourself that you can do whatever you want (it was his case), that you are a result of pure luck and that there are ALWAYS people somewhere who would kill to have your life.computerface wrote:Dude...Rönin wrote:I think depression is a pseudo-sickness invented by the western man because he has nothing else to complain about (open fire, flame me etc etc etc)
http://www.akimbocomics.com/?p=573
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_depressive_disorder
Depression is a mental disorder, just as schizophrenia, bipolar, and obsessive-compulsive are. Sure, you get a lot of people saying "i'm so depressed right now" or "lol i'm so ocd i have to have my clothes arranged just right", but they're just idiots belittling actual disorders that cause actual, severe damage to people's lives. Until you know somebody who committed suicide because they had depression for months and nobody did anything other than tell them to "snap out of it" or have had nervous breakdowns because they had OCD and spent hours literally trying to get a single obsessive thought out of their mind, don't pass judgment on these things like that.
Maybe there is something chemical to it, maybe it's not just a though process, but shit man you can travel, interact with people from all over the world, you have everything you need materialy... If you have problems in your relationship to people you can sort it out, if you have problems in your relationship to yourself, tell yourself you are someone and that's already something
do you not think depressed people have ever heard this shit before?
wow you can travel, interact with people, cool! (except actually even in western societies a lot of people can't - there are various reasons why people become socially isolated and there are actually poor people in these countries who can't even afford food let alone travel. hell, they can't even afford to pay for a passport).
you are just listing these things as if they are easy and as if a state of depression is something that can you can just think your way out of. you'll mention CBT here but CBT is a contentious treatment and ineffective in severe cases. things that cause depression, like trauma etc, change the structure and operation of the brain, in a real physical sense. of COURSE there is "something chemical to it". everything that happens in your mind is biologically, neurally situated.
depression is a heterogeneous disease with varying etiologies, presentations and *severities*. chalking the entire phenomenon up to this explanation is fundamentally ridiculous.
please i beg you go up to someone who is catatonic or psychotic and tell them to "tell themselves they are something".
you need to take more psychology classes i think
