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People who can just sleep, diet and exercise and the depression simply goes away, that's not real major depression. I really hate how people spread this stuff s
by Kenji 9y ago
People who can just sleep, diet and exercise and the depression simply goes away, that's not real major depression. I really hate how people spread this stuff so condescendingly. No, it might have worked for you, but it does not work for millions of people who suffer from it.
- yters 9y agoPart of depression I had to reject is it became part of my identity, that it made me some kind of special. Because part of depression is self pity.
- varjag 9y ago> Because part of depression is self pity. Are you sure you are not one of those people who confuse being moody with clinically depressed? Self pity isn't really high on the list of symptoms.
- yters 9y agoLooking over the list of symptoms, I definitely had that. Very severe in my teens, got better in college, and now it rarely bothers me. Improvement seems to have come from numerous changes to my life, including the whole exercising thing. Being really fit was a big confidence boost, though I don't need to remain at that level of fitness to retain the benefits. But the biggest impact was my worldview and how it has changed.
- ionised 9y agoThen you never had clinical depression.
- yters 9y agoSounds like the no true Scotsman fallacy. For instance my understanding of clinical depression is people often have suicidal ideation. I had that, would imagine throwing myself out a window, down the side of a mountain, etc. But I never would follow through because I noticed how my depression filtered my view of the world, and once the feeling passed things did not seem so bad. It would be horrible to make such a final decision as suicide, since it guaranteed my life would not improve, even though my depression told me it never would. Plus, believing I could go to hell for suicide helped keep me from doing it, and concern for how it would affect those I love. Finally, it seemed like such a selfish decision.
- varjag 9y agoEveryone imagines own death, it's nothing abnormal. Moreover, it's not just depressed people who get suicidal, and far from all people depressed are suicidal. Clinically depressed people are numb for life, they are not wailing in self pity.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- eradicatethots 9y agoAgreed. Those people have nothing to offer the depressed. I’m not sure if they really want to help anyways, saying “oh just excercise” is useful the same way saying “not my problem” is useful. But then, why say anything st all?
- rconti 9y agoI'm not willing to categorically say those people were not suffering from major depression (who am I to judge), but it strikes me as the kind of fix that's not commonly going to help major depression, and to see it almost universally touted here as the cure-all is dismissive at best and counterproductive/condescending at worst. To me, it's not much better than saying "just smile more". Thankfully it's not an issue for me anymore, but those "fixes" were total crap (for me) when it was.
- PeterisP 9y agoPeople aren't saying that depression goes away, but sleep, diet and exercise are known to improve the symptoms of serious clinic depression, and would be recommended no matter if you're doing therapy and medication or not.
- Kenji 9y agoThat's like saying I should tell everyone who has cancer to eat more salad because it's healthy, even though there is little hope that salad makes the cancer disappear or affects it at all. Got cancer? Just eat more salad!