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"That sounds a lot like depression to me. Depression isn't always sad or melancholy, sometimes it's just like you said." Depression is a serious illness and sh
by dan00 16y ago
"That sounds a lot like depression to me. Depression isn't always sad or melancholy, sometimes it's just like you said."
Depression is a serious illness and shouldn't be equalized
with an unmotivated mental state.
- jackowayed 16y agoDepression is a complicated illness and shouldn't be assumed not to sometimes look like an unmotivated mental state.
- dan00 16y agoIf someone can't work for a few days, or even a week, just hangs around watching tv, playing video games or reading, and after this time is again able to work, then this isn't a depression, but just the need for a rest. I have been suffering of depressions, and it's nothing like an unmotivated mental state. By equalizing it, you're trivializing depressions. They're real mental pain, they're about loosing any enjoyment.
- derefr 16y ago> If someone can't work for a few days, or even a week, just hangs around watching tv, playing video games or reading, and after this time is again able to work, then this isn't a depression, but just the need for a rest. This isn't really what I was talking about, though. It's more being unable to work for months at a time, barely managing to push oneself to scrape by, and then having months of easy, limitless energy. Neither period is predictable—I don't become any more akrasic when I do difficult or stressful work, and no amount of pronounced, conscious "relaxing" (avoiding all stressors, doing only fun things, etc.) will give me energy back any more quickly.
- dan00 16y agoHmm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipolar_disorder http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipolar_disorder?
- philwelch 16y agoA lot of mental illnesses work that way: there's a pattern of behavior that in and of itself isn't that uncommon, except it's to such a degree that it impairs one's ability to live a healthy life. Everyone has ups and downs. Not everybody has a mood disorder.
- philwelch 16y agoThat's a very patronizing response. When I say that depression often manifests as an unmotivated mental state, rather than the overt sadness or melancholy one might assume, I'm speaking from personal experience. As someone who has been medicated for it, I'm the last person who needs to be told that depression is a "serious illness".
- dan00 16y agoSorry, if I have been a bit harsh. It's just when people all the time tell how depressed they are, but they're just in a pretty normal bad mood, which vanishes the next day. If you're then trying to explain people what a depression is, how it feels, then they associate it with their "depressed" days.