3 ms·

This overlaps like 80% with clinical depression as currently defined, no? How does this entire article not include "anhedonia", which is literally the inability

• deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
• 1996 7y ago
  Alternative explanation: maybe our medical classification changed the label for something the ancient greeks found valuable, leading to a semantic slide (ataraxia => anhedonia => depression) as it is no longer appropriate in the current society for whatever reason. Maybe people feel better when their are busybodies because culture/media feeds the message they should be unhappy if they don't do something or help others. Maybe society couldn't function if most people felt no desire to have kids or work besides the minimum required for shelter and subsistence. The post below yours at the moment calls for having a kid, which is both taking a responsibility and according to most parents the equivalent of finding a greater purpose that yourself. It strikes me also as very convenient bargain for a society that couldn't function if the population and the economy was always shrinking. Do you really think most people would bother waking up to go to work if they had no kids but a place of dwelling and food on the table (say through UBI or anything)? The creative hackers, maybe, but I think most people would find videogames and drinking with friend quite sufficient. The post pandemic will be a great experiment to check if the price elasticity of work has been permanently altered by a few weeks of isolation, and reflection.
  • Sophistifunk 7y ago
    Society? You think the desire for children is something cooked up by evil capitalists? How exactly did humans not go extinct before 1800?
    • roywiggins 7y ago
      Strictly speaking it didn't matter much what people wanted back then. Babies happened regardless. Women had very little say in whether they had babies. Family planning is very new.
• downerending 7y ago
  See also acedia.
  • lihaciudaniel 7y ago
    See also akrasia
• proverbialbunny 7y ago
  That's a key difference between depression and boredom. Boredom is you can't find something to do that is fulfilling, eg, not having a hobby. Chronic depression is being restricted from doing something that will make you feel better, be it no energy, overly pessimistic beliefs of outcome, or similar mental states that can cause these mental blocks. Depression often has a lack of feeling, even sex drive is reduced, from this. Note, depression is not just the lack of feeling, as there are other disorders, even kinds of brain damage that can reduce feeling, without depression. Also, this is not depressive episodes, which is a separate topic. Depression is hard to get out of when one is mentally blocked from doing fulfilling activates. Boredom is easier to get out of, because they will get around to doing something fulfilling, either immediately, or usually within the next day or two and the boredom goes away.