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Do you realize these two sentences say the same exact thing? You have a pain, which is a signal of a disorder, and you need to change something to fix it. "At
by podgaj 6y ago
Do you realize these two sentences say the same exact thing? You have a pain, which is a signal of a disorder, and you need to change something to fix it.
"At first I viewed the depression I started fighting in my teens as a scourge, a defect, something broken to be fixed."
"I have since come to see it as an important signal. When I am managing my life and mental states well, it often fades into the background. When it starts to flare up, like with some kind of physical pain, that's telling me I need to pay attention and change things up a bit."
- typicalset 6y agoI think these two sentences are different: it's analogous to treating a symptom vs treating an underlying condition.
- podgaj 6y agoYeah, I agree with that distinction. This is am important semantic discussion. But he just changed the name of the thing he wants to get rid of from "pain" to "signal". The signal is still a disorder. The signal is the thing that bothers us.
- abdullahkhalids 6y agoI think they is saying that if you put your hand on a hot thing, you get a signal. You can also call it pain. But the problem is not an internal problem with your body, but a consequence of your environment. So change your environment or what you are doing and the pain will disappear. Don't try to keep your environment the same and try to change within. (I don't entirely agree with them, but that's my best summary of their argument).
- Solstinox 6y agoNo. One sees the depression as something to be fixed, the other sees the underlying problem causing the depression as something to be fixed.
- podgaj 6y agoYeah, I agree. But the signal is still the disorder that needs to be fixed. Any psychiatrist will tell you that psychiatric medications only treat the symptoms of mood disorders and that they do not know the cause of most of them. It is hogwash that they think mood disorders are "only chemical imbalances in the brain". They know these disorders are polygenic and environmental. But for some people, a short dose of SSRI's or antipsychotics can keep them alive long enough to find out what it is that is giving them so much pain, i mean singnals.
- montagg 6y agoAre you familiar with what it’s like to have depression? It’s not something you can really ever get rid of, even if you can mitigate it with medication and lifestyle changes. It’s there, though not dominant, even when things are going well and even when you’re in a positive mood. I struggle with similar feelings, and the idea that depression becomes something that is there but can be put to positive use absolutely tracks with my own experience.
- TheAdamAndChe 6y agoI think depression can spiral into a positive feedback loop that forms a depressive disorder. Mood affects life which affects mood which affects life... Many people who haven't been stuck in that positive feedback loop have still been blue. Their capacity to feel happiness is muted just like ours, but they are successfully able to get out of that with a behavioral change. That's not always the case with a depressive disorder, and it can take a multi-faceted approach of medications, lifestyle change, sleep hygiene improvement, sometimes electroshock therapy for those people to get out of it.
- BurningFrog 6y ago> Are you familiar with what it’s like to have depression? Pretty sure there are many distinct conditions that we now call "depression". Your description is very true for some of them, and not at all for others.
- 6y ago