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As a recovered depressed person who went on SSRIs and through therapy to recover, this is nonsense. A depressed person’s view is completely warped from reality

As a recovered depressed person who went on SSRIs and through therapy to recover, this is nonsense. A depressed person’s view is completely warped from reality. One of the key parts of cognitive behavioral therapy is slowly training yourself out of horribly inaccurate views about yourself and the world.

SavantIdiot 5y ago
Seriously. Same thing here. I wasn't realistic: I was in a downward spiral of negative feedback and thought errors. WTF are these authors talking about?
treebot 5y ago
The article said mildly depressed people could have a more accurate view of reality, not majorly depressed people. Quite different. A mildly depressed person doesn't have a completely warped view of reality like a majorly depressed person does.
- JasonCannon 5y ago
  The biggest difference in mild vs medium vs major depression is how long you experience symptoms. They all have more or less the same symptoms, it's just that major depression lasts a long time. All forms of depression are a warped view of reality. This article, and the experiment that it draws from are wrong.
crazy_horse 5y ago
No reason to see it like this, it's not helpful and I'd argue is probably just wrong. I get depressed (I take SSRIs, too) because we live in 2021 and I see people taking advantage of each other on a daily basis, killing each other over things that don't matter. I have a front row seat to watching some of the world's greatest minds argue over semantics. That's the real world. That's realistic. Whether you take that to nihilism is something else. I know the pit of despair depression you are talking about but it is a spectrum.
anonporridge 5y ago
Or perhaps one method of recovering from depression is training yourself to honestly believe a fantasy about reality, and learning to see your previous, depressive worldview as inaccurate is part of that training.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
As a chronically depressed person who was once on SSRIs for a long period of time, I disagree. I don't know if being depressed gives me a more accurate view of reality, but I would say for certain that it does not inherently give me a less accurate one.
- JediWing 5y ago
  As someone on SSRI's as well, I think it's a bit of a mixed bag. I've definitely experienced CBT where my therapist and I worked to tear down some overly harsh views of myself (unrealistic). The flipside is my struggle with weight. I (ill-advisedly and not entirely purposefully) was off of my SSRIs for about a week while I was already mildly depressed about my weight gain. I was much more depressed about it in that week, and I definitely feel like this was because I was forced to deal with the reality of the situation, whereas on my SSRIs I was more easily able to push it out of my mind. There are times when your depression is driven by tough reality (for me, that diet, exercise and un-ending hard work are needed for weight loss), and the only way to become happy in spite of this is either commit to the work or choose to ignore it.
  - JasonCannon 5y ago
    Or perhaps you were more depressed that week because your mind was going through withdraws from not having your medication. When it comes to your weight, it's not about pushing the thought of your weight gain out of your head. It's about combating the lies that you are telling yourself about your weight gain: that it means you are lazy, unlovable, disgusting, etc. The way you be happy in spite of your weight gain is not to either commit to the work or choose to ignore it (although for peoples health it's definitely good to commit to the work) but is rather to not view your weight gain as a statement of your self. You are not your problems, you are not your weight.

SavantIdiot 5y ago

Seriously. Same thing here. I wasn't realistic: I was in a downward spiral of negative feedback and thought errors. WTF are these authors talking about?

treebot 5y ago

The article said mildly depressed people could have a more accurate view of reality, not majorly depressed people. Quite different. A mildly depressed person doesn't have a completely warped view of reality like a majorly depressed person does.

JasonCannon 5y ago
The biggest difference in mild vs medium vs major depression is how long you experience symptoms. They all have more or less the same symptoms, it's just that major depression lasts a long time. All forms of depression are a warped view of reality. This article, and the experiment that it draws from are wrong.

crazy_horse 5y ago

No reason to see it like this, it's not helpful and I'd argue is probably just wrong. I get depressed (I take SSRIs, too) because we live in 2021 and I see people taking advantage of each other on a daily basis, killing each other over things that don't matter. I have a front row seat to watching some of the world's greatest minds argue over semantics. That's the real world. That's realistic. Whether you take that to nihilism is something else. I know the pit of despair depression you are talking about but it is a spectrum.

anonporridge 5y ago

Or perhaps one method of recovering from depression is training yourself to honestly believe a fantasy about reality, and learning to see your previous, depressive worldview as inaccurate is part of that training.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago

As a chronically depressed person who was once on SSRIs for a long period of time, I disagree. I don't know if being depressed gives me a more accurate view of reality, but I would say for certain that it does not inherently give me a less accurate one.

JediWing 5y ago
As someone on SSRI's as well, I think it's a bit of a mixed bag. I've definitely experienced CBT where my therapist and I worked to tear down some overly harsh views of myself (unrealistic). The flipside is my struggle with weight. I (ill-advisedly and not entirely purposefully) was off of my SSRIs for about a week while I was already mildly depressed about my weight gain. I was much more depressed about it in that week, and I definitely feel like this was because I was forced to deal with the reality of the situation, whereas on my SSRIs I was more easily able to push it out of my mind. There are times when your depression is driven by tough reality (for me, that diet, exercise and un-ending hard work are needed for weight loss), and the only way to become happy in spite of this is either commit to the work or choose to ignore it.
- JasonCannon 5y ago
  Or perhaps you were more depressed that week because your mind was going through withdraws from not having your medication. When it comes to your weight, it's not about pushing the thought of your weight gain out of your head. It's about combating the lies that you are telling yourself about your weight gain: that it means you are lazy, unlovable, disgusting, etc. The way you be happy in spite of your weight gain is not to either commit to the work or choose to ignore it (although for peoples health it's definitely good to commit to the work) but is rather to not view your weight gain as a statement of your self. You are not your problems, you are not your weight.