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I can recall several people from my own college experience who sound just like the brother in the article. They seemed happy on the surface but when in an intim
by GolfyMcG 11y ago
I can recall several people from my own college experience who sound just like the brother in the article. They seemed happy on the surface but when in an intimate setting, reality came out. The intimate setting for us was our fraternity meetings where brothers would bring up that they were have personal problems. Frequently they would share a lot details. I think it was probably one of the best examples of a community coming together to help people without getting recognition and wasn't all just drinking and partying.
Something I've always wondered though is where this stemmed from. I find it unusual that both children from this one family happened to have problems with depression. Perhaps it's a coincidence but I often times wonder if depression really stems from hardship or if it's something less complicated than that. Many of the people who talked about having mental health issues in our fraternity were VERY well off. In fact, between all the people I've known in my life to struggle with mental health the most common attribute I remember was having two parents that worked despite having the means for one of them to stay home. Perhaps my observations are entirely coincidental but it's always seemed that these people needed more attention than anything else. As a result, just having a place for people to talk openly was immensely valuable. Our university had something called "A Place to Talk" where they were trained to be active listeners and not give advice. It's hard to actively participate in conversation without expressing your opinion but that's what they did. I really think they saved lives and probably money on a regular basis.
- blt 11y agoI feel strongly that depression runs in families. a majority of my family has been depressed at one time despite no major hardships or tragedies. I don't know if it's genetic or based on learned attitudes, but the idea that you need a good reason to be depressed is completely wrong.
- GolfyMcG 11y agoYou seem to find the idea of finding a "good reason" to be depressed a bad thing. I disagree. A lot of the skepticism around depression (and most mental health problems) stems from a lack of concrete knowledge about the cause and effect. We should be striving to use science and objective reasoning to determine the real causes of depression otherwise we won't be able to (1) accurately determine who really needs help in a world of limited resources and (2) provide a real solution. We should try to be understanding in the meantime but we shouldn't just accept that anyone can be depressed if they say so.