I’ve known since I was a kid that I’m depressed. I even have infant photos of me, where I look like I just hate life. Other baby photos the baby is smiling, and interested in everything. Whereas I look like even though I’m too young to even have thoughts, I’m still giving off body language of “leave me alone”.
But when I started asking everyone I knew if they too were depressed, I haven’t gotten one single person to say that they’re happy. Everyone has said they’re depressed. So now I wonder if it’s a regional thing, or if everyone everywhere is depressed.
I think I just crave an IRL connection tbh. Both of my close friends recently (1 yr ago) moved further away so I only get to see them a few times a year now. My social life has been obliterated. That makes me sad :(
Also yes, the world seems unstable right now but there ain’t much I can do, so I just have to learn to let it go.
What was your relationship with your parents and your peers?
Was it ever economic or more existential?
Are you depressed?
Yes.
Do you know anyone who’s not depressed?
The only happy people I know are wealthy and/or have wealthy parents (usually both, I’ll call wealthy a NAV >$10M) and have never needed to struggle.
I don’t know a single person worth 10 million or anywhere close, if you don’t count my boss’s boss and up. I’m curious where you live.
The SF Bay area, there are a lot of people who are financially independent here
I am not depressed, and I don’t think I have ever been (outside of maybe a few days or weeks of sadness when tragic things occurred, but I don’t think that would be classified as depression).
Am I happy? I think so. Maybe it’s more of a contentedness?
I don’t really think of most of the people around me as depressed either. But maybe it’s just that they hide it, or maybe it’s just that I don’t see it due to my own outlook.
Depression has gotten massively common because people tend to self-diagnose themselves. They self-diagnose themselves because therapy costs are high.
I’ve gone through therapy to say that I absolutely do have it. But then again, I knew for certain that I already had it prior to seeing at least two therapists. Because I’ve had a shitty childhood, I’ve gotten bullied an awful lot through childhood, I had unsupporting and unloving parents. A lot of my ambitions and dreams weren’t realized because I didn’t have the necessary tools to go and achieve them. My school career was so embarrassing that I elected not to go to college because I had nothing to show for it.
And while I can say that I’ve had decent friends and some good relationships. I keep finding myself fighting with whether or not anyone actually cares of me and simply just isn’t tolerating me so they can take advantage of my generosity.
So I have plenty to be depressed about.
Am I? Probably.
Is everyone I know? No idea, can’t say it’s something that comes up and I’m not qualified to diagnose them.
Nearly everyone close to me is not depressed.
Hope things get better for you. Most likely they will.
I’ve never known a person who is not depressed or anxious, just people who won’t accept that they are depressed or anxious.
There is depression and then there is clinically diagnosed depression. The two are not the same. Self diagnosis can only go so far and has a high likelihood of being wrong. The latter is not as common to have.
I have never been really depressed, even in bad times in my life I was able to see a better future. My mother has been diagnosed with depression when she was around 30 but when we look at any pictures from the past, other than her wedding, she always looked depressed.
As far as I understand it’s some chemical inballance in the body but our scientists weren’t able to pinpoint how to fix it (yet).
This makes me sad for my mom, but not depressed. My own life has been getting better and better, especially since covid started. I’m one of the lucky ones I guess.
Thank you for sharing your experience.
Depressiom is a malfunction of the brain, just like diabetes is of the pancreas. It has both genetic and environmental triggers.
Some people are going to contact the disease early for no apparent reason. They fight it their entire lives.
Other people have strong environmental influences that trigger the disease. The right treatment can effectively stop or even reverse the progression of the disease. Other people are resistant to the treatment the the disease progresses unchecked.
Both diseases are deadly if not treated at all.
The hardest part for people suffering from depression is that the disease itself fights against treatment. All the things that people need to do to feel better are the last things a depress person wants to do: Set a regular sleep cycle, have a strong exercise routine, eat well balanced food, take your medication on time, avoid self-medicating with other drugs, attend therapy regularly, interact with supportive friends, engage in hobbies they enjoy, etc… aka a living hell and a daily battle requiring energy they don’t have. Oh and every part treatment takes time to have an effect as well. So at the beginning (2-5 years) they have to do all that work to still feel like shit at the end of the day.
Even they happy people I know acknowledge shits going down hill. Reality objectively sucks even when things are personally going well.
Definitely not depressed now. I have been when working at a job that drained all my energy every day for years but even then I don’t have clinical depression (which is not normal for humans).
Currently doing well financially and in my family life. I have a great, supportive wife, great kids who are excelling, and a job I very much enjoy and that business is doing well.
I don’t allow outside forces (like politics) to make me sad. Instead I use that energy to do what I can to help those around me and make a very real and tangible difference. Helping others is very satisfying in a way nothing else is.
Do what you can to help your neighbors. It only takes one to make a difference and then others will start doing the same. Be the leader. Change your community.
I suppose so. Baseline level of happiness has always been low and I tend to have a pessmistic outlook. When I was a kid I remember getting random intense pangs of guilt in my stomach for no reason even though nothing was happening to cause it. Laterally I realised that was a symptom of depression.
At the same time my life is pretty great. I’ve been very fortunate to enjoy my career and to have a partner that I’ve got a good relationship with. All of my immediate family members are still alive and thriving to varying degrees but thriving for sure.
Strong suspicion that I could be close to mentally “normal” if I were to incorporate working out at the gym into my regular routine.
Where’d you grow up where everyone is depressed? Detroit? I kid, Detroiters. Y’all got some things going on.
But naw; not depressed and don’t know too many depressed people.
yeah
