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by vrperson 2050 days ago
By that logic there is nothing useful you could say to a depressed person, as they won't get out of bed anyway.

I am willing to believe that there are people who won't feel better by going for a run or will be unable to do so, but I think there are probably also people who feel better by simply doing it, even if they don't feel like it.

Especially with depression there also seems to be an ideological battle, were some people absolutely want to believe that it is caused by chemical imbalances and medication is the only thing that can possibly work. (Again, I am willing to believe that such cases exist, but I also think there are people who would rightfully have been classified as depressed who came out of it without medication).

1 comments

I can't even understand why there's an ideological battle. If you take a perfectly healthy person and put them into solitary confinement, there's a good chance they'll become depressed. It's an extreme example, but my point is that for most people depression is very much circumstantial. If the circumstances can be corrected and no serious trauma was experienced, the depression will probably go away. When cirsumstances cannot be changed or there's lasting trauma, medications are an option but outcomes are mixed..

There's a minority of people whom regardless of their circumstances will be depressed. In this case, the argument that a person's monoamine neurotransmitters levels (e.g. serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine) are just naturally out of whack makes sense and medications might be the best option.