[gilded-lilly]

I’m someone who has dealt with mental health issues over the course of my life.

The main causes are the following:

1) Illicit drug use. 2) Stress/anxiety/fear/grief

The answer is to accept the hard truths and understand what is the root cause of your depression. Is it lack of friends and family? Lack of hope for the future? Lack of enjoyment in things that previously made you happy? Belief that somehow success/truth comes at the expense of enjoyment of life (“ignorance is bliss”). Is it past trauma? A job/relationship you hate? Body/health issues? Aging? Feeling like you’ve achieved all your dreams but you’re more unhappy than ever? Bullying? Feeling unsatisfied? Unfulfilled? Shame about past behaviors?

All of these problems have solutions. Figure out what is at the core of your problem, and then treat it. Every problem is different.

For me, I realized I was harboring an incredible amount of pent up rage and resentment. The rage was so deep that it was all I could think about. Then I realized, I had to forgive the people who’d wronged me. And forgive them I did. I genuinely forgave them, in my own mind. And just like that, all my happiness came back to me. Suddenly I was free.

Also, I believe that almost all of our problems can be traced back to fear. So stop worrying. It’s a waste of energy.

There are some mental health issues that do require hospitalization and a short stint of medication to get people back on their feet and able to function. But I don’t believe in long term medication. Drugs are not the answer.

[TchoBeer]

>The answer is to accept the hard truths and understand what is the root cause of your depression. Is it lack of friends and family? Lack of hope for the future? Lack of enjoyment in things that previously made you happy? Belief that somehow success/truth comes at the expense of enjoyment of life (“ignorance is bliss”). Is it past trauma? A job/relationship you hate? Body/health issues? Aging? Feeling like you’ve achieved all your dreams but you’re more unhappy than ever? Bullying? Feeling unsatisfied? Unfulfilled? Shame about past behaviors?

some of these things (body/health issues, bad job/relationship, lack of friends) are causes which can be fixed with direct action. Some (aging, past behaviors, trauma, lack of family) can't be, but can be somewhat mitigated and be made less depressing with therapy. Others (lack of hope, anhedonia, lack of fulfillment) are not the cause of depression but the symptoms. to lump these all together seems strange to me.

[prewett]

Hopelessness and unfulfillment might be considered symptoms of depression if you think that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance. But if hopelessness and unfulfillment create an emotional response by imbalancing chemicals, then the depression is the symptom.

I can't see how hopelessness and unfulfillment would cause you to feel happy, and even feeling neutral seems a stretch. Seems like if you aren't depressed if you are hopeless and unfulfilled then something is wrong! It seems to me like American (Western?) society as a whole is pretty committed to avoiding dealing with hard realities--not just emotions--and we just want to take a "pill" to have it all go away. Anti-depressants have uses, but they aren't the solution any more than meth or pretending the problem doesn't exist or magical thinking are.

[gilded-lilly]

I believe those types of problems can be mitigated or even solved by changing your perspective. Example, I can’t get revenge on those people who wronged me. But I can forgive them. And through that, I no longer care. It is in the past, and like children who have stolen a cookie from my jar, I have to forgive them. And so I’m released from my anger.

I’m not sure what the solutions to those other problems are, but I think there would be solutions of a similar vein.