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How Do You Deal with Depression Around Christmas?
SleepyHappyDoc asks: "Lots of people around the world seem to experience more sadness and depression around the holiday season, than in other times of the year. There could be any number of reasons why this is, but my question is: how do you deal with it? Have you managed to find any coping strategies or activities that make things feel less bleak?"
Had I the points, I'd mod you up.
;-)
It took me a long time to accept that depression is in fact an illness, and not just me being the social reject I saw myself as. (The fact that I had (many) friends who were confused as fuck as to why I kept putting myself down never seemed to register
I'm still having to remind myself that its an illness, that its something that's going to pass and that what I feel now about myself is NOT how the rest of world sees me. But with friends/family it is possible to get past this crap (and it is crap - its just that the subjective nature of depression makes it hard if not imppossible to realise this.)
It can be a real vicious circle , if you feel worthless then you may feel you are wasting someone's time by asking for help as you may feel you are acting like a fool . Which is far from the case .
The other problem is a perceived stigma attached to these things , and true enough there may be some but the stigma is a problem with the people who look down upon it , not the sufferer .
Most people these days will recognise it is an actual illness and will help you or understand , depression is more common than one would think.
SAD(seasonal affective disorder) affect around 2 in 100 people and regular depression affects around 1 in 10 of us regularly , Even conditions such as Bipolar disorder and sever unipolar depression is not uncommon (though far rarer ) , chances are you know someone with one or almost all of these conditions .
If you know someone you think may be depressed then talk to them about it and offer a friendly ear , just be careful how you word it (you don't want to put them on a defensive ).
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
But the connection does not show that one causes the other.
Depression is an illness, has been proven and has predictable, measureable effects.
Telling people to get out sounds good, but it's just a way of blaming them instead of acknowldeging there is a problem and this often makes them mroe depressed. If the parent poster, and the others in this thread don't believe that, then maybe a little research would help.
"sadness and depression"
First, ask yourself if the sadness and depression is realistic. Is your connection with other people far less than is required to meet your needs? People in the U.S. culture often have families in which the members are very disconnected from each other. It's healthy to feel sad about that.
Second, depression is caused by inner conflict. To relieve depression, you must resolve inner conflict. The fake methods of dealing with depression don't work, they just delay the intensity of the problem until later.
Yep that can just put people on the defensive .Sure in a tiny amount of cases people can just need to snap out of it ,that is however moping and not depression.
.. but actually having the energy or will to get out of the door is a problem , and even if you do get there , there is no guarantee that you in some cases it will not just heighten the feelings of isolation , others will be having a great time and you will just feel like crap .
Depression will require either medication in the case of pure clinical depression .
therapy (may only be a friendly ear to talk to ) and perhaps medication if it is due to a real world experience such as loneliness or loss .
Or in the case of SAD , It may require Medication and therapy but will most likely be helped by a solar light.
A lot of people will advise just getting out and having a good time , which is great and can help
This is why it is important to see a doctor , they are trained to help people with these things (as are many nurses that help run clinics , plus a few volunteers )
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
> This is why it is important to see a doctor , they are trained to help
> people with these things (as are many nurses that help run clinics ,
> plus a few volunteers )
I know a lot of folks who are anti "medication for depression" because someone they knew had a bad experience. Not all doctors are made the same. There are a lot of pill pushers out there who listen to your problems for 5 minutes, prescribe the med-du-jour, and call it good.
The trick is to find a good M.D. psychiatrist who both understand meds and does weekly therapy sessions. Finding the right med for each person is a trick of balancing side effects, and all of these med can have bad side effects. If you get it right, it can be wonderful, but gets them wrong and you will be worse than you were originally.
btw, I'm on a combination of Wellbutrin and Lexapro, and it works wonderfully for me. And I see my therapist once per month like clockwork.
jfs
The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.