YOU ARE NOT DEPRESSED, STOP IT!

[mia]

Sorry, but somebody had to say it.

[Marie Marie]

1. I liked that.

[Old Crow]

2. Ugggh.

So much misunderstanding behind this video.

1. Depression is not sadness. His description of a mood that comes and goes--like clouds--is descriptive of sadness, not depression, and most certainly not chronic, clinical depression.

2. Depression, especially if not treated, can be permanent. It alters the brain chemistry in ways that can be irreversible.

3. A person who is struggling with depression is not, like the sky, "always there," as this vlogger puts it. A person who is struggling with serious depression can lose parts of his or her personality and interests. Sometimes they can be recovered, sometimes they cannot.

I have decades of experience with clinical depression and this video is not helpful. It's just another take on the "snap out of it" trope so often repeated by those who have no experience or knowledge of what depression is.

[Duppers]

3. Totally agree with you.

This guy is astoundingly uninformed.

[Betty Karlson]

10. This guy is why so many people with depression feel guilty about their condition.

The idea that a self-strengthening interaction of body and mind can simply be cured by excercising a better "perception" of the problem: "you can stop it"

No, actually, I can't stop it. The best way to handle a bout of depression, for me, is to simply accept that life will be Hell on steroids for an as yet unidentified amount of time, take measures not to succumb to its worst moments, and at least the whole thing will not be enhanced by frantic panic: I have had this before, and just like a big tree in a storm, I may just remain standing.

fuck this clueless and selfish idiot.

[smirkymonkey]

20. I am so sick of this ignorant attitude I could scream!

[King_Klonopin]

5. This guy's message usually comes from a person who is annoyed

and doesn't want to deal with someone else's depression, grief, feelings, etc.
"Just stop it (so I don't have to feel uncomfortable around you!)

To psychotic people: Just stop hallucinating!
Can't you act like a normal person? (Like a total fool,I actually said this to someone.)

To an alcoholic: Just stop drinking!

To an addict: Just say "No"!

[Bucky]

11. disagree strongly

1. He doesn't say "depression is sadness"

2. He doesn't say "don't treat it"

3. He doesn't give the absolutes you attribute to him. What he offers is an affirmation that the times between the bouts of depression, those moments of clarity, are the right perspective on self--that the depression is on us, not of us. As someone who's struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts, I can tell you this was powerful, affirming, and motivating. YMMV, but I think it's quite helpful

[Stuart G]

14. Agreed, this video is not helpful. It is a lie !!!

It is not that simple. Your three points are correct and if untreated clinical depression kills. Depression, clinical depression is not like the sky..it is more like a terrible drought..that doesn't end..yes..a little rain once and a while, but..no real rain for a very long time..What causes that drought and why does it last so long?...very complicated. What has changed besides lack of rain?..also complicated..Why isn't there a quick solution.. there isn't any.

Oversimplification of very difficult situations is not just stupid. It is terribly wrong and evil. As is this absurd video..

[Warpy]

26. Untreated depression is usually fatal

since it affects all body systems and also leads to social isolation and suicide to make the pain stop.

Having ignorant asses heap shame on top of depression in seriously ill people is not helping.

[YOHABLO]

4. Why would you even put such trash in DU. This guy is such phony. He's in a motel room.

He doesn't have a clue about depression.

[sangfroid]

6. I was at a conference once

And there was a woman there who had epilepsy. After one particularly bad seizure, one passer-by actually suggested it was "attention-getting" and why didn't she just stop.

It was possibly the stupidest, most ignorant statement by an alleged human being I have ever heard.

[Duppers]

12. ...

My own mother said this of a relative who was moaning in pain when dying of stomach cancer. "She was just wanting attention"!!!!



Not surprisingly, my mother always voted rethugian!

And with that sort of childhood conditioning, it's no wonder I've had to fight for my sanity. I was so grateful for meds, my very compassionate, knowledgeable shrink, my therapy group, and weed - the combination of which saved my life. Seriously.

[Stuart G]

15. Actually, that statement .."attention-getting" is as stupid & ignorant as this video....nt

[Act_of_Reparation]

7. Oh, nice... armchair psychology from an anonymous blowhard. Sounds legit.

My depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in my brain. It doesn't come and go like fucking clouds in the sky. It is always there. It has always been there. And it will verly likely always be there. May this practiced neurotypical-splainer go forth and heartily fuck himself.

[Locrian]

8. what an utter load of crap

Seriously and tragically misinformed and self righteous.

[demmiblue]

9. Attitudes like this are why those with mental health issues are delegitimized and stigmatized.

That which makes me go... .

[demwing]

13. Sorry, but...

Nobody had to say this. It wasn't some kind of cosmic requirement.

Even if you give the man the benefit of the doubt, and believe he had solid gold intentions, he was still inaccurate, and when is inaccuracy ever a mandate?

[Quantess]

16. He is NOT helpful and needs to shut up!

Of course attitude is everything, but this guy doesn't understand that people with major clinical depression have an extremely difficult time turning their outlook positive, or even neutral, because depression is a mental illness. That is the illness, the inability to see reality and the inability to have a realistic attitude.

[markpkessinger]

17. What appalling and thoroughly uninformed rubbish!

Does this idiot think he invented this kind of thing, or that it hasn't been tried in the past and found to be completely and utterly ineffective?

So disappointing to see this on DU! Could have expected as much over at Freeperville.

[mia]

18. "Learned Helplessness might, therefore, be seen as lying at the heart of depression."

"Depressed people believe that nothing they can do will help them feel better. Their grim expectations of the future, combined with a demeaning belief in their own lack of efficacy contribute to the symptoms of clinical depression.

We can see the workings of learned helplessness in people in many different situations. Some children who are not helped to learn math, for example, come to believe that nothing they can do will help them acquire this ability and may live their entire lives convinced that there is something intrinsically wrong with them. A man who is shy in social situations may, without help, come to believe that his shyness is an intrinsic character defect that can never be overcome and, thus, he avoids social situations, which only worsens the problem.

Experts in child development argue that it’s vital for parents to help their children feel that their efforts and actions are important, that the children can learn, and, further, to actively help them to create repeated experiences of success. These dynamics can certainly be undermined by parents who can’t tolerate seeing their children struggle and fail at all. However, the big takeaway is that success breeds a feeling of efficacy which breeds further success....

Whether logic and rational optimism is the cure or not, the malignant effects of learned helplessness are obvious. Believing we are powerless, when there are actually opportunities for control, undermines confidence and encourages despair...."

http://www.theunion.com/entertainment/21853985-113/michael-bader-learned-helplessness-recipe-for-depression

[smirkymonkey]

19. Yeah, tell that to the family of our lifelong family friends whose son

put a bullet through his head last Monday after struggling with depression all his life. One week after his father died of cancer. It was just more than he could take.

[Stellar]

21. I think that it works for him and he wants to share it.

There's nothing wrong with that. Some people want to find fault, I say if it doesn't work for you...f#ck-it, and move right along.

[Quantess]

22. Is that what it sounds like to you?

To me, it sounds like he's telling other people with the mental illness Depression that they just need to turn that frown upside down, but in different words.

He doesn't believe that Depression is a mental illness.

[Politicub]

23. "I cure depression with my magical words"

What a load of bunk.

Learning to be mindful of your moods takes time. It has taken me more than 20 years. Unless I am too depressed, I tell myself it will pass. I don't know how long it will stay, but the fog has lifted each time before after days, months or years. My personal experience tells me it can happen again. Meds help, but sometimes they just don't work.

[Aerows]

28. It's bullshit

and it is disrespectful to the multitudes that have been helped by anti-depressants.

Nobody sits around telling cardiac patients that they are lacking in sense for taking their heart medication.

So yes, I'm offended. I'm still breathing, though, so that's a better fuck you than anything else could be directed towards this idiot.

[Politicub]

33. Yep - they have sure helped me

Getting my meds right took a lot of trial and error and several doctors to get to a diagnoses that seems to be on track. Meds are life changing - much better with them than without (for me at least).

[ancianita]

24. I love Prince EA.

[0rganism]

25. uplifting words, not representative of my battle with depression

i was diagnosed with psychotic depression about 20 years ago, it was not something i could cure with "talk therapy", and it took medication to quiet the voices in my head. about those voices? they were every bit as loud and real as if they came from someone standing next to me, they yelled horrible things at me and cut me down every time i did anything less than perfectly, and when, with the help of the medicine, they finally shut the fuck up, i was able to start getting shit back together that had been crumbling around me for years before i even understood that i was sick. oh yes, i thought having voices screaming at me inside my head was "normal" because it was normal to me. it wasn't until i saw how much the self-abuse was poisoning everything i tried to do that i turned to professionals for help and fixed that problem. it took years of medication and therapy.

OTOH, i know what he's saying, i've been sad and down many times since then, and if that's what the problem is, ideas like the perspective change he talks about can really help. but sometimes there's a lot more to it. not always, sometimes.

[Aerows]

27. I love life

I exercise frequently, eat well ... and yes, I do have depression. I take my medication religiously.

I really don't appreciate being categorized a faker, a sad sack and a lazy good-for-nothing.

It's a chemical damn imbalance, and on the meds, the world is a hell of a lot brighter.

I can't imagine someone chastising a cardiac patient for needing their blood pressure medication - I don't want to hear about depression not being a physical condition, either.

There are a lot more factors going on that you can't reduce it to ones and zeroes.

[Ready4Change]

30. This is the sort of arrogant condescension that can trigger suicide in clinical depressives.

It can be uplifting for those who are sad.

But it can be a slammed door in the face of someone with serious, clinical depression.

My .02.

[Politicub]

32. I think the guy who made the video was just feeling sad

And called it depression.

That goes to show his extreme lack of understanding about a complex subject.

[Skittles]

31. "you are always here"

unless you shoot yourself in the head, like my dad did

this guy is an idiot who has NEVER suffered from depression