Maybe?

---

I was depressed for such a long time and recently I have been really happy. My life isnt that great but I just dont let myself get sad. I will just put on some happy music and just put it to the back of my mind. I really think depression is a state of mind. I almost used to enjoy being misserable in some sick wierd way. I used to just feel sorry for myself, also I used to cut myself alot. Kinda shitty since now I am left with horriable scars and people think I am depressed and wierd (or emo AND I HATE EMO PPL GRRR) if they see them (I try to keep them well covered) and I am pretty happy now. If you just decide you want to be happy and love yourself and are posative im sure its possiable for most people to snap out of depression. Also I find my friends help alot and its hard to be depressed when I am with freinds.

Although I see where you're coming from with the whole state of mind thing, I don't think that you can just "snap out" of depression. It can really dominate your whole life, and for some people the whole Peter Pan happy thoughts thing just doesn't work.I still fall into deep pits of depression, and although I have never cut I have come close to doing it. I know that it is supposed to be a really stupid thing to do, but when I just heard other people talking about how it gives a feeling of relief, I had to try it. I only got as close as to try to do it with a small scissors, but the bastard thing was too blunt. I suppose its a good thing, but I'm still curious about it. But music does work to help bring me up, I can often forget whats going on around me when I have headphones on and the music at fulll volume. Only problem is that when the music stops, life comes rushing back in.

Yeah I didnt say it would work for all people. Just most. I dont know why it made me feel better it just did. But I am happy now and my scars depress me because they make me remember why I cut myself. Also I have the joy of having to try and cover them up and when people see them they ask me questions and its really akward. Just dont do it at all. you will regret it so badly. I wear like loads of bracelets and sweat bands to cover them up. It would be nice not to have to wear them but I dont want people judging me or thinking I did it for sympaty. I would rather people didnt know. So seriously just dont do it. Also if youre feeling depressed try going to the gym. Exercise really does make you feel better about yourself and life. I dont know why. Its actualy been proven too.

Yeah, I never really understood that. I've never talked about my depression outside of the internet, but nearly all of the people I've told online keep telling me to go to the gym. Since when did this become such a widely known cure?

Dunno just is, I worked on a building site for a year and it was really hard work and it made me feel alot better about myself being in shape and having regular eating and sleeping times. Worth a try tho isnt it? I mean for one youre going to be doing yourself good by working out and you may feel better in general. Just make sure you get a proper work out plan sorted if youre going to start working out. Research it a bit and make sure youre doing it all right.

I didnt say all people I said most. Since most people who say they are depressed are sad for some other reason, some people even do it for attention. Its so lame when people dom that because it makes people with real depression look like they are doing it for attention also.

If people have been depressed say 5 or 8yrs, then I think the chances of the seretonin levels remaining badly inbalanced are quite high.

When I'm depressed I fall into a very negative attitude towards things and I feel like there's not hope and so on; because this happens so often I tend to be trapped in a ever lasting circle of hate for life which can take weeks, months and even years to break or change.

At the end of the day, we're all different and snapping out of depression is possible for some (perhaps in your experiene) but not for others. You have to also take into account people's reasons for depression. Some people are inbalanced with seretonin, others are depressed over a particular incident in their life, and there's some who are depressed because of their everyday life itself. The list is endless. That's why you have to treat everybody in the manner as an individual. Generalising and saying (I feel from your first post) that people can snap out of it because you have, is not going to work is it?

Dude why cant people grasp that I am only saying that SOME people can. I'm not generalising as everyone is differant. Youre right it wouldnt work for most people. Depression is an illness, I'm not saying its not. I am just saying that some people can get over it just with a change of lifestyle.

Can't argue with that.

No, but it certainly was the way he came across in his first post that sparked my response. Maybe I should have read the others a bit more closely; it's just hard to understand I guess, when the vibe from it is pretty negative about people 'snapping out of it'.

Can't argue with that either.

yeah sorry sometimes my opinions dont come accross very clearly. Deppresion is an illness I know people who have it, so yer I'l have to make sure im clearer in my other posts.

I've been miserable most of my life, most likely as a result of past events which happened quite early on in my life. I don't know whether I'd call it depression though. I can be happy and positive, but when I've got nothing to think about, or I'm just dropping off to sleep I end up thinking about those events and just become miserable again - and I've thought about these things for the last 10 years, everyday. (I'm 18 now.) I don't tell my parents when I'm feeling low, as I don't want it to rub off on them. They think I'm fine, and that I havent been effected by all that shit. But I have. I knew someone who went through a similar experience and ended up with mental problems.

I've got a good group of friends, an awesome future ahead of me, but I'll still start feeling shitty, even when everythings great. It's like day to day mood swings. I'm constantly miserable, but sometimes it'll be masked by a positive mood one day, and not the other. This isn't just a regular teenage mood swing though.

I used to be suicidal a few years ago, and actually hung head first out of my window, intending to drop out and break my neck. I didn't though, as my rabbit was in the garden, and I didn't want to scare him, lol. That was pretty much the result of a few years bullying that I had to endure. Some people found out about "my past" and decided to use it against me, which was really fucking sick. It literally tore me apart. No matter how great your life can be, how happy your enviroment is, you can still be depressed. It's better nowadays, but still isn't easy. I'm regarded as a laid back, fun, humourous person by my friends. They know I can be down quite a bit, and not the happiest of people, but they have no idea to what extent I'm feeling. Most people would say that I should tell someone. I've been there, done that. And it doesn't help. I'm not going to go to councelling either. Not until I'm suicidal again - having said that, I have a bland opinion of death. I couldn't give a shit if I died tommorow, lol. For me it would be like going to sleep. It wouldn't hurt my family as much if it wasn't me that did it to myself. Wow, I didn't realise how "depressed" I was before seeing it all typed out.

Like to Homicidal possum I find comfort in my music. Marilyn Manson: he's inspiring, intelligent, a voice for those that choose to be different, his lyrics are meaningful and he rocks, lol. His music reflects my feelings at times, and cheers me up - I'm not the only one who feels shit, and it could be a lot lot worse.

Sorry for that un-formatted babble - just farting a few thoughts out lol.

The various events that I kept refering to were something I just didn't want to annouce in public, sorry. If anyone wants to know or whatever, just message me.

If you can make yourself happy or angry or sad, why couldn't you force your way out of depression? Personally, I got out of depression overnight purely by deciding I was tired of it. I went to sleep angry, woke up happy...have been the same way for a little over 2 years.Besides, I don't buy the chemical imbalance bull. All of your emotions are chemicals, which means you can correct the balance yourself if one needs to exist.

Depression has already been medically documented as a chemical imbalance and mental illness. Depression cannot be cured overnight.

Firstly, I'd like to say that I acknowledge that if chemical imbalances really exist, you can scientifically fix them yourself. Your emotions/thoughts/etc. are chemicals. This is why **therapy**works better than medication in 100% of the cases in which therapy is existant.(Though sometimes drugs are used to assist in the therapy, no real doctor would ever claim that it could not any sooner change overnight than could your feelings. People have recovered far worse maladies than the above overnight.)
It can be documented all it wants. Psychiatry is a psuedoscience, which is only kept alive by it's muddled list of signs and symptoms. The book which regulates the diagnosis being done by psychiatrists worldwide has been redone roughly once every 10 years since it's creation. If you ever took a class on psychiatry or psychology with an open mind, you'd quickly see just how everyone falls for it's muddled ways. The way that it is first established that anyone is mentally inept, is if they are in a psychiatrist's office to begin with. This makes it impossible to apply scientific method to discover any sane people left on the planet. Under the careful scrutiny of psychiatry, everyone would find that they have some disorder, syndrome, or mental problem of some unspecified sort. Psychiatrists themselves are often the most disturbed individuals in our society, often having difficulty maintaining close relationships and seeking psychology out as a way to understand people without having to interact with them.
There's no point in me continuing the argument though, as it'll be decades before people realize just how idiotic we were to ever believe in psychiatry/psychology.

This is why therapyworks better than medication in 100% of the cases in which therapy is existant.This is absurd.> Psychiatry is a psuedoscienceAre you a Scientologist?> scientific methodWhat you say sounds anything but scientific. It sounds like faith.I don't agree that all cases of depression are "chemical-based", but antidepressants, and there is a placebo effect from taking a pill, and antidepressants may be overprescribed, but scientifically, they do work for some people. Have you encountered many severely depressed people?

All good psychiatrists perscribe medication to assist the person only long enough to undergo therapy, and sometimes to even them out. In either case, it takes personal effort. You wouldn't mention scientologists if not for Tom Cruise saying something about it, so that's not worth answering. Scientific method was created to make sure that variables be removed from each experiment to create truths instead of endless beliefs of what-causes-what. Psychology has too many variables, because it's a study of the human mind. Because of this, many of the first psychologists ignored scientific method. It has been referred to as a psuedoscience by many very credible scientists. It does deserve some credit, but not as much as people give it. I have realized, however, that the audience of this message board isn't at a level of intellect to possibly understand. I will discontinue any arguments on the subject.

In reply to:I have realized, however, that the audience of this message board isn't at a level of intellect to possibly understand. You are quite wrong on that statement. You at 18 know it all?

> All good psychiatrists perscribe medication to assist the person only long enough to undergo therapy, and sometimes to even them out. In either case, it takes personal effort.

That may be true in a lot of cases, but your belief that it's true in all cases is not a scientific fact. Sometimes a brain is just broken, like a leg. All of your personal effort won't set your leg.

> You wouldn't mention scientologists if not for Tom Cruise saying something about it, so that's not worth answering.

Not true. L. Ron Hubbard was railing about psychology long before Tom Cruise was a Scientologist. I asked because, while I agree that psychology and psychiatry are far from perfect, your viewpoint seems pretty absolutist.

> Scientific method was created to make sure that variables be removed from each experiment to create truths instead of endless beliefs of what-causes-what. Psychology has too many variables, because it's a study of the human mind.

By "human mind", I assume you mean the human brain and human behavior. Statistical analysis is used to control for certain variables, but the main purpose of the scientific method is to remove (to the extent possible) human bias.

> Because of this, many of the first psychologists ignored scientific method. It has been referred to as a psuedoscience by many very credible scientists. It does deserve some credit, but not as much as people give it.

The same could be said for medicine in general, before the 20th century. Psychology has advanced beyond Freud, but it is not to be confused with a discipline like mechanical engineering.

> I have realized, however, that the audience of this message board isn't at a level of intellect to possibly understand. I will discontinue any arguments on the subject.

Either you're way beyond us, or you haven't presented your case in a convincing manner to the people who have responded. Given your age, I would posit the latter.

And given your allegedly great intellect, do you realize that some of the substances you recommended to treat depression (in another thread) have been experimentally demonstrated not to be safe and effective?