What is depression?

[Nick_98]

Depression is fluctuations. 

Depression is mood fluctuations.

Depression is your own mind going in and out between one thought to the next , this creates friction, friction is a form of fluctuation , fluctuation is depression. 

Going from one thought to the next , from one mood to the other , causes friction, friction is depression. fluctuations are depression. 

To heal from depression you need inner stability. Inner stability means less fluctuations , less friction.

Inner stability is when your mind doesn’t pull you like a dog from one idea to the other one.

Stability is inner peace. 

 

[enchanted]

7 minutes ago, Nick_98 said:

Depression is fluctuations. 

Depression is mood fluctuations.

Depression is your own mind going in and out between one thought to the next , this creates friction, friction is a form of fluctuation , fluctuation is depression. 

Going from one thought to the next , from one mood to the other , causes friction, friction is depression. fluctuations are depression. 

To heal from depression you need inner stability. Inner stability means less fluctuations , less friction.

Inner stability is when your mind doesn’t pull you like a dog from one idea to the other one.

Stability is inner peace. 

 

Depression sucks but I believe that majority depression is lack of excersize, poor diet/dehydration, and poor sleep.  

Excersize, diet, sleep is how you get inner stability. 

Edited 7 hours ago by enchanted

[enchanted]

Books like the myth of Mental Illness by Szász argue that psychiatric labels, like depression, can prevent us from healing by taking away our agency. When we view depression strictly as a medical disease, we assume it requires a medical cure, like pills or therapy. This causes us to overlook the massive, proven power of daily lifestyle habits, ike long-term exercise, diet, and sleep, to change our brain chemistry and improve our mental health.

[Carl-Richard]

6 hours ago, Nick_98 said:

To heal from depression you need inner stability. Inner stability means less fluctuations , less friction.

Inner stability is when your mind doesn’t pull you like a dog from one idea to the other one.

Depression is fluctuations. 

Depression is mood fluctuations.

Depression is your own mind going in and out between one thought to the next , this creates friction, friction is a form of fluctuation , fluctuation is depression. 

Going from one thought to the next , from one mood to the other , causes friction, friction is depression. fluctuations are depression. 

To heal from depression you need inner stability. Inner stability means less fluctuations , less friction.

Inner stability is when your mind doesn’t pull you like a dog from one idea to the other one.

Stability is inner peace.

Distinguish between manic thinking and depressive thinking. The distinction is the level of perceived control and harmony with one's wants, desires, values.

 

6 hours ago, enchanted said:

Depression sucks but I believe that majority depression is lack of excersize, poor diet/dehydration, and poor sleep.  

Excersize, diet, sleep is how you get inner stability. 

I don't think it's the majority of depression. The majority of depression is in being in conflict with yourself, and in the more severe forms, you see no way out.

Can you be in conflict with your values, desires, wants while being physically fit, and how does that look like?

 

5 hours ago, enchanted said:

Books like the myth of Mental Illness by Szász argue that psychiatric labels, like depression, can prevent us from healing by taking away our agency. When we view depression strictly as a medical disease, we assume it requires a medical cure, like pills or therapy. This causes us to overlook the massive, proven power of daily lifestyle habits, ike long-term exercise, diet, and sleep, to change our brain chemistry and improve our mental health.

I would say poor health brings you into a low-functioning state which can exacerbate existing internal conflict and depression. If you simply lack internal conflict, poor health just comes off as e.g. reduced working memory, brain fog, lower energy capacity, exhaustion, numbness, lower sensitivity, bodily aches and pains.

It's the distinction between having a car with a poor engine vs a car where the steering wheel is stuck in one position so you can only drive in circles. Even with a poor engine, you can go where you want to go, but it may be a bit harder or take a bit more time or work. But if your steering wheel is stuck, even with a good engine, you will be stuck driving in circles.

Edited 1 hour ago by Carl-Richard

[enchanted]

1 hour ago, Carl-Richard said:

Can you be in conflict with your values, desires, wants while being physically fit, and how does that look like?

Great points and questions you bring up. I'd still stress the importance of excersize, since it changes brain chemistry. A person who excersizes regularly is much more likely to have a brain that can solve life's problems and be more resilient to stress. Diet, sleep, and excersize comes first regardless of how well it solves the depression. Try pills, therapy, philosophy, meditation second. 

Edited 3 hours ago by enchanted

[Carl-Richard]

2 hours ago, enchanted said:

Great points and questions you bring up. I'd still stress the importance of excersize, since it changes brain chemistry. A person who excersizes regularly is much more likely to have a brain that can solve life's problems and be more resilient to stress. Diet, sleep, and excersize comes first regardless of how well it solves the depression. Try pills, therapy, philosophy, meditation second. 

Resilience only takes you so far when your own resilience is used against itself. Big muscles when smashing a hammer against your own skull. Inner conflict is the ultimate pathology because it turns your resources into resources for self-destruction.

In fact, being very resilient and active in response to inner conflict (by actively ruminating and trying to find a solution) is over time a losing strategy if the problem doesn't seem to have a solution (you're essentially just wasting energy and beating yourself up for no seeming reason), so you move over to helplessness and a more passive state where you don't entertain solutions, and this is directly tied to the experience of low mood and low energy (it comes from a lack of movement, lack of discovery, lack of action, a more passive form of suffering). 

What people with depression usually do is they oscillate between states of rumination and helplessness and opt for pseudo-solutions and various coping mechanisms and dissociate themselves from the causes of the internal conflict (which limits their cognitive scope, their emotional attunment) and end up in this overall lousy and low-functioning state (and if they get really helpless to the point of hopelessness, they might take their own lives). You don't take your own life if you merely have poor cardiovascular health. That's at best a contributing factor among many others. Calling poor health "depression" is understandable due to the symptom overlap but overall a bit misleading.

Therapy and identifying the source of conflict might ideally be the first course of action, then getting to the point of solving it might involve trying to increase resilience again.

Edited 1 hour ago by Carl-Richard

[Hojo]

When you are depressed you are doing it to yourself. Because you need to be able to appreciate feeling the beauty of life. If God is not happy in his current beautiful form he needs to create something worse so when he gets back he will be appreciative of his current state.

Human life is like depression for God. He needs to be a human so he can appreciate being God.

Once it goes which is inevitably does then God become a human again.

Edited 1 hour ago by Hojo

[UnbornTao]

Yeah, what is it?

You've likely been depressed before, even if just slightly.

What goes on in your experience when you go through that? What are you specifically referring to when you say you're depressed - is it the same as a physical wound, for example?

What goes on in your mind, and how are you approaching life such that you experience that feeling?

Where does it come from?

Can you notice the assumption that depression is a "thing" - fixed, objective, some state that somehow "happens" or comes "to you", like the weather?

Edited 40 minutes ago by UnbornTao