Depression is NOT a Real Disorder

Originally posted by Rockstar02
I know you said you are not a doctor, however have you found any particular techniques to nip this in the bud at the onset?

Don't be afraid of it. As I said, it feeds off of fear. Don't give it that energy it needs to keep going. If you relax yourself and tell yourself you are fine, you will begin to calm down and it will subside. Believe me, I know how difficult it is to calm yourself down in the midst of a panic attack, but it can be done.

Something I did to calm myself down is - and it sounds completely corny, but what ever - I looked in the mirror and repeated to myself "I'm okay, everything is okay" and other positive things like that. Literally within 2-3 minutes, the symptoms would subside. It takes practice - which means you unfortunately must go through a few panic attacks for this to work - and it takes you actually believing the words you are saying, but it will help you calm down.

Originally posted by Rockstar02
If my muscles are spasming, should I take a brief jog despite the discomfort to properly use the adrenaline or is it better to attempt to convince myself that I'm perfectly fine?

I tried that, it didn't really work for me, but that doesn't mean it won't work for everyone. Certainly give it a try, because it does make sense that it should work. I may have just not jogged hard enough or long enough for it to work. So definitely give that a try, but also use the "I'm okay" technique. Repeat it over and over in your head.

The only thing I would warn you on with the jogging, though, is some people do faint during their panic attacks. However, this is usually a result of some other health issue and the panic attack pushed it over the edge. But it does happen. So if you have a history of fainting, I would be cautious about standing near any hard or sharp objects you could hurt yourself on. I never fainted, but that's not necessarily the case for everyone.

Originally posted by Rockstar02
I'm not a fan of medication or prescriptions and have heard they tend to prescribe Xanax for situations like this.

He most likely won't give you Xanax. Doctors are iffy about prescribing Xanax because it is sold on the streets illegally. If you do get it, it's relatively safe considering how powerful it is, and it really does work (I'm on Xanax). However, anxiety is something you don't necessarily need medication for. You can learn to control it on your own through practicing relaxation techniques during the panic attacks, informing yourself on what causes panic attacks and how they work, and learning to not fear or anticipate one and just living your life.

Anxiety and depression are linked to the same brain chemistry issue, but one does not always mean you have the other. So if you're worried about if you are depressed because you are showing anxiety, I wouldn't worry about it. If you have depression, you'll know it. It doesn't show the physical symptoms like anxiety does, but it definitely lets you know it's there in a much more powerful way.

^^^^^^^ To add to the above post:

Take slow deep breathes.
It doesn't work the moment you try but soon your body will adjust.


Think of positive things.
Project and even if you have to fool yourself into smiling.
A genuine smile, a laugh will trigger changes almost immediately.

Depression is one thing.
Reacting to it can be an entirely NEW thing altogether!

Next time you catch yourself acting out negativity...
Stop, and think.
Laugh, smile and even if you don't want to.
Feel the change from the inside-out.

Originally posted by Rockstar02
Thank you so much for your help and explanations, it gave me a much better insight than the doctors at the ER did at 6:30 am after running tests and keeping me awake all night.

One more thing...

Never hesitate to ask questions to someone who has actually experienced what you are experiencing. The doctors are obviously very knowledgeable in their profession and they do understand what you are going through, but unless they've EXPERIENCED it, they don't fully "get it".

That's why my explanation made more sense than theirs. I'm in no way claiming I'm an expert on anxiety or that I know more about health than they do, but since I have experienced it and the doctors you spoke with most likely have not, I have a more personal understanding of what it feels like and how to handle it.

I think the food we eat plays a big part in depression, but I come at this from a different direction. My pet theory is that all the steroids and growth hormone given to beef, pork, and chicken the last 40+ plus years is at least partially responsible for the extreme increase in diabetes and depression. Steroids make the animals bigger, yes, but they also get into our bodies and cause the release of cortisol, and the disruption of a more normal cascade of all neurotransmitters. I'm sure everyone has noticed how much bigger people are nowdays, and if steroids make farm animals bigger, they make us bigger as well. No telling what the side effects of added growth hormone might be. Face it, the brain is an organ just like the other organs in our bodies. If bad food affects the internal organs of our abdomen and endocrine system, it must also affect our brains, the most complex organ of the human being.

reply to post by The Great Day


Not easy at all, but when you think about it, nothing worthwhile is ever easy. It takes dedication, and practice and sticking with it! Some people are more naturally able to pick some things up easier than others, be it math, or music or art. But even those that pick it up a bit easier still have to work at it to reach the highest potential. The worst part of this world we live in, is too damn much time is taken up with jobs, just to survive. Most people use up the rest of the time they have left in the day watching TV, and people wonder why they are depressed. TV is a huge part of it I know that much.

reply to post by Xcalibur254

but depression has been identified for thousands of years and antidepressants have saved many lives

perhaps, you would like to say antidepressant got to be good hospice, wouldn't you? 1st question: a human has had hard illness of whatever body organ, & has come into depression because of --how could antidepressant be helpful there?
2nd case: a human has had hard phobias &, in result, has gotten depression -- what'd be made so useful by antidepressant to help a human?

One of the most difficult aspects the disease has to offer the victim is a time I call "smiling on the outside crying on the inside", Kinda like the Dramas Thalia and Melpomene.

The stereotypical masks of the two muses. or the oft cited Janus, of two faces. We may enjoy the moment and be frankly content however the overall outcome in the end will be a tragic depression.

The moment, in this example being the happy time, is over shadowed by the tragedy of the depression, the curtain and backdrop to life under this disease.

One of the most beneficial things i have found which helps sufferers is to find an enjoyable hobby to offer you a distraction from the focusing on the depression or circumstances surrounding ones life which may effect the mental state.

Acting/ Theater has been a very often beneficial allowing one to play a role, however short, often gives them insight to their own self and allows them to put on a mask to be viewed by others and to look through themselves.

Also while I see medications as beneficial to some due to imbalances. Wide spread dosing of people who shouldn't be medicated a.d could do with therapy rather then medication. Those who would be benefited more with personal growth and adversity to help them overcome the depression through an active role in its "cure" leading to self confidence and happiness in ones own abilities.

I'm surprised at the number of posts that seem to imply that people saying clinical depression is a real physiological thing and very serious, are just whiners who want drugs and enabling and to play the victim card.

Although I only suffered that level of depression a couple times in my life, I'm the opposite extreme of that description. I'm the work-3-jobs, won't visit a doctor unless I'm literally dying, mop up the blood and suck it up and move on sort. Yet even I know what serious depression is like and wouldn't diss it.

The theory (proposed many pages back) that anybody depressed is affected by it and hence unqualified to have any worthy opinion about it is kind of hilarious. No matter what is going on physically during this experience, it is an *experiential* thing in terms of 'effect'. The ONLY people likely to have legit insight into the reality of an experience are those having it.

It's like saying that nobody can opine about what it's like to be pregnant unless they have never been pregnant, since having had the experience would make a person clearly 'subjective' about it. Well, you pretty much have to experience BEING pregnant to have any worthwhile personal input into what that experience is like and whether some of the accompanying elements of that experience are 'real'.

RC

Originally posted by PETROLCOIN

That is what a lot of you are failing to understand. Those of us with clinical depression do not seek attention, pity, or sympathy. We seek a way out of the cell our mind has imprisoned us in.

edit on 11/7/2010 by PETROLCOIN because: (no reason given)

Look its your brain that you messed up and your problem to be honest. People with depression need to stop getting attention and trying to get the rest of us to pay for their mistakes in life. Speaking as an american if you cant live up to the american dream and use our medicare and health subsidies to treat the problems you created then that is theft and fraud. I am a Real American with rights and believe in Capitalism so I the tax payer should not be held accountable for people who cant keep their lives in order who fail to achieve what real americans can. George Bush even tried to revamp medicare to remove mental health from the system, but the mental health people fought back and nothing was done. This means that these careless and thoughtless individuals are basically stealing the food off your tables just to feed their habits for more drugs so they can do nothing with their lives while the rest of us go out and earn a living. Our founding fathers fought to defeat socialism and remove the crown. Nothing in our constitution says I have to pay for other peoples mistakes. With the new republican congress they have the power of the purse and to make laws. My hope is that congressman like Rand Paul live up to their campaign promises and start arresting people with mental diseases or an unwanted burden and simply want america to subsidize their drug addictions. I never met a manic depressive who wasnt on some kind of drug and it disgusts me that their taking money from hard working military families because they ahve no patriotism.

Click here for more information.

Originally posted by PETROLCOIN
reply to post by tigpoppa

 

Hi troll.

I won't bother responding to your ignorant statement. It's not worth my time.

Its easier to ignore the truth, I understand.

Originally posted by tigpoppa
Its easier to ignore the truth, I understand.

I had no doubt that you did understand. After all, you made it quite clear with your post.

Run along now. Leave the grown up topics for the grown ups.

reply to post by tigpoppa


So, if mental illnesses are all the fault of the person, explain why every mental illness has a heritability coefficient of at least .5. That means that at least half of the variability found in mental illnesses is determined by a person's genes, not their environment. It is people like you that provoked the Surgeon General to put out a report in 2000 discussing the stigma surrounding mental health and the dangers it causes. If anything we need to be more open towards mental illness, not condemn those suffering from it like they did in the Dark Ages.

reply to post by Xcalibur254


I can explain it very easily since I am in the field of science. Rather then use elaborate words I will explain your heritable factor using everyman speak. To use common sense misery loves company, its no surprise that families with problems who have no family skills raise dysfunction children that are inferior to children brought up in a healthy household where they were not sexually abused. Hence sexual victims and victimization is a cycle and follows the same pattern causing the same problems. Once again I will state that as an American is not my job to fix problems caused by people who sexually abuse children and expect me to foot the bill for their criminal escapades.

Originally posted by PETROLCOIN

I had no doubt that you did understand. After all, you made it quite clear with your post.

Run along now. Leave the grown up topics for the grown ups.

Being a grown up entails maturity to take responsibility for your actions., I see that you elect only to listen to people who support your point of view ignoring the cost and burden to the american society. There is a term for this its called being a psychopath per the World Health Organization standards.

reply to post by Xcalibur254


9 times out of 10 people sent to "loony bins", whether they had a mental illness or not, will only get worse. No one seems to care. It is like a prison, just separating them from society. Same with nursing homes.

Originally posted by tigpoppa
Our founding fathers fought to defeat socialism...

I was unaware that our founding fathers fought to defeat socialism. What history lesson did you take where you learned that tidbit of information?

Originally posted by Modern Americana

Originally posted by tigpoppa
Our founding fathers fought to defeat socialism...

I was unaware that our founding fathers fought to defeat socialism. What history lesson did you take where you learned that tidbit of information?

Well I took the True history of America which is what other freedom fighters like Sara Palin are fighting to have taught in our schools. The crown was a monarchy with lords and other socialist agendas that gave them free entitlements and our founding fathers defeated socialism so we could live free today and too many americans ignore this because they are blinded by the marxist regime we live under that conditions them everyday through the use of the lamestream media.

reply to post by tigpoppa


Except you're forgetting that when scientists investigate heritability they perform a number of studies designed to negate the environmental factor. They look at siblings, twins, and twins that have been adopted by different families. Thanks to the Human Genome Project we can also pinpoint specific genes that contribute to mental illnesses. Your theory also falls apart since plenty of people who suffer from mental illness have never been abused and come from supportive families.

Just as an example, let's look at schizophrenia. Even in adoption studies, a sibling of someone who suffers from schizophrenia has a 50% chance from developing schizophrenia themselves. When one looks at the national average for schizophrenia it hovers around 1%. This percentage remains true for siblings that are non-identical twins. So, please explain how this is at all possible without genetics playing a major role in the development of mental illness.

reply to post by Modern Americana


Unfortunately, in-patient facilities are horribly understaffed. They simply don't have the manpower to take care of all the patients. It's more of a funding issue than anything else. As I mentioned in my other post, mental health still has a huge stigma surrounding it and this stigma guides public policy related to it.

reply to post by Xcalibur254


Oh so now your saying that tax payers are to blame for their poor geneology? Those studies basically say that we should pity them due to their weak and damaged genome that keeps them a step down from society. Even President george bush recovered from alcoholism and Found the one true god like a Real American and became President as destiny fortold. These people all look for handouts because they cant rise up like real patriots and live the american dream. Instead they seek to victimize children, and harm their society. Worse still is that there is no way to know where these people live. Too many of these people with schizophrenia and other mental diseases are out there committing crimes and raping children. Look at Elizabeth Smart or Jeffrey Dahmer for an example who was also gay. meghans law I hope expands to include people who are known to have mental diseases so we can start a push to keep them away fro harming our families since their just going to take what they want through medicare anyways to support their drug addictions.