ST Alpha - "The first thing to accept is that depression (actual, real depression) is not a choice." (Reading a Post)

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The first thing to accept is that depression (actual, real depression) is not a choice.

Posted by ty97 Dec 1 '11, 08:58

The person can't simply just decide to be happy and stop being depressed any more than you can choose to stop being gay. The analogy stops there, though, because the depressed person can do things to change their situation....but what those things are is not always clear, differs from person to person, and can often take time.

Psychology has for a while believed that a chemical imbalance in the brain leads to the tendency for depression (medications for depression tend to try and play with this imbalance). There has been an article posted here about the validity of that causation, but it's still the current thinking.

The worst think you can do to someone with (real) depression is trivialize it. (www.findingoptimism.com)

Responses:

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right, and it's not a guaranteed or quick fix. For instance I had a close friend who fought it for over a decade. NOTHING worked. You can't imagine - loosilu Dec 1, 09:03
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- I think so many of our social issues are like that. just change the situation and the person changes. like how I kicked my rage issues. - amanda Dec 1, 09:10
- I struggle with that same feeling, but one thing to remember is that the depression itself can make doing those things much, much harder for that - pmb Dec 1, 09:05 1
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The first thing to accept is that depression (actual, real depression) is not a choice.

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