- Clinical depression is not just feeling sad. It is a medical condition caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. You can no more come out of it because you "figure it out" than you can think your way out of epilepsy or pneumonia. it is a brain disorder that often requires medical trestment. I have had to fight clinical depression all my life and have been hospitalized three times for it. Severe depression is less likely to respond to talk therapy and exercise than mild depression.
it can be debilitating.
Mental illness is actually a highly hereditary brain disorder that affects our moods and even sometimes, as in schizophrenia, our ability to tell reality from fantasy. It affects brilliant people as well as average folks. John Nash had schizophrenia, for example.
Creative oeople are more prone to any mood disorder. This is proven. I am very creative snd no dummy. and think of creative genises like Hemingway and Dickinson and how many sgow business snd musival icons commit suicide or use hsrd drugs and sometimes die from that too.
Being smart never hurts...you may then have the ability to realize you need help. But it also doesnt help to be smart if you go untreated or turn to street drugs as a way of self medicating. Im not a movie fan, but I do know that many movie stars now and from the past suffer from mood disorders. Vivian Leigh,Jim Carey, Robin Williams, Carrie Fisher, Patty Duke Astin and Robert Downey Jr. are just a few of a long list. Google up "famous creative people who had mood disorders" and you will get a long list. Abraham Lincoln wrote in letters about his depression, for example. He was kind of smart...
Depression is more than just feeling sad. Your body rhythms tend to get screwed up too. You can't eat at all or eat too much. you can't sleep, although you desperately need to, or you sleep all the time to forget how bad you feel. These things make it worse. An inability to concentrate or focus and not being motivated or able to find joy in anything are other symptoms. Also bad anxiety often accompanies.
You can't think your way out of it. Depression is actually quite serious and can lead to somrbody trying to take his life. Many don't understand depression and tell the person to "snap out of it." That makes the sick person feel worse plus misunderstood. You cant just snap out of it at will.
I had no choice but to learn all about depression as mine was very severe. I had to take medication and the first ones you try may not work. But there are now tests you can take yo find out which medication will help you the most. It is just a swab of the cheek.
I hate the feeling of depression so I comply with medication and also go to therapy to learn ways to calm down. Therapy can help mild depression, but usually not severe. Anxiety is also biologically based, but you can be taught to slow your body rhythms down so that therapy for anxiety can work well.Less so depression.
I want to live a full life. I think of my inherited mental illnesses like diabetes. I tske my medications and go to therapy and live a great life. if I hadnt agreed to medical treatmrnt, it is likely I would hsve killed myself. Depression untreated is as painful as a broken leg that is not treated.
Sometimes it remits on its own.More likely than not, if one is prone to depression, it comes back. So I recommrnd seeing a psychiatrist.
Natural remedies did not work for me at all. But they can always be tried first. Unfortunately often the natural method tried is pot and pot doesnt help depression...it just makes you spacy so that you done care you are depressed. Unfortunately it also often causes psychological dependence and a further lack of motivation. Pot is moy the way to go,but often young people choose it. They like the high and disconnected feeling.
