Help Advice?

[Cocomellon]

I've been severely depressed from 6 years. I've tried all sorts of medicine and therapy. My life is good. I have a good job and friends and family. But still all I want is to die. I just can't keep going. Is there anything anyone can suggest to fix this?

 

[MessyNonsense]

Have you tried ALL sorts of medicine and therapy? I mean, there's a lot, and they're all pretty different from each other

 

[CrawlingInMySkin]

There's really only two fixes, mate. One's relatively easy, one's relatively hard. You could either ctb (catch the bus, since you're new here) or put in the effort into living a happy life. Learn what makes you happy, learn what makes you sleep easier at night, learn to want to live, and figure out how to keep it up. I think depression isn't a switch you can flip on and off, it's more like a roommate. It won't go away. You'll either kill yourself or learn to manage it and live a happy life, alongside it, not an enemy, but a part of you. And I noticed you're new here :). Welcome, my friend. I'm sorry about whatever brought you here. You'll find the nicest band of misfits here, around the forum. Love and peace, mate

 

[itsgone2]

I don't know what to say. If your life is good I'm confused why you think this way. Were things bad before? I don't get how this started

 

[MessyNonsense]

There's really only two fixes, mate. One's relatively easy, one's relatively hard. You could either ctb (catch the bus, since you're new here) or put in the effort into living a happy life. Learn what makes you happy, learn what makes you sleep easier at night, learn to want to live, and figure out how to keep it up. I think depression isn't a switch you can flip on and off, it's more like a roommate. It won't go away. You'll either kill yourself or learn to manage it and live a happy life, alongside it, not an enemy, but a part of you. And I noticed you're new here :). Welcome, my friend. I'm sorry about whatever brought you here. You'll find the nicest band of misfits here, around the forum. Love and peace, mate

I respect you're being warm here, but it's just not true that a person must simply learn to live with depression. Maybe it's true for some people but plenty of people are able to become free from the shackles of depression, and unless a person has tried everything they can't know. Most people aren't even aware of the existence of a great many treatment options. I think you're presenting an unfair false dichotomy between either killing yourself or learning to accept depression as a roommate.

@itsgone2 and @Cocomellon Wanting to die despite having a good life indicates clinical depression, ie. depression stemming from something like a chemical imbalance in your brain, rather than situational depression, which is where you're depressed because your life genuinely just sucks. Clinical depression is super treatable most of the time, i know you said you've tried medicine and therapy but what specifically have you tried, because there are lots of different kinds of medicine and lots of different kind of therapy, and they're all pretty different from each other.

Disclaimer not an expert on any of this stuff but i do know some things that can potentially be helpful to people

 

[CrawlingInMySkin]

I respect you're being warm here, but it's just not true that a person must simply learn to live with depression. Maybe it's true for some people but plenty of people are able to become free from the shackles of depression, and unless a person has tried everything they can't know. Most people aren't even aware of the existence of a great many treatment options. I think you're presenting an unfair false dichotomy between either killing yourself or learning to accept depression as a roommate.

I don't think you completely understand what I meant. I was trying to convey that depression will be a constant part of your life, it's not an infection that once you get rid of once you can't get again. Those who have previously had depression are more at risk of being pulled back into it. That's what I mean by living with it. It's not constantly active, just sort of there if you can understand what I mean. Sorry I wasn't clear!

 

[MessyNonsense]

I don't think you completely understand what I meant. I was trying to convey that depression will be a constant part of your life, it's not an infection that once you get rid of once you can't get again. Those who have previously had depression are more at risk of being pulled back into it. That's what I mean by living with it. It's not constantly active, just sort of there if you can understand what I mean. Sorry I wasn't clear!

Thanks for clarifying, i do understand what you meant better now, but to be perfectly honest i still disagree. Correct me if i'm wrong, but it sounds like you're saying depression will always be present and is just dormant sometimes. This sounds like what people say about addiction, that once you're addicted you can kick the addiction but you always have to consider yourself an addict and can never use the thing you were addicted to again. But we're learnign more about addiction in recent years, and likewise about depression, and neither are something that's always inside you like a parasite and it just get active sometimes. It's more complicated than that. And different things can be true for different people. Yes, for some people it may be like you describe, but frankly i think that's the minority. For most, from what i've gathered, depression is simply a state. States can be gotten into and gotten out of, some states last a really long time and are really strong, some states a very short. But depression isn't an illness itself, it's always the symptom of an underlying problem, such as nervous system dysregulation or a chemical imbalance in the brain, which itself could be caused by any number of things, such as gut health for example, and even the gut health problem originates from genetic and/or environmental factors. This is why medication for depression can make some people feel better, but often doesn't work for some people, or if it does work it often leads to other side effects or just generally doesn't feel like a complete solution. It's because the medication is treating the symptom (depression) but not the underlying problem that caused it. That's why my personal feeling on medication is that it shouldn't be so glorified in our society and should instead be thought of as a temporary fix to make life easier while treating the underlying cause.

 

[CrawlingInMySkin]

Thanks for clarifying, i do understand what you meant better now, but to be perfectly honest i still disagree. Correct me if i'm wrong, but it sounds like you're saying depression will always be present and is just dormant sometimes. This sounds like what people say about addiction, that once you're addicted you can kick the addiction but you always have to consider yourself an addict and can never use the thing you were addicted to again. But we're learnign more about addiction in recent years, and likewise about depression, and neither are something that's always inside you like a parasite and it just get active sometimes. It's more complicated than that. And different things can be true for different people. Yes, for some people it may be like you describe, but frankly i think that's the minority. For most, from what i've gathered, depression is simply a state. States can be gotten into and gotten out of, some states last a really long time and are really strong, some states a very short. But depression isn't an illness itself, it's always the symptom of an underlying problem, such as nervous system dysregulation or a chemical imbalance in the brain, which itself could be caused by any number of things, such as gut health for example, and even the gut health problem originates from genetic and/or environmental factors. This is why medication for depression can make some people feel better, but often doesn't work for some people, or if it does work it often leads to other side effects or just generally doesn't feel like a complete solution. It's because the medication is treating the symptom (depression) but not the underlying problem that caused it. That's why my personal feeling on medication is that it shouldn't be so glorified in our society and should instead be thought of as a temporary fix to make life easier while treating the underlying cause.

This is completely true. It does often heavily depend on the cause and person themself. I will say though that depression is, most often, caused by environmental factors the afflicted themself cannot change, and that's where the root of my opinion comes from. However, I also recognize your side and see how much of it is also true. Good talk, my friend. love and peace

 

[settling]

i feel like depression if youve had it enough and by i think by a young age its permanently there forever, like burned in your head forever no matter what
this condition in my case is called dysthymia and im diagnosed with it
i also have a pretty good life all things considered and very fortunate but im extremely neurotic at all times
(not trying to derail this thread by making it about me)
as other people have said in this thread what therapies have you tried? not all therapies are drugs inherently. theres hypnosis, tms...

That's why my personal feeling on medication is that it shouldn't be so glorified in our society and should instead be thought of as a temporary fix to make life easier while treating the underlying cause.

true

"Insanity is the only sane reaction to an insane society."
--Thomas Szasz