Pengwin
Member
- Nov 9, 2020
- 31
Romanticisation of depression is pretty common, particularly in art, be it music, literature or paintings. In that same vein, it is pretty common among depressed people. In the 70's, there were some explanations on this that revolved around people "weighing themselves down" to "escape the values of the world". You know, when the disease was called melancholy.
That is, before it was commonly acknowledged that depression has a biochemical component, as well as an environmental component.
I believe that a big part of why people do feel like they "should be sad" is due to the romanticisation and environmental factors. It is type of a mechanism to justify that low mood is appropriate response to a situation.
Basically, there are two types of depressions: feature-specific and non-specific. In the case of the former, there are some life events that are seen as the cause of depression. If someone finds themselves "not depressed" while the cause still exists (e.g., loss of a loved one), they might want to justify their initial reaction (e.g., sadness) to the cause by, well, forcing themselves to be sad again.
In the case of the latter, there is no specific cause, but likely a more biochemically drawn response. But again, if one finds themselves happy, they might want to justify their behavior during a depressive bout by forcing themselves to feel that way again. That the way they feel and behave is normal.
Combine these with depression wrecking havoc on voluntary agency of a person, it is very easy to get stuck in a type of vicious circle where depressive episodes are self-fulfilling justifications to having been depressed in the first place.
On a personal note, I have grown to dislike the art that romanticizes depression, when at one time I found it almost soothing.
That is, before it was commonly acknowledged that depression has a biochemical component, as well as an environmental component.
I believe that a big part of why people do feel like they "should be sad" is due to the romanticisation and environmental factors. It is type of a mechanism to justify that low mood is appropriate response to a situation.
Basically, there are two types of depressions: feature-specific and non-specific. In the case of the former, there are some life events that are seen as the cause of depression. If someone finds themselves "not depressed" while the cause still exists (e.g., loss of a loved one), they might want to justify their initial reaction (e.g., sadness) to the cause by, well, forcing themselves to be sad again.
In the case of the latter, there is no specific cause, but likely a more biochemically drawn response. But again, if one finds themselves happy, they might want to justify their behavior during a depressive bout by forcing themselves to feel that way again. That the way they feel and behave is normal.
Combine these with depression wrecking havoc on voluntary agency of a person, it is very easy to get stuck in a type of vicious circle where depressive episodes are self-fulfilling justifications to having been depressed in the first place.
On a personal note, I have grown to dislike the art that romanticizes depression, when at one time I found it almost soothing.
