Venting Questions about depression

[doggiesarecute]

So I've read about how a lot of depressed people overthink and criticize their decisions and actions. How common is the opposite? I can't think clearly, everything is so foggy. I don't even have the energy to criticize my own actions. Can't do shit, just lay in bed all day

 

[LaVieEnRose]

I don't know but depression manifests in a wide variety of ways.

 

[derpyderpins]

I wouldn't call that the opposite. The opposite would be talking yourself up and thinking your way more awesomer and betterer than everyone else.

But low energy and brain fog are very common. Based on the description ["I'm too low energy to even criticize myself"] it sounds like - in my non medical opinion - depression.

 

[divinemistress36]

Depression fucks with cognition

 

[ThatStateOfMind]

So I've read about how a lot of depressed people overthink and criticize their decisions and actions. How common is the opposite? I can't think clearly, everything is so foggy. I don't even have the energy to criticize my own actions. Can't do shit, just lay in bed all day

I would say it works both ways for me. Sometimes I am overly critical and stress myself out overthinking, catastrophizing. However, other days I cannot think critically in any sense of the word. I lose all energy and motivation to do anything. I noticed, for me at least, this manifests more in the winter for me. Brain fog is the best term for how I feel sometimes.

 

[bearbrikk]

Depression is a virus of the brain. It fucks up your whole brain chemistry.
And I agree it belongs together. Last year my brain was so broken I did not even understand my own language when I read it.
And at the same time the constant fight with my thoughts and actions.

 

[Havnis]

people overthink and criticize their decisions and actions

No we don't, we don't have conscious control over it. Depression operates unconsciously.
Me and dad described the same things, even if we don't overthink about stuff or criticize ourselves, it just happens and it hurts cause headache.

 

[Ernest1964]

I've always been an over thinker, I realized that my over thinking was causing me to be stuck. I am not generally an emotional person, but back in the early 90s, I would see a stupid telephone commercial and I would start crying. I hated the indecisiveness in me at that time. I would stand in front of the open refrigerator knowing that I needed to eat (I'm diabetic so I need to eat to regulate my blood sugar levels (BSL), or my BSL might drop too low and then I'd end up in the hospital... But I just couldn't make up my mind about what to eat, and I would have no energy to bother to cook anything either. I ate a lot of cereal during the early 90s. So I'd lie in bed and not eat and I'd get sick.

I've been on Effexor since 1993, it has helped AFTER trying a few other drugs that had negative sexual side effects (my equipment just wouldn't work). Am I happy and not depressed now? No. The pills do not make me happy, they make it so that the emotional lows don't cause me to feel so low that I want to CTB every other day. Now, I only want to CTB, every couple of months... so is that progress?

 

[Raven2]

I'm sick to the back teeth of suffering with it but I don't see if getting any better, my life is ruined.

 

[LaughingGoat]

It's actually really interesting how much we still have to learn about depression. We do know that depression can cause the hippocampus to shrink, the part of the brain which impacts memory and learning. When people get Alzheimer's the hippocampus is one of the earliest effected parts of the brain, which is part of the reason they suffer memory issues and disorientation. Multiple studies have shown a link between depression and Alzheimer's. What you described is certainly common symptoms associated with depression. It's also worth noting that depression is not a virus of the brain as was stated by someone, rather it's a mood disorder. Mood disorders are defined by the effect on one's emotional state. Too often that's confused with personality disorders, which are defined by thought patterns, which depression on it's own is not. That being said, depression and personality disorders have a high rate of co-occurring. Depressive personality disorder is also a separate thing, where someone meets numerous mood, personality, and behavioral criteria.

 

[theboy]

true

 

[Dark Moon]

The opposite would probably be high confidence and self esteem.

Depression is affecting and ruining my life.

 

[doggiesarecute]

It's actually really interesting how much we still have to learn about depression. We do know that depression can cause the hippocampus to shrink, the part of the brain which impacts memory and learning. When people get Alzheimer's the hippocampus is one of the earliest effected parts of the brain, which is part of the reason they suffer memory issues and disorientation. Multiple studies have shown a link between depression and Alzheimer's. What you described is certainly common symptoms associated with depression. It's also worth noting that depression is not a virus of the brain as was stated by someone, rather it's a mood disorder. Mood disorders are defined by the effect on one's emotional state. Too often that's confused with personality disorders, which are defined by thought patterns, which depression on it's own is not. That being said, depression and personality disorders have a high rate of co-occurring. Depressive personality disorder is also a separate thing, where someone meets numerous mood, personality, and behavioral criteria.

Tbh I don't even have the energy to read all that. Sorry