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246 Comments
- gz2nyc, on 04/23/2009, -2/+92Depression is real, it's not a made-up disease, and it affects people of all walks of life. If you don't know what depression is, I sincerely wish you don't ever experience it.
- seanstuart, on 04/23/2009, -28/+76What a great time to quote Bill Maher!
"New Rule: If you believe you need to take all the pills the pharmaceutical industry says you do, then you're already on drugs….
We won't stop being sick until we stop making ourselves sick. Because there is a point where even the most universal government health program can't help you. They can't outlaw unhealthy food or alcohol or cigarettes. Just pot, sadly.
Because, you see, the government isn't your nanny. They're your dealer. And they subsidize illness in America. They have to. There's too much money in it. … Fifty years ago, children didn't even get Type 2 Diabetes. Now, it's an emerging epidemic. As are a long list of ailments which used to be rare, and have now been "mainstreamed."
Things like asthma and autism and acid reflux, and arthritis, allergies, adult acne, attention deficit disorder. And that's just the "A's." …
In Hillary Clinton's health plan, the words "nutrition" and "exercise" appear once. The word "drugs" 14 times. Just as the pharmaceutical companies want it. You know, their ad weasels love to say, "When diet and exercise fail…" Well, diet and exercise don't fail. A fact brought home last week by a new Duke University study that showed exercise - yes, exercise - is just as effective a cure for depression as Paxil and Zoloft.
So ask your doctor if getting off your ass is right for you! " - charlie6969, on 04/23/2009, -1/+45After I had my daughter, immediately after, I got major clinical depression AND 40 allergies.
BOOM! Just like that!
I had never had even ONE allergy my whole life before then.
You can judge and have opinions all you want, but I live in my own skin and I don't presume to know anyone else's pain, anymore.
There is not anything worse in this whole world than losing all of your hope, for yourself, for the future, just, no hope at all.
When death is preferable, well, it just doesn't get any worse than that.
You can call me weak, duped, whatever. But, I am still here. I survived.
I now know I am strong, because I have been to hell and lived.
It would have been much easier to die.
Yes, Big Pharma helped, but I put my foot down on the amounts.
Better to be dead than a zombie.
I hope none of you never have to learn empathy the hard way. - oxdeltaxo, on 04/23/2009, -0/+41Agreed. Many people just don't realize how defeated and worthless you feel when you're depressed. Waking up in the morning is a chore and just going into work drains you, never mind actually doing your work when you get there.
- Darkhacker, on 04/23/2009, -0/+31Depression did exist back then. You don't hear much about it because back then, nearly all mental illness was just lumped together as 'crazy' and there was little knowledge about mental health.
As for the "zomg! Big-pharma is eViL!!!" which I know is a popular theme here on Digg, is something that I take a slight offense to. I was extremely depressed and suicidal several years ago. I thought about it 24/7 for more than a year. A lack of energy to actually commit suicide (I was sleeping 16 hours a day after dropping out of school) and a fear of death were the only things holding me back. I was prescribed several medications which did nothing for me, but after several trials, I finally found a medication which did. Wellbutrin (along with emotional support from friends) saved my life. The difference was incredible. I realize it's not a miracle drug because everybody is different and medication will vary in it's success for each person, but for me, Wellbutrin was a life-saver. It even had a side effect of weight loss which made me look better in addition to feeling better and gave me motivation to exercise again.
Pharmacy isn't a magic solution that cures all ailments, but neither is it an evil voodo science that some conspiracy nuts make it out to be. Modern medicine has saved my life. Without Wellbutrin I'd either be dead or a homeless bum. I'm now happily working toward my CS degree; something I never thought possible just a few years ago. - blackmesa, on 04/23/2009, -3/+33A lot of people think mental disorders like depression are something to be marginalised or treated like something "outside" of medicine. Realistically, the brain is a physical organ of the body like any other, and is subject to its fair share of disorders and malfunctions.
Just like you can have a thyroid problem, heart arrhythmia, hypoglycemia, etc, you can have mood, anxiety, personality, psychotic etc disorders. The central nervous system (inclusive of the brain) is nothing 'magical'. It has a physical form like anything else, and works based on the laws of science like anything else. Approx 8-12% of people will suffer depression at some point in their lives (actual "clinical" depression). The figure is even higher in some countries (20% in Australia for example: that's one in five). The updated US National Comorbidity Survey (NCS) reported that nearly half of Americans (46.4%) meet criteria at some point in their life for either an anxiety disorder (28.8%), mood disorder (20.8%), impulse-control disorder (24.8%) or substance use disorder (14.6%).
Yet, what public recognition and knowledge is there for this? Why are these disorders relatively maligned or ignored? Is it because people refuse to acknowledge that the 'mind' is a chemical system like the rest of the body, and that malfunction is likely as common there as elsewhere? I'm not saying we all need to be cold, fanatic scientists who deny the existence of perception or philosophical interpretations of it, but let's at least face physical reality. - elliotys, on 04/23/2009, -1/+30Too all the people who think anti-depressants are a bunch of crap, you have no idea what you are talking about. I work in a pharmacy and the vast majority of people taking anti-depressants swear by them. I know there are non-drug ways to combat depression, and most doctors will address these also. However, as far as we know depression is actually a physiological condition brought about by low serotonin levels. All anti-depressants do is potentiate the effects of serotonin and other neurotransmitters. They are not addictive, and have a low rate of side effects.
I used to be skeptical too, but after having a sister that suffers from depression, and seeing the thousands of patients I have encountered with depression, and having them swear that nothing they did worked until the drugs, I am now a believer. And when you people, most of which have absolutely no experience in the healthcare industry/sciences, discredit them, and tell them it's all in their heads, it's disruptive, disrespectful and completely naive and ignorant. - inactive, on 04/23/2009, -1/+28There's actually speculation that perhaps the reason antidepressants sometimes lead to suicidal behavior is that, especially when you're just beginning, people get just undepressed enough to get out of bed and go kill themselves.
- drmangrum, on 04/23/2009, -2/+28Could you explain that?
How can admitting you don't know something be interpreted as bad? I think the true crime is not knowing and not saying so. The next biggest would be not knowing and not trying to find the answer. - insickness, on 04/23/2009, -1/+26I will swear up and down by light therapy. It works wonders for me. I do a half hour at breakfast every day and I rarely get depressed anymore. I used to get depressed all the time. If I stop doing it for a few days, my mood plummets.
I wouldn't have thought that it would help me. I am the eternal skeptic. I hate pseudo-science like acupuncture, etc. But light therapy isn't pseudo-science. There have been real scientifically-proven benefits to light therapy. Particularly if you get depressed in the fall, I would recommend trying it out.
Full-spectrum light boxes can be expensive, upwards of $300. But what it does for me is immeasurable. I even got a portable light box for when I travel. - inactive, on 04/23/2009, -0/+25I think part of the reason for the stigma about depression is being uncomfortable with the notion that diseases and disorders can affect the mind just as they affect the body. We like to think of our minds as something special, and we like to think that we're in control - but depression, and mental illness in general, is a challenge to that. Also, personally I think it's also a challenge to the notion of a soul. I mean, aren't we supposed to be more than biological machines? Surely there's some part of us that isn't physical, and that part of us should not be able to be affected by physical ailments.
- FearlessFreep, on 04/23/2009, -2/+26It's the beginning of trying to find the truth
- DestroyedAUS, on 04/23/2009, -1/+25That's hardly basis for an argument. They didn't have a lot of things diagnosed or occurring in the past that do now. Depression probably did occur then, just under a different guise, such as 'low morale'.
- wavenger, on 04/23/2009, -0/+23People with depression tend to go through cycles of semi-normalcy and extreme depression. Psychologists have found that, as you say, people in the most extreme parts of the depressed episode don't have the will to commit suicide. But as they're starting to feel better, they say, "I never want to be that sad again."
- wakeupsticky, on 04/23/2009, -2/+24DME...
There's a world of difference between full-blown depression and having a bad day.
Don't pretend to understand it. - Gguillorn, on 04/23/2009, -0/+21There's a big difference between feeling depressed and going through depression. It would be as if someone was always happy no matter what happened to them, and they couldn't help but smile all day long. Replace happy with ***** miserable and you have depression.
- 2uantuM, on 04/23/2009, -2/+22Being depressed isn't another word for being sad. It isn't like that. It consumes you. You get stuck in this spot where the only thing you can think of is how negative everything seems and how miserable you are, which ultimately only makes you more miserable. It's a vicious cycle. You feel like the only thing that can "pull you out of it" is suicode. There doesn't have to be a reason to feel depressed, it just happens for no particular reason. It isn't a normal emotion, and you clearly don't understand it.
You have happiness and sadness, and then the more extreme versions are known as mania and depression. LIke I said before, depression is not just sadness.
I used to feel like you about it until I experienced it for myself a few years back. Luckily, something inside me just changed and I was able to recover. - jeffhughes, on 04/23/2009, -3/+22Certainly there is something significant to be said for a good diet and plenty of exercise. But I don't think that those things alone can solve all of our illnesses. Depression is a legitimate disorder that can be treated with a number of therapies (as per the article), and not all of them are effective for all people. For some, exercise does not work, but medication will. For others, light therapy is all that is needed. Just whitewashing the problem and saying "diet and exercise will solve all of our problems!" is a naive statement.
Remember that Bill Maher is not a medical doctor or an expert in neuroscience. He's a comedian. I appreciate his stuff, but I leave the diagnosis of conditions up to the experts. - jynweythek, on 04/23/2009, -5/+23I don't know who's burying you. that's a great quote
- asgardshill, on 04/23/2009, -1/+18So you have to be slightly less than completely depressed to commit suicide. Got it - tenqu.
- xsecretfiles, on 04/23/2009, -11/+2823 slides???? now I'm depressed :(
- Gguillorn, on 04/23/2009, -0/+16The most dangerous times for depressed people is actually when they first begin to come out of a severely depressed period. At the very bottom, there is no motivation to do anything at all, but once that wanes a little bit the risk of suicide is at its highest.
Also, when people commit suicide, they often tell people about it beforehand. It can get difficult to tell when the person is at serious risk, especially when they are a teenager. - bblande, on 04/23/2009, -4/+20Exercise is a great help for depression, but it's pretty hard starting out (whether you're depressed or not). Endorphins FTW.
- Wiini, on 04/23/2009, -3/+19My mom has been severely clinically depressed for the majority of my life. We rarely talk any more. She sits in her room several states away, watching TV for 12-14 hours a day. She doesn't leave the house except for once every week or two. She doesn't call me, but complains how no one calls her.
It's been fun. - nightsweat, on 04/23/2009, -3/+18Asthma is far from a pseudo-disease and exercise often exacerbates it, not cures it.
- phenopticon, on 04/23/2009, -0/+15Abraham Lincoln suffered from depression, so did Edgar Allen Poe, and innumerable other people in various periods throughout history. It isn't just something limited to rich people or people without real problems. The trouble comes when people are depressed without cause, for long periods of time. It IS over-diagnosed but for people with very real depression, there are physical symptoms - as shown in the PET scan. People who have these disorders are not the people who are cutting themselves or dressing up like Marilyn Manson. In my experience, the people with this disorder go to extreme lengths to ensure that their depression is hidden from everyone around them.
- zaffir, on 04/23/2009, -2/+16Despite the fact that I enjoy his comedy, Mr. Maher sounds a bit like a scientologist. "MEDICINE IS NOT NEEDED, ONLY VITAMINS, DIET, AND EXERCISE!"
He just failed to mention thetans. - inactive, on 04/23/2009, -0/+14Fat load of good that's gonna do you say, here in Minnesota in the dead of winter. Christ, have you no capacity to think beyond your own current circumstances?
- MikaStar, on 04/23/2009, -0/+14And you're just an ignorant, sad little troll.
- ylikone, on 04/23/2009, -2/+15My wife and my sister have clinical depression. Even though I've never experienced depression myself, I can see that it is obviously something very real. I hate it when people think they are just wimps or should just "think happy things". Clinical depression goes WAY beyond simply feeling sad. It's a brain chemical thing. And as some have pointed out here, exercise does help it. Exercise helps everything. But the drugs are required to be able to do the exercise... or to do anything really.
- Jektal, on 04/23/2009, -1/+14Alcohol is a depressant...
- Darkhacker, on 04/23/2009, -0/+13They can have my money. The drug companies which you seem to portray as evil have saved my life. That's not to say they haven't participated in some unethical practices (they have) but to act like pharmacy is nothing more than a modern day exorcism is retarded.
If you ever come down with a potentially deadly disease (not just depression but anything) I'd like to see you protest then. Stick it to man! Tell him to shove those life saving pills up his ass! - HurricaneDC, on 04/23/2009, -0/+13The most effective treatment is a combination of the proper drug and regular therapy sessions. Being able to talk confidently to someone who you know wants to help you is good. And they can often provide some incredible perspective that you might be blind to because of your depression.
- Wade, on 04/23/2009, -0/+12How does the sun make you feel?
- Lilitou, on 04/23/2009, -0/+12Stop knocking antidepressants, people. Different treatments work for different people. Dick Cavett swears that electroconvulsive therapy helped him (http://cavett.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/depression/ ), but a lot of other people found it useless, or even harmful. Sometimes depression shows up as a side effect of some other illness, and treating that illness helps clear up the depression--my dad and his diabetes, for instance. Sometimes you're just suffering from SAD and a light box will help. Sometimes you can make it through on talk therapy and exercise. But some people are going to need drugs, even if just as a way to jump start a recovery. And, of course, different drugs work for different people, too.
Some non-drug method worked for you? Awesome. No, really, I am genuinely thrilled for you and wish you the best. But please recognize that your method isn't going to work for everyone. - mphazon, on 04/23/2009, -0/+12please get help before you think about doing that
- jikmo, on 04/23/2009, -0/+12Because starving them will help how???
- NiftyG, on 04/23/2009, -2/+13I was clinically depressed and took antidepressants for 10 years along with psychotherapy, the traditional course of action. The depression always came back - with a vengence.
For me, what finally got rid of it was treating the body as a whole. I changed my diet, started meditating and doing yoga. Only then did the depression lift for good. I mean it's gone - I don't get depressed anymore.
SSRIs are terrific drugs, and they'll make a depressed person able to function, but they do not cure the underlying cause of the depression. Just speaking form my personal experience, of course. - riyehn, on 04/23/2009, -0/+11You're suggesting depression is a feedback system analogous to pain, with I would say is incorrect. Depression is more of a malfunction of that emotional feedback system, just as neuropathy is a malfunction of the body's ability to feel pain.
The problem with your thesis lies in the fact that depression actually makes people less likely to change their life circumstances. It's not like the pain sensation that causes people to remove their hand from a hot element. Depression is a mental illness that affected individuals can no more wish away than they could wish away pneumonia. It reduces one's energy and motivation and cripples the ability to make positive changes. - dstz, on 04/23/2009, -1/+12"I tend to be a bit cynical of any disease that only seems to affect people in affluent societies that don't have serious life-threatening issues on a regular basis"
You just described cancer (long running illness in my family, but would we live in a poorer country we'd probably be dead of something else before its a problem.) And i think you used cynical instead of skeptical. - catxors, on 04/23/2009, -0/+11If that happens, you're supposed to go back to your psychiatrist, or better yet, a psychopharmacologist for a new prescription. They can switch you to something else that might work better or add an enhancing drug. Please do it.
- orthodoxDrew, on 04/23/2009, -0/+11thanks you said what i was thinking
- CloseYetFar, on 04/23/2009, -6/+17The best part of depression is when people tell you its your own fault, and its just an excuse to get "happy pills" that don't really work.
- jeffhughes, on 04/23/2009, -0/+11Great article, with plenty of very important information for those who may be suffering from depression or have a loved one who is. Depression is a legitimate psychological condition, and it is treatable for many. The most important thing you can do if you become depressed is to stay connected with your family and friends so that you have a support system in place. As well, try to get some help, whether from a doctor or a psychologist. As the article points out, there are plenty of possible treatments, and it's not all popping pills.
- centran, on 04/23/2009, -0/+11Ask to be switched to a different anti-depressant.
If you have tried a bunch and are still having those thoughts then you need to check yourself into a mental institute. - peteyb1313, on 04/23/2009, -0/+11you are a ***** retard
(@cod4) - inactive, on 04/23/2009, -0/+10We survived without modern medicine, this is true, but not as well. Don't be an idiot. You want we should abolish vaccines, antibiotics, etc.? Fine, but don't come crying to me when the death toll skyrockets for preventable and curable diseases. We live such sheltered lives, completely oblivious to just how much things like modern medicine have changed the world, and so we bitch and moan because we honestly have no conception about how much worse things could be.
- asgardshill, on 04/23/2009, -0/+10Can you be too depressed to commit suicide?
- Treason, on 04/23/2009, -0/+10Those who don't have real problems? Like the soldiers who see their brothers legs and arms blown off by IEDs and gunfire. Like the children who see their drunk dads beat the ***** out of their mom, helplessly. Nope, these aren't REAL problems. I've agreed with some of your comments in the past but the stench of ignorance is killing puppies.
- PDAIsAOk, on 04/23/2009, -0/+10True knowledge is knowing you know nothing. At least that's what some crazy guy named Socrates thought...
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