fredwiggy

You are supposed to feel empathy. That means you can put yourself in other's shoes and maybe understand what they're going through, then comment in a positive way. The opposite of an empath is a narcissist. Someone who believes they are always right, when in reality they are usually wrong, hiding behind a facade of superiority when in reality they have very low self esteem, but have to put others down to feel better. If you aren't this narcissist, you have absolutely no knowledge on the subject and shouldn't comment, because it isn't helping anyone. People who don't feel sad are emotionless, uncaring individuals that have been robbed of these emotions from childhood, by dominating abusive and or neglective parents who said the same thing to their children. "Stop crying you little baby". Teaches the child to become an emotionless narcissist themselves. The same goes for people who say men shouldn't cry. That also shows they can't feel for others. This world has way too many "alpha" jerks masquerading as men, and sadly many as leaders, who are only in the game for power and control. If you don't understand the definition of depression, try researching to gain knowledge about what a person goes through with this illness, unless of course that's beneath you, in which case it's a dead issue.

Doctors aren't drug dealers. They do prescribe medicines that kill people every day, but are necessary to get the right prescription that can treat depression. If you had mild depression, it can respond to natural supplements like St. John's Wort, which actually worked for a girlfriend of mine until she stopped taking it. She has clinical depression, diagnosed, and is now a truck driver who is always busy,which helps her. I don't know if she tried any prescribed medications besides when I was with her, and that one made her worse. She self medicated all the time, and like all those that do, it had bad after effects. Mild depression can be helped naturally, along with the exercise, good diet and sleep which helps everyone's moods, but some require treatment, because some don't go away.

How many doctors did you see? If the ones you saw had no idea what to say, they weren't very experienced, especially if they prescribed pills you might not need, or the wrong ones. Did they diagnose clinical depression or not listen when you told them how you felt? Clinical has no cure and should be monitored throughout your life. You don't want to get that low again if you can do something about it. The doctor my friend sees here just refills her prescription without much thought. I can't really talk to him because he doesn't speak English and my friend doesn't fully understand Anhedonia and what to do about it, so hasn't asked him to maybe try another med to see if she gets better results.

And placebos don't cure depression that's not environmental. Positive thinking helps, but it doesn't cure. Having a bad experience and getting depressed about it is where positive thinking will help get past it.

You can post a hundred links from all kinds of doctors and others who share their opinions on the subject. What is real is that there are many different types of depression, and severities among many different people. Many clinical studies have shown that medication helps with symptoms. many people take meds for years that are wrong for them. Some take meds and get a lot worse. No one who has clinical depression is cured. Seasonal and environmental pass, and some don't need medication. Doctors have suggested, like he said, that it's a chemical imbalance in the brain, and this may be true for many, but not for others. Half of depression is genetic. Clinical depression can come and go, but not go away entirely. You can manage it. It all depends on the severity and your lifestyle. Someone in a very stressful, toxic environment can take the right medicine for them and still have triggers. My daughter has it, her mom, grandma and grandpa had it. Grandpa hung himself. Childhood abuse and or neglect can bring it on, and treated, it can be managed, although the scars will have to be dealt with. If you take away environmental and seasonal, you have clinical, bipolar and psychotic depression. These are the ones that need treatment, and maybe for your lifetime. There isn't a problem living with it as long as you forget the stigma attached to it, where other's don't understand it and think it's your fault, or that somehow you can just snap out of it if you wanted. You own it, and do what you can to keep it under control. It's your illness, and yours to treat. You can get all kinds of advice but the best thing is to see a doctor who specializes in it, and the treatment, including psychotherapy.

Ok, missed it

We don't know the type of depression the OP has, but some of us have tried to help because we have experience in it. Some have made comments that are plain dumb, and some because that's what they've heard works, which can be the opposite of what a person needs. What the OP is experiencing is Anhedonia, where you lose all feelings for most if not all everything. Nothing matters. This happens to a lot of people, some with and some without depression, but it's a good read because educating yourself on any particular topic is knowledge you can use when it happens to you or a loved one. There's nothing wrong with others coming in the thread to tell their own experiences with the subject. Some, like the OP, are looking for advice, and people who live this illness have knowledge about it, and some have tried many things to help themselves or others treat it.

This is what I've been trying to get across. many don't understand the dynamics involved in a mental illness, and that many of them aren't curable, but treatable. I lived it with 2 ex wives, a daughter, a best friend, and now a girlfriend. Studied it for the last 25 plus years, trying to help family and friends. You can do everything you can, but it's up to the one with it to start the ball rolling. Some things people say hurt more than help. It isn't because they are just cold, but don't understand.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/thai-man-kills-3-family-072851438.html

Who is doing the controlling and how? People not breaking God's commandments, which are good for everyone anyway, is a good thing. They make sense, even the ones which don't honor God. How would life be if everyone broke his rules, all the time?

Same nutritional value as all oats. Chewier. I like all oats, and eat oatmeal every day. Just had some an hour ago with soymilk and orange marmalade. I usually eat quick cooking or rolled oats but will get steel cut if i could find them here. Used to eat them back in the US. Takes longer to cook but good texture.

Always there. Yes, I know it's beyond our understanding, because everything we know has a beginning and an end.

Good timing for this to be on Netflix, Shows how the longest living people on earth eat...............................https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28523129/

It's called faith, in believing in something you can't see nor understand. He lets bad things happen for his own reasons, which are light years ahead of ours. What's the alternative, as i stated before? We all came from nothing? All of the planets, microbes, species, how the brain works, that all life on our planet needs air, food and water, to exist. That the earth is just the right distance from the sun to have this all happen, with a moon that controls the tides, with no evidence of life anywhere else , at least in our solar system. All the things on earth and how they work together. All composed of matter. All of this just happened to be, all from nothing? I chose to believe because of faith, and that it just makes more sense to know something created all of it.

You may not care how he feels but you aren't in his mind. You can't fix depression. You live with it, and can keep it at bay if you know how. That sometimes takes medication to help with symptoms. Talk therapy is also necessary because talking lets you get those feelings out. Feelings are real, happiness, sadness, boredom. Illusions are like hallucinations, and not real. Sometimes depression can go away, sometimes it doesn't, but you can live with it. It all depends on what type you have, which can be environmental, seasonal, or clinical. Everyone is different and responds differently. Depression can be brought on by living with abuse or neglect, and when you're out of that situation, you life will improve, although scars take a long time to heal. This is from The Jackson laboratory study............. What causes depression? During the last decade, increased access to brain imaging technology has allowed neuroscientists and hospital clinicians to view the brain in detail, measure neural activity, and quantify neurotransmitter levels. Such studies have revealed many clues regarding the underlying contributing factors of depression and the pathophysiology of this disease. Serotonin: the happy neurotransmitter Various animal models have demonstrated that chronic stress causes low serotonin levels in the brain. In patients, low brain serotonin activity correlates with a higher risk for more violent attempted and successful suicides. Serotonin levels have also been implicated in seasonal affective disorder (SAD). According to a recent study, sunlight keeps serotonin levels high by decreasing serotonin transporter (SERT) activity. Because serotonin-releasing neurons use SERT to recapture released serotonin, limiting SERT activity increases serotonin-dependent activity and downstream neuronal signaling. For this reason, patients afflicted with SAD experience increased SERT levels as nights lengthen, thereby diminishing active serotonin levels while increasing the risk of depression. Figure 1. The role of serotonin in normal and depressed people with or without SSRIs treatment. Currently, the most widely prescribed antidepressants are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which include brand names such as Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil and Celexa. These drugs block the uptake of serotonin (via SERT) by the neurons that produced it, making this neurochemical more available to neighboring postsynaptic neurons. Dopamine: a chemical for motivation Reduced dopamine levels, too, may contribute to depression. Although dopamine was thought initially to be crucial to the “reward” system in the brain and the neurons that control feelings related to pleasure, it more directly impacts the neurons that underlie motivation and habit formation. Dopamine motivates people to take action toward goals, desires, and needs, and issues a surge of reinforcing pleasure once they’ve been accomplished. Low dopamine levels make people and animal models less likely to work toward achieving a goal. People with clinical depression often have increased levels of monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A), an enzyme that breaks down key neurotransmitters, resulting in very low levels of serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine. In 2013, a team from Stanford using optogenetic mouse models showed that inhibiting midbrain dopamine-releasing neurons induced depression-like behaviors caused by chronic stress, reinforcing the link between low dopamine and depression in patients. Therapies for patients that don’t respond to standard treatments Notions that the brain is a chemical soup in which not enough dopamine or too little serotonin contribute to severe depression helped pharmacologists design a series of antidepressants that work –although only in some cases. For too long, however, this view has limited advances in the field, including the delay to develop treatments for the 30% to 40% of depressed patients who, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, generally don’t respond to standard antidepressant treatments. Ketamine: A promising quick fix One of the most exciting, recent findings related to treatments for depression was the discovery that ketamine, a glutamate NMDA receptor antagonist and a FDA approved anesthetic, appears to counteract depression in a matter of hours. Although ketamine may be an alternative treatment for many patients with major depressive disorder who don’t get better with standard antidepressant drugs, it hasn't been thoroughly studied for long-term safety and effectiveness, and the FDA hasn't approved it to specifically treat mood disorders. Nevertheless, some clinics are providing “off-label” treatments. In the meantime, pharmaceutical companies are spending millions to develop patentable derivatives and ketamine analogues. Depressive environmental factors The biomedical community has come a long way towards understanding what causes depression and how best to treat some individuals- but they still don’t have answers for the most effective ways to treat all of the different disease subtypes. We cannot ignore the fact, too, that trauma early in life, hormonal changes, sustained stress, or sudden, emotional losses can push some people over the edge.

Positive thinking is always good. Many over think, which compounds problems. If you're where you can talk yourself out of a depressed mood, that's good, but it isn't that easy for many. Changing your negative thinking to another way can help, but it takes effort, as thoughts aren't easy to change. There are many levels and types of depression, and some are not easy to climb out of without outside help. Knowing things were better before and can be again is a good first step.

Sure can, or stop eating. Many buy things constantly, have a lot of sex, sleep all day, take illegal drugs, drink too much. All to take away the pain, at least for awhile.

Have you ever met him? How would you know how he or anyone else actually feels? No one does, unless they tell you. Everyone gets bouts of depression. that isn't a clinical kind that doesn't go away. Everyone experiences loss, and they get depressed for many things going on in their lives, but most pass and things get better. My best friend had a great wife, a job, house,car, played drums and hockey,fishing, had many friends, and a close family. He took his life in 1987, back when a lot didn't understand the illness like they do now. He was a class clown, just like Robin Williams, and that;s another symptom as well. He used to sleep a lot during the day, and we thought it was just a hangover. Now I know better.

People exercise daily, eat healthy, sleep well, don't smoke or drink, and die at 30. Some eat bacon every day,smoke cigars, drink hard whiskey, and rarely move, and live to 103. Go figure. Difference is, those without depression enjoy life more. Those untreated have days and sometimes weeks where nothing matters, including those things they always loved. No one can make another happy. That's their job, but when you feel nothing, happiness doesn't exist. The only thing that works is knowing there are things that can help, and never giving up. having someone who loves you exactly how you are means the world to them. No medication cures it, although the serotonin levels can be raised. If you don't have depression, it's best not to try and give any advice unless you really read up on it. It took me awhile to try and understand what a person who has it goes through, but Ill never get there. I can only listen to them and try and get them up and about, because staying in a dark room leads to over thinking, which makes it all much harder to want to think anything's worthwhile. Exercise helps by increasing endorphins, which leads to positive thinking, so it should be done but getting to that point isn't easy. If you don't want to get out of bed, the world doesn't look too good to you. Talk to them, letting them know it has nothing to do with who they are, and not their fault, and it usually gets better with treatment. Let them talk, it helps having someone to listen without giving advice but support. hard to do, especially as a man who wants to fix things. You can't fix them. They have to do what they need to do. I care for you, and I'm here for you. If they talk suicide, try and convince them to let you bring them to see someone.

That includes half of the world's scientists who believe in God.

None, because losing money is on most people's minds, including the ones who profit from people working. Politicians are scared to death to do anything that might affect their ratings, so let the people work.

For the OP, another link for Anhedonia, which is brought on by depression. I personally know a woman here that has it, and all the symptoms. Some days she doesn't want to leave the house. Many times not wanting to socialize, go to parties, homes of co workers. No desire for anything she liked before, Food doesn't taste as good, sex means nothing. You want to isolate, which is the worst thing you can do. I lost a best friend to depression and I'll do anything I can to support a friend with it. Understanding what they are going through is near impossible unless you have it yourself. "Better snap out of it", "You'll be okay soon", "I know how you feel|," It's all in your head", "Why let yourself be like this", etc etc etc, are all things you don't say to them. You can't feel what they're feeling because they aren't feeling anything. Everyone gets depressed, and we all know how it feels, but with depression it's worse, much worse, and they think there's no way out. There is, but it takes a lot of effort on their part to want to do the things to feel better, and knowing it won't go away but it can be treated is a major positive thing.................................https://www.healthline.com/health/depression/anhedonia

SAD is most likely what affected you, as it cleared up in May. A lot suffer with this in northern climes, especially during the winter.

Depression , diagnosed clinical and not environmental, does not go away. Medications have helped millions with symptoms, which can lessen the severity. removing yourself from a toxic environment also helps, as does exercise,healthy diet and enough sleep, but it doesn't cure it.

True. I'm sure many lives have been saved from people not spreading what they were infected with by wearing some kind of mask. Yes,they won't stop all molecules from Covid, but the amount. They don't know how much of Covid is needed to start an infection, or the severity of it. Taking guesses with others health has killed many people. The problem here isn't that many wore or still wear masks. It's what they come into contact with when they are home. Kids go to school and most don't wear masks anymore. One child gets close to many, and the rest is history. People wear masks walking down the street, and then share sticky rice with friends and neighbors, guaranteeing a spread of whatever they're carrying. This is a major reason Covid has spread here, along with communal water cups. If someone has Covid and coughs, that disease goes outwards many feet. If they're wearing a mask, most of it won't travel as far. Some have said that Thais have been wearing masks long before Covid came, for many reasons. Why worry who does what here anyway? Who knows how many lives have been saved using a mask?