No wonder

Our perception of the world isn’t real. It’s influenced by our perspective. One person thinks chocolate is amazing and another thinks it’s terrible. Which one is it? It’s whichever one it is to you right? Is that cashier being short and rude, or are they rushing to take care of their responsibilities? So much we don’t know- our world view relies on assumptions we make about details we can’t know. How you decide to interpret these details effects how you see the world.

Sometimes darkness can show you the light - Disturbed

"you generally can’t just wish depression away, but part of combating it and part of preventing it is in mindset"- A real depression is majorly defined by the complete inability to do anything at all, never mind combating it. Mindset can help to avoid it to some extent, can probably also help to avoid to go to the deepest possible depth of it. But the idea of ending it by yourself thru attitude is just helping the stereotype that people suffering from depression just don't try hard enough to get out of it. The only ways to get out is either it happens by itself or you're lucky enough that anti-depressants can help you. It's a bit like with the flu: mostly it's just a cold. One out of 7 people suffering from severe, recidivating depression end their lives. Being really, really sad is something else.

I want to be clear here. A “real depression” is... a state of depression. There is “being depressed” and there is “depression.” That is to say- there is “situational depression” which is generally temporary and known as an adjustment disorder, and there is clinical depression which is an altered state of mind lasting an extended period of time and not necessarily triggered by any external factors but possibly exacerbated by external factors.

Now- each type of depression isn’t simply “on” or “off.” They range in severity and can be mild with minimal impact on larger aspects of life and able to be overcame through coping techniques alone and or waiting it out- all the way to severe and crippling to where one doesn’t even care to eat or use the bathroom- just being alive can hurt so bad you want to end it.

Clinical depression is largely a chemical issue in the brain. It’s a spiral where you can’t radically shift your brain chemistry just through little things, and the negative can reinforce the negative until you are “buried” in negativity. Medicines can HELP stabilize brain chemistry but behavioral and other work and therapy are often advantageous or necessary. For many, they can’t find the proper drugs and dosages that work for them- or may have tried everything available without luck.

So @halfdeadhammerhead- there is no cure for depression- and like the people who deal with depression the way it impacts everyone is different. The distinctions needed to be clear are that there is more than one type of depression, including temporary depression. ALL types of depression are “real depression” even those that are less severe of not chronic. Notice how I say “can” “May” etc? That’s because those things CAN help- not WILL help. They are worth trying, and especially worth trying in conjunction with other professional treatments. Much of the time- sad as it is- dealing with depression isn’t about “fixing” anything at all. It’s just about making it through the worst parts of it alive and as well as possible, until it hopefully subsides or goes to remission.

So I apologize if my writing was unclear and offended you or anyone else. I’m not saying that one can use “mind over matter” to “cure” themselves of depression, or that depression is simply a “state of mind.” Depression influences state of mind and state of mind influences depression. The primary use of therapeutic drugs in depression is simply to break the negative feedback loop and allow a person to be able to choose to start thinking more positively- something that someone in severe clinical depression is physically incapable of.

But let’s not marginalize people suffering from temporary states of depression or less severe depression- and let’s not invalidate the experiences of people who might say otherwise. No two depressions are exactly the same and ask 10 people who have depression in remission or overcame temporary depression and you’ll get 10 answers on how that went and what they did.