Can philosophy cure depression ?

[Bill Wiltrack]

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Drink to that.....................................







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[Arising_uk]

When you feel that no matter how much you try you will always be the greatest loser in the history of mankind. ...

You can't think of anyone who's a bigger loser than you throughout the history of mankind?

It´s hard to find anything worth living for.

Can you think of one thing worth living for?

What makes other people happy means nothing to you.

Why should it? And how would you know what makes others happy? One should be more concerned with what makes one happy not what makes others happy as one is not them.

(self-diagnosis)

Can be a dangerous thing.

[Dunce]

Read Bartleby The Scrivener by Herman Melville to see the funny side of depression and as a warning of where it can lead.

[John K]

Read Bartleby The Scrivener by Herman Melville to see the funny side of depression and as a warning of where it can lead.

Voltaire. Candide or Zadig the Babylonian are quite good.

[duszek]

The fundamental cause of depression could be that one feels ready to pass on. Because one has achieved what was there for one to achieve. So one feels overdue, past best beyond date.

One can decorate the time of passage of course, make it nice.

My latest line of experiments: humming a tune.
Good for breathing and blood circulation, keeps one occupied all the time, something positive to do.

A sound island.
Slip in and that´s it.

A drug for wimps and sissies.

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Thanks for the nice suggestions but would Melville and Voltaire make one more cocky and daring ? Necessary for people to survive at all in their times.

[John K]

Thanks for the nice suggestions but would Melville and Voltaire make one more cocky and daring ? Necessary for people to survive at all in their times.

The first, no. The latter, possibly.

[HexHammer]

Anything that gives happyness and joy to the user can cure depression. In the most instances it's only short lived cures, as you need long term cures to be effective.

[duszek]

I have observed that day-dreaming can cure low spirits, for a day or two.

I have observed several times that reading about a job vacancy can set one dreaming about rosy future when one gets the job.
You are free to imagine the most wonderful things coming true, nice colleagues, fun, a big surplus of cash, etc.

The danger is that you apply for the job and then you don´t get it and you become depressed again.

So the best is to just read an ad and to imagine the best.
And next week move to new adds with nice prospects.


Have you discovered any techniques that set you day-dreaming in a positive way ?

[Being]

There is an old saying, 'the truth will set you free.'

Aside from a depression caused by biochemical imbalance, the truth about psychological depression could guide a person away from feeling depressed.

First of all, let us consider that all psychological tensions are centered around the belief of not being, or not feeling okay. Most humans come from the belief that they are not okay until certain people, places, things, and situations go their way. If it does not go their way, tension arises, causing all sorts of psychological stresses. For instance, we get anxious if we think about what might not go our way (future). Angry, if we think about what is not going our way (now). And depressed if we think about what has not gone our way (past). In all cases, it is about not going 'our way'. So what if things do not go our way? Is our personal philosophy so dependent on other people, places, things, and situations to make us feel okay?

Regardless of our life story, deep down into our truth, we know we are okay. We discover, aside from these stories about things not going our way, we are still okay. If we sat down and thought about ALL the things we think we need (besides the basics, like food), then took them all away, deep down we will know we really did not need them, and that we are still okay. Self-introspection can help us discover our truth about being already okay. The philosophy of 'what is truth' can help us realize that it is the stories about people, places, things, and situations that can undo our true self - the true self that requires nothing for itself.

Pain (anxiety, anger, depression, etc) is inevitable, but suffering is optional. It is our stories about depression that causes us to suffer depression. We humans are fortunate, because we have the choice to edit our stories. We can learn to accept disappointments and look for the optimistic outcome from all our presented situations.

[Blaggard]

Conitive behaviour therapy by psychiatry is a good way of getting a patient to negotiate the roots of his depression an by careful guidance lead them to a more mentally healthy perspective.

On the other hand conditions like Bipolar disorder or manic depression and Seasonal Affective Disorder appear primarilly mediated by chemical imbalance particularly seratonin production which is the result of light exposure, in manic depression they tend to suffer more depressive episodes in winter than in summer and more manic episodes in summer, in SAD there is only a depressive phase in the winter or the summer depending what form of the disorder you have hyper sensitivity to light or hypo sesitivity, in these cases CBT is useless, and SSRIs Selective Seratonin Reuptake Inhibitors, which prevent the breaking down of seratonin, and or melatonin injection and light therapy are extremely effective in regulating the disorder in SAD, and lithium is meant to be quite conducive in Manic depression.

Incidentally melanin is produced in the skin and is used to regulate our biological clock by mediation of the break down products melatonin which is broken down to form seratonin and used by the body to mediate the day night cycle so that our body clock is in synch.

[WanderingLands]

Hey duszek, have you ever looked at Stoicism or Eastern Philosophy (Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, etc)? Those are philosophies that, for me, help me in my time of darkness.

My view is that yeah, I do agree with you that modern literature is plagued with an overbearing sense of nihilism and depression. However, I believe that it is unavoidable, but it is indeed manageablebased on the mind's perception of such troubles. Try maybe reading Seneca's On Anger, or Epictetus' Enchiridion, for starters.

[duszek]

There is an old saying, 'the truth will set you free.'

Aside from a depression caused by biochemical imbalance, the truth about psychological depression could guide a person away from feeling depressed.

First of all, let us consider that all psychological tensions are centered around the belief of not being, or not feeling okay. Most humans come from the belief that they are not okay until certain people, places, things, and situations go their way. If it does not go their way, tension arises, causing all sorts of psychological stresses. For instance, we get anxious if we think about what might not go our way (future). Angry, if we think about what is not going our way (now). And depressed if we think about what has not gone our way (past). In all cases, it is about not going 'our way'. So what if things do not go our way? Is our personal philosophy so dependent on other people, places, things, and situations to make us feel okay?

Regardless of our life story, deep down into our truth, we know we are okay. We discover, aside from these stories about things not going our way, we are still okay. If we sat down and thought about ALL the things we think we need (besides the basics, like food), then took them all away, deep down we will know we really did not need them, and that we are still okay. Self-introspection can help us discover our truth about being already okay. The philosophy of 'what is truth' can help us realize that it is the stories about people, places, things, and situations that can undo our true self - the true self that requires nothing for itself.

Pain (anxiety, anger, depression, etc) is inevitable, but suffering is optional. It is our stories about depression that causes us to suffer depression. We humans are fortunate, because we have the choice to edit our stories. We can learn to accept disappointments and look for the optimistic outcome from all our presented situations.

If things do not go my way then I have no influence, I am at the mercy of other people, of the powers that be, of the forces of nature. I am condemned to passivity and to suffering.

What´s the point of existing as a senscient being under such circumstances ?

[Blaggard]

Not really mate. You just have an unfortunately pessimistic perspective. Let me know how you feel in ten years. I think you might of got used to the whole pointless existence thing by then and just gone ah fuck it let's just put down that large stone you've been pushing and enjoy it and stop carrying such a burden. Life is something you work your way into, it's not something that comes with an instruction manual but it is horribly bad, and I can only say the longer you live the more you shrug off the bad, and the more you choose to live. That's all the hope I can give you. There's no magic in life, but me I found something about life I liked over time, that's all that I can think and would happen to anyone. It's merely a matter of your life being your own, and how and in which way it does. It comes to some to some not, but it is life. Depends on your expectations depends on your life and your problems therein, but it depends far more I feel on how you surmount them. You as you might but no philosophy is going to tell you how you should live your life, and not philosophy ever can, there is of course only one way of life and that is your own, that said it is wise to listen to people who have a good thing to depart but it is not all. I think I just disappeared up my own asshole, but I hope some of that patronising nonsense made sense.

[NielsBohr]

Modern literature has become so ugly and disgusting that it can depress you even more.

I wonder if philosophical writings of a person full of life energy would not have a positive effect on one´s psyche.
Not someone like Sören K. or Nietzsche.
Perhaps a friendly teacher of philosophy ? His kindness will express itself through the way he explains.

-Hi Duszek,

It is well experimentally known that a psychology course doesn't help.

-But about philosophy, I am not more affirmative. I absolutely understand your purpose about ugly modern literature. But you know, I think if you was about to read a (translation of) Balzac, this wouldn't be anything else...

Some books of unknown writers are pretty (my sister read often modern ones), and they seems to be nice.

To return on subject of philosophy in a curative way, I think VoiceOfTime made you an excellent first answer.

To testify of what arrived to me:
On a french forum about metaphysics, a saw a sceptic woman qualified herself as being a little more atheist than of other belief, but she was depressive.

I tried to open her mind to believe in God, only in asking questions, to show her that
"atheist imply reasonable" was false.

I could detect some contradictions in her, but I never could erase her atheist conviction, and especially a depressive effect in which it could result...

This is why I think there is no (or not many) ways to cure a depression.

You should find the right person.

In my case, I met a person initiating me to the concepts of the alchemists, and as I found this more than philosophy, I believe it helped me. I insist on the fact that when I met him, I did not know what I was doing on the Earth. I think this person helped me this way.

[duszek]

I read "Père Goriot", a story about an unlucky father.

As long as you keep trying to find a solution to something you are not really depressed.

At the moment I am trying to find an anti-dotum to getting angry.

A monk explained on the radio today that meditation helps to become less angry. The same thought comes to you and it does not annoy you any more. You stay calm.

Another line of experiments is to recite inwardly a list of patrons of good humour, when an annoying situtation is there.

Are there any persons from French literature that make you laugh ?

One of the patrons on my list is Gérard Depardieu as Loulou. Not that I admire him but he makes such an undepressed impression on me. As an experiment I try to imagine that Gérard is watching me and I see if I stop being annoyed because it´s not worth it and not cool.