The Cure For Depression That Nobody Talks About

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Hi all.

I'm glad that the thread that I made about my depression is still going strong. Now I want to talk about the thing that has always helped me though my times of trouble.

What helps me through depression is intellectual exploration. Sometimes, when everything feels like crap, I watch educational videos (particularly historical documentaries) until I feel better.

I'm bringing this up because this has always helped me ... but hardly anyone mentions this in the advice that they give to depressed people. Why? Am I the only person on the planet who derives joy from facts and knowledge?

I've noticed that most depressed people in the world are monomaniacs. For example, there are some guys on the internet who constantly think about how they don't have girlfriends. They will constantly talk about how ugly they feel, how lonely they are, how shallow women (supposedly) are, ect. They constantly beg for emotional support, and they get kind words, but they nevertheless stay depressed forever. They never bring up any other topics.

I usually tell men like that "Why not just think about something else?" In response, they will usually call me an as*hole.

Do I ever feel lonely? Sometimes ... but then I will watch a documentary about how badass Attila the Hun was. Then I usually feel better. Why don't women like me? Who gives a damn? Nomadic warrior tribes are far more interesting because they raid castles and break people's heads open.

Is it just me, or is monomania the main cause of depression?

Doesn't this mean that the best cure for depression is intellectual exploration? That's the polar opposite of monomania.

I think it's more rumination than monomania. Rumination is defined as "compulsively focused attention on the symptoms of one's distress, and on its possible causes and consequences, as opposed to its solutions". It tends to be associated with catastrophizing and people get overwhelmed. I agree that trying to break the repetitive thought cycles is a good aim but it's not always an easy thing to do.

Watching videos of my favorite things definitely helps me! I have a large range of interests. My favorite thing to watch is cat videos. They make me laugh! I also like watching video interviews with my favorite tennis players. Denis Istomin gives such inspirational interviews. When he talks about all he has overcome to make it to the professional tour, it is very uplifting.

Most of the people who are moderately or severely depressed are not depressed because they want to be depressed, contrary to popular opinion. If you have been able to cure your depression by keeping intellectually active then your depression is probably mild. One of the defining features of depression is a loss of interest in things that were once enjoyable and a lack of motivation to get started on anything. Overcoming that is a serious problem for people who are moderately or severely depressed and simply telling them to think about something else isn't going to work.

I too have suffered from mild depression for more than thirty years. Mild depression seems to be my default mood setting. I manage to keep going because I keep myself intellectually and physically active but these things have never cured my depression, they simply help me to cope with it. I have suffered from one episode of much more severe depression many years ago. I had absolutely no energy either mentally or physically to do anything. The gentlest of tasks was exhausting and I simply didn't have the ability to focus on anything anyway. Being told to just do something or think about something else would not have been in any way helpful.

The mild depression that I continue to experience is not in any way comparable to that more serious episode. I now have enough resources each day to make choices about what I want to do, and to actually get started on things. Those resources weren't available to me when I was severely depressed. I did not want to be depressed. It was just something that happened as a result of life circumstances. Fortunately for me, my depression began to get better on its own probably with a little help from the medication I was taking.

Keeping active, both mentally and physically, is actually something that is talked about a great deal in relation to depression, contrary to your thread title. You have not discovered a magical cure for depression. You have just found a way to cope with your own symptoms. Many other people who suffer from depression do in fact do the same sort of things every day to help them cope.

Thinking about something else only takes your mind off the pain for a short time, if at all. If that "cures" your depression, then its not depression at all, but likely boredom. I would probably call someone a bad name too if they told me to simply not think about it. My depression is at a state that it is now a central part of who I am.

This is basically what Bertrand Russell was getting at in 'The Conquest of Happiness'. He said that zest and impersonal interests are an essential aspect of happiness. It's so true: people who don't really take part in any activities, and don't have any intense interests, often become depressed over time because there's nothing distracting them from inevitable problems. Russell himself contemplated suicide as a young man, but decided to stay alive because he wanted to learn more about mathematics.

You have to be careful though because truth isn't necessarily something pretty. This is why there is so much taboo surrounding certain topics like human biology, versus something like particle physics.

But yeah, the severe depression is something beyond what one can just think their way through. There's much confusion about this since the science is incomplete and speculative much of the time. However, it is true that if one has a serious biological issue then they literally can't make themselves feel better.

This is one major reason for me to be very skeptical of spiritual gurus and the like since I don't think they often understand that their methods to attain peace and happiness only work because of their "normal" brains which have a working "pleasure chemical" system.

Something analogous to this that might help people understand would be to have them imagine thinking their way out of a bad hangover. Have them imagine how ridiculous it would be to say that "happy thoughts" will cure a hangover instantaneously .

This is something that I'm well aware of each time I go through depressive episodes, but ultimately it isn't as simple as 'just thinking about something else', even though it's the most effective means of getting out of that particular episode. Depression is kind of like a bad toxic habit (smoking), that even though a smoker would know exactly how bad smoking is, or the ways to quit, most just can't logically bring themselves to.

Some days I feel better and like I can conquer anything, while others I don't even have the capacity to get out of bed. It's honestly a roller coaster ride, regardless of whether your ability to these emotions and 'walk away' from it is there or not. I do agree with one overall essence that your message brought across though, and that the best cure in my opinion for something like that depression is always going to be mindfulness - to be aware of your situation is the first step in recovery, compared to someone who isn't.