Dumbest "Cures For Depression" We Have Heard Of

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Hi all.

It's time for me to reveal something to all of you. I think that I may suffer from depression. I generally don't talk about it much because it seems like every single person has their own stupid "cure" for depression that they try to ram down my throat whenever I try to talk about how I feel.

How do I deal with my depression? Well ... I mostly just try to think about other topics ranging from politics to science ... though this doesn't always work.

In this thread, I am going to talk about the stupid "cures for depression" that people have thrown at me over the years.

- My dad thinks that I need religion. This completely ignores the fact that I have gone to church several times in my life and it never once made me feel better.
- My mom tells me that I choose to be depressed. She also tells me "Most people just keep working and they have no time to be depressed." I don't even know what she is talking about.
- Countless people think that I should change my diet. Isn't my life hard enough already? I spend enough time trying to resist temptations.
- Internet tough guys think that I need to work out and then get laid some more. This completely ignores the real reason why I can't get laid. It's hard to find a women who will listen to me talk about amphipod diversity for hours.
- Some nerds on the internet tell me that I just need to watch more cartoons. I don't like cartons as much as I used to. They clog up my brain, making it hard to work.

Have any of you heard any others?

I was super religious and devotededly pious /obedient all my life till maybe last year and yet I was extremely depressed since I was 9 or 10.
So it made no difference.

Now I no longer am religious and still fall into the ‘extremely depressed and anxious’ score according to my psychologist and dr. So... duh that wouldn’t make much of an impact. People are ridiculous.

i think your mom is talking about the way work and hobbies act as a sort of distraction for *some people* who are depressed. personally, keeping busy works for me, the more free time i have he more likely i am to be tormented by my own thoughts and generally feel awful. i need something else to focus on.

exercise has worked to ease the symptoms of depression in many people. i think it's worth a shot.

My flatmate thinks I am depressed because I don't go out enough, don't have enough friends and don't try to get a job. My question is: which of those is the reason and which is the result?

My dad thinks I am depressed because mom and grandma spoiled me and guarded me against the world. But I am actually depressed due to low self esteem dad gave me by proving me that life isn't easy, yelling at me and calling me lazy idiot when I asked for any help/advice. Mom and grandma were protecting me mostly from him, not the world (which btw I got my portion of damage from too: school bullying).

^ Kip's got some good points there.

But I have been told to 'snap out of it'

All we need is understanding support and explanations

^ i can buy that.

They are different treatment methods for different forms of depression. Grieving, insecurities, financial distress can't all be alleviated with one certain technique. The methods you listed arent stupid they're back up on science.

I cannot think of anything that would trigger depression more than the thought of a God who could send you to hell for all eternity for not worshipping him, a God who could stop all suffering but chooses not to. I first talked to my family about having depression when I was about 17 they just basically treated me like I didn't so got offered not good or bad advice, I had therapy and the therapist told me to put a rubber band on my wrist and mess about with it (which I found to be ridiculous). Now I still have depressive phases but just don't talk about them really.

I am confident that people suffering from depression will never get the support we need until the system of capitalism is abolished. The system promotes callousness and sociopathic greed.

... and that's why I usually post in PPR, rather than here.

I heard the majority of the excuses that were already mentioned but I have one to add. My parents said I was depressed because I was spending too much time online. I was spending alot of time online because it was about the only way I could socialize & I was posting alot about things trying to help analyze & sort things out in my head. I had time to spend online because I couldn't find a job due to my physical disabilities despite my best efforts to find one. I couldn't drive & lived in a rural town so I needed my parents to bring me everywhere & mom gripped about being forced to be my personal chauffeur because I refused to make friends who could bring me places. I always had problems making friends cuz of my Aspergers & other mental & physical disabilities. Being online was about the only way I could get support since I sure as f#ck couldn't get it from my parents.

Rose Guedes on her blog Brazen musings wrote good posts about the damage such things do to the psyche and the abuse and misunderstandings that we cannot anticipate having caused us so much stress that we overcompensate— then that gets misread as fake. Then we are stressed and overwhelmed and withdraw and THAT gets misread as hosyility.

And the narcissists and sociopathic types love to exaggerate that into a whole new level of lies.

Possibly we cause them narcissistic injury by being Honest Authentic n genuinely well intended. Or not pandering to their need to be worshipped

Because they cannot be like that.

Maybe thats why they target autistics extra.