My take on depression

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We all get depressed every now and then it's very normal. When you get like that change somthing in your life do somthing you won't normally do like work out, change your meals watch somthing diffrent on TV. If you are in a realtionship thats gone all wrong get the hell away from that sitaution and find someone better. If you are thinking depressive thoughts look around you and look at what you have in your life and just think there are young kids in the world straving to death that are working there ass off almost 24/7 and all they get is two peices of bread and a hour and a half hours of sleep and you for example you can get anything you want from just walking into a store. Also if that dosen't help try to charishe that moment you have because one day you will face the innavitable.

Chances are you are a good person that deservers all the best and hopfully this helps a depressed AS person out.

not really.
I know how good I have it, I mean, loving family, good economy, car and, well, still no girlfriend but I'm not ugly so there is probably hope...
and yea I've been bullied as a kid, yea I haven't had the best luck in my social life, but all in all I should be happy, and yet, I'm not.

it's not that I'm down either, I'm just sort of, empty, a few years ago I went to a psychiartist and I had to acually ask her "am I depressed", because I've been like this for so long I can't remember when I last was alive.

my depression isn't due to a change in life, rather the lack of it.

but thanks for trying though.

I'm happy with my life and I'm quite a positive person.

However, I have inherited faulty brain chemistry. The only thing I can do about that is take medication and even that doesn't cover all the symptoms of my brain cooties.

I think depression occurs for a number of reasons, and in most cases is a subjective or relative experience.

1 - It is a normal reaction to life events and lasts until the person affected "gets back to normal"

2- It is clinical. So the person suffering is going through it without there being a root cause (people normally take pills in this case.

3- It is a relative feeling that is exagerated by the person with it. They probably feel a bit down about something missing and claim to have depression.

I have been there a lot but in my case I think it is reactive to my perception of life rather than a chemical problem in the brain.

I know a 30-year-old girl who has become depressed lately. And I don't know why, because she's very intelligent, runs her own business, makes a lot of money, has a nice car, is very attractive, has a very tall slim figure, and is very confident and has lots of friends, and she has 3 younger sisters who aren't as intelligent as she is, and she has a father who loves her and would do anything for her. She hasn't seen her mum since she was 1, but she's never been too bothered about that, since her father done a good job bringing her and her sisters up single-handedly. But now she has really let herself go, she's become anorexic and is terribly underweight, and she drinks alcohol and gets herself ill because of not eating, and she smokes like a trooper.....

Christ, if I had social confidence, high IQ, a good job earning good money, and really attractive I would be the happiest person in the world, because that's everything you need to actually get on in this screwy world.

Well I don't know.......I could see why someone in that position would be depressed. because while they have all that material stuff the high IQ might make them more able to see some of the flaws in society and such and become rather disturbed about it. Also it strikes me odd you say she's confident.......well most anorexics are not confident hence the reason they think they are too fat and should stop eating that is a pretty serious psychological disorder and usually a factor is lack of confidence as in not being satisfied with themselves.

I doubt social confidence, a good job, and money would really make me that happy.

Werd Sweetleaf, I will come right out and say that high IQ does cause depression for those exact reasons. I have more or less always been able to get and achieve what I wanted, but I have always had terrible guilt about what I have and have achieved, because many of those accomplishments mean that someone else failed at it. Am I supposed to be happy that I did better than the "next guy"? I feel bad that the next guy doesn't ever have the ability to compete with me.
A simple analogy would be Lebron James playing ball against a middle school basketball team. He would destroy them single handedly, but would he feel like a champ after? No. Success when competing with equals would be something to be happy about and take pride in. When the "competition" can't compete, guilt exists, unless you're a sociopath, then you become a day trader.
I would guess that the woman you speak of feels this too Joe. I am much more intelligent than my siblings (I hate to say that btw), and it pains me to think of how their abilities limit their potential to achieve what they wanted when we were kids.
As for the original post, knowing third world kids are working for bread and water doesn't make me happier about my situation, and I really hope that no one is less depressed because of this, its a reason to be depressed.

Sunlight vitamin D

little depression and suicide close to the equator

few aspies too....

Uh... wrong.

How to fight depression, you ask?

Don't think about how great life is in the civilized world. In fact, leave the civilized world. Go camping, or something. Relax, and enjoy nature for what it is. No matter how bad things get, man can always survive in the wild. Everything you will ever need you can make with your own hands out of raw materials.

I think there is some correlation with intelligence and depression, but it is genetic in nature. Having an awareness of the shortcomings in society, and powerless to do much about it can lead to these thoughts, but at the other end of it is further developing an imbalance in brain chemistry, that gives rise to a clinical depression.

Clinical depression is something different than the ordinary blues or musings about the failings of others,yourself, or of society.

If these thoughts are pervavise and continuous, then this is something different and could use treatment. It is internal and the outside really has little influence on it.... you can't pull yourself up by your bootstraps -- impossible.

Well considering how long I've been depressed, I am pretty sure I have clinical depression.....I would say more then one factor can contribute to clinical depression. I probably also have some more situational depression but the thing is I am never really not depressed.

I kinda have to agree.....part of what depresses me is the civilized world.

Depression is a chemical imbalance in the brain. Just telling yourself to be happy doesn't work. Sometimes you need a helper, like a SSRI or you might need to do cognitive behavioural therapy which tries to change the way you think.
Once you get into clinical depression it's hard to get out. Feeling depressed is not the same as depression.

I'm fortunate I just have hormonal depression (two weeks a month). That said, I still get extremely miserable and even suicidal. I literally feel when my dopamine levels just drop and I can be crippled by this change in my brain. This time, however, I just got really angry and had about 1000 panic attacks. Note: number may be slightly exaggerated. It was bad though. I've never been so scared and felt so hopeless in my life.

Anyone can get depression. You can be successful and loved by many and still have it. People with a lot of friends can still feel empty. If something goes wrong at a person's job and it's their life they might just commit suicide because they can't deal with whatever has happened. Like if they got fired or if their boss was involved in some insider trading or the company goes bankrupt.

Anyone can get depression, even people who seem happy. It's so easy putting on that facade, though inside you are screaming. Even though I don't have it, apart from the hormonal condition, my brain naturally requires to have more dopamine and norepinephrine because I'm lacking in it, and on some days I feel so foggy, unmotivated and so low I could easily fall into depression.
Tell me to be happy because I'm more well off than people in third world countries on those days and I'd slap you with the knife I'm about to pierce my skin with. This is why I'm medicated.

Yep. You and I had a similar discussion about this. 'Being born with depression' was the opening salvo theme some months ago. Ultimately it is a non-robust serotonin/and or catecholamine system. It can take just little stressors to move one into a chemical dysfunctional zone. But one can be born depressed.

Its more genes, I'm not prone to depression at all, but I probably should be

I have to wonder if the OP has ever experienced depression. Sounds like the typical crap that people post\say when they have not experienced it before.

How about next time I get depressed, I'll just tell myself to be happy, and everything will be fantastic.......?????

Sorry, but it doesn't work that way. There is no reasoning, no logic and is an isolation from reality. Any little thing, stupid or not, can be enough to send people into depression and make them feel their life is not worth living. Whereas when I'm feeling ok, its not a problem.

Its not just feeling sad about something, or having a lazy\blue type day. Its worse that that. Its a malfunction of the brain.