depression - Gawker

posts about #depression more →
Depressed Sad Sacks Smarter Than Shiny Happy People
Is Depression American?
U Can Not Haz Edumacashun
Chief Financial Officer of Freddie Mac Commits Suicide
How Faux Filibusters Are Ruining the Economy
Elitist 'Writers' Demand Taxpayer Bailout
Sorry Hobos: Even Food Banks Need Bailout
The Greatest Depression, as Seen on the Covers of The Economist
The Depression's Most Innocent Victims: Mimes!
One More Thing: The Great Regression

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ceilingFANBOY
08/31/09

In reply to Depressed Sad Sacks Smarter Than Shiny Happy People
We aren't depressed. We are just in angst about our meaningless existence. Don't worry, though. We will at some time come to terms with our meaningless existence and find a way to be OK with it and be content with merely existing.
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Smitros
08/29/09

In reply to Depressed Sad Sacks Smarter Than Shiny Happy People
I once experienced a gazebo effect. It felt as if I had swallowed a hexagonal windowless structure in the middle of a park.
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Trai_Dep
08/29/09

In reply to Depressed Sad Sacks Smarter Than Shiny Happy People
With all of the impotent rage, sputtering and persecution complexes that I see Teh Stoopid displaying on Tea Bagging get-togethers and town hall meetings, they don't seem too happy to me.
Unless Scientific American is referring to a different set of stupid.
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Bill Zilla
08/29/09

In reply to Depressed Sad Sacks Smarter Than Shiny Happy People
Knowing I'm smarter than everyone else makes me happy. Which makes me dumber. Which makes me sad. Which makes me smarter. Thanks!
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billybobnyc
08/29/09

In reply to Depressed Sad Sacks Smarter Than Shiny Happy People
Lets's see - the economy is in the tank, people have no jobs and no prospects for new ones. The American Dream - we were told all our lives that if we work hard and get an education , we will be fine. Not true anymore!
Depressed? Now, why should anyone be depressed?
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Uncle_Billy_Slumming
08/29/09

@billybobnyc:

Pretty soon we're going to be an entire country filled with fucking geniuses.
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labyrinthine IS DOING THIS
08/29/09

In reply to Depressed Sad Sacks Smarter Than Shiny Happy People
hmm. I don't know...the truly clinically depressed, yes. the "oh I feel blue, give me a pill so I feel better!" kind...not so much.

but I also think the truly clinically depressed are more likely to stay depressed *because* they're ("we're", being one of them) constantly trying to think themselves/ourselves out of it, and it ends up being a vicious downward spiral of "I'm smarter than this, why can't I figure out how to stop being depressed?" when really, there's no thinking yourself out of a chemical imbalance. drugs + therapy + working on yourself + eventually getting off the drugs, if that's what's right for you on an individual level = hopefully, some semblance of success.
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DoctorNine
06/27/09

In reply to Is Depression American?
Map of World Happiness:

[www.benettontalk.com]
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Tart of Darkness
06/27/09

In reply to Is Depression American?
Unreal persistence in the face of all realistic obstacles sounds more like mania to me.
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RheaPollstry
06/27/09

In reply to Is Depression American?
I guess this means I should give up on my goal of being a star commenter.
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BookishLookish
06/27/09

@RheaPollstry: I don't understand why you are not.
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SaraRueful
06/27/09

In reply to Is Depression American?
That chicken hawk on the Foghorn Leghorn cartoons never seemed depressed.
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intime
06/27/09

In reply to Is Depression American?
Depression is a fact of modern life because modern life is unhealthy for human beings. Human beings were not meant to sit in a cubicle all day staring at a computer screen! We need to be outside - we need to be active. We need to eat healthy food produced without corn products. The meat we eat now - and our ancestors did evolve eating meat - is being fed corn and does not have Omega-3 fatty acids that we need from grass fed animals. Modern civilization is killing us!

That said, I would never want to go without modern medical science - especially antibiotics, sterile technique, anesthetics and vaccines.

End of speech.
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nirreskeya
06/27/09

@intime: Remember, instant oatmeal gives you cancer. Steel cut or oat groats only.
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katekate is squared
06/27/09

In reply to Is Depression American?
When we're depressed, aren't we actively spinning our wheels, generating thoughts that make us depressed? Wouldn't the ability to pick oneself out of a low depression depend more on thinking rationally and quieting those thoughts?

No. Getting out of real, actual depression and not just being bummed out is not about just "thinking rationally."
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krismry
06/27/09

@katekate is squared: Exactly. Thinking rationally has little or no effect in the long run. Quieting thoughts by repression doesn't work either. Depressions are not mental problems, they are variable conditions that may represent signals or clusters of signs that certain functions of the body have gone out of equilibrium. There is not just one kind of 'depression,' and whatever variety is causing the suffering is just as much a physical condition. People who get

this awful advice to bear up, carry on, and think happy thoughts are entitled to our most heartfelt sympathy.
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Uncle_Billy_Slumming
06/27/09

In reply to Is Depression American?
Well it fits nicely with the pbs show on happiness in which a Dane tells us why the Danish are the happiest people in the word: Low expectations of themselves.

As Ben Sherwood might say: "You can eat an entire jumbo jet; you just need to take lots of little bites."

Or as Kwai Chang would say: "The journey of a thousand smiles begins with a single misstep."
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Mymoustache
06/27/09

@Uncle_Billy_Slumming: Dane Cook is the happiest person on earth?
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jackvinyl
06/27/09

@Mymoustache: ignorance (and hackery apparently too) is bliss
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Pinekatz
06/27/09

In reply to Is Depression American?
Okay, U of Mich - Everywhere ain't detroit.

I've re-created myself 10 different times, right here in good 'ol North America. I've been successful every time.

Ladies, try that shit in Yemen or Saudi Arabia or India. Just try it on for size. See if the fit and color is right..... and good damn luck to you......

Crybaby scholars. Gawd. I could go for miles on this topic. Idiots. It isn't "depression." Its what we, the people who have CHOICES, call dissatisfaction. Recognize it, embrace the misery, then choose the way out and up.
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miss_msry
06/27/09

In reply to Is Depression American?
This depresses me.
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