Comment by iammisc | Hacker News Reader

Comment by iammisc | Hacker News Reader

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You're absolutely right. This is an unpopular opinion, but I don't think anxiety or depression are mental illness. They are just feelings. Your feelings do not make you ill... People attribute it to a 'chemical' imbalance, but your brain being run by chemical fluctuations, everything is a 'chemical' balance, including this comment I'm typing right now. What we've done is taken these brain fluctuations, and labeled them bad, without addressing why one's brain is thinking this.

I am an anxious person. I have had several terrible things happen to me that have led to prolonged periods of depression. Ultimately, these things are a choice, and people need to be taught good skills for coping with the sad realities of life. Life is ultimately a long series of sufferings, ending in death, which one can either choose to embrace or to worry about. Unfortunately, as a society we have stopped teaching all the traditional tools one would use to get oneself out of such funks.

You're describing situational depression. Very different than major depressive disorder or dysthymia for which these drugs are often prescribed. Common mistake.

'Major depressive disorder' is just situational depression applied to every situation. Common mistake. Many psychiatrists and psychologists make the same mistake. Many psychiatrists, by virtue of their education, are part of a class of people who are themselves more prone to depression and anxiety, so we probably shouldn't be looking to them for great advice.

Wrong again, a psychologist would not make that mistake. They know what those words mean; you just googled them. Luckily you didn't even try explain away dysthymia from your armchair because, well, you have nothing to stand on.

> Many psychiatrists, by virtue of their education, are part of a class of people who are themselves more prone to depression and anxiety

Yikes, now we're just on to blind speculation.

> Yikes, now we're just on to blind speculation.

Not at all. More educated people tend to be more anxious and more depressed.

https://www.originsrecovery.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/H...

The fact that we trust those more prone to depression to solve depression should not be discounted.

When it comes to 'dysthymia'. The only reason we find it to be a disease is that we expect people to be happy all the time. We've labeled anything other than that as diseased. As I stated elsewhere, I do not believe in happiness. Most of my day is spent neither sad nor happy. Were I to be sad all the time, I don't think that's particularly interesting either. Our society is not set up with space for people to not be happy. Society is ill, not the people.

What are the traditional tools we can use to get ourselves out of depression? Exercise probably?

Buddhism has been working on this for a couple thousand or so years. There are many different practices and traditions that have evolved in it, but many of them at the beginning will teach you to sit and observe all sorts of phenomena, or may even ask you to bring up uncomfortable, strong emotions to learn how to work with them.

And yeah, for sure exercise. Just remember the practice of training your body is a marathon, not a sprint. Consistent effort over years is what you're going for rather than trying to go hard at the beginning. It's a lifestyle change.

In one of her books, Atwood describes a community which allowed people to be in a "fallow" state for as long as they needed it, taking care of their basic needs, being supportive of them, but otherwise allowing them to ruminate and do nothing as much as they wished.

I think depression is an evolutionary response to situations which demand too much of us. It sends us into a state where we must take an extended rest to recharge and rebuild ourselves internally: physically, mentally, emotionally.

I think not allowing for this is a huge shortcoming of our society, which considers continuous and stable productivity not only the norm, but a requirement.

Community, shared culture, shared religion. Exercise happens when you do those three things.

All 3 are in abundance in Ethiopia. So why are depressive disorders so prevalent there? Folksy phrases aren't a great guide to mental health.

> So why are depressive disorders so prevalent there

Because there's no such thing as 'depressive disorder'. We expect people to be happy, and when they're not, we call them diseased. Nothing is wrong with them.

Also, Ethiopia is in the midst of a civil war isn't it?

False, we expect people to be depressed when depressing things happen, this is normal and called "situational depression," you've confused it with a disorder.

Depression has been a problem in Ethiopia for much longer than the conflict in Tigray, despite the abundance of "community, shared culture, shared religion." Looks like it takes more than that...

> "community, shared culture, shared religion."

I don't pretend to be an expert on Ethiopia, but I was under the impression that it's a multi-ethnic state of different tribes who don't necessarily share those things with each other.

Christians actually have a larger majority in Ethiopia than in the US. Looks like it takes more than "community, shared culture, shared religion." Oops!

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