Is therapy the only way to beat depression?
Therapy is just something that can potentially help. There are many ways to approach depression. Therapy is a vague word that covers many things. If you mean speaking with a therapist then it is not necessarily the answer and it will not necessarily work.
No.
You can beat it at chess.
You can beat it in a vidya.
You can corner it outside the bar it goes to every friday to sunday nights.
>>17119743
therapy in what form?
> talking to some one
> working out
> doing something
It's not the only way but it's the most common and effective ( along with taking medicine)
>>17119769
>>17119755
>>17119752
These often combat it very well.
Especially talking with people you love/like to hang around.
It takes the edge off.
>>17119751
Is there any way Id know if it would work?
>>17119752
I'm pretty bad at chest and vidya
>>17119755
As in seeing a psychologist. I'm planning on working out again soon and I'm usually busy at work, practicing guitar, or going somewhere with a friend.
>>17119769
But how do I know it's what I should do?
I've recently been fighting with a friend about me going to get help, I'm very stubborn about not going. I'm just very objectionable about needing help and getting it. I want to get better, but I can't even define what better is.
>>17119743
No. What beats depression is usually ending isolation, uselessness, and irrelevance. Feeling involved with a community, useful, and relevant to others is usually the best way. This is actually what a therapist will try and direct you to do, along with various therapeutic exercises to alter the way you think of yourself and the world.
Studies of hunter-gatherer societies have found virtually no anxiety or depressive disorders occurring, mostly (it is believed) because there is no isolation, and everyone is involved with the community in a meaningful way.
>>17119835
So Ted Kaczynski was right and all we have to do is smash industrial civilization and learn to accept a >50% infant mortality rate?
>>17119865
Or just imitate the positive aspects of their societies, that is, the social aspect.
>>17119743
No. I was depressed for quite a while and I'm no longer depressed now so obviously it isn't the only way. Therapy probably would have helped a lot, though (and I probably came too close to death on more than one occasion), so I would say it's a good idea.
Anyone have suggestions on how to find a good psychologist/psychiatrist/psychotherapist?
>>17119870
He argued those positive aspects were strangled by technology and the utopian myth of progress that's beaten into us. Read his manifesto, you'll come away with a strong opinion (intense disagreement or a passionate desire to smash computers)
Nope. I beat it by becoming a christian and working at it.
Try taoist philosophy as well, and giving to charity and the less fortunate like the homeless
>>17119955
He sounds crazy
No.
I was in therapy with my mom and dad when I was a kid. When I turned 12 I was put on pills and had my own therapist. Here I am at the age of 24 on 4 different pills and never have gone a full month since puberty thay I didn't feel like killing myself. I don't know why people say it like it is the only answer. It's fucking annoying.
And seeing the same unhappy people in the waiting room week after week is so disheartening.
>>17120049
This
Take some pills like everyone else, you fucking pussy
This thread is pretty discouraging, is depression something you're always stuck with?
>>17120284
Yep. Depression can be managed, and that's about it.
>>17119743
>Is therapy the only way to beat depression?
Of course not, look at the studies.
Therapy is one way, but there are many.
For example, CBT is about as effective as SSRIs in trials, with fewer side effects and lower attrition.
That said, when people say "depression" they usually don't mean the clinical condition as defined in trials. And even then, it has clinical subtypes like melancholic, "atypical", psychotic, etc.
>>17119835
>Studies of hunter-gatherer societies have found virtually no anxiety or depressive disorders occurring
Kind of hard to believe considering our close relationship with chimps (which have anxiety and depression out the ass).
Though of course a human hunter-gatherer society might actually be much healthier than the chimp equivalent, so could be true. iirc bushmen are pretty free of depression.
>>17120284
>This thread is pretty discouraging, is depression something you're always stuck with?
Usually not. I don't remember the exact stats but the vast majority of depressive episodes are temporary (>90%) and most people don't have more than 1 or 2 in a lifetime.
Those that have chronic and treatment-resistant depression however, are often (usually iirc) stuck with it, and will have a shortened lifespan and lower quality of life. Even when they achieve remission of the current episode with treatment (usually aggressive pharma) it usually comes back.
I have it myself, so I can attest to the fact that it usually doesn't "get better" like more common standard MDD.
But even this is only a temporary status for most of us: we'll see newer and more effective treatments in our lifetime (eg esketamine, rapastinel, and NSI-189 are currently in clinical trials, should all be approved around 2020 iirc).
So it really depends on what kind of depression you have. It's not 1 single unitary disease with 1 etiology, the different types will have massively different prognoses.
>>17119743
The only way to beat depression is to grow up and grow balls.
>>17120284
Yes. Once you see the reality of life, there is no going back.
No, but depression isn't something you can "beat". You can get away from it temporarily, but it's not like depression is some platonic cave that you can leave for a world of happiness and smooth sailing. I wanted to kill myself every day from age 8-16, now I only want to kill myself a few weeks out of the year. Never used therapy, but I know plenty of people who went through therapy who are way more fucked up than I am. Probably because therapists are retards who think SSRIs work for everybody
>>17120383
The trick is finding a non-retard therapist. I was lucky, I found one my 2nd try. First one was trying to get me to find my identity by tracing my family history. Literally the stupidest thing I've ever heard of.
>>17119743
It depends. The thing is that saying you have depression is like saying you have a fever: it's not a condition in its own right, but a symptom common to many different conditions. Many if not most of these conditions can't be treated in exactly the same way: some respond to therapy better than others, while others respond to different sorts of medications (which are themselves different for each condition). Many respind best to a hybrid approach involving therapy and drugs, but even then, the drug and the therapeutic approach must be properly matched with the condition.
Part of the problem is that we're really not so good at the "matching" part yet. We can do better than wild shots in the dark, but there is still a lot of trial and error involved. It can tale quite some time.
I'm convinced thay if "the cure for depression" is ever found, it will not be a drug or an approach to therapy, but some kind of test or system of tests that can quickly and reliably match patients to drugs and approaches. I have similar thoughts about cancer (without the psychotherapy aspect, of course). But we currently don't have this, so the best we can do is to experiment.
>>17119955
Eh sounds pretty stupid. I think I won't.
Therapy makes me want to kill myself. But apparently that's a sign of getting better or whatever. I guess it is, since usually I'm too fucking depressed to do anything except hope that I waste away or something.
>>17119743
Various therapies didn't help me, nor did the many medications I've been on. Eventually, I stopped caring and just accepted being miserable. As long as I don't bother anyone and put on the appropriate face at the right times, I can manage to get by okay. I guess you could say that I beat depression by embracing pain.
>>17119902
>>17120383
>>17120386
But how do I find one that isn't retarded?
>>17120445
I don't know your situation with insurances and whatnot, or if you're not American you might have actual healthcare that makes sense unlike my country. But just give them a change for about a month I'd say. That's about how long it took me to realize the first one was a dink. Second guy was actually a human.
>>17120451
I'm still under my parents' insurance. My biggest worry is that I'll be wasting time because of a shitty therapist or me not opening up/resisting treatment
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolutionary-psychiatry/201106/magnesium-and-the-brain-the-original-chill-pill
No. But CBT (Cognitive behavioral therapy) and DBT (dialectical behavioral therapy) *can* be very helpful, if your therapist is decent. If they aren't, find a new one.
For me -- I've been through both therapies, sometimes with the same therapist, over the 8 therapists I've seen -- drugs seem to be the most effective, but that's literally just me. I'm currently getting my brain shocked to treat depression, because treatment-resistant depression is shit.
I thought this article was quite helpful: http://www.webmd.com/anxiety-panic/guide/how-to-find-therapist
>>17119743
the worst way actually
>>17120383
bless u
>>17121213
How so?
