Are any philosophy books to relieve depression and anxiety?
>>426198
Thus Spoke Zarathustra helped me trough it, anon.
Yung Chu's Garden of Pleasure
Lucretius' On the Nature of Things
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
>>426198
Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus is probably the most uplifting essay on suicide out there.
>>426198
You should also try asking /lit/. They are a bunch of snobs but they read more books than anyone since they barely ever go outside.
In my experience exercise and meditation help more but a good book can certainly help. I would recommend the 'hitchhikers guide to the galaxy' by Douglas Adams for a lighthearted take on our ultimately meaningless existence in the world.
I know I am a pleb. I also read camus and Nietzsche, they are excellent but I think they might worsen depression.
OP seriously though, gym or jog.
>>426670
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l293-V-HbF4
Nietzsche is really poetic and even inspiring, it's just that he was so lonely that all his writings have a mopey tone to them.
This video is some extract from Nietzsche narrated by a french guy but it's message of nihilism i consider very positive. Every time you make a mistake or fuck up, the inevitable heat death of the universe will render all your transgressions redundant. So go outside and live.
>>426670
/lit/erati here. We're elitists but it's vital for the board to remain at good quality. Just look at what's happened to /mu/ when they let the standards slip. Good advice though; a good blend of exercise, relaxation, socialisation, and study are great for a good lifestyle.
I recommend the Daodejing, The Discourses of Epictetus, The Dhamapada, The Works of Epicurus, and the Apology of Socrates.
>>426750
Stellar recommendations fellow /lit/izen.
Honestly, the major existentialists are all worth reading.
>>426198
>>426776
;)
>>426803
>>426790
This
>>426833
>Sartre
>leaves out Heidegger
>>426833
So three proto-existenalists, and one hack who was ripped apart by Heidegger?
>>426750
>Daodejing
shit, that's a fucking good one
but reading the most books doesn't make you wiser
I and Thou
>>426931
I agree, but learning humbly and studying does make you more knowledgeable.
Based kierkegaard
>>426198
You need some Kierkegaard.
>>426359
Same
>>427096
>Depression and anxiety are postulated to be unrelievable conditions by psychiatry
then what are SRRI for? I've seen them work.
>>427096
...whic is where you should return, philosophy is the greater thinking field and if he feels like that he is on a good condition to learn. Learning, true learning, doesn't come without some realisations about the self.
>>426980
Kiekegaard is for faggot Christians. It's evangelicalism: the philosophy.
>>426198
OP, Nietzsche is the only philosopher you need. The Gay Science is a great start.
>>427096
>Depression and anxiety are postulated to be unrelievable conditions by psychiatry
Then psychiatry is bullshit and you should stop caring about it
>2015
>believing the "unless scientists said it, dismiss it" meme
Science is literally survivorship bias: the art. Science doesn't and can't describe all things, it only describes what it has described.
>>426978
Kierkegaard is shit tier.
>>426841
This, Heidegger >>>>>>>>> Shartre.
>>427182
>Heidegger >>>>>>>>> Shartre.
Say that to my face, not online.
>>427214
>if you fly a plane and don't appreciate who built it, then you're a piece of shit
You're going to have to clue me in here. I've only read some of his philosophy but I don't really see how what you wrote is relevant to his line of thinking
>>427214
I was just memeing, never read Sartr beyond "It's just to revolt".
>>427239
He basically says that in his lectures on existentialism. He talks about solo pilots thinking they're hot shit for making these incredible flights, but he rants and says the people who built the airplane are just as important, that humanism should include all people, etc.
It's really fucking cringey.
>>427214
>I'm basically a Nietzschean and I would convert to Christianity before being a humanist.
Probably because Christianity is more aesthetic than humanism. At least in its deepest forms. Humanism seems to be merely a reflection of how little of Christianity survives in the modern world, and how sickly the weak cling onto certain elements of it.
>>427265
>Humanism seems to be merely a reflection of how little of Christianity survives in the modern world, and how sickly the weak cling onto certain elements of it.
Humanism is just a new name for the same bullshit, but without any of the historical depth or intrigue of Christianity. Christianity has cathedrals, humanism has gay parades. I'll take the cathedrals.
>>426198
Nietzsche and Marcus Aurelius.
>>427247
do you have a link? Google isn't showing anything
>>426359
>>427027
If this is true it will change my life.
I wouldn't say I'm a depressed person in general but I have phases of absolute melancholy or ennui (spelling) that cannot be relieved other than by the most silly humor (think Black Books "wine and fags" scene).
It's made worse by the constant critiquing going on in my head when I read anything I think might help.
I can't sleep, eat, or think. It's just... Nothing.
>>427239
>Humanism in this sense appears, for instance, in Cocteau’s story Round the World in 80 Hours, in which one of the characters declares, because he is flying over mountains in an airplane, “Man is magnificent!” This signifies that although I personally have not built aeroplanes, I have the benefit of those particular inventions and that I personally, being a man, can consider myself responsible for, and honoured by, achievements that are peculiar to some men. It is to assume that we can ascribe value to man according to the most distinguished deeds of certain men.
>Man is all the time outside of himself: it is in projecting and losing himself beyond himself that he makes man to exist; and, on the other hand, it is by pursuing transcendent aims that he himself is able to exist. Since man is thus self-surpassing, and can grasp objects only in relation to his self-surpassing, he is himself the heart and center of his transcendence. There is no other universe except the human universe, the universe of human subjectivity. This relation of transcendence as constitutive of man (not in the sense that God is transcendent, but in the sense of self-surpassing) with subjectivity (in such a sense that man is not shut up in himself but forever present in a human universe) – it is this that we call existential humanism. This is humanism, because we remind man that there is no legislator but himself; that he himself, thus abandoned, must decide for himself; also because we show that it is not by turning back upon himself, but always by seeking, beyond himself, an aim which is one of liberation or of some particular realisation, that man can realize himself as truly human.
Nevermind, I remember it incorrectly or maybe the translation I had was bad. So what he said is that, taking credit for what "Man" has done is stupid, sure I agree, but the second part.. is just a really shitty, confusing way to recite Nietzsche.
>>427290
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm
In retrospect it seems more like the only parts of Sartre that aren't awful are what he takes from Heidegger/Nietzsche, and his own ideas are trash.
>>427282
>Humanism is just a new name for the same bullshit, but without any of the historical depth or intrigue of Christianity. Christianity has cathedrals, humanism has gay parades. I'll take the cathedrals.
Basically what I said in the other paragraph but I say humanism is a weaker version because it's obviously more worldly and hedonistic. Not just the same shit. In one sense it's not religious, since it no longer looks to external authority, it's really individualistic. Rights basically end where another's individualism is harmed. That's an example of how little traditional morality there is. The modern Islamic extremist is closer to Christianity than Humanism in that sense. They have mosques instead of parades.
>>427322
My formula for happiness: a Yes, a No, a straight line, a goal.
>>427322
>I can't sleep, eat, or think. It's just... Nothing.
Yep, thats depression alright
>>427322
Maybe I'm just unique but to get out of depression you need to throw all your weight against a wall until you push it over or collapse, out of nothing except the faith that it will help.
Obviously the wall is a metaphor for anything of extreme challenge in your life.
Life isn't meant to be lived casually. It's meant to be a struggle. Depression is a lack of a struggle. Stop focusing on your emotions, because that's what's keeping you from pushing outward.
When I learned that how I feel is always intrinsically a byproduct of my lifestyle, and never the cause, I was able to redirect my life, and I went from a suicidal depressed NEET to now where I'm employed, got a full ride scholarship to a good school and have a qt asian girlfriend who loves me. All because I picked a goal and stuck with it.
It seems daunting, but it's not. You have to hold onto your dreams.
>>427350
"depression" is just codeword for "i'm feeling bland because i sit inside all day and never do anything" and you use the bad feelings as an excuse not to go outside and do anything.
in other words, depression is a complex of backwards motivations, and all it takes is for you to stop being a fucking pussy-ass nigga bitch to get over it.
>>427367
Good advice anon, the problem is that I'm not stagnant or unsuccessful. It's deeply personal as an experience since in my outward life there is no indication of this state I sometimes experience.
>>426816
not a bad fit teebeehaych
>>427380
Fuck, is it possible to be just "broken" at the end of the day?
>>427380
Then it might be physiological. Do you get good exercise and weightlift? Those help a fuckload with me.
Stay away with pills, I've worked in a loonie bin for years, and psychiatric pills will break your mind for life.
>>427376
oh gee, I didnt know it was so easy.
Look at me going at college for the last 2 years, struggling every single day to get out of house, but still doing it.
I'm guess I'm cured of depression! Oh wait, no I'm not, I still feel like shit, even if I do fight it, because depression is a lot more than "bad feelings"
>>427392
Then lift weights, get good exercise, eat better and look up different methods to reduce inflammation
Or just kill yourself
If you're just gonna get buttblasted and play the "i'm permanently broken" line then fuck off. fatalism is for people who want to be dead already.
>>427392
Also I used to be that level of depressed, for months I had no job and wouldn't leave the house until my food had rotted or was gone, fantasized suicide every day and lived in a house literally filled with garbage. So fuck off with your "my depression is special". No it's fucking not. You're just a typical person with fucked-up behavioral patterns.
>>427406
That wasn't me by the way. I actually don't do those things - not fat or sloth like, but I know I'm not fit or truly healthy. I'll give it ago. Might as well try.
>>427413
Fuck off with your "u jus hav 2 stop bein dpressed lol" nonsense.
Fucking got buried by jackasses
>>427392
Ass
>>427416
Good-I'm glad. If you'll accept one last suggestion, I don't recommend you switch from doing no exercise to trying to jog 30 minutes. Take it moderate, do warmups, be gentle with your body. If you start with harsh exercise you'll only feel worse and won't want to exercise more.
Part of getting past my depression involved me going on long walks, 5 miles, 3-4 times a week on this trail near my house.
http://www.integrativepsychiatry.net/brain_inflammation.html
That link is something I believe is factual, that depression is linked in many complicated ways to your physiology, and that the way we live in America causes depression. There are ways to fight it, though, and since you believe it's possible to change, if you experiment on yourself I believe you'll find you will improve.
Good luck anon.
>>427406
>>427413
I'm not a fat slob, and I'm still capable of a perfectly normal life.
The behavioral patterns arent what causes depression. Depression causes the behavioral patterns.
That was my fucking point.
The whole: "just work out brah, stop being sad lel" is bullshit, thats all.
I'm not complaining. I'm trying to stop feeling like shit, by forcing myself into keep having a normal life, do exercise, keep myself interest in the things I study and in my hobbies, but the feeling doesnt go away magically. Its something that sticks.
>>427422
That's not what I'm saying you retard. I'm saying explicitly it involves huge lifestyle changes, changing how you view things, when you do things, diet, exercise, it involves changing alot about yourself. It's not "just change", it's "work really hard in these concrete areas to change".
>>426670
Exercise really can't be overstated in how much of a difference it can make. You don't have to start calling everyone BRUH and wearing singlets that show off your nipples. Just go for a walk or jog 3 times a week. Do some calisthenics if you feel like it. It's one of the easiest things you can do to help with depression and axiety and best of all it's free!
Hope you feel better soon OP.
>>427439
>The behavioral patterns arent what causes depression. Depression causes the behavioral patterns.
Wrong. 100% completely wrong and backwards.
>The whole: "just work out brah, stop being sad lel" is bullshit, thats all.
No it's not, that's the lie you tell yourself to protect your ego. YOU made mistakes, YOU can fix them, and these lies do nothing but protect you from accepting that.
>I'm not complaining. I'm trying to stop feeling like shit, by forcing myself into keep having a normal life, do exercise, keep myself interest in the things I study and in my hobbies, but the feeling doesnt go away magically. Its something that sticks.
Nothing magical about it, you just aren't performing proper science on your moods and behaviors.
I literally had to correlate my actions and feelings over months with a notebook to clue in to some serious behaviorial dysfunctions I had and have.
