Experiencing a pretty deep depression.
Any books that helped you out in a similar situation?
>>7886452
The Moral Discourses of Epictetus
>>7886452
You need the Dharma.
>>7886452
mary shelley's frankenstein may seem like a strange choice but there is a lot of hope in it, and it looks at the human race from an interesting perspective
hope you're okay bro x
>>7886452
lets be reasonable.
You know what you need to do senpai
Count of Monte Cristo.
>>7886523
This, meditation, good sleep and diet will do wonders compared to any philosophical book or fiction
F Scott Fitzgerald, The Crack-Up
TS Eliot, Collected Poems
EM Cioran, The Trouble with Being Born / Anathemas & Admirations
Arthur Schopanhauer, Essays & Aphorisms
Blaise Pascal, Pensees
Theodor Adorno, Minima Moralia
Good luck anon
Stoner
Anything from this list OP
>>7886734
cruel
>>7886734
ayy
>>7886734
Im finding it hard finishing book of disquiet, just beacuse of the mindset it puts me in.
Its good shit, but doesnt really brighten my day
>>7886523
Was going to mention this. Exercise and healthy diet may not cure the underlying reasons for your depression, but it will almost certainly make you feel better.
i'm in a similar situation OP.
today was different. cleaned my room and changed my sheets for the first time in three months or so.
>>7886452
pic related. great escapism. great characters. it's long enough that you can really sink your teeth into it. plenty of action, sex, swashbuckling. enough emotional depth to keep it interesting, but not so much to put you in a weird mindset.
I found The Enchiridion helpful for dealing with psychotic depression. But I think it was really the psychosis itself that pulled me out of the depression desu
>>7886452
Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Edgy as this may sound, I'm convinced that for a man with intellectual integrity, the only way out of nihilism is through self-overcoming. Start out by setting ascetic goals for yourself, then meet them. That'll catapult you into a strangely powerful state of psychological well being; one that grows stronger and stronger as you progress and make things harder on yourself.
>>7886763
Love Dr. Greger.
>>7886523
I'm a big weightlifter, but hard cardio punctuated by lengthy walks actually does more for my moods than weightlifting alone... unless, of course, I've taken preworkout and take the evening to manically smash PRs.
>>7886452
OP, also look into "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo. I find that the cleanliness of the environment I'm in has a direct impact on my moods, so:
-Do your dishes
-Brush your teeth
-Take out your trash
-Run as far as you can for two minutes, and then walk back.
-Take a shower.
And that will do more for your depression than reading any book.
Try to find a purpose in life - a passion and a career and a tool for self-development all in one.
>>7886452
The Bible.
> After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also.
Ordering me a pizza might help. I'm in Edinburgh. Let me know when it's done and we can sort details
>>7886452
Stoner by John Williams
A prescription pad.
>>7887675
I'm not OP, but I'm very near the end of that book. I can tell it's leading up to something quite joyous, yet I'm not looking forward to it.
>>7886452
talk to people anon, it really doesnt get any simpler, make an effort, i know you can do it.
>>7886452
the awakening
>>7887675
this desu senpai.
the book really gives off a cathartic, womb-like experience, that everything's going to be okay in the end.
>>7886734
I'm trying to make my way through this list. Recently read 'The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake' because it seemed like an interesting premise and I need to read more books by female authors. Read it in the day but it turned out to be fairly shit, I demand that it is removed from this list.
>>7886758
Your days shouldn't be "bright". Life is disgusting.
>>7888988
that's just defeatist
>>7888996
No it's not. It's a statement / opinion formed as a consequence of both an objective and subjective analysis of both my own life and life itself as lived by a human being. If human beings did not possess the animalistic, irrational pressure to continue existing suicide rates would be so much higher, and procreation rates would be far lower. To pursue a "happy life" is to long either to be an animal or worse, an ignorant, naive human being. The fact that the beauty of one's internal world can never (until VR is developed to a satisfactory standard) be reflected in the Demolition Derby-esque nature of the external world, where countless wills compete to assert their notion of beauty / correctness etc on the world, is a fact which can only result in either horror, apathy or disdain, though commonly all three are experienced in equal measure. Consciousness is a disease, and its perpetuation is only encouraging further sickness.
Kierkegaard's The Sickness Unto Death
It's important to know the difference between despair and depression. Despair is loss of hope, it is an act of the will, it is spiritual. Depression is a physical illness which stops you from experiencing basic pleasures, causes you to want to sleep all the time, and other symptoms.
These two are often related, but they are distinct.
Kierkegaard points out that almost all people are in a state of despair. For example, take a wealthy man who loses his wealth and commits suicide. The common interpretation is that the man was happy, but then he despaired and committed suicide. Kierkegaard would point out that the man was always living in despair, because he always based the value of his life on wealth, which is despair because wealth is a contingent thing that can be taken away. Such is the case with nearly all men, because nearly all men place their hopes in contingent things and are anxious lest they lose them, and are ready to despair totally if they lose them or fail to get them.
People with depression are often tempted to give up all hope because life becomes unbearably painful, as the most basic of pleasures are taken away. But that is not always the case, most still hold on to some hope, if only of surviving the depression and returning to normal health.
It's important to realise that depression is not your fault. It's a physical illness and you have to treat it like any other physical illness. You wouldn't torture yourself over catching a cold or breaking your arm, but people with depression will torture themselves because they believe it's their fault they are depressed and if they only change their attitude they can be well. They are confusing depression and despair. Despair is something that can be fixed by a change of attitude and by "positive thinking" (i.e. by hope), but depression is something that you have to wait for the body to heal. Don't weary yourself trying to think positively and then blaming yourself for failing. This is a vicious cycle for anyone with real depression that only aggravates the symptoms. IMO if you have depression you shouldn't try to think or feel positively, which will only wear out you already exhausted brain, you should try not to think or feel at all, do as little work as possible, especially mental. When you break your arm you put your arm in a cast and wait for it to heal; if you are depressed, your thoughts and emotions are broken so you have to put them in a cast for a while and wait for them to heal. Trying to think positively when you are depressed it like trying to lift a weight with a broken arm; it will only cause pain.
The cure for despair is hope, which is an act of the will. The cure for depression is for the brain to address its illness. No philosophical or religious text will help you with depression, but it may help you with despair.
>>7889008
>The fact that the beauty of one's internal world can never (until VR is developed to a satisfactory standard) be reflected in the Demolition Derby-esque nature of the external world, where countless wills compete to assert their notion of beauty / correctness etc on the world
The bleak Hobbesian / Darwinian view of nature is false. There is plenty of corruption and suffering in the world, but war, chaos and suffering are not the very foundation of the world as Hobbes and Darwin would have you believe.
>>7886734
kek
>>7889008
well that's like ur opinion man
>>7889008
you sound very bitter and jaded.
>>7889022
To reduce my argument to a "Hobbesian" / "Darwinian" one is rather stupid on your part, and suggests you are an excitable freshman who just got out of Phil101. I don't give a shit about war, and in fact wars are a great way of making depressed people feel better about their lives by giving them something to fight for and believe in. Neither is chaos my concern. People in Uganda have plenty of chaos in their lives but the depression rates are far lower than Finland for example where "chaos" is far less common but suicide and depression occur at a higher rate. The kind of individuals who lead very outwardly stable, structured, rational lives tend to be those are also the most depressed and suicidal. Sensitivity, that is genuine sensitivity made even the greater by a sharp intellect and acute self-awareness, is something we should all aspire to (it aids empathy, it allows the creation of great pieces of art, etc.) but is also something that, as well as being the crowning achievement of our species, is also the thing that often leads to the sensitive individual to want to end their lives. You can reduce unemployment to zero, cute all diseases and so on but there will never be a cure for unhappiness and depression. Nietzsche imagined such a world in his image of the Last Man and it rather easy to see what a terrible situation it would be should some future "Utopic" generation blink stupidly should someone from our own time try and explain to them the nature of unhappiness, suffering etc.
>>7889047
And you come across as someone who relies on cliched retorts and accusations to prop up your self-perceived identity.
you can thank me later
>>7886734
Okay so I'm not really intelligent or have read much but I dabble in pleb shit. OP's topic is something I'm interested in.
is this list legitimate?
>>7889008
>If human beings did not possess the animalistic, irrational pressure to continue existing suicide rates would be so much higher, and procreation rates would be far lower. To pursue a "happy life" is to long either to be an animal or worse, an ignorant, naive human being.
But humans DO possess this animalistic irrational pressure, so your contention that human life is disgusting is based on a faulty premise. If we can be happy by being animals or ignorant and naive, then isn't that the most sensible course of action?
>>7889016
This is interesting. Good post.
>>7889089
No, because such happiness as I've stated isn't desirable and should not be respected. It's the reason we save the scientist and kick the goat off the raft. Virtual Reality is the only means by which I will ever find true comfort and happiness. Only by living as a handsome, ageless Japanese teenager amidst a harem of cute catgirls can one find true worth in this decrepit life.
>>7886452
>>7889016
Yeah, depression is somatic, you need somatic solutions, ie disciplining your body through habits.
Also, know those days, where you havn't done anything, but you're still dead tired? In these cases resting or being inactive will actually make you more tired. Go out for a walk or get some exercise and you will come back energized.
>>7889103
Why is such happiness non-desirable? From the sounds of it you live a pretty miserable life and your only shot of happiness is a long way away from becoming a reality. You will continue to be miserable unless you change your worldview in some way. Why is an ignorant form of happiness less desirable than your miserable life?
>>7889122
Telling a depressed person that they have every reason to be happy will just make them feel guilty. Unless its just an attention thing, which i reckon this isn't.
>>7886452
nah
Honestly I tried everything, and doing math and science was the best thing for me.
>>7889118
Fuck off to /fit/ retard. Not everyone starts skipping to work after lifting weights.
>>7889122
Do you deny that the scientist would be saved in place of the goat?
Also my own life has transcended misery or any meta-emotion that may otherwise be applied to it. I possess a profound genius and my sense of humour is so advanced that I treat life as a joke without allowing myself to succumb to the sort of careless behavior that often occurs as a consequence of this mentality. I am a hyper-sensitive, acutely self-aware, and immeasurably "deep" human being who will never find comfort in this life on account of my understanding of beauty, virtue and goodness being so pure and without fault that nothing other than full immersion in a Virtual Reality of my own creation will satisfy me.
At least you have food to eat. Read this.
>>7889144
>At least X
Quiet kid, us adults are talking.
>>7889147
You think you are an adult because you are depressed?
>>7889124
I'm playing devil's advocate a bit, because I've actually been struggling with views pretty similar to that (though less severe) in the last few years and have been depressed all that time. So I'm arguing as much to myself as to him. I'd developed a bit of a superiority complex and stopped doing many activities which I thought were worthless and 'too human' for me (e.g. getting drunk and playing laser quest with friends, whoring for likes on social media, watching TV which you know is shit but is still enjoyable) and my life didn't really improve because of it. I think I became cleverer because of it, but also far more depressed. I couldn't figure out why these insecure pleb-tier idiots were so much happier than me when I had transcended all these humanly vices. Now I think I'll be happier if I live an unspectacular life where I just feel my way through life and do the things that make me happy without really questioning them one way or the other, and that's my suggestion for the guy I'm talking to too.
>>7889142
It's an irrelevant question, the scientist would be saved because he'd be more useful for survival, and because he's human and not an animal. Real life isn't a survival situation like that, so the situations aren't really comparable. What is the purpose of your profound genius and sense of humour if it can't bring you happiness, or bring any happiness to the people that you care about? If you really have transcended misery (and I doubt that), have you also transcended positive emotions like joy and rapture? Are you better off because of it? If not, are you really a genius at all? If life ends when we die, then what is more important then living a happy and fulfilling life?
>>7889157
>joy and rapture
Not at all, though the underlying tragedy of life, which in fact accentuate my ability to appreciate such things, does not justify life in that it is capable of allowing me to experience such emotions as a consequence of external phenomena triggering some release mechanism in my brain.
>better off
Yes, undoubtedly. Just as not many people really want to be animals, even if those people are very unhappy and the animals appearing content.
>happy and fulfilling life
There is no such thing, unless you are in possession of a naive, ignorant and childlike mind or if your standards for fulfillment are so low as to be attained within a single lifetime. Even should I achieve my own ambitions, the existence of suffering will always mean that I, as an extremely empathetic being, will always suffer vicariously, like Jesus Christ.
>>7889055
"Comfy and motivational" is superimposed on "depressing."
Sometimes it can be useful to read about other people who share your point of view in these situations, but often it only drags you down further.
>>7886734
I see someone took the depressing lit pic and feminismed it. Better when its mostly guys, because according to r9k, women don't get depressed at least not to the same extent
>>7887381
Hey do you have the pdf of that life changing magic of tidying up book
I looked on the internet/google but all downloads seem sketchy to me and I do not often download books
>>7889258
woman here
depressed here
>>7889486
I'm a girl btw! XD
>>7889144
> At least you have...
> There are people in the world, that...
> How can you feel bad, when others...
No.
>>7886536
Cioran? Really? You might as well push him off a bridge yourself.
I was in a similar situation as yourself OP, and just happened to be reading The Trouble by Cioran. Not a good idea.
It's all chemical imbalances and reactions in your hear, honestly the best thing to do is to get moving. I wanted to lop the head off of everyone who ever said that to me when I could barely get out of bed to take a piss let alone eat, but I promise you, get up and start moving and it will help you tremendously.
>>7890105
Yes really.
Perhaps depends on whether you find the medical model of depression useful or not, ie that it's an illness with a cure.
These are books that have helped me accept and endure.
There's more than a dash of theatricality and black humour in late Cioran. Find this heartening, perverse as it may seem.
Can't see how Stoner is relevant myself, fine novel though it is. Some evidently feel otherwise. It's not a query with a "right" answer.
>>7886452
Embrace your depression, the world is shit, there's no denying that. When you realize that you live in a dump, every small good thing that happens will make you happy. Forget about getting rid of depression, you won't. Just understand that it is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time, then live it (instead of wishing you were someone else)!
-Grain Brain
-The attention revolution
-Becoming a supple leopard
In that order.
>>7886452
Don DeLillo's White Noise always sat with me in a good way when I was going through a real deep depression cycle.
>>7890240
Hey look, a dickhead. Depression passes, and japsies like this are salty because they can't be as happy as their dad. Personally, I find books from my childhood pretty therapeutic. Harry Potter, Edgeworld and Skulduggery Pleasant all put a little grin on my face.
>>7886790
God help you when you finish it though.
I finished it and had nothing to escape into.
>>7890213
I'm with this lad, Cioran cheers me up in a way. So does Schopenhauer. There's something freeing about owning up to your pessimism, not having to pretend that things are alright is a burden of your shoulders in itself.
>>7890279
>self help books
Do you have a problem with YA's?
If not, starting from the beginning of this series and reading until you're in a happy place will probably make you feel better.
As long as you stop before you get to "The Pirate King." It's all frown town from there onward.
>>7889493
But why not?
>>7889008
True detective leatherskin pls go
>>7886452
The War of Art got me out of mine
>>7890770
really?
i hoped it would get me out of my hole. still down here.
G.K Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday always makes me feel better.
>>7889008
Wew
>>7887680
I know this is meant as a joke but finding the right medication helped me out of a 10 year depression.
>>7889008
> objective and subjective analysis of both my own life and life itself as lived by a human being
*tips fedora*
>If human beings did not possess the animalistic, irrational pressure to continue existing suicide rates would be so much higher, and procreation rates would be far lower
*tips fedora*
>>7889144
All that book is, is someone sabotaging themself. It's different.
>>7889008
>>7889016
Good post but you're thing on thinking is way off. People with depression tend to have distorted thinking. CBT is probably the most effective means of overcoming depression and it's essentially only to do with thought.
For me I know what the impediments to overcoming my depression using CBT are.
1. I still can't convince myself I want to change even though this state is awful.
2. Embarrassment at having to use it and feeling like a child and like my problems are not unique or special and having to confront that.
This is the only reason CBT stopped working, because I stopped using it and was never really on board with it even though I 'wanted' to get over it.
Having said this, this is intimately tied up with despair as Kierkegaard put it that despair is essentially double mindedness I.e. Willing 2 things. Being split. It's a stupid state to both wan to improve and not. It makes me realise how irrational we can be.
I've been acknowledging that there is a path 'out' and still not doing it for years now
>>7890697
Not that anon but thats not how suffering functions. Say I was to have a headache, were your reasoning correct I could cure it by caving your face in with a hammer, however we know that doing this whilst it might invoke new feelings in me would not deal with the headache itself.
Another example do you think that during the Hati Earthquake they should have sent over a crack team of university students to allivate their suffering by informing the survivors of the horrors of Hiroshima?
>>7889008
What about transcendence? What about hope? What about spirituality?
>>7886452
Sunbathe at least 20 minutes a day.
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>>7891482
Rumi a shit tbdesu
>>7889016
this was quite helpful, thanks friend. did you have a specific translation that you liked the most for this book?
"Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind," by Shunryu Suzuki, is enlightening (no pun intended).
>>7891386
Good point. I just feel that sometimes reminding yourself of the things that are actually "good" in your life can help you positively.
>>7891096
Not entirely true. Please no spoilers for those who haven't read it.
>>7891466
I've just started doing this myself because I've been diagnosed with a vitamin D deficiency. Too early to notice a general throughout-the-day mood lift,, but I definitely feel better when I'm out in the sun.
>in a pretty deep depression
>can read
Lol
>>7891783
Kek'd. I don't mean to do the whole "my depression is better than your depression" thing, but how the fuck can you concentrate enough on a book with that shit? The last time I was severely depressed I would just look up at the ceiling for days on end.
>>7889008
8/10
>>7889142
getting a 'smug shit eating grin pepe' feel from this
>>7886452
Sword of Truth series by Goodkind actually helped me a lot with my depression.
Easy to digest epic fantasy story, but one that also preaches about values in life.
A bit too polar when it comes to good/evil but still valuable.
Currently re-reading for the 4th time.
>>7892128
>>7886452
Read the god of small things
Reminder that suicide the utmost expression of the faith in a self and that suicidal people do not believe in death.
suicidal people despise life so much that once they understand that they are inefficient at getting what they want, they go in the opposite direction of ''letting go'' in clinging, more than ever, to their desire of pleasures.
they cling so much that hey fail to pierce the notion of self.
if people believed in their death, they would be able to endure any pains on earth, they would not be scared of dying nor of pains.
when we believe in our death, when we believe that anything stops ''at death'' (reminder that you cannot prove that you will die, just like you cannot prove that you have been born), you do not have a problem taking a few hardships. it is not a few years of suffering which scare you, since at the end it stops.
ITT: mental weaklings
>>7892448
>he's never been mentally ill
enjoy your limited knowledge of the human condition
>>7892410
Yeah, nah.
>>7886734
>no The Tunnel
it's shit
>>7892484
This.
I had very bad anxiety for a week or two, gave me good perspective.
>>7886734
Got a few of the books on here thanks. Shit has been tough lately and haven't even bothered about my trying to start reading as a hobby. Hopefully something comfy helps
>>7886511
I agree. What exactly do you recommend?
I'd say the way of boddhisattva
I found Franzen's The Corrections and Roth's The Humbling incredibly uplifting!
