Depression - a modern thing??

[IbnAbdulHakim]

Assalamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu

these days when things go slightly bad people complain that they are depressed. I know people who get disability benefits for depression, even my boss takes 3 days off work because his been diagnosed as depressed?!

whats that all about? seriously was this typa thing always around?

Is depression from the shaytaan or from the nafs OR?????

^ TAHTS MY MAIN QUESTION ?!?!

[IbnAbdulHakim]

one more thing, how comes people who become delirious and show signs of insanity (such as hearing voices/exagerations/illusions etc) are put on depression tablets? i know so many people in this situation...

[s@lm@]

Depression is an excuse for recieving attention.

[IbnAbdulHakim]

Depression is an excuse for recieving attention.

i dont think so sis

i think its this western society, it encourages materialism so much that people simply cant stay happy. If you hear about some of the stuff our elders went through its like "what the hek? How comes they werent depressed?"??

[Qalqilya]

Something like people now dont have complete trust in Allah and for every calamity, big or small, get depressed?

[IbnAbdulHakim]

Something like people now dont have complete trust in Allah and for every calamity, big or small, get depressed?

yeah, whenever someone gets depressed thats exactly what i think, its like:

1. not having patience
2. not being grateful
3. not accepting qadr of Allaah

but then i know NOTHING about depression, so what if i judge someone whos in the mercy of Allaah?

This is why i created this thread !

[Qalqilya]

yeah, whenever someone gets depressed thats exactly what i think, its like:

1. not having patience
2. not being grateful
3. not accepting qadr of Allaah

but then i know NOTHING about depression, so what if i judge someone whos in the mercy of Allaah?

This is why i created this thread !

what do you mean by 'someone whos in the mercy of Allaah?'

[IbnAbdulHakim]

what do you mean by 'someone whos in the mercy of Allaah?'

What if Allah has placed an illness upon the person? then it becomes the responsibility of those around the depressed to take care of him/her right?

And if you dont do that, wont that displease Allaah?

This is ofcourse assuming that depression is a genuine illness...

[Qalqilya]

What if Allah has placed an illness upon the person? then it becomes the responsibility of those around the depressed to take care of him/her right?

And if you dont do that, wont that displease Allaah?

This is ofcourse assuming that depression is a genuine illness...

Oh life is so confusing nowdays. Allahu Alim. These are interesting queries, maybe you should ask them to a mufti.

[IbnAbdulHakim]

^ good idea !!

Your mother has a medical disorder and suffers from depression. She is your mother and you are her son. Allah has blessed you with Hidaayat (guidance) and you should wish this good for your mum as well. The first step is that you should try to get medical advice and try to cure her from her sickness.

mufti ibrahim desai recognises it i guess... so it must be a real genuine illness. i'll look more places.

http://www.askimam.org/fatwa/fatwa.php?askid=2fd5082e63e6175b1370b09d4fc09b7f

[sis_niqabi]

Depression is an excuse for receiving attention.
:55:

i hope you never go through a depression. that is such an ignorant statement.

[Supernova Nebula]

i think there's a Greek philospher who came up with the theory of three elements in human body, by the name of Hypocrates. what he said makes sense to me, he said the three elements, one of them, human body releases some liquid, that can cause malencholic feeling and it has to be balanced out with the balanced consumption of food, something like this. i have forgotten the other two elements :S

[dhakiyya]

Depression is a mental illness, its NOT the same as just feeling sad, down, unhappy or whatever. Its caused by a lack of seratonin in the brain - which is an important neurotransmitter which allows the brain to function normally.

Lots of people may say "I'm depressed" or "I feel depressed" ... but they don't mean "I have this illness called depression". If a doctor diagnoses someone with depression he/she is NOT diagnosing that they feel "a bit sad" or "unhappy" - its an actual illess.

Its rather unfortunate that the word depression has a different meaning in ordinary speech cause it leads to this kind of misunderstanding. People don't in normal speech say "I'm feelilng a bit paranoid schyzophrenic at the moment" or "I'm feeling rather bipolar disorder".

So I think unless you actually know what depression is to begin with, you don't know enough to be able to have an opinion of it.

As to what relation depression has to the state of your Imaan and so on - what relation does any illness have with it? What about flu or measles? Allah sends illness as a test, like everything else so there is some relation. The cure of many illnesses - mental and physical - can be found by correcting your lifestyle, but many can have nothing to do with lifestyle. Unless you actually have an indepth knowledge of the illness in question, you're not qualified to make this judgement.

[IbnAbdulHakim]

As to what relation depression has to the state of your Imaan and so on - what relation does any illness have with it? What about flu or measles? Allah sends illness as a test, like everything else so there is some relation. The cure of many illnesses - mental and physical - can be found by correcting your lifestyle, but many can have nothing to do with lifestyle. Unless you actually have an indepth knowledge of the illness in question, you're not qualified to make this judgement.

jazakAllahu khair, very informative :)

[dhakiyya]

one more thing, how comes people who become delirious and show signs of insanity (such as hearing voices/exagerations/illusions etc) are put on depression tablets? i know so many people in this situation...

there is a problem with doctors misdiagnosing and overdiagnosing depression.

if you haven't read my last post about what depression actually is, please do inshaAllah. edit: ah I see you have :) mashaAllah

for many years medical science has struggled to treat mental illness - however its recently been found that depression can be successfully and effectively treated by using drugs that allow the seratonin in the brain to be gradually replaced. however they are still at a loss with a whole host of other mental illnesses, without effective medication. Sometimes docs will perscribe antidepressants rather than admit they don't know what is wrong or that they don't have a cure for what is wrong.

Someone who is hearing voices and having hallucinations should NOT be on antidepressants!!! - that is a characteristic of an entierly different type of mental illness, such as schyzophrenia. There are drugs that treat schyzophrenia but they are not as effective and have quite bad side effects. however some people can be successfully treated with them. Are you sure that the people you know in this situation are actually on antidepressants and not some other medication? It is pretty appalling if they are.....!

[IbnAbdulHakim]

Someone who is hearing voices and having hallucinations should NOT be on antidepressants!!! - that is a characteristic of an entierly different type of mental illness, such as schyzophrenia. There are drugs that treat schyzophrenia but they are not as effective and have quite bad side effects. however some people can be successfully treated with them. Are you sure that the people you know in this situation are actually on antidepressants and not some other medication? It is pretty appalling if they are.....!

well the person gets checked on by nurses regularly, perhaps 2-3 times a week, and the medication etc is thoroughly checked. So its unlikely that she is on the wrong medication. I dont know exactly what they are, but her mother calls it depression tablets. Allahu a'lam.

because i was thinking that these depression tablets are only making her worser, but i dont really know perhaps she would have been worser then she is right now if she wasnt taking them. To be honest recently shes been showing much improvement, the illusions and voices have gone Alhamdulillah.

I simply wanted a greater understanding of depression, and i believe i've got it. jazakAllahu khairan !

[dhakiyya]

whats that all about? seriously was this typa thing always around?
!?!

Mental illness has always been around, but in the past mentally ill people were usually hidden away - docs didn't realy know what was wrong or how to cure them. They had mental asylums in Europe for people with mental illness, if you had a bad enough mental illness that you could no longer function, you were just taken to the asylum and left there. There was little attempt to diagnose and treat these illnesses.

At earlier times in history, it was assumed that the mentally ill person was posessed. Although posession has some symptoms in common with some mental illnesses, its actually a different phenomina, and one that medical science doesn't recognise. Ironically, its the other way around now - a posessed person is likely to be diagnosed with some form of schyzophrenia. If there is any link between posession and developing a mental illness because of it, medical science wouldn#t have a clue about it because they don't recognise the existence of jinns.

As western thinking became more humane, there was more effort put into diagnosing and treating mental illness - but the treatments that were developed - such as electro-convulsive therapy (i.e. electrocuting the ill person by putting electricity through their brain) were frequently violent and ineffective. Drug therapy for mental illness is fairly new - based on the fact that doctors now understand more about how the brain works, and have found that several mental illnesses are caused by an imbalance in neurotransmitters, e.g. depression is lack of seratonin, schyzophrenia there is too much dopamine. Actually correcting these imbalances is a different matter - docs are good at treating depression now, but seem to be a long way off having effective treatments for schyzophrenia.

in other parts of the world the treatment of mentally ill people has varied -but you can find it in all cultures. Some cultures there are higher levels of it though, and there is a strong link between mental illness and high levels of stress earlier in life (prior to the development of the illness) - stress isn't the whole story though because there is also strong evidence of a genetic link. The most likely explanation is that some people inherit a susceptability to a particular mental illness, and then stress and other factors (like drugs, alcohol etc) can trigger the illness.

[Abu Mu'adh]

Listen to this lecture akhi, it's on modern day depression vs contentment. you'll find many answers to the questions you've asked.

http://www.islamic-creed.com/moola%20videos.html

[dhakiyya]

well the person gets checked on by nurses regularly, perhaps 2-3 times a week, and the medication etc is thoroughly checked. So its unlikely that she is on the wrong medication. I dont know exactly what they are, but her mother calls it depression tablets. Allahu a'lam.

because i was thinking that these depression tablets are only making her worser, but i dont really know perhaps she would have been worser then she is right now if she wasnt taking them. To be honest recently shes been showing much improvement, the illusions and voices have gone Alhamdulillah.

I simply wanted a greater understanding of depression, and i believe i've got it. jazakAllahu khairan !


I would expect that the mother is just calling them "depression tablets" and they are something else. Because of the high frequency of depression in the west, there is less of a social stigma attached to it. I'm not a doctor so I can't say any more than my opinion, but it could be something like schyzophrenia and its possible her mother is afraid of the social stigma attached to schyzophrenia so is calling them depression tablets instead. Yes if she's under supervision of nurses etc its likely she's on the correct medication, and if it is schyzphrenia its also likely she'd be a lot worse without them, but there would be side effects and they are unfortunately not as good at treating schyzophrenia as antidepressants are at treating depression.

May Allah cure her and all mentally ill people. Ameen

[IbnAbdulHakim]

^ jazakAllahu khair.

yeah i recall seeing electric therapy done in "wizard of oz" (sorry i had to mention that lol).

its ironic isnt it.. how much they use to rely on the supernatural in the past and how little they rely on it now. I think its only islaam thats struck the perfect balance between faith and science...

[IbnAbdulHakim]

Listen to this lecture akhi, it's on modern day depression vs contentment. you'll find many answers to the questions you've asked.

http://www.islamic-creed.com/moola%20videos.html

i've seen this about three times lol, jazakAllahu khair, but it didnt answer many questions.

But bro dhakiyya mashaAllah, has answered them :)

[IbnAbdulHakim]

May Allah cure her and all mentally ill people. Ameen

Ameen ! JazakAllahu khair :)

[dhakiyya]

its ironic isnt it.. how much they use to rely on the supernatural in the past and how little they rely on it now. I think its only islaam thats struck the perfect balance between faith and science...

I totally agree mashaAllah :up:

[miss-islamic]

Agree about it being a modern thing. Do you know that there are hundreds of kids/teens, some as young as 11 years old (both girls and guys), who cut themselves? What do 11 years old have to worry about? They are supposed to be in la la land, be innocent and all that. :( And heres the thing, modernism is suppose to lead to a better “quality of life” but while it does in some aspects there can never be society that is perfect and other problems arise to replace the old one. This world just ain’t Jannah and it never claim to be either.p.s. ibnabdulhakim, dhakiyaa is a sister not a bro...

[Al-Nasser]

not a modern thing.....Imam A-Ghazali (1058-1111) had depression and described the symptoms in his writings

http://onlineislamicstore.com/b7053.html

[IbnAbdulHakim]

Agree about it being a modern thing. Do you know that there are hundreds of kids/teens, some as young as 11 years old (both girls and guys), who cut themselves?
.... :eek:


What do 11 years old have to worry about? They are supposed to be in la la land, be innocent and all that. :( And heres the thing, modernism is suppose to lead to a better “quality of life” but while it does in some aspects there can never be society that is perfect and other problems arise to replace the old one.
yeah, This "illness" could have increased due to the rise of materialism. but its not new...


ibnabdulhakim, dhakiyaa is a sister not a bro...

YE SURE !

[Al-Nasser]

not a modern thing.....Imam A-Ghazali (1058-1111) had depression and described the symptoms in his writings

http://onlineislamicstore.com/b7053.html

read the "The Alchemy of Happiness" by Imam Al-Ghazali online

http://muslim-canada.org/sufi/ghacontents.html

[Cashew]

I'd like to point out that very severe kinds of depression can have "psychotic features," which means that the person experiencing the depression can hear voices, have uncontrollable thoughts, etc.

These kinds of depression shouldn't be confused with schizophrenia, which is another illness altogether.

[Radiohead]

Most the posts in this thread are unfortunately uninformed. The idea that depression is somehow conjured up or only suffered by those in 'modern society' (whatever that means) is quite untrue. It is a very real illness, and quite distinguishable from being sad in general.

The people who question whether depression is a genuine illness are being very foolish and is taking for granted somewhat their own good psychological health. Nonetheless, I hope for their sakes, that they never feel depressed in their lifetimes, because it is a deeply unpleasant thing, which can threaten relationships and livelihoods. Thankfully understanding of mental health issues is ever-increasing and the stigma attatched to it is decreasing. Perhaps those who are throwing around rather unqualified opinions on the matter could use this discussion as a chance to do some research around the issue, and to investigate what helath proffesionals make of it. Perhaps then they wouldn't be so casual with their opinions.

[IbnAbdulHakim]

^ advice taken :up: thanks :)

[dhakiyya]

I'd like to point out that very severe kinds of depression can have "psychotic features," which means that the person experiencing the depression can hear voices, have uncontrollable thoughts, etc.

These kinds of depression shouldn't be confused with schizophrenia, which is another illness altogether.

Thank you for that info :) I didn't know that. I did know that very severe forms of depression can have much worse symptoms than usual, but I didn't know about psychotic symptoms.

and yes I am a sis, I missed the post before that said I was a bro lol

did not know that Imam Ghazali had depression either.

[miss-islamic]

Ofcourse it has always existed. The question is why it is so rampant nowadays and over small things.

[IbnAbdulHakim]

Ofcourse it has always existed. The question is why it is so rampant nowadays and over small things.

kinda like AIDS? an illness which existed in the past but is far more widespread now due to the higher rate of sins...

[dhakiyya]

Aids isn't know to have existed in humans before the 1960's. THere are a number of theories about how it arose that I won't speculate on in this thread inshaAllah. But casual sex and drug users sharing needles have contributed greatly to its spread.

Depression might be more widespread now, but as in the past this and other mental ilnesses were not diagosed properly or even at all, its hard to say if its increased or decreased. The apparent increase we could be seeing may just be due to more cases being diagnosed, rather than more cases existing.

An increase in the prevalence of mental illness - if there is one - would be most likely linked to the increased amount of stress - not just stress like being overworked, family problems etc - but also things like the a lack of community, the breakdown of the family structure in society, a lack of religion or meaning in peoples lives - of course this may not be the case in specific individuals - but if there is an overall trend, these may be factors in it. there is a lot of toxic aspects to so called modern culture. High incidences of people taking drugs and drinking alcohol is also probably a contributing factor. Drugs and alcohol are known to trigger schyzophrenia in susceptible individuals, also they would not help in depression, probably make it worse although I'm not aware that they would trigger depression.

[IbnAbdulHakim]

^ is it not possible that AIDS went unnoticed due to a lack of diagnosis?

[nomoreillusions]

To add in addition to what dhakkiya has already mentioned, I would say depression may be more prevelent these days, as many stress-related illnesses are also more prevelant these days.

Depressions that are triggered by, say, inadequate diet, stress, any sort of emotional disorder, feelings of inadequacy, etc, all are more prevalent today due to the pressures of our society which, while any single one of they may have existed in the past, I'd say rarely all existed together at the same time in such ferocity.

[dhakiyya]

^ is it not possible that AIDS went unnoticed due to a lack of diagnosis?

well anythings possible allahu alim, but I think not, because physical illness has been documented and treated with a lot more accuracy. It was first documented in the gay community in the USA I think in the 70s, then looking back through the medical records they found isolated cases before that, which had not been explained, but not earlier than the 1960's. The knowledge about physical illnesses in - say - the 1930s and 40s, they would have been able to go back and identify cases described then. It was actually quite a long time from the emergence of the symptoms of AIDS among homosexuals in the USA and the actual acceptance of AIDS as an illness and identifying the virus and so on. there were a lot of theories about it, like that the homosexual free sex and risky living had simply taken its toll on the body to the point where the immune system broke down.

the only possibility of it before 1960s - one theory (and not the only one) Is that it existed in a small isolated part of Africa where they ate chimpanzee meat, (chimpanzees have a similar virus) and that it had existed there for a long time but had not spread because they didn't marry outside their tribe. One of the isolated cases in the 60's was in a lorry driver who worked the lenght and breadth of africa and slept with random women as he worked - the theory is he slept with a woman in this alleged isolated tribe and then spread HIV through africa. Whilst this theory sounds convincing, there are quite a few problems with it, including the fact that I don't think there is any evidence that such a tribe existed, also eating chimpanzee meat is widespread in some parts of Africa and also the virus in chimps is different to the one in humans. Although most of the theories of the origin of HIV involve humans catching it from chimpanzees afaik. A more reasonable explanation for its sudden emergence in humans is that the virus mutated, as viruses do this, and the mutated virus then infected humans as well as chimps, possibly from handling chimpanzee meat as food, possibly from the more disgusting possibility that gets bandied around from time to time. There are many cases of viruses suddenly going from infecting animals to infecting humans, this is why the scientists are afraid this may happen with bird flu. In fact bird flu is halfway there, it can be caught by humans from infected birds but at the present time - inshaAllah - it can't be transmitted from human to human.

[dhakiyya]

To add in addition to what dhakkiya has already mentioned, I would say depression may be more prevelent these days, as many stress-related illnesses are also more prevelant these days.

Depressions that are triggered by, say, inadequate diet, stress, any sort of emotional disorder, feelings of inadequacy, etc, all are more prevalent today due to the pressures of our society which, while any single one of they may have existed in the past, I'd say rarely all existed together at the same time in such ferocity.

yeah, I do very much think there is something in this argument. Especially combined with the effects of alcohol and drug abuse, which is not good for anyone's mental health, susceptible to mental illness or not.

[Cashew]

kinda like AIDS? an illness which existed in the past but is far more widespread now due to the higher rate of sins...

Illness has nothing to do with sin.

Simply look at the many hundreds of thousands of children who die each year of malaria and gastro-intestinal disease.

What message is God trying to send through those deaths?

That God hates poor people? That God hates poor children? That God hates poor children in Africa most of all?

[Supernova Nebula]

Illness has nothing to do with sin.

Simply look at the many hundreds of thousands of children who die each year of malaria and gastro-intestinal disease.

What message is God trying to send through those deaths?

That God hates poor people? That God hates poor children? That God hates poor children in Africa most of all?

I hve to agree with Cashew on this to a large extent.

[dhakiyya]

Illness has nothing to do with sin.

Simply look at the many hundreds of thousands of children who die each year of malaria and gastro-intestinal disease.

What message is God trying to send through those deaths?

That God hates poor people? That God hates poor children? That God hates poor children in Africa most of all?

I don't think he meant that. I think he meant that HIV/AIDS has to a large extent been spread by casual sex and intravenous drug use. Both of these sins are more prevalent in recent times, hence the suggestion that the illness existed before but didn't spread because people weren't having causal sex or sharing needles. However that isn't the case as I explained.

There are a lot of illnesses that are caused by or made worse by lifestyle and also other factors to do with the society we live in. I think nomoreillusions made the point very well about the possibilty that many factors of modern living combine to cause the type of stress that may trigger depression in susceptible people. So linking depression with modern lifestyle to an extent, is not unreasonable - provided that this is done whilst acknoledging numerous other factors such as genetics and the fact that we can't properly establish whether there even has been a rise, due to gross inadequacies in diagnosing depression until the last couple of decades, and also the fact that depression is over diagnosed these days and doctors are tending towards treating antidepressants as some kind of panacea for various kinds of mental illness and psychological conditions, in many cases doing more harm than good.

[.: Anna :.]

Agree about it being a modern thing. Do you know that there are hundreds of kids/teens, some as young as 11 years old (both girls and guys), who cut themselves? What do 11 years old have to worry about? They are supposed to be in la la land, be innocent and all that. :( And heres the thing, modernism is suppose to lead to a better “quality of life” but while it does in some aspects there can never be society that is perfect and other problems arise to replace the old one. This world just ain’t Jannah and it never claim to be either.p.s. ibnabdulhakim, dhakiyaa is a sister not a bro...

Being young doesn't mean people couldn't have hardships. Yes they are "supposed" to be innocent and protected from some of the harsh realities of the world but many times they are not, and then being younger in age even makes things harder to deal with cos they are not so emotionally developed or even as spiritually developed in order to deal with these traumas in a better way, so alot of people do resort to self harm. Its not something to look at just in the way of "oh what are they doing that for, how could have a problem at that age?" because wallaahi really they can and i don't think they will do it just for fun. Probably in the past people would have done it aswell or some similar kind of things, but it might not be documented.. because its a common and could be seen as a natural reaction to things like abuse and rape etc

[Babbage]

one more thing, how comes people who become delirious and show signs of insanity (such as hearing voices/exagerations/illusions etc) are put on depression tablets? i know so many people in this situation...
Because depression as a mental illness is not just feeling glum.Its symptoms can include the ones you list.
As for it's being a "modern thing", it has long existed- there are early Greek medical texts describing the symptoms and remedies. It was known to early christians as acedia and there was debate as to whether and when it was a sin or an illness. One of the greatest books of English literature, The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton,is a description of it and the author's own personal cure for it.

[IbnAbdulHakim]

Illness has nothing to do with sin.

Simply look at the many hundreds of thousands of children who die each year of malaria and gastro-intestinal disease.

What message is God trying to send through those deaths?

That God hates poor people? That God hates poor children? That God hates poor children in Africa most of all?

hmm good point of view, however this doesnt negate that earthly diseases can be a form of punishment.

But thanks for the eye openner :)

diseases can be seen as a form of purification or torment or means of being elevated in the hereafter.

disease of a homosexual - torment with hellfire waiting
disease of a child - perhaps to test the parents and reward them all with jannatul firdaus inshaAllah :)

[.: Anna :.]

hmm good point of view, however this doesnt negate that earthly diseases can be a form of punishment.

But thanks for the eye openner :)

diseases can be seen as a form of purification or torment or means of being elevated in the hereafter.

disease of a homosexual - torment with hellfire waiting
disease of a child - perhaps to test the parents and reward them all with jannatul firdaus inshaAllah :)

i think that is harsh in a sense what u said about the homosexual because u are presuming he has not resisted against his disease, whereas it could be that it is a test for him and he has sabr thruout it and would not have to be destined for hellfire just because he had that disease or trial given to him, its only how he reacts to it if he choses to go with that and become a gay person in life... whereas maybe he wouldnt. do u get me?

[hammerofthehuns]

exactly sis, not that it applies 2 me or anything

[perfectpearl]

naffs - its you that makes you depressed :scratch:

[Supernova Nebula]

I think depression shouldnt be made to look like mental illness cos it makes its sufferer to suffer more, by being in denial cos s/she thinks its embarassing to suffer from depression cos there's stigma attached to it.

[Redmist]

naffs - its you that makes you depressed :scratch:


I think depression is a chemical imbalance in the brain, clinical depression is anyway. Lack of seratonin in the brain. I dont think anybody chooses to be depressed!

Its like any of the physical diseases like diabetes, or high blood pressure. A physical symptom of lack of seratonin in the brain is causing the person to become depressed. I think it should be treated as a physical disease with tratement with drugs and therapy.

[dhakiyya]

I think depression shouldnt be made to look like mental illness cos it makes its sufferer to suffer more, by being in denial cos s/she thinks its embarassing to suffer from depression cos there's stigma attached to it.

Depression is a mental illness - thats a statement of fact. The brain lacks seratonin.

The way to resolve the stigma attached to mental illness is to attempt to remove the stigma. This can be done by educating people as to the nature and causes of mental illness. They are caused by imbalances in the brain chemistry - in depression there is a lack of seratonin, in schyzophrenia there is an excess of dopamine. To call one a mental illness and not the other is illogical, and would serve to increase the stigma of mental illness, not reduce it, so those that suffer from the ones that are still considered mental illness would be in a worse situation.

The commonness of depression makes it a more "socially acceptable" mental illness these days - which is an unfortunate way of thinking. Illness should not be about social acceptability, but about having compassion for the sufferer and about trying to find cures inshaAllah. Allah has said that there is a cure for every illness and ailment except old age. That has always been considered by scholars as a command to find them and relieve the suffering of ill people inshaAllah.

[perfectpearl]

I think depression is a chemical imbalance in the brain, clinical depression is anyway. Lack of seratonin in the brain. I dont think anybody chooses to be depressed!

Its like any of the physical diseases like diabetes, or high blood pressure. A physical symptom of lack of seratonin in the brain is causing the person to become depressed. I think it should be treated as a physical disease with tratement with drugs and therapy.

what I mean is its the way you think of things that will make you depressed.

[Ignatius F. Peace]

Depression is an excuse for recieving attention.
I had to quit reading at this post ... clueless ... :rolleyes:

[Redmist]

what I mean is its the way you think of things that will make you depressed.

Yeh true, i have to agree with that. A friend once said to me if only we can give an injection of blue sky into everybody thats feeling depressed. If only..

[PiElle2]

what I mean is its the way you think of things that will make you depressed.

Yeh true, i have to agree with that. A friend once said to me if only we can give an injection of blue sky into everybody thats feeling depressed. If only..


some depression may be self-inflicted yet others may be inflicted on you that is not within your control... ie. padlock kids or divorced parents. just need to recognise the soruce and cause and treat accordingly... mentally, physically and/or spiritually....

[PiElle2]

Depression is an excuse for recieving attention.

I had to quit reading at this post ... clueless ... :rolleyes:


Well, not entirely.. if you ignore or neglect something or someone for long period... that person may get depression caused by you...

so giving attention to another person is very important....

[Cartman]

depression is real, and it is a hard thing to get back from.