Depression: How Low Can You Go?

I believe that depression is not clearly understood by our common society. To a majority of us it is generalized as sadness either stemming from failure, loneliness, or an onset of other social factors. At some point in someones life they will face this colloquial definition that we commonly refer to simply as "depression".

I personally feel that one of the main sources for society's inability to define "depression" is because the scientific community fails to deliver a definitive answer to explaining many mental disorders. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is criticized for being too vague and unable to give an accurate assessment of mental defects.

The DMS has created numerous definitions and categories. Perhaps the most popularly contested entry is the definition of dysthymia: a term that has been passed around psychology fields as being nothing more than "garden variety depression." This holds especially true when reading the checklist below:

When depressed, the patient has two or more of:

1. Appetite decreased or increased
2. Sleep decreased or increased (insomnia or hypersomnia)
3. Fatigue or low energy
4. Low self-esteem
5. Decreased concentration or difficulty making decisions
6. Feels hopeless or pessimistic

Honestly who hasn't qualified for any of those six categories at some point in their life. In fact, that awfully sounds like your typical college student who is busting his ass for finals. It's no wonder why the pills begin to pop when the semester comes to a close.

Often times I know whether or not I have depression by post-facto analysis. I feel depressed due to having chronic headaches. I took tylenol, an acetaminophen and feel much better now. Acetaminophens are not conducive to curing depression therefore I was not depressed. I merely suffered from chronic headaches that made me sad.

A major overhaul is needed as much of the public improperly attributes many of their mental factors to depression when in fact the symptoms originate from either biological or entirely separate mental health issues at hand.

Whenever the term "depression" is thrown around during conversation, please be a stickler and address the liberal usage of the term. Many people who see a psychiatrist may use drugs that will not solve their original symptoms. I believe that depression is not an issue of how low you can go for most people. It is merely the result of misconception and improper self-diagnosis. Not the result of chemical imbalances between serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine. For some people, writing about "depression" is the panacea necessary to get them out of the slumps. Thanks for reading. Feel free to correct any mistakes I might have made in my original post. It's been awhile since I last took general psychology.

It's just like a pain, or feeling like you're going to throw up. Think too much about it, and it's gonna stay.

It's the cause of serotonin (Sp?), a neurotransmitter in your brain, decreasing rapidly. This happens because of those 6 scenarios, therefore a decrease in messages between brain cells. All pills do are increase the serotonin that aren't active and voila. You feel better.

Simple process. I'm gonna say a good majority of the time, depression moves into suicidal thoughts for A) Attention or B) Attention. There is the chance that people really just don't think they belong and cut themselves, but that even falls under the category of trying to get attention.

What happens if you attempt to regulate those six factors by altering nutrition or stress factors. Would that also lead to changes in serotonin production and subsequent balance?

You can't really alter the nutrition when the person itself doesn't want to eat, and apparently forcing someone to feel better is bad, so in the end they feel worse because "no one understands them" leading to the attention factor...

I know some people that suffer of depression can't really control it, and they shut themselves in, with support and caring you could make the person feel better i guess, everyone has their own degree of depression, but when they have the though of suiciding themselve... do it, 1 less idiotic person on the earth...

Ok well in order from what makes you most depressed to what doesn't really make you depressed at all is:

5. Decreased concentration or difficulty making decisions
1. Appetite decreased or increased
2. Sleep decreased or increased (insomnia or hypersomnia)
3. Fatigue or low energy
4. Low self-esteem
6. Feels hopeless or pessimistic

You can alter all of them except insomnia in order to increase your serotonin development. Insomnia is an actual disease that I unfortunately suffer(d) (I used to have it bad, but I started doing a lot more things like joining a sport, quick little work outs here and there) and you can't just get rid of it. Staying up till 3 AM or 5 AM is just considered Onset Insomnia, which is what a lot of people have; but with chronic and below, you have to last through it instead of just DECIDING to go to sleep.

It's all in peoples heads. I took a psychology class and have been to a few therapists and they all tell me the same thing. "Depression with teens is mainly used for attention or a gateway to thinking they're unique." Which is pretty sad, that they are just using it, and there are people who have it due to serious issues.

But yeah... improving eating habits, taking a nap every once in awhile, doing some activity that makes you feel better about yourself will definitely make your neurotransmitters improve and work more efficiently.

Socially, depression is very loosely defined. I haven't touch anything medical-related but I'm very sure the definition of depression is more strictly defined. Hell, even for fancy writing, one can use the word "depression" to emphasis how dire the situation is. It is because the term has both a connotation and a denotation definition that causes arouses this confusion. Similarly, when people joke around and call each other retarded. Obviously, there are medical conditions and reasons a patient must "meet" in order to be regarded as legally retarded.

You can also take the word "intelligent" and blow it up like you did with depression. What defines intelligence? Standardized testing? Logic reasoning? How far must one go before they are considered intelligent? Because at one point or another, everyone have solved a challenging riddle or scored high on a standardized test; just like they have for depression.

The thing with words from psychology is, I believe, that they are very relative to real life situations thus people tend to use them loosely to color their rhetoric.

I don't think suicide is idiotic nor do I want to turn this thread into that direction. I want to establish events where people have suffered from genuine depression and social "depression". In other words, share some point when they honestly thought they couldn't go any further and what they did in order to fix it. I would also appreciate if they filed it under "depression" or depression.

Everyone feels sad many times in their life but they move on and deal with it. Certain people may be suffering from genuine depression and feel that they are just being a crybaby. Therefore they avoid seeing a psychiatrist or a psychologist for advice because they feel they are just resorting to drug dependency because they are unsuccessful in life. When in fact their problems are attributed to possibly genetic variants or list of genuine scientific defiencies. I feel that at many points people are dying to know whether they were feeling down in the dumps because of "depression" or depression. Sometimes popping painkillers relieves certain forms of sadness. Yet this is not "depression."

In addition many people want attention. Certain people feel that they want attention so badly that it rips their mind apart. With these people can this be filed under "depression" or depression? Again I'm interested in case-studies. What are some things you've done to get out of the slumps and/or whether or not you've suffered from what I'm trying to define as the genuine article.

The overall purpose of this thread is to create cases based on a series of detailed symptoms. DMS reports have failed us. Modern science experiments also fail us. No one should suffer. This is not a replacement for physician advice but it is an attempt at helping out somebody who is having a terrible day to find a solution so they can try over-the-top medication for their problems. Again the probability that this thread will actually be successful is low. But it is something I'm interested in working on and studying in my free time.

Oh well I got insomnia around age 12 and then started to just act really down. Went to a psychiatrist and they said that my insomnia caused a decrease in what I said above. Clinical depression went away after about a year and a half, thanks to those advertised pills you see on T.V.

After having it for a little bit, you start to become different in a negative sense. Meaning you can't control your emotions and eventually post threads on Southperry like I did about how I wanted to die. Mind takes over, sucks ass.

Oh well I got insomnia around age 12 and then started to just act really down. Went to a psychiatrist and they said that my insomnia caused a decrease in what I said above. Clinical depression went away after about a year and a half, thanks to those advertised pills you see on T.V.

After having it for a little bit, you start to become different in a negative sense. Meaning you can't control your emotions and eventually post threads on Southperry like I did about how I wanted to die. Mind takes over, sucks ass.

Do you know the specific brand or the type of medication you took?

Primary Symptoms: Insomnia
Secondary Symptoms: "Acting down" due to insomnia
Physician's Prognosis: Insomnia caused by a decrease in serotonin. Exact biochemical explanation not articulated.
Result: Year and a half of medication "x" caused depression to go away. Adverse effects included: inability to control emotions.

Do you know the specific brand or the type of medication you took?

Prozac for my depression.

Klonopin for my earlier (and worse) insomnia.

Prozac for my depression.

Klonopin for my earlier (and worse) insomnia.

Yeah sorry. Screw this. It seems morally wrong to document this online despite internet anonymity. I'll get a job at a psych-lab instead of invading the privacy of you guys. Sorry about this. The idea was right but the actual execution doesn't work out the way I planned. And something deep down tells me this is wrong. Thanks GMS for the response. Even though I could require personal messaging it still feels ethically wrong on so many levels. I apologize for being invasive. I had 100 other questions but I realized that my interest is better suited at a research level than a casual forum board. I'll create another thread detailing results from books I've read with % correlation values on assumed symptoms once I finish finals. Again thanks to everyone who took this thread seriously and also to everyone who didn't post what a potentially horrible thread this could have been. Muchos gracias.