[survival101]

Have you ever wondered if maybe having depression is the normal reaction to life and maybe everybody who is not depressed is living in denial or something? I mean there are enough reasons to be depressed aren't there?

I guess the country I live in probably doesn't help much, since there are daily murders, rapes and robberies. Even though I avoid news and newspapers you still hear about it. I just think the world has become a terrible place. How can anyone say life is a gift???

I just think sometimes that depression is a very real and realistic reaction to a totally screwed up world. So I'm going to be wasting my life at work until I'm too old to enjoy retirement? I get so bored that I just want to run screaming down the street. Living just seems like an aweful way to spend my life.

Sorry, needed to get that out there. Here's hoping everyone finds the strength to keep on fighting till everything makes sense.

[adam_k]

I think feeling sad is a normal reaction in life. In my opinion feeling sad and being depressed are two different things. When something bad or aweful happens, it is a normal reaction to feel sadness. The sadness is usually proportional to the magnitude of the tragedy. When you feel sadness, despair, or worthlessness for no reason or for an extended period of time it is depression. Sometimes people that suffer from depression feel immensly sad and there is nothing that makes the person feel better. I think then it is an illness and not a reaction to life in general. I think it is best for people that suffer from depression to find ways to cope with it and find a way to feel good about thier lives. This could be through therapy, medication, religion, family, friends. I dont think it is right to accept life is aweful and you will never be happy. I think everyone should be able to feel happiness and joy in thier lives.

[Travelinglady]

I agree to some extent! Life, to me, is one challenge after another. But I try to find the positive elements and to enjoy what I see are the good things. (It helps that I rarely watch the news and just glance through the newspaper before I start working on the crossword puzzle.) I do enjoy life, overall, and look for ways to help people and to have purpose. Even though I have Bipolar and many other health problems......

[Hellion]

I feel my depression is a fairly normal reaction to life, at least the life I've had and I feel this society I'm stuck in is a factor as well......I don't really see how to be undepressed so long as the environmental factors stay the same and crap from the past wont get out of my head and leave me alone. But I also feel like even if all those issues where taken away and replaced with good things my brain chemistry/wiring or whatever would likely still be screwed up from feeling depressed so long so I would likely still struggle with feeling that way.

[ramster_hall]

"What if the people who are sane are REALLY insane and the people who are insane are really sane?"

I can't attribute the quote, but it wasn't me!

I sometimes wonder if everyone else that 'copes' with their emotions is just really ignorant of how deep the water really is. They only ever stay at the shallow end of the pool.

[Alprazolam]

I've always wondered if we just *feel* more than other people, and it's too hard to cope with. Makes me feel better than believing that Joe wife-beater on the couch feels the same things I do and is fine with it...

[wanty]

Originally Posted by survival101

Have you ever wondered if maybe having depression is the normal reaction to life and maybe everybody who is not depressed is living in denial or something? I mean there are enough reasons to be depressed aren't there?

I guess the country I live in probably doesn't help much, since there are daily murders, rapes and robberies. Even though I avoid news and newspapers you still hear about it. I just think the world has become a terrible place. How can anyone say life is a gift???

I just think sometimes that depression is a very real and realistic reaction to a totally screwed up world. So I'm going to be wasting my life at work until I'm too old to enjoy retirement? I get so bored that I just want to run screaming down the street. Living just seems like an aweful way to spend my life.

Sorry, needed to get that out there. Here's hoping everyone finds the strength to keep on fighting till everything makes sense.

YES!! Those laughing, happy people aren't paying attention; but then maybe that's the only way to survive!

Yes, I don't watch the news either because negativity is a loading for depression, and I don't need that. I try to remember that the news is the exception not the usual and I try to stay with the positive, as one member suggested that he does. In fact, to tell you the truth I don't watch television, period. And I don't read newspapers, either, nor do I listen to radio. There is so much corruption in those things, although there is also integrity among some of the people associated with the media.

I am extremely sensitive to images, and I prefer the imagery of the countryside to tv.

Life is usually what we make of it, in my view. There is much that can be depressing, but there is also great beauty, etc.

[shortandcute]

I often wonder how "sane" the "normal" people are myself.

[Anika.]

I don't know, I used to suffer severe depression and severe mania with psychosis. I had a terrible childhood and youth and even worse young adulthood. But I did find ways to recover and no longer suffer with symptoms. I am happy and content and enjoy life very much. I also realize the problems of the world, but I am not shallow and know how deep the waters "can" be, I also realize I have a choice in where I choose to swim and how. And I am paying attention.

I don't think it is quite so black and white. But I don't think there are normal people either, just people. Everyone has their own trials and tribulations that you can't see from the outside. Esentially I don't want to stigmatize others the way I have been stigmatized. I have no way of knowing what they go through internally just as they have no idea about me.

[allimsaying]

Originally Posted by Anika.

I don't know, I used to suffer severe depression and severe mania with psychosis. I had a terrible childhood and youth and even worse young adulthood. But I did find ways to recover and no longer suffer with symptoms. I am happy and content and enjoy life very much. I also realize the problems of the world, but I am not shallow and know how deep the waters "can" be, I also realize I have a choice in where I choose to swim and how. And I am paying attention.

I don't think it is quite so black and white. But I don't think there are normal people either, just people. Everyone has their own trials and tribulations that you can't see from the outside. Esentially I don't want to stigmatize others the way I have been stigmatized. I have no way of knowing what they go through internally just as they have no idea about me.

That is very beautiful Anika Thank you

I've thought about this, too.