Yes. I also believe that I can remember how to click on bookmarks to get to allegro.cc via brain chemistry. It sure isn't magnetism.

I think being a wimp is not the way to live your life. Grab it by the horns, etc. If it seems like I'm bragging, all I have to say is I don't bring this stuff up until it seems relevant.

Who was being a wimp? Yeah sure, in some cases you need to man up, but depression is a real medical condition. You can't just decide to not be depressed and suddenly you're not depressed anymore. You can beat depression but just because you're depressed doesn't mean you're a wimp. You're cheating yourself if you don't beat it though.

Ok, doctor.

My dad claimed my mother had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, but I think it was due to epileptic seizures of the limbic system (emotions). And there was a weirdo tattoo artist that claimed to be bipolar, but a little attitude adjustment would fix that quite quickly. I suppose you all think I have the opinion I'm smarter than doctors who've studied for years, but I ask you how often they come up with correct results. My landlord has been fighting with the Veterans Administration about his leg and hip pain, at first they said there was a blockage where an artery branched off, then they said it was necrosis of the bone, and they actually replace one hip, but not the other. He dragged out his cane today for the first time in many months. And a few months ago, there was a flurry of reports how Watson (the Jeopardy playing robot) had gotten up to 90% accuracy diagnosing people, and doctors could only do 50%.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-02/11/ibm-watson-medical-doctor

I know it's really easy to just blindly put faith in doctors or whatever pixie in the sky with ten rules instead of facing reality.

Whatever. I'm tired of arguing now, I'll never bring it up here again.

Yeah, thats the stuff that pisses me off.

What I think Arthur doesn't realize is that its fucking hard to beat back depression. Those people that are actually working on it are not wimps.

I don't have too much sympathy for people that don't work on it, and complain and moan.

you sound exactly like the people that went to the same CBT program as I did and left after a couple/few sessions. "Why isn't this fixed right away!", "This is stupid!". etc. They didn't want it to work, and thus, it didn't. You have to actually be willing to try, rather than sit there and expect magic to happen.

And I admit that the CBT info did sound silly! It really did. But I didn't let that stop me from actually trying to follow the program. And in the end, it helped a lot. I didn't cheat myself out of a useful experience.

It's actually electro-magnetism. lots of electrical signals going back and forth. The chemistry is what regulates things, but it still is a big part em

append:

Funny that. It works wonders for me. I wouldn't be able to have my job with out it. One levels out the BiPolar mood swings, and the other helps with the anxiety. With the help, I am able to work on my issues more than I could without.

Indeed. You should see how well it's worked out for someone I know.

She ignored it and overworked her whole life to the point now where she's blacking out for hours at a time, but yet still doing stuff, she just doesn't remember what happened. And often, she got hurt in the process.

So yeah, ignoring your problems won't make them go away. They'll just come back to bite you.

Since Arthur left, I'll say in his defence that it's (apparently) near impossible to imagine a depression, if you haven't experienced it. Especially if you're not knowledgeable on the subject. I used to think people with depression we're weak weirdo's too. "Weak" actually sums up depression pretty nicely.

Depression in a person with a healthy brain is caused by making the choice to feel bad about stuff, repeatedly.

There are two ways to get out of such a depression.
Either by massive positive events that basically reset your mind.
Or you realize that you are making those choices and practice catching yourself and reprogram yourself to make good feeling choices instead.

I have not practised it much myself, but brainwashing is supposedly effective and you can brainwash yourself. You were doing it unconsciously getting into depression, and you can do it consciously to get out of depression.

Luckily, I only suffer/ed from a "mild"(:P) depression: Had been diagnosed with mental exhaustion(burnout) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysthymia in late 2011. Got to eat some pills(Trimipramine and some painkillers for the condition also caused severe physical symptoms, most prominently back/shoulder/arm and hand pain up to a point where programming or drawing was impossible) for a few months, was supposed to go to psychotherapy too.

I didn't go to psychotherapy because I did not have the strength to go outside and find a therapist. Basically all I wanted was to sit in my cave and be left alone. I knew that silence and time were all I really needed, all I could bear back then. It very much felt like a life threatening state to be in. Highly unpleasant can't begin to describe it and heh, if that's just a "mild" depression, I don't want to know what a real one feels like.

Eventually I stopped taking the pills, started exercising regularly, cut down on coffee and beer and got back to doing things I used to like before the depression, despite not feeling any joy at first. Also changed my diet to include more fruits, vegetables and proteins and almost no sugar or sweets. One thing that also helped a lot was finding a low profile job, where I can work just 6 hours a day, because more than that quickly wears me out and makes me feel miserable again.

Life's slowly getting better. Loneliness prevails though for I still don't want to meet people most of the time.

I want to add, I got most of all the right pointers for the above mentioned changes from this community right here. Rock on allegro.cc.

Wait, doing risky things just because could be a symptom of bipolar? I have a friend who's been doing risky things "just because" his whole life.

He once flipped his moms car 360° on a remote road when he was going 100 kph and drifting. (he survived, he always does!) I asked him why. He just said something like "I dunno, I just felt like it". Scary stuff.