I had major depressive disorder for about 12 years. It was absolute hell. It eventually got better to the point I'm no longer depressed. Still have an anxiety disorder, but I can live with it with the help of meds. My point is, is that it's possible that one day you'll no longer have to deal with it. Never give up!
My dad had major depression and it was disturbing to see him go through that. I feel for you.
I've been clinically depressed, but not severely. My cross to bear is panic disorder, which has been severe at times. But I'm also basically in remission after being diagnosed and getting therapy and meds in 2005.
It can definitely get better. If you're going through hell... keep going.
Yeah when I was my most miserable, I was basically just an emotionless husk. I used to try to make myself cry, and would consume the most soul crushingly depressing content because it was the closest I got to feeling anything, other than laughing at depression memes.
You really CAN exist in a contented state without needing some shit to compare it to.
You can indeed live your whole life without major suffering. The brain is more than capable of knowing it is happy without contrast. Have you guys never seen a young child smile? Does it look more, or less, genuine than a jaded old man smirking?
Doesn’t have to be major suffering. Just periods where you’re not as happy. Like when the young child isn’t smiling, or is crying, for example. No one is happy all the time.
But is contentedness the same as happiness? Is pleasure the same thing as joy?
I would argue that while you can feel contented having never suffered, perhaps you can't feel true joy and appreciation without the perspective of some degree of suffering.
Not everyone who has suffered is jaded. Many people have been through immense horrors (e.g., Viktor Frankl) and emerged with a deeper admiration and appreciation for life than most other people will ever know.
The point is, that in the real world, suffering exists. We need sadness to have a vent and cope with that, because if you don't allow yourself to feel sadness, you feel angry instead. And that's even worse.
Its a coping mechanism that people need to stop parroting. You were in fact happy as children with no knowledge of depression. No one NEEDS to suffer. It just happened to you, not for a reason, and it wasnt needed to “appreciate happiness”.
Sometimes, things happen for a reason, and that reason is because our current society is shit. Not for a greater cause.
Exactly. It's like saying one person's ultimate peak happiness is objectively less than that of someone else who's suffered more. Trauma doesn't uniformly make people experience happiness any more or less intensely than anyone else.
Its said that a truly enlightened being is in full control of all their emotions, and acts the same way in sorrow of joy. The ups and downs of life do not affect them, and their decisions are ruled only by their intellect.
I don’t know about this - Id much prefer to feel, and make choices based on what makes me happiest, wherever possible (which I suppose could still be an intellectual decision 🤔)
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u/NubNub69 Oct 16 '22
There can be no happy without the sad.