That is true depression zmatrixng, not the slight sadness that teenagers associate with depression. Andrew Solomon did a good talk about depression from the point of view of someone who has it. A metaphor he used was "depression is not like having a grey veil descend over your life, it is like the veil being lifted and finally seeing the world for what it really is" (this is known as depressive realism). Non-depressed people have a veil through which they view the world and it is inherently biased and delusional; they never think about how futile life is and somehow they can remain content with what they have. When you think about it, life is pointless; there is literally no point to it. Nothing on that list is a reason to live. Lists like this are actually harmful (see my comment further down/up). The only thing that can help someone who is severely depressed is medication unfortunately. I suggest you go to your doctor and start medication straight away because you might need..
...to try a couple different ones until you find one that works. I also suggest you don't talk about it with anyone who isn't trained since untrained people spout ridiculous things like those on the list. I understand your tiredness. People say to do something you enjoy, but that requires getting up, washing, dressing, eating, moving and talking. For someone who is depressed, that is the meaning of pure exhaustion; literally everything is hard, everything is a struggle. Some days I let the alarm just ring and ring because I don't have the energy to move my arm. Nobody should be expected to live like that for 74 years. But depression is an illness, and can be treated. If treatment works, then things will start to seem easy again. If it doesn't, then keep trying. However there comes a point where it is completely understandable if you do kill yourself. The person who wrote the list does not understand this, but we do. Watch that TED talk about depression by Andrew Solomon.
Sometimes it is nice just to hear other people who truly understand.
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· 11 years ago
Yeah, when I take a good long look at how life really is, it's depressing, it's unfortunate, there's a lot of wrongs going on. But thank you for telling me about that, that is very interesting. Now there are things that I do enjoy doing, but mostly because I feel like I'd accomplish something by getting it done. I can't just do something to enjoy it. I've called it being a workaholic because I only do things so I can get it done and feel good about doing something, not because I truly enjoy it. It's a very sad thing. But the alarm thing makes perfect sense, a lot of times I can barely bring myself to do anything, because it is almost physically straining to just get up and do it. I can honestly not bring myself up. I probably should get medication, because I am just not very happy. I will watch the TED talk about it, it does seem interesting. Again, thank you for telling about it, it's nice that you would take the time to type a long message like that. I really appreciate it.
I don't think you understand depression dude. None of these things are reasons that would make a depressed person not kill themselves. This is just a list of things that non-depressed people tell themselves to remind them of nice things. If this helped you, then that's great, but you either had very mild depression or no depression at all. These lists are actually harmful as far as I am concerned. Depressed people don't want to be reminded of how much everyone else is enjoying life and how little they themselves are enjoying it. For a depressed person, every single thing on that list is just another reason to end it.
I understand that mood disorders come in a wide spectrum - and absolutely there are people who aren't going to be able to get out or get relief without medical intervention. But it's been proven doing simple things like the ones on this list are helpful as well. I like TED talks too, you should check out this one from the founder of superbetter.com.
http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_the_game_that_can_give_you_10_extra_years_of_life.html
Superbetter helped me so much when I was diagnosed with bipolar! I thought I would never get out of the sea of darkness all around me, and the way the site broke things down like a game of things I could actually accomplish helped me so much. It took a huge problem and made it workable. I really recommend that talk/site!!!
http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_the_game_that_can_give_you_10_extra_years_of_life.html