SammyB wrote:

I even read a paper recently (published in a medical journal! O_O) by a guy who suggests that happiness is in fact a mental illness:

"I have argued that happiness meets all reasonable criteria for a psychiatric disorder. It is statistically abnormal, consists of a discrete cluster of symptoms, there is at least some evidence that it reflects the abnormal functioning of the central nervous system,
and it is associated with various cognitive abnormalities - in particular, a lack of contact with reality. Acceptance of these arguments leads to the obvious conclusion that happiness should be included in future taxonomies of mental illness, probably as a
form of affective disorder... "

I don't think many people take him too seriously though. Haha..

It looks like a hoax, an April Fool's prank, or a deliberate attempt to win the Ig Nobel Prize. However, if it really was written in earnest, it tempts me to accept Szasz's view of psychiatry and mental illness...

Last edited by vonPeterhof (2011 November 20, 4:35 am)

The opposite of depression is mania.

It's not happiness... depression isn't the same thing as sadness.

Last edited by IceCream (2011 November 20, 4:39 am)

Sadness isn't necessarily the opposite of happiness either. The problem with these kinds of concepts are they aren't really measurable, or at least, not in any linear sort of sense. Like, can you put "level of happiness" on a scale of 1-10? or Can you say "I'm only 35% depressed right now"...

Anyway, to say mania is the opposite of depression doesn't seem very intuitive to me. If you are 35% depressed does that mean you are 65% manic? You can be neither manic nor depressed right? I'm happy to admit I don't know enough about it myself, but it seems like when we talk about depression, we talk about it as something to "fix", or at least... something unfavourable right? Shouldn't the "opposite" of depression should be some sort of favourable "non-depressed" mood/state/outlook?

Last edited by SammyB (2011 November 20, 5:31 am)

yeah, if we make this into a proper philosophical discussion, there's always going to be problems with the idea of "opposite".

The reason i think mania is the "opposite" of depression is (well, a certain type of depression anyway) is that when you're depressed, you feel worthless, you can't see the point of living, you have a chronic lack of self confidence, you can't understand beauty, and your physical actions and sense of time are slowed down painfully, that sort of thing. So, all the above is kind of "a lack of" something.

When you're in a manic state, it's pretty much that you have "too much of" all of the above. Everything has too much worth, everything is beautiful, you become over confident, your actions are too fast, time speeds up.

Its not like you can measure in percentages, but if you go too far in either direction things are pretty bad. Neither is a comfortable state to be in. Perhaps an "ideal" state isn't directly in the center either, or varies slightly between people's tastes.

Last edited by IceCream (2011 November 20, 6:32 am)

Sebastian wrote:

Not only that, some people have bipolar disorders (manic-depressive), and are both manic AND depressive (not at the same time, but in turns).

Well, you can be manic and depressive at the same time (Mixed State, I think?), and it's basically the worst thing ever. It's basically being manic, but instead of feeling great, you feel horrible. From the closest I've been to that, it's really bad.

I'd just like to point out that while it can be very interesting, one should be careful not to become obsessive about reading different psychological explanations of depression and/or mania if you have depression/mania yourself. Knowledge doesn't always lead to an understanding that helps you cope with whatever the knowledge describes, and it is bound to be very hard for you to distance yourself from the information so you can make better sense of it and put it into perspective. This is especially the case in the fields that deal with depression etc. because there are so many contradictory findings/opinions/standpoints as well as people who are just outright irresponsible and try to tell people that if they just start meditation/therapy or the ever so popular "stop whining" everything will be fine.

Things can get better and there definitely are people who have been able to get out of extreme depressions and afterwards only fall into more "normal", milder depressions (I don't know how common it is, though). But to say that there would be a panacea for all kinds of depression,and they ARE different individual-to-individual, is simply ridiculous. There has been and still are a lot of highly functioning, nice persons who are/were perfectly aware of their condition and have/had access to the best of mental health service but still live/livedd their whole lives dealing with depression. And many have lived very long lives and were happy to be able to do so! So disregard the people who can't see the person behind a diagnosis and steer clear of anyone who claims to have "the thing" for depression. In reality, a lot of small improvements add up and help people with depression by making them able to cope with their depression and/or reducing the depression itself. Another fact is that everyone has setbacks, so while working toward improvements is good it's also a good idea to expect these setbacks and probably have some idea of what to do and definitely have someone to seek for help when they happen.

You should also make sure not to define yourself based on your depression/other symptoms. These kinds of things will definitely have an effect on how you act and think, but they're not everything, you as a person are more than that. Totally denying that you are affected by your depression is usually a very bad idea also however, so you have to strike some kind of balance between acceptance of the current state and a willingness to change things and a belief that it is possible. It is, of course, often complicated but when you think about it we as humans have to deal with similar problems daily. For example, many have to accept that they might not be very fit today so that they're not too anxious about it and so they don't overexert their bodies etc., but at the same time try to improve their health. I hope I don't sound like I underestimate how severe depression can be by using this analogy, I really do not mean to (besides, worries about body shape and physical health problems due to lack of exercise/good diet can be quite extreme too).

This turned out quite long, but I hope it makes some sense.

Edit: Sebastian, I just want to point out the delectable irony in your mislinking of "You Are Not So Smart".

Last edited by Surreal (2011 November 20, 4:08 pm)