Using? Upset? Know the difference between depression and lethargy

[gordonliddy]

I know so many people that think that they are depressed, but they don't have the habits of happy people. Crazy, huh?

Worst of all they do nothing with themselves. In only a few days this will induce lethargy. It's a really gross way to feel! Drugs can stave off the effects for a couple more days...but soon they are part of the problem!

You may have yourself fooled. You may have your shrink fooled. But if you're unhappy and you're doing nothing with yourself? That's lethargy, not depression.

 

[PtahTek]

Drugs can stave off the effects for a couple more days...but soon they are part of the problem!

Yeah I find lethargy an issue until I go back to work. I also find that it does indeed turn to depression (in my case) when I had nothing going on except using benzos and not even at high doses.
Couldn't pin point the source of this issue so decided to cut the benzo use in half. Within a week I was feeling less depressed so after another week dropped dose in half again. Months later I am starting to actually thrive but I am still self destructing here and there and need to come to grips with this and stop.
Still on the bnz at half a mg a day (sometimes a little more if a rough day at work - in home direct caregiver).
But back OT: Do I understand that you profess depression is lower than diagnosed and people should just get up and do something? Simple as that?

 

[ChemicallyEnhanced]

I am in no way gatekeeping mental health stuff, but I think the MAJORITY of people with "depression" are actually just upset. Like if you can say "I'm depressed because..." or "I'm anxious about..." then you don't have depression/anxiety, you are experiencing a NORMAL emotional reaction to something.

 

[gordonliddy]

I also find that it does indeed turn to depression (in my case)

Not just in your case, but in most cases. I cheated and you caught me. According to my model, won't lethargy lead to depression? I left that out to see if anyone was paying attention. Gallantly done, Mate.

Sorry, I'm so excited. So the next step to think about, and I'll go ahead and just blurt it out is that if you don't want to be depressed, you have to cure the lethargy first.

when I had nothing going on except using benzos and not even at high doses.
Couldn't pin point the source of this issue so decided to cut the benzo use in half. Within a week I was feeling less depressed so after another week dropped dose in half again.

See this seems brave to me. You tackled the drugs first? To anyone else reading this, this is a man that wants to be well. @neversickanymore

Still on the bnz at half a mg a day (sometimes a little more if a rough day at work - in home direct caregiver).

Good. I judge that you are on the right path. To me this is, "self medication." You should recover without intervention. I'm not convinced that there is anything wrong with you. You seem a normal man with a good job and some form of depression.

But back OT: Do I understand that you profess depression is lower than diagnosed and people should just get up and do something? Simple as that?

You do understand correctly, but I do not profess. What you're doing is stating an implied corallary. Might as well be right, though. How could it not? But while I have 9% confidence in what I wrote above, I only have 2% confidence in what you wrote. That doesn't make it wrong (see my post about information theory). If I was a science guy I would want to know the answer to this!! Perhaps some depression researcher will learn of this post and will make something of it. But the honest answer is that I don't know the answer to your question.

I would instead say, "Shrinks grade their patients upon what the patients show them." So if a man goes to his shrink and says, 'I am depressed' the shrink may very well believe him and may attempt to treat the depression. Also, a shrink must assess the possibility if he drives a patient off, that the patient will then be suffering without access to medical advice.

Anyways you seem to know more about medicine than me, so perhaps I should be asking you. Wouldn't a man who is lethargic, also become depressed?

 

[PtahTek]

Anyways you seem to know more about medicine

You give me too much credit, friend. The vote of confidence is welcome.

Wouldn't a man who is lethargic, also become depressed?

From what I have come to understand (rightly or wrongly) is that a whole slew of sh*t is entangled like a chaotic spiderweb.
Depression, anxiety, BPD, MPD, Borderline PD, GAD and more (IMO) feed on the traumas we endure throughput life. This could be literal BS but the more I study myself and use lenses that others may use to look at "me" I find this true in my case.
So... I suppose my answer would be that I think they all foster/fester as one. IDK.

 

[PtahTek]

Oh... and any shrink worth a shit will diagnose by the fruit he/she/they observe as personally I don't believe shit I hear I am so used to see mfs saying how they love another mf and stab em in the back, abuse them, neglect... ya get it.
Peace

 

[elgoucho9]

I know so many people that think that they are depressed, but they don't have the habits of happy people. Crazy, huh?

Worst of all they do nothing with themselves. In only a few days this will induce lethargy. It's a really gross way to feel! Drugs can stave off the effects for a couple more days...but soon they are part of the problem!

You may have yourself fooled. You may have your shrink fooled. But if you're unhappy and you're doing nothing with yourself? That's lethargy, not depression.

The two are linked. When i broke my arm earlier this year I was forced to rest up for weeks on end. Couldn't do anything, work, cook food, exercise, roll a joint even. The lethargy soon turned to depression because i couldn't do anything.

 

[gordonliddy]

Do I understand that you profess depression is lower than diagnosed and people should just get up and do something?

It works for me.

 

[PtahTek]

It works for me.

Me, too.
Sometimes it's all I can do to muster enough drive after a prolonged period of being static.