#Sign & Symptoms of Depression

[realbeefman]

stacy is sooo interesting because she's in love with house but knows that they will never ever be able to have a healthy, stable, sane relationship because they're too similar so. she finds house-lite instead and marries him and. essentially moves on with her life! and is successful in this because she's a moderately well-adjusted person!

wilson, in contrast, never manages to escape the inevitable, in spite of his best efforts to find a house-lite of his very own, because he's an absolute fucking freak and ends up glued to house to the bitter. bitter end

[shallowseeker]

Re: the latest string of anons, I want to capture this thought before it flees, but it's not wholly formed yet. I'll try to tread carefully, and with gentleness.

Firstly, I want to invite you to grab onto this line from The Rupture:

CAS: "You used to give me the benefit of the doubt. Now, you can barely look at me."

You can take this lovely line and apply it as a challenge to the entirety of season 15, I think.

The thing with season 15 is that it challenges Dean in a way he hasn't quite been before: it's a full-on, nihilistic, Michael-coded existential crisis.

Cas has had psychological breakdowns like this on multiple occasions. So has Sam.

Throughout the series, Dean is wrong a lot, but this time, he's wrong about more things than usual, even when he's (like Cas with Raphael, and like Sam with many villains) still "a little bit right."

Everyone's a little bit wrong, a little bit right, and that's the beauty of it.

But the consequences are unfairly heavier than usual, and that chafes for Dean.

It chafes for his fans, too.

///

In season 15, at first Dean can't even say Jack's name. He sidesteps it, using coded communication, like his reference to "Bel" in 15x09 The Trap. (That's about Jack, y'all. If you tuly think he's talking about Bel in that scene, then you haven't been paying attention to Dean's character's values OR his communication style.)

I think at a lot of its core, Season 15 is asking you what happens when you're not spoon-fed a character's reactions. Do you look at their history and take the least charitable assumption, or do you work from what you know of that character's loves/morals/values and root for them to try and work through it?

Throughout the series, we see Dean cry and apologize more than most characters. For example, we are explicitly shown Dean's regret (on-screen!) for beating Cas in season 10, and so we know he feels guilty. On the flipside, we are NOT explicitly shown Cas's regrets for his beating on Dean in either seasons 5 or season 8.

But we give Cas the benefit of the doubt.

Why?

Well, truthfully, it's because Cas is a character that commands our respect, and this authority/respect extends to giving him dignity in a way some other characters aren't afforded. But mostly, it's because we trust in what we know of Cas. Again, it's those loves/morals/values that inform how we parse Cas's mistakes.

///

So, back to season 15. What are we going to do here?

Sam chooses grace. Will the audience choose it, too?

Crucially, Sam is a character who has had nervous breakdown after nervous breakdown. He sees what is happening with Dean, he understands Chuck's pressures, and he approaches Dean with (imperfect) grace.

So does Cas, for that matter, which makes a great deal of sense here. Cas is the character who has undergone the most severe existential crises regarding Chuck and Heaven. "Getting out of the game doesn't change the game," Cas says. He's grown tremendous, somewhat terrifying resilience as far as this is concerned.

But anyway. Dean's family sees that he's struggling and tries to help him through this because they too have gone through so many complicated meltdowns.

///

I think season 15 is tough, too, because it challenges you not to be spoon-fed all of Dean's grief and reactions.

Think back to Dean breaking down in the forest clearing after Mary died. Do you REALLY think there was none of that for Jack--for Rowena--for Jack's body being eradicated and ruining the hope of getting him back--for Cas leaving--for Amara--for the Jack rib-bomb?

I think to say yes would be dishonest. Personally, I think there's a well-argued case that Dean grieves almost everyone.

///

Season 15 is also tough because it invites to look upon some of Sam's worst moments (*cough* season 8) with renewed grace.

It even challenges you to frame the villains' struggles (John, Lucifer, and whoever the Hell else) in a stronger shade of gray.

///

Anon, I hope you find this soothing somewhat. :-)

Basically, the TLDR; is that we give our loved ones the benefit of the doubt because we've grown to know and trust their hearts over time, even when they're in the wrong.

-love from shal

[soupbtch]

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[spookietrex]

One of my favorite lines from "It's kind of a funny story" by Ned Vizinni is that "Depression is a medical illness. Would you be ashamed if you had diabetes?" And yeah, cool. It would be great if doctors ACTUALLY treated it that way, you know? Any time I've been hospitalized, they treat me subhuman and basically tell me that all the things I do on a daily basis to help me survive are bad coping skills and I should feel bad about myself because I'm making things up. Like I'm so sorry that my chronic illness has decided to show and debilitate me. I didn't realize that fibromyalgia, which is ALSO a medical disease, isn't something to be ashamed of. Because literally all my doctors treat me like I'm a little whiny bitch baby who's just after drugs.

[jjkyaoi]

btw intrusive thoughts aren’t funny. just so we’re clear . like what is the punchline there what’s the bit. my intrusive thoughts have had me spiral for weeks thinking i’m a terrible person and i deserve to die because my brain convinces me i am/believe or think awful things. it’s all fun and games what if i dyed my hair at three am #intrusivethought until somebody says something that their brain intrusively, uncontrollably tells them that can’t be made into this manic pixie dream bit that u fuckers have conjured and then it’s disgusting and psychotic you guys suck

[princessmyriad]

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[silver-la-pixels]

Is it just me or is autism just the equivalent of taking your paper resteraunt cup to the soda fountain and adding a shot of each well-known menal illness soda to it

[firstcitymentalhealthcenter]

Understanding Depression: A Guide to Identifying Signs and Symptoms

Introduction

Depression is a complex mental health condition that affects millions of people worldwide. Despite its prevalence, it can often go undetected or misunderstood. Recognizing the signs and Symptoms of Depression is the first step towards seeking help and finding effective treatment. In this blog, we will explore how to identify depression and why early intervention is crucial.

Understanding Depression

Depression is more than just feeling sad or down occasionally. It is a persistent and overwhelming feeling of sadness, hopelessness, and despair that can significantly impact daily life. It can manifest in various ways, affecting thoughts, feelings, behavior, and physical health.

Signs and Symptoms

Persistent Sadness: Feeling persistently sad, empty, or hopeless for most of the day, nearly every day, is a common symptom of depression.

Loss of Interest: Losing interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed, including hobbies, socializing, or work, is another hallmark sign.

Fatigue and Low Energy: Feeling tired, sluggish, or lacking energy, even after getting enough sleep, is a frequent symptom of depression.

Sleep Disturbances: Experiencing changes in sleep patterns, such as insomnia (difficulty falling or staying asleep) or hypersomnia (excessive sleeping), can be indicative of depression.

Changes in Appetite or Weight: Significant changes in appetite or weight, either an increase or decrease, may occur in individuals with depression.

Difficulty Concentrating: Trouble focusing, making decisions, or remembering things are cognitive symptoms often associated with depression.

Feelings of Worthlessness or Guilt: Persistent feelings of worthlessness, guilt, or self-blame are common emotional symptoms of depression.

Suicidal Thoughts or Behaviors: In severe cases, individuals with depression may experience suicidal thoughts or engage in self-harming behaviors.

Seeking Help: If you or someone you know is experiencing these symptoms, it is essential to seek help from a mental health professional. Depression is a treatable condition, and early intervention can lead to better outcomes. Treatment options may include therapy, medication, lifestyle changes, and support groups.

Conclusion

Identifying the Signs and Symptoms of depression is the first step towards getting the help and support needed to manage the condition effectively. By raising awareness and understanding about depression, we can break the stigma surrounding mental illness and ensure that those affected receive the care and compassion they deserve. Remember, you are not alone, and help is available.

[skyedancer-system]

New system record for longest fronting time!

I wonder if I can make it to 10 days?

-🍡Kiki

[skyward-floored]

Hmm. Inch resting. Don't like that.

[thenewsfactsnow]

Understanding Bipolar Disorder: A Rollercoaster of Emotions

Bipolar disorder, often referred to as manic depression, is a mental illness characterized by extreme shifts in mood, energy, and activity levels. It affects more than 1% of the world’s population and can have a profound impact on an individual’s life. The condition is marked by two primary phases: the manic phase, where a person experiences heightened energy, euphoria, and impulsivity, and the…

[tuliptiger]

Just saw a post about a person being upset or frazzled that depression and anxiety are the "everyman" mental illness. I want to proceed this by saying I am NOT going to be shitting on this person at all and they have a point but I didn't quite agree with uhm the tone or everything about it.

I don't think it's wrong or bad that these two specific mental illnesses have a wider understanding and reach. They have been watered down for lack of a better term because they have come to mean many things including less debilitating symptoms and signs. This is not to say it's bad, I don't think. I think it's objectively good that more people are able to look at themselves and talk with medical professionals and be able to be helped for any severity be it minor or major.

And that was their main point of contention though because the more debilitating cases of anxiety and depression are taken less seriously when using the terms "depression" and "anxiety". I think that is completely a valid point and reasonable thing to be upset about.

However...

I do not think the answer is to "take back" the terms and that also isn't what they said or implied either. What I really heard from them and that post was "when I talk about my life altering devastating mental illness I want to be taken seriously and understood without having to go into detail or explain it" (because the last part can and is incredibly exhausting and frustrating especially if it is not outright understood or has a base assumption of the less debilitating ideas and versions). What I heard was "I want to be taken seriously". That ISN'T what they said but it is what I understood from it.

In which case the solution to this is for people to respect each other, listen to each other with good intentions and faith, and take each other seriously when we talk about ourselves. Unfortunately that's an individual and societal problem that runs a little too deep for this post.

As for the terms, there probably does need to be a language separation between severities of depression and anxiety even though there are rough versions of those already. Like social anxiety, moderate depression, major depressive disorder, chronic depression, oct, ptsd, etc. The very word depression has kind of lost it's oomf but I think for a relatively good reason. Maybe there should be an entire other word for major depression that doesn't include that phrase though to help with that communication gap. IDK. My two cents if that's worth anything.

[orcelito]

ok. bed. time. honk shoo honk shoo

[someinstant]

I have this story that I've been writing that digs into Cassian's relationship with Maarva following Sipo and Mimban, because I find their dynamic really interesting and I have so many questions I want to ask, especially in parallel to Jyn's relationship with Saw. And I feel like it's really strong characterization work, and I've loved writing it. But honestly, I don't know that I'm ever going to put it up on AO3 or Tumblr or anything, because I-- just do not want to deal with folks' apparent inability to refrain from spitting vitriol all over the comments and tags. And I know that there would be, and-- blech. Fandom should be a thing that makes me happier, not more stressed.

I try really hard not to engage with fannish opinions I disagree with, because YMMV is a good way to approach most interpretive media, and I am an adult human who knows how to mute and block terms I dislike, and I do so often. But damn, it's frustrating, especially when all I want is to find the corner of the internet where I can pick up an idea and show it to folks the way you do when you find a cool rock: look at this weird thing I found! Isn't it cool? Do you have one like it? Awesome! I'd love to see it!

Was chatting with a friend earlier today and I mentioned how much I missed LJ for fannish interactions, because it felt like I was growing my own little garden there, and interested folks could walk by and take a look, maybe step inside the gate and chat for a while if they wanted. But if anyone was rude or cruel about something that I had created or anything else, well, they were in my little corner of the fandom, and I could easily show them the door.

I think I'm just not comfortable with the structural nature of Tumblr as a fandom space; I suppose it could be seen as a collaborative "Yes, and...," sort of space, where you build upon the works of other like-minded people. And I hope that's what I mostly use it for. But so often it seems to turn unnecessarily mean, a sort of social one-up-ing of each previous post, taking the work or media or idea someone else was excited about and dunking all over it.

I dunno, man. I've been engaged in internet fandom culture since I was in high school, back when my mom had to yell at me to get off the internet so she could make a phone call. I've had a bunch of fannish homes over the years, and I tend to cycle through my areas of interest in bouts that last a few months to a few years at a time, and my fannish homes have always been with the writers-- on message boards and archive sites, LJ and AO3. But I don't think I know where my fannish home is anymore, and that makes me feel a little lost.

[anyawellbeing-creativetherapy]

"Childhood Trauma Signs."

Traumatic experiences can initiate strong emotions and physical reactions that can persist long after the event. Children may feel terror, helplessness, or fear, as well as physiological reactions such as heart pounding, vomiting, or loss of bowel or bladder control. You might have difficulties trusting, low self-esteem, fears of being judged, constant attempts to please, outbursts of frustration, or social anxiety symptoms that won't let up. Can childhood trauma be healed? Being mentally healthy during childhood means reaching developmental and emotional milestones and learning healthy social skills and how to cope when there are problems. Mentally healthy children have a positive quality of life and can function well at home, in school, and in their communities. Things that can help keep children and young people mentally well include: being in good physical health, eating a balanced diet and getting regular exercise, having time and freedom to play, indoors and outdoors, being part of a family that gets along well most of the time. Anya Wellbeing is a Creative Therapy Centre that promotes the Expressive Arts for Mental Health and Alternative Methods for Holistic Wellness by using a variety of research-based treatment methods and hope to bring the joy of creativity in healing.

[drdemonprince]

The data does not support the assumption that all burned out people can “recover.” And when we fully appreciate what burnout signals in the body, and where it comes from on a social, economic, and psychological level, it should become clear to us that there’s nothing beneficial in returning to an unsustainable status quo. 

The term “burned out” is sometimes used to simply mean “stressed” or “tired,” and many organizations benefit from framing the condition in such light terms. Short-term, casual burnout (like you might get after one particularly stressful work deadline, or following final exams) has a positive prognosis: within three months of enjoying a reduced workload and increased time for rest and leisure, 80% of mildly burned-out workers are able to make a full return to their jobs. 

But there’s a lot of unanswered questions lurking behind this happy statistic. For instance, how many workers in this economy actually have the ability to take three months off work to focus on burnout recovery? What happens if a mildly burnt-out person does not get that rest, and has to keep toiling away as more deadlines pile up? And what is the point of returning to work if the job is going to remain as grueling and uncontrollable as it was when it first burned the worker out? 

Burnout that is not treated swiftly can become far more severe. Clinical psychologist and burnout expert Arno van Dam writes that when left unattended (or forcibly pushed through), mild burnout can metastasize into clinical burnout, which the International Classification of Diseases defines as feelings of energy depletion, increased mental distance, and a reduced sense of personal agency. Clinically burned-out people are not only tired, they also feel detached from other people and no longer in control of their lives, in other words.

Unfortunately, clinical burnout has quite a dismal trajectory. Multiple studies by van Dam and others have found that clinical burnout sufferers may require a year or more of rest following treatment before they can feel better, and that some of burnout’s lingering effects don’t go away easily, if at all. 

In one study conducted by Anita Eskildsen, for example, burnout sufferers continued to show memory and processing speed declines one year after burnout. Their cognitive processing skills improved slightly since seeking treatment, but the experience of having been burnt out had still left them operating significantly below their non-burned-out peers or their prior self, with no signs of bouncing back. 

It took two years for subjects in one of van Dam’s studies to return to “normal” levels of involvement and competence at work. following an incident of clinical burnout. However, even after a multi-year recovery period they still performed worse than the non-burned-out control group on a cognitive task designed to test their planning and preparation abilities. Though they no longer qualified as clinically burned out, former burnout sufferers still reported greater exhaustion, fatigue, depression, and distress than controls.

In his review of the scientific literature, van Dam reports that anywhere from 25% to 50% of clinical burnout sufferers do not make a full recovery even four years after their illness. Studies generally find that burnout sufferers make most of their mental and physical health gains in the first year after treatment, but continue to underperform on neuropsychological tests for many years afterward, compared to control subjects who were never burned out. 

People who have experienced burnout report worse memories, slower reaction times, less attentiveness, lower motivation, greater exhaustion, reduced work capability, and more negative health symptoms, long after their period of overwork has stopped. It’s as if burnout sufferers have fallen off their previous life trajectory, and cannot ever climb fully back up. 

And that’s just among the people who receive some kind of treatment for their burnout and have the opportunity to rest. I found one study that followed burned-out teachers for seven years and reported over 14% of them remained highly burnt-out the entire time. These teachers continued feeling depersonalized, emotionally drained, ineffective, dizzy, sick to their stomachs, and desperate to leave their jobs for the better part of a decade. But they kept working in spite of it (or more likely, from a lack of other options), lowering their odds of ever healing all the while. 

Van Dam observes that clinical burnout patients tend to suffer from an excess of perseverance, rather than the opposite: “Patients with clinical burnout…report that they ignored stress symptoms for several years,” he writes. “Living a stressful life was a normal condition for them. Some were not even aware of the stressfulness of their lives, until they collapsed.”

Instead of seeking help for workplace problems or reducing their workload, as most people do, clinical burnout sufferers typically push themselves through unpleasant circumstances and avoid asking for help. They’re also less likely to give up when placed under frustrating circumstances, instead throttling the gas in hopes that their problems can be fixed with extra effort. They become hyperactive, unable to rest or enjoy holidays, their bodies wired to treat work as the solution to every problem. It is only after living at this unrelenting pace for years that they tumble into severe burnout. 

Among both masked Autistics and overworked employees, the people most likely to reach catastrophic, body-breaking levels of burnout are the people most primed to ignore their own physical boundaries for as long as possible. Clinical burnout sufferers work far past the point that virtually anyone else would ask for help, take a break, or stop caring about their work.

And when viewed from this perspective, we can see burnout as the saving grace of the compulsive workaholic — and the path to liberation for the masked disabled person who has nearly killed themselves trying to pass as a diligent worker bee. 

I wrote about the latest data on burnout "recovery," and the similarities and differences between Autistic burnout and conventional clinical burnout. The full piece is free to read or have narrated to you in the Substack app at drdevonprice.substack.com