[Eren Jaegerbomb]

According to a new article, scientists think that low serotonin isn't the only causing factor of depression, or the causing factor of depression.

I find this interesting. Like the article said, it could be many things. I think hormones might influence it too?

Of course, I'm not going to stop depression medication, that would be silly.

What you think? And have you read anything about causes of depression? Feel free to share those here.

How does depression work? Analysis finds it's not caused by low serotonin - ABC News

amp-abc-net-au.cdn.ampproject.org

 

[beth x]

Intelligence is a good indicator of whether you might get depression. Hormones and genetics could be a factor.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289616303324

I remember years ago there were studies that showed that CBT provided better outcomes than antidepressants so I'm not really surprised.

 

[Flabarac Brupip]

Intelligence is a good indicator of whether you might get depression.

I think depressed people do tend to be a little more aware of reality on average.

 

[beth x]

I think depressed people do tend to be a little more aware of reality on average.

Yeah. I don't really know how you can be aware of how the world seems to work without being at least a little bit sad about it.

 

[Flabarac Brupip]

Yeah. I don't really know how you can be aware of how the world seems to work without being at least a little bit sad about it.

Exactly. Perhaps reality itself is one obvious cause of depression.

 

[Eren Jaegerbomb]

Oh definitely, knowing too much or... Enough at least about the world, it really is depressing.

 

[Allostasis]

Intelligence isn't necessarily limited to some passive awareness of all those flaws and unfairnesses of the world.

It can also include the awareness of ways of dealing with those imperfections. The capacity to find a way to transcend those issues and surpass your own perception of them and reality itself.

Quite often, understanding and acceptance end up being key ingredients in resolving numerous internal conflicts, as emotional reactions are typically responses to the incompleteness of information or the inability to act on it.

CBT/ACT/REBT/enneagrams/psychological types/buddhism/stoicism/etc, the amount of ways of finding your peace and balance between yourself and reality is countless. And if it isn't, you can always forge your own.

Low IQ also correlates positively with depression, there is no special/unique relationship here. If anything, intelligence should make you more capable at dealing with reality and everything that it entails.

 

[DOGSOUP]

Yes I always thought in the majority of cases it was a trick. To make it seem like a chemical issue fixable by a pill + reprogramming yourself without addressing the causes which are societal because solving them require you to reorganize socially.

 

[Eren Jaegerbomb]

Yes I always thought in the majority of cases it was a trick. To make it seem like a chemical issue fixable by a pill + reprogramming yourself without addressing the causes which are societal because solving them require you to reorganize socially.

Hah. I love it. Especially, because solving them require you to reorganize socially.

 

[Nannerl]

It can also include the awareness of ways of dealing with those imperfections. The capacity to find a way to transcend those issues and surpass your own perception of them and reality itself.

Religion, beliefs and doctrines are (ironically) the most logical path to "transcend" the issues or your perception of them and life as a whole, but being intelligent does not mean you will engage with it. Someone can be aware giving up all your consciousness, and thus, your capacity of thinking on your own, is a better sacrifice for your well-being, but then you're also renouncing to your intelligence as an individual and adopting doctrines of a group or an ethereal collective (if it's not a religion but a cosmic type of belief). If that on its own can be considered an act of "major intelligence" that's a biased perception, as some people prioritize feeling over thinking or feeling well over facing reality and others don't. Happy people tend to ignore, willingly or not, and that can be a lack of awareness or empathy, but it's not correlated to intelligence.
Troubled people, on the other hand, are usually aware of themselves, of the world and others. It's not always a passive engagement, as pessimistic nihilism would put it, but many people try to make a difference as well, but feelings are feelings, and the universe is infinitely big and nonsensical to make depressed anybody (just to not focus in the little things such as mankind). But still, many intelligent people do tend to be sad, it just doesn't mean they are brilliant. Dealing with reality doesn't mean dealing with it happily. And choosing not to deal with it on order to be happy is... contradictory at best.

 

[Necrofantasia]

Powerlessness and anxiety. The feeling that you have no agency over your life or environment , which dovetails into loneliness. The more intelligent you are the more layers of "fuck no" you can see and be taxed by

Capitalism is kind of a depression pressure cooker simply because anxiety and depression are very frequently comorbid

 

[beth x]

Intelligence isn't necessarily limited to some passive awareness of all those flaws and unfairnesses of the world.

It can also include the awareness of ways of dealing with those imperfections. The capacity to find a way to transcend those issues and surpass your own perception of them and reality itself.

Quite often, understanding and acceptance end up being key ingredients in resolving numerous internal conflicts, as emotional reactions are typically responses to the incompleteness of information or the inability to act on it.

CBT/ACT/REBT/enneagrams/psychological types/buddhism/stoicism/etc, the amount of ways of finding your peace and balance between yourself and reality is countless. And if it isn't, you can always forge your own.

Low IQ also correlates positively with depression, there is no special/unique relationship here. If anything, intelligence should make you more capable at dealing with reality and everything that it entails.

Highly intelligent people are generally more isolated from others. If you are to use the scale of intelligence the higher you are on that scale the less you are able to relate to others and them, to you. Humans are social animals and can do badly when they don't relate to anyone.

 

[Allostasis]

Religion, beliefs and doctrines are (ironically) the most logical path to "transcend" the issues or your perception of them and life as a whole, but being intelligent does not mean you will engage with it. Someone can be aware giving up all your consciousness, and thus, your capacity of thinking on your own, is a better sacrifice for your well-being, but then you're also renouncing to your intelligence as an individual and adopting doctrines of a group or an ethereal collective (if it's not a religion but a cosmic type of belief). If that on its own can be considered an act of "major intelligence" that's a biased perception, as some people prioritize feeling over thinking or feeling well over facing reality and others don't. Happy people tend to ignore, willingly or not, and that can be a lack of awareness or empathy, but it's not correlated to intelligence.
Troubled people, on the other hand, are usually aware of themselves, of the world and others. It's not always a passive engagement, as pessimistic nihilism would put it, but many people try to make a difference as well, but feelings are feelings, and the universe is infinitely big and nonsensical to make depressed anybody (just to not focus in the little things such as mankind). But still, many intelligent people do tend to be sad, it just doesn't mean they are brilliant. Dealing with reality doesn't mean dealing with it happily. And choosing not to deal with it on order to be happy is... contradictory at best.

I don't see any points of disagreements, but I would clarify that I didn't suggest anyone to give up and simply sell their minds to some particular way of seeing/interpreting the world blindly.

Those perspectives/systems were simply examples of how an individual can apply their own intelligence and awareness productively. To make them serve themselves instead of allowing themselves to feel miserable.

Following something blindly in a hope that it will give some kind of relief is just running away.

as some people prioritize feeling over thinking or feeling well over facing reality and others don't.

I think this is a false dichotomy, even though technically processes themselves are oppositional. They can't run at the same time, but they don't have to exclude each other completely.

In other words, effectively facing reality tends to positively contribute to feeling well, while feeling well helps with effectively dealing with reality and thinking. Isolation/escape, on the other hand, likely is going to give only a very fleeting, unsustainable sense of peace at best, because no matter how hard one tries, reality always catches up to them in the end I think.

Of course, having the capacity doesn't mean that it will be used or used productively. But it can be.

It similar situation with being an F dom. Being an F dom doesn't guarantee a higher degree of control. Only higher degree of awareness. And it is up to you what you will do with this awareness. Higher intelligence will either make one collapse under issues or will help with conquering them effectively.

 

[Allostasis]

Highly intelligent people are generally more isolated from others. If you are to use the scale of intelligence the higher you are on that scale the less you are able to relate to others and them, to you. Humans are social animals and can do badly when they don't relate to anyone.

People generally become isolated because they are different. People with low intelligence or with various disorders also have a lot of challenges in their ability to relate with others. Therefore, it is likely a problem of the mismatch between people and environment and inability for both parties to have a peace with each other. Not of the intelligence itself or how high it is.

It is true that the further you are from average, the more difficult it is, statistically, to encounter someone like you.
However, this conclusion rests on the assumption that all people are distributed uniformly.

In other words, it will be much easier to relate with others if you will switch your environment to the one that better matches your parameters, the one that attracts people similar to you or whatever it is your preference. And internet certainly helps with that.
Now, no matter how smart someone is, there is always someone else who can keep up with them. We already refer to those people as "people", they can relate with each other technically.

Furthermore, it is difficult, sometimes very difficult, but it is still possible to establish a common ground regardless of the difference. It just typically requires willingness, effort and patience. Regardless of the level, people always have something in common.

 

[beth x]

People generally become isolated because they are different. People with low intelligence or with various disorders also have a lot of challenges in their ability to relate with others. Therefore, it is likely a problem of the mismatch between people and environment and inability for both parties to have a peace with each other. Not of the intelligence itself or how high it is.

It is true that the further you are from average, the more difficult it is, statistically, to encounter someone like you.
However, this conclusion rests on the assumption that all people are distributed uniformly.

In other words, it will be much easier to relate with others if you will switch your environment to the one that better matches your parameters, the one that attracts people similar to you or whatever it is your preference. And internet certainly helps with that.
Now, no matter how smart someone is, there is always someone else who can keep up with them. We already refer to those people as "people", they can relate with each other technically.

Furthermore, it is difficult, sometimes very difficult, but it is still possible to establish a common ground regardless of the difference. It just typically requires willingness, effort and patience. Regardless of the level, people always have something in common.

There are other reasons why people suffer depression. Proportionately there are studies that say being intelligent is a factor. Life stressors is another. Ageing is another, genetics as well. It's multi factored.

 

[Allostasis]

There are other reasons why people suffer depression. Proportionately there are studies that say being intelligent is a factor. Life stressors is another. Ageing is another, genetics as well. It's multi factored.

Precisely. I think focusing on intelligence alone and blaming it is counter-productive/dead-end, especially while using it to figure out the way out of the depression, as otherwise, we can go further and say that living itself is the cause of depression. Studies don't prove a causational relationship, and I don't see anything that would justify its existence at the moment.

I think to begin the discourse properly, we have to establish first what it means to "be depressed" since it directly relates to what we can qualify as causes of this condition. We do have an intuitive understanding of it, but it isn't always the same for all people. And the phenomenon itself can have multiple forms with different patterns of formation.

 

[beth x]

Precisely. I think focusing on intelligence alone and blaming it is counter-productive/dead-end, especially while using it to figure out the way out of the depression, as otherwise, we can go further and say that living itself is the cause of depression. Studies don't prove a causational relationship, and I don't see anything that would justify its existence at the moment.

I think to begin the discourse properly, we have to establish first what it means to "be depressed" since it directly relates to what we can qualify as causes of this condition. We do have an intuitive understanding of it, but it isn't always the same for all people. And the phenomenon itself can have multiple forms with different patterns of formation.

I don't think anyone did say intelligence was a cause for depression. Did they?

 

[Allostasis]

I don't think anyone did say intelligence was a cause for depression. Did they?

I don't see how this relates to what I said or where I am criticizing people for saying that.
But I do see how intelligence is brought up almost immediately during talks that touch depression and this thread wasn't an exception.

 

[beth x]

I don't see how this relates to what I said or where I am criticizing people for saying that.
But I do see how intelligence is brought up almost immediately during talks that touch depression and this thread wasn't an exception.

That's probably because there are studies that state that intelligent people suffer from depression disproportionately and it's brought up because it's something people understand. It's not just pop psychology.

 

[Allostasis]

That's probably because there are studies that state that intelligent people suffer from depression disproportionately and it's brought up because it's something people understand. It's not just pop psychology.

Yeah. And then I expressed what I think about this. Is there a problem with that?
Nowhere did I assume that it is a pop psychology or invalidated/ignored those studies. My focus was on what people can do with that even if it is indeed intelligence to blame and seeing what is beyond this correlation.

I got the impression that you are feeling attacked. Maybe there is a misunderstanding that I can correct, perhaps.