You should read The Awakening by Kate Chopin if you get the chance.
I think everyone should express how they really feel, positive and negative. That doesn't mean neglecting responsibilities you've willingly agreed to, but I don't think anybody should have to pretend to be happy if they aren't. We should all value truth and ourselves. I believe life exists for more than itself, but not to sacrifice to a system. To create something that is an actual expression of it. I think it's very possible to express ourselves honestly without burdening anyone else. Depression is a real condition and these people can be helped. No one should just keep suffering if they don't have to. Would you say someone with OCD should just stop acting on their compulsions? Just stop thinking about their obsessions? Should someone with Schizophrenia ignore their delusions? Pretend they don't see monsters trying to kill them? What should someone with Downs Syndrome do? If people could will away mental illnesses, I guarantee you they would.
These conditions are in a completely different ballpark, they don't even come close to depression and I am not sure why people like you and @
MoltenHorse are using them as argument. It's condescending for the sake of your sense of wrongplaced political correctness.
Depression is real, but it is
often the product of your own undoing and you can often fix it yourself without the need of a shrimp.
Depression could certainly be a front for this type of thinking or behavior.
Of course depressed people can't think logically, they are depressed. Depression takes psychological analysis and counseling to get through. Most people that are depressed can't get out of it on their own.
If someone is depressed and they have kids to take care of they might actually go further down into depression. One of my family members became depressed because she didn't think she was good enough as a parent to raise her children when in reality she was an excellent parent and role-model, before she was depressed. Is she stupid or worthless as a person for not realizing this and getting out of her depression right away? Heck no.
Learn some damn empathy.
''If someone is depressed and they have kids to take care of they might actually go further down into depression.''
''Of course depressed people can't think logically ''
Depression takes psychological analysis and counseling to get through.
All they want(excluding
real and rare cases of depression) is their needs to be fulfilled, re-confirming their sense of self-importance that is. Your family member seems like a person with zero self-reflection to me, yes, she may be nice, but thinking she isn't good enough as a parent to raise her children? Nah, that probably is not the truth behind the matter. If she truly thought she was not good enough as a parent, she would need to have the children placed as no.1 top priority.
Seeing how she got ''depressed'', you imply that she is not an excellent parent and role-model anymore, therefore neglecting her kids in one way or another. This means that from the perspective of the parent, the kids are NOT no.1 priority, since a parent would rather go obsessive-compulsive rather than depressed striving to accomplish this crucial no.1 task. Ofcourse this is just an assumption, but based on the logic stated above I will leave you with the wisdom that people rarely reveal their true humane but egocentric motivations. Some PR-marketing such as ''caring for the kids'' would indeed sell well @ the family, resulting in flattery and how ''good you are'' because let's face it, people like being flattered by praising their qualities.
As you can see from the text above, your story can be interpreted in various ways. Having dealt with multiple, more severe cases of depression in my environment, i'd say my tears are dried up so-to-speak and I cannot allow myself to be bullshitted any longer.
These people are perfectly capable in thinking logically, they just rust into a certain angle of perspective which may not be that healthy for them. They allow themselves to be deluded and they wallow in it at the expense of others.
I would say I have more respect for those that can bear their own emotions without attempting to garner sympathy. I'm sympathetic to those who I can see are obviously struggling, even so, my capacity for sympathy is fairly low. Overall I'm much more capable empathy than sympathy (but, surely that's true for everyone).
I think I'm one of those comfortably depressed people. I've never sought counseling concerning my depression or even told any of my close family or friends. I don't feel the need to burden them with a problem that they weren't the direct cause of and wouldn't be able to solve in any case. I'll rather just deal with it.
I've rarely found that speaking about my emotions solves anything.
Some clarifications:
- My depression isn't a result of me being dissatisfied with my enviroment, lifestyle etc.
- I've never found being depressed to impede my ability to think logically, only make me less motivated to bother making it evident.
- My depression hasn't resulted in me becoming any more emotionally unstable.
- I don't attempt to make it apparent that I'm depressed because that would seem, to me, to be pity mongering.
- If anything you're intolerant views on depression make me depressed.
Yeah I know that feel. I respect people that carry their burden without encumbering others with it. The hardest part is the loss of motivation, but that is something entirely controlled by you. People of this kind ain't depressed in my opinion, they just lack a raison d'etre/sense of purpose, which is one of the effects this materialistic world has on the masses.
- If anything you're intolerant views on depression make me depressed.
What happened to the strong silent type?
