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Why is depression so hard to overcome?

为什么抑郁症如此难以克服?

Val Yamamoto
Because it takes everything from you.
Depression takes your happiness, energy, life, and identity away. It starts with not really enjoying things like you used to. Maybe you’ve started having trouble sleeping. It takes an hour longer to fall asleep. When you wake up, it feels like you haven’t even slept at all. You know you won’t feel anything from your job or your studies or even your favorite pastimes, so why even do them? It takes so much energy to talk to people or to make plans, so you just don’t. You miss more and more. Get behind in everything, your social life, your work life, your relationships. They have all been neglected. So now the people that brought you happiness are avoiding you just as you have been avoiding them. You isolate yourself even more. Even food has started losing its flavor. You can’t even remember what it is like to be happy. What is happiness? You used to think it was finishing an assignment for school, hanging out with friends, watching your favorite television show, doing something artsy. You tried all those things a couple months ago, when this all first started happening. You felt nothing. Who are you even anymore? You used to be a dreamer, a perfectionist, an artist, a friend. Now all you know is being depressed. You are no longer an artist, a friend, or even a person. All you are is a jumble of shitty emotions that can’t even get out of bed in the morning or eat breakfast. Why even exist anymore?
So how do you dig yourself out of that? Just go for a run? Drink some smoothies and eat some kale? There is no way you have the energy to do that and it’s so much effort to even think about eating anything. It’s not quite as simple as some people make it appear. It’s not just a friend coming over and talking to you for an hour and suddenly everything is better. It’s possibly taking medications, and having to try 10, sometimes even 20 different medications at different doses to see if any of them have good effects with limited side effects. It’s therapy, and going through all of the painful parts of your life again. It’s putting in a lot of energy and effort you don’t have to get better. To not just end it all. It’s a continuous battle to stay afloat.
So if someone reaches out to you and confides in you about their mental health issues, listen to them, take them serioudly, and see if there is anything you can do to help. Because every little thing you do and take for granted, a depressed person probably wishes they could function that well.

因为它夺走了你的一切。
抑郁症夺走了你的快乐、精力、生命和身份。这始于你不再像以前那样享受生活。也许你已经开始睡不着了。入睡要多花一个小时。当你醒来的时候，感觉就像你根本没有睡觉一样。你知道你不会从你的工作、学习甚至你最喜欢的消遣中感受到任何东西，那么为什么还要这样做呢？与人交谈或制定计划需要花费太多精力，所以你就不做了。你错过的越来越多。在所有事情上慢半拍，你的社交生活，你的工作生活，你的人际关系。他们都被不予重视了。所以现在那些给你带来幸福的人都躲着你，就像你一直躲着他们一样。你会更加孤立自己。甚至连食物也开始失去味道。你甚至不记得快乐是什么感觉。幸福是什么？你曾经认为这是在完成学校的作业，和朋友一起玩，看你最喜欢的电视节目，做一些有艺术感的事情。几个月前，当这一切刚开始发生的时候，你尝试了所有这些事情，你什么感觉都没有。你到底是谁?你曾经是一个梦想家，一个完美主义者，一个艺术家，一个朋友。现在你只知道自己很沮丧。你不再是一个艺术家，不再是朋友，甚至不再是一个人。你就是一堆乱七八糟的情绪早上连床都下不了，也吃不了早餐。为什么还要存在？
那么你是如何摆脱困境的呢？只是去跑步？喝点奶昔，吃点蔬菜汤？你根本没有精力去做这件事，甚至想要吃东西都要付出很大的努力。这并不像有些人说的那么简单。不仅仅是一个朋友过来和你聊了一个小时，突然一切都好了。这可能是服用药物，不得不尝试10种，有时甚至20种不同剂量的药物，看看其中是否有良好的效果，且副作用有限。这是一种治疗，再次经历你生活中所有痛苦的部分。这是在投入大量的精力和努力，你不必变得更好。这不仅仅是为了结束这一切。因为这是一场持续不断的战斗。
因此，如果有人向你伸出援手，向你倾诉他们的心理健康问题，倾听他们的意见，认真对待他们，看看你是否能做些什么来帮助他们。因为你做的每一件小事都是理所当然的，抑郁的人可能希望他们能很好地工作。

Andie Beauregaurde
Why is it so hard to cure depression?
There’s two reasons that popped into my mind first. The first one is that it’s hard to cure it because depression is basically a chemical imbalance. You can’t just force your brain to create something (serotonin, endorphins, etc.) that you don’t have the capacity to. If it could have, it would have done that already. That’s why many people take medication. It supplies us with the things we cannot produce on our own.
Another reason it’s so hard to cure is because people who are depressed are often lacking in motivation, interest, and hope. When you lack the ability to find joy in anything, you’re only going deeper down the rabbit hole where it’s just harder and harder to climb out. You’re not being able to engage in the things that will help you get better. There’s also a stigma with depression and other mental illnesses, and many people don’t like to ask for help because they don’t want to be seen differently or to be seen as “weak.” Depression is nearly impossible to cure on your own which is why we need love and support from others. If we aren’t utilizing those around us and the resources at our disposal, we may just be setting ourselves up for a more difficult time.

为什么抑郁症这么难治愈？
我首先想到了两个原因。第一个问题是很难治愈，因为抑郁症基本上是一种化学失衡。你不能强迫你的大脑创造一些你没有能力创造的东西（血清素、内啡肽等）。如果可以的话，它早就这么做了。这就是为什么很多人服用药物。它为我们提供了我们自己无法生产的东西。
抑郁症如此难以治愈的另一个原因是，抑郁症患者往往缺乏动力、兴趣和希望。当你缺乏从任何事情中寻找快乐的能力时，你只会越陷越深，越来越难爬出来。你无法参与那些能帮助你变得更好的事情。抑郁症和其他精神疾病也是一种耻辱，许多人不喜欢寻求帮助，因为他们不想被视为不同或被视为“弱者”。抑郁症几乎不可能靠自己治愈，这就是为什么我们需要他人的爱和支持。如果我们不利用我们周围的人和我们可以支配的资源，我们可能会让自己陷入更困难的时期。

Susan Morrow-Johnson
Because depression is a “downward spiral”, it feeds on itself. The worse you feel, the worse you feel.
When I am in a bad depression, I find the bad in everything. I find myself saying inwardly, “Nobody cares. Nothing matters. This will never get better.” and other terrible, negative things.
I have been very fortunate not to succumb to suicidal ideation and to get treatment for my depression. I have finally accepted that I will need medication for the rest of my life and I am absolutely fine with that. I am also in therapy. Both have been tremendously helpful to me in recovering from depression.
I also meditate regularly (although that did not stop me from falling into the last depressive episode).
My daughter suffers from depression also. She takes medication but has not been to therapy for some years. She also reads and watches a lot of dark stuff. And she sometimes has a day or two when she just can’t get out of bed. It’s really hard for her. She will be going to therapy very soon! And I know she will respond, as she did in the past.
I have a niece who went through a bout of depression and she binge-watched a sit-com that she enjoyed. She laughed and laughed. She also did yoga and meditation every day and was able to recover without medication. (Disclaimer: I am not a doctor or therapist and I am not advocating for or against any treatment.)
I believe that my daughter would benefit from reading and watching funny things, but she has to choose that. When I was really sick, I probably wouldn’t have chosen that either. In fact, I can imagine feeling so bad that something you love or used to laugh at would actually make you feel worse.
It’s not an easy battle, but it is not impossible either.

因为抑郁是一个“恶性循环”，它会自我循环。感觉越糟，就越难受。
当我处于严重的抑郁症中时，我发现一切都很糟糕。我发现自己内心在说，“没人在乎。什么都无所谓。这永远不会好转。”以及其他可怕的、消极的事情。
我很幸运，没有屈服于自杀念头，并得到了抑郁症的治疗。我终于接受了我的余生都需要药物治疗的事实，我对此完全满意。我也在接受治疗。这两件事对我从抑郁症中恢复都有很大帮助。
我也经常冥想（尽管这并没有阻止我陷入最后一次抑郁发作）。
我女儿也患有抑郁症。她服用了药物，但已经好几年没有接受治疗了。她还阅读和观看了很多黑暗的东西。她有时会有一两天无法起床。这对她来说真的很难。她很快就会去接受治疗！我知道她会做出回应，就像她过去所做的那样。
我有一个侄女，她患了一场抑郁症，她狂看了一部她喜欢的情景喜剧。她笑了又笑。她还每天做瑜伽和冥想，并且能够在没有药物的情况下恢复。（免责声明：我不是医生或治疗师，也不主张或反对任何治疗。）
我相信我的女儿会从阅读和观看有趣的事情中受益，但她必须做出选择。当我真的生病的时候，我可能也不会选择这个。事实上，我可以想象那种很糟糕的感觉，因为你喜欢或曾经嘲笑的东西实际上会让你感觉更糟。
这不是一场轻松的战斗，但也不是不可能战胜的战斗。

Emmett Hunt
It differs for everyone.
My depression is chemical, and situational.
Chemical depression in my case means that the chemicals in my brain are unbalanced, specifically serotonin. My serotonin levels are lower than most people, serotonin is the chemical in there brain that makes you happy. So, I take 50 milligrams of serotonin every day to keep my mood balanced.
Situational depression in my case is due to being molested and bullied as a child, the bullying continued till I… actually till I got into my new school. The molestation was a one time occurrence.
Because depression is different for everyone, the is no one cure. Both forms of depression don't go away. You can't simply get over that trauma. Mental or physical.
That's why depression is so hard to overcome, because you can think you're done with it. Then one night, you wake up in a cold sweat remembering every feeling of sadness and emptiness.
You never overcome depression. You learn how to cope.

每个人的情况都不一样。
我的抑郁症是化学性的、情境性的。
对我来说，化学抑郁症意味着我大脑中的化学物质不平衡，特别是血清素。我的血清素水平比大多数人低，血清素是大脑中让你快乐的化学物质。所以，我每天服用50毫克的血清素来保持情绪平衡。
以我为例，情境性抑郁症是由于小时候被猥亵和欺负，这种欺负一直持续到…实际上一直持续到我进入新学校。猥亵事件只有一次。
因为抑郁症对每个人来说都不一样，所以没有唯一的治疗方法。两种形式的抑郁症都不会消失。无论精神上还是身体上的，你不能简单地克服这种创伤。
这就是为什么抑郁症如此难以克服，因为你可能认为自己已经受够了。然后有一天晚上，你醒来时出了一身冷汗，想起了每一种悲伤和空虚的感觉。
你永远无法战胜抑郁症，你得学会了如何应对。

Zsolt Hermann
Depression is extremely hard to overcome, because there is only one true remedy that treats depression - except perhaps to small number of truly clinical cases - curing depression at its root.
Right now depression is spreading like the greatest plague Humanity has ever seen, because we haven't identified its root, thus we have no chance of finding and using its only remedy.
Depression arises when one losses one's purpose in life, when tomorrow, the future looks darker than the present, thus one can't see the point in waking up and continuing with life.
In our generation we are fast running out of the chances in finding meaning, purpose truth the usual desires of food, sex, family, with, power and knowledge. We reached the stage of Human evolution when Nature's intelligent evolutionary plan is expecting us to search for and find our “truly Human” purpose in life, our unique Human role in the system of reality.
The only working treatment for depression is a unique, purposeful and practical educational method, that can give us the tools for identifying and fulfilling that role, thus reaching our Human purpose, justifying our existence.

抑郁症是极难克服的，因为除了少数真正的临床病例从根本上治愈抑郁症，只有一种真正的治疗抑郁症的药物。
现在，抑郁症正在像人类有史以来最严重的瘟疫一样蔓延，因为我们还没有确定它的根源，因此我们没有机会找到并使用它的唯一疗法。
当一个人失去了人生的目标，当明天，未来看起来比现在更黑暗，因此一个人看不到醒来继续生活的意义时，就会出现抑郁。
在我们这一代人中，我们很快就没有机会找到意义、目标和真理——食物、性、家庭、拥有、权力和知识的常见欲望。我们到达了人类进化的阶段，大自然的智能进化计划希望我们寻找并找到我们“真正的人类”的人生目标，我们在现实系统中独特的人类角色。
抑郁症的唯一有效治疗方法是一种独特、有目的和实用的教育方法，它可以为我们提供识别和履行这一角色的工具，从而达到我们的人类目的，对我们的存在做出解释。

Hunter Gwin
How does one know they have depression, and how does one cope with it?
Depression is an asshole.
Depression is feeling like you are alone in the world, no matter what you have and who is there for you.
It’s a hole inside of you—it’s starts off small, but over time, it turns into the size of a golf ball.
Then it grows and grows, then it’s the size of a pot.
It keeps growing, and growing, and growing, and more growing, and it’s a fucking sinkhole.
Depression is something people cope with differently; I dealt with it by going to therapy—he helped me step by step, and I have to say… I think it’s the best thing you can do.
Sure, sometimes they might cost a bit of money; or they may seem like they don’t know what they are talking about, but trust me.. they do. They also listen to you—they let you talk out your problems, and release whatever feelings you have.

一个人如何知道自己患有抑郁症，又如何应对呢？
抑郁症是可恶的。
抑郁症是指无论你拥有什么，无论谁在那里支持你感觉自己在这个世界上是孤独的。
它是你体内的一个洞——一开始很小，但随着时间的推移，它会变成一个高尔夫球的大小。
然后它长了又长，它突然就有一个罐子那么大了。
它不断增长，不断增长，越来越大，越来越多，这是一个该死的天坑。
人们应对抑郁症的方式不同;我通过接受治疗来解决这个问题——他一步一步地帮助我，我不得不说……我认为这是你能做的最好的事情。
当然，有时它们可能会花一点钱；或者他们可能看起来不知道自己在说什么，但相信我，他们知道。他们也会听你的，让你把问题说出来，释放你的感受。

Virginia Hanlon
I have some ideas about your question, the caveats being that these ideas apply to my own life, and that the social rejection/isolation in my small rural community of the 1950’s was unlike the horrific depths of the present.
Why is depression so hard to overcome?
I think depression is difficult to overcome because at least initially, the person really is perceiving a terrible situation accurately. In our striving for happiness or just some peace, sometimes there truly is no way forward at that moment…leading to discouragement profound.
Then next, some brain patterns can form and take hold; cascading neuron pathways that return you into the depths whenever they get triggered. These engrams must be weakened - hopefully dismantled - for depression to resolve.
Third, our digital society no longer has as much camaraderie, humour, mutual support; the social bonds that traditionally maintain mental health.
Fourth, the modern therapeutic approach to depression tends to treat it as ‘a form of individual madness unconnected with social pressures;’ and so the depressed person is viewed as flawed, diseased, genetically impaired. This approach is often inaccurate and thus tends to perpetuate depression and simply manage it.
One approach I myself appreciate was an early sociology text by Emile Durkheim, ON SUICIDE, published 1897.

我对你的问题有一些想法，需要注意的是，这些想法适用于我自己的生活，20世纪50年代我所在的小农村社区的社会排斥/孤立现象与现在的可怕深渊不同。
为什么抑郁症如此难以克服？
我认为抑郁症是很难克服的，因为至少在最初，人们确实准确地感知了一个可怕的情况。在我们努力追求幸福或平静的过程中，有时在那一刻真的没有前进的路，导致深深的沮丧。
接下来，一些大脑模式可以形成并占据主导地位；级联神经元通路一旦被触发，就会把你送回深处。这些根深蒂固的东西必须被削弱，希望能被根除，这能解决抑郁症。
第三，我们的数字社会不再有那么多的同志情谊、幽默感和相互支持、传统上维持心理健康的社会纽带。
第四，现代抑郁症治疗方法倾向于将其视为“一种与社会压力无关的个人疯狂形式”因此，抑郁的人被视为有缺陷、有疾病、基因受损。这种方法往往是不准确的，因此往往会使抑郁症持续下去，而只是简单地控制它。
我自己欣赏的一种方法是艾米尔·涂尔干于1897年出版的早期社会学著作《自杀论》。

Grahame Cossum
Why can't someone just snap out of depression?
Anyone that thinks a person can just ‘snap out’ of clinical/chronic/major depressive disorder would need to be living on a different planet from the rest of us.
It’s so ridiculous it’s not even worth commenting on.
Nobody is going to move on from major depressive disorder by listening to music, thinking positive or going for long walks. It requires serious intervention, not distraction.
Expecting someone to just ‘snap out’ of true depression shows a profound ignorance of the illness

为什么有人就不能从抑郁中走出来呢?
任何认为一个人可以“突然摆脱”临床/慢性/重度抑郁症的人，都需要生活在与我们其他人不同的星球上。
这太荒谬了，甚至不值得评论。
没有人会通过听音乐、积极思考或长时间散步来摆脱严重的抑郁症。这需要认真的干预，而不是分散注意力。
期望某人从真正的抑郁症中“振作起来”，表明他对这种疾病一无所知。

Ellen Vrana
I cannot describe what it feels like. But I can tell you what it looks like.
There is a lint ball, under our hallway chest, right next to where the lamp is plugged into the wall. It moves slightly from a miniscule breeze I cannot feel. It has a hair in it, long, mine. Hmm, now it moves back under the chest and behind the leg. And then out again. It’s very active, this lint ball.
Why do I know this? Because I’m lying on the floor. On our 2nd floor landing at the top of the stairs. My head is pressed against the wood floor, my body might be on the carpet, not sure. I didn’t plan to lie here, I just got overwhelmed in sadness
All depressions are different, this is what mine looks like
To cry. To grieve for nothing and everything. At first images that flash through my head.
And then, there are moments of joy. And then I think of my husband and how closely I’m connected to him.
Then the tears stop. Just like that, stop. But I’m not ready to get up. I want to lay here, forever. I normally choose the floor, or corners, to go into when I am depressed.
It could last a day, a few days, or weeks. I’m completely useless, not thinking, not feeling, just breathing and sleeping. But every once in a while I’ll start to feel again, and it quickly overwhelms me, and then I’ll seek out the floor. Or a corner.
This is the cycle I'm in and where I was a few moments ago. And then the lint caught my eye. The way it keeps moving when I cannot. It seems to have a life force. How does it do that? Why can’t I do that?
I don’t know. Many things I don’t know.
I do know, however, that this isn’t my fault. There are chemical imbalances in my brain
So I just lay there, empty of tears, empty of everything.
Then, I don’t know how long—a minute, an eternity— I felt a warmth, like when you think of a person you want to see smiling at you. The warmth turned into an urge, a happy urge. I felt compelled to write this down and share with people, make it ok to talk about this stuff.
I wrote it down and am here, posting. Because it is ok to talk about this stuff.
That compulsion didn’t get me over depression, it didn’t solve it. It will come back, perhaps in a few hours, perhaps tomorrow.
But it made me care about something, and that got me off the floor.

我无法描述那种感觉。但我可以告诉你它看起来是什么样子。
在我们走廊的柜子下面，就在灯插在墙上的地方，有一个绒线球。它从我感觉不到的微小微风中微微移动。里面有一根头发，很长，是我的。嗯，现在它又回到了胸部下面和腿后面。然后又出来了。这个绒球非常活跃。
我为什么知道这个?因为我躺在地板上。在我们二楼楼梯顶端的平台上。我的头靠在木地板上，我的身体可能在地毯上，不确定。我没有打算躺在这里，我只是被悲伤淹没了。
所有的抑郁症都是不同的，这就是我患病的样子。
哭，有事没事都哭。最初的画面在我脑海中闪过。
然后，还有欢乐的时刻。然后我想起了我的丈夫，想起了我和他有多么紧密的联系。
然后眼泪停止了。就这样停下来。但我还没有准备好起来。我想永远躺在这里。当我情绪低落时，我通常会选择地板或角落。
它可能持续一天、几天或几周。我完全处于无用状态，不会思考，没有感觉，只有呼吸和睡眠。但每隔一段时间，我就会重新开始感觉，它很快就会压倒我，然后我会寻找地板。或者一个角落。
这就是我所处的周期，也是我几分钟前的状态。这时线头吸引了我的注意。当我不能的时候，它一直在移动。它似乎有生命力。它是怎么做到的呢?为什么我不能这样做?
我不知道。很多事情我都不知道。
然而，我知道这不是我的错。我的大脑中存在着化学失衡
所以我就躺在那里，没有眼泪，没有一切。
然后，我不知道过了多久——一分钟、永恒——我感到一种温暖，就像你想起一个你想看到的人对你微笑一样。温暖变成了一种冲动，一种快乐的冲动。我觉得有必要把这些写下来，与人们分享，让人们可以谈论这些东西。
我把它写下来了，现在就在这里发帖。因为谈论这些事情是可以的。
这种冲动并没有让我摆脱抑郁，也没有解决它。抑郁状态会回来的，也许几个小时后，也许明天。
但它让我在乎了一些事，让我离开了地板。