How do you deal with depression when you're out of touch with your emotions?

[Abaddon_ire]

How do you go about dealing with depression when you're out of touch with your emotions?

When medication doesn't work?

When therapy doesn't help?

When you don't know what it means to feel depressed. When you're alexithymic. When you have anhedonia and emptiness and a very intense intellectual sense that there is a 'a deep hole in your soul' that saps you of all motivation for almost everything in life and makes you unfit to do almost anything besides eat and sleep (and you also have too much or not enough of both of them)?

What do you do when you seem to have all the symptoms of depression besides suicidality, self harm and an intense feeling of sadness or frustration? What do you do when you are simply just sapped of all get-up-and-go for life, just an intense lack of mental and physical energy ... that is extremely debilitating and nothing seems to help?

And what do you do when you seem to have also lost the ability to feel pleasure? And when you keep seeking pleasure and entertainment but can't remember the last time when you found any by yourself---and you are stuck being alone?

And what do you do when your GP doesn't have anything to offer either?

Having been a depression sufferer in the past, I can tell you for certain that the path out is as individual as you are. No two paths are the same, but you can find yours. You just have to want to. And that is the problem. People with depression cling to it as an expression of their own person. I did. Every fellow suffer I am aware of did. Now you are, like all before you.

I have been there as many I know also have. We all got out, so can you.

But you have to want it. It is not enough to SAY you want it, because right now you don't, you want to BE it. It defines you. 

Except it doesn't. YOU define you however you want to define yourself. Ya just have to decide to do it. Of course the depression means that you are not able to decide anything, that is common. I had that crap.

I am willing to discuss such mental travails, I do not like to see some other stuck with similar crap to me. But you better be genuine.

[AniKoferBo]

why are poor countries less susceptible to depression than people in the western world?

[GrandizerII]

why are poor countries less susceptible to depression than people in the western world?

Do we have studies that confirm this? Or just based on your observations?

Diagnosis rates may be higher in western countries but doesn't translate to higher cases of depression due to many undiagnosed ones

Not saying you're wrong, though. I can imagine culture playing an important role here. The more collectivist the culture is, the more support, therefore less incidents of depression probably? It's good to have empirical evidence for this, nevertheless

[Porcupine]

why are poor countries less susceptible to depression than people in the western world?

Because more money means buying more stuff and buying more stuff means more disappointment?

[AniKoferBo]

why are poor countries less susceptible to depression than people in the western world?

Do we have studies that confirm this? Or just based on your observations?

Diagnosis rates may be higher in western countries but doesn't translate to higher cases of depression due to many undiagnosed ones

Not saying you're wrong, though. I can imagine culture playing an important role here. The more collectivist the culture is, the more support, therefore less incidents of depression probably? It's good to have empirical evidence for this, nevertheless

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/numbe...by-country

[GrandizerII]

Do we have studies that confirm this? Or just based on your observations?

Diagnosis rates may be higher in western countries but doesn't translate to higher cases of depression due to many undiagnosed ones

Not saying you're wrong, though. I can imagine culture playing an important role here. The more collectivist the culture is, the more support, therefore less incidents of depression probably? It's good to have empirical evidence for this, nevertheless

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/numbe...by-country

Thanks. Is there a way to change from total numbers to rates on that site?

[John 6IX Breezy]

Thanks. Is there a way to change from total numbers to rates on that site?

I also don't know if the site is showing any correlation between depression and wealth of a country. Is Canada as wealthy as Sudan, and Brazil as wealthy as Russia?

[AniKoferBo]

why are poor countries less susceptible to depression than people in the western world?

Because more money means buying more stuff and buying more stuff means more disappointment?

i don't know. its such a complex situation to study, that im not sure if we could ever find a single answer. more likely there are multiple factors.

[brewer]

i don't know. its such a complex situation to study, that im not sure if we could ever find a single answer. more likely there are multiple factors.

^^^ This. Health care access, health care training, self reporting, medical reporting, diagnosis criteria, single event vs last 12 months vs lifetime, xx vs xy, dual diagnosis, exogenous vs endogenous, war, famine, mortality rate, ........

I'm not confident that you can tie rate of depression to the single factor of wealth.

[AniKoferBo]

i don't know. its such a complex situation to study, that im not sure if we could ever find a single answer. more likely there are multiple factors.

^^^ This. Health care access, health care training, self reporting, medical reporting, diagnosis criteria, single event vs last 12 months vs lifetime, xx vs xy, dual diagnosis, exogenous vs endogenous, war, famine, mortality rate, ........

I'm not confident that you can tie rate of depression to the single factor of wealth.

richer countries have the means to recognize, diagnose, and treat it. someone without access to the medical care necessary wouldn't be considered to have it and would have to live with the way it affected their life.