Interesting exchange with Behavorist BF Skinner on why people become depressed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVFGgfys1AM
I've suffered with depression and manic behavior all my life and sadly, no matter how well you develop an insight into it, it doesn't help you. Skinner was a behaviorist and I think if the answer lies anywhere it lies in existentialism, not behaviorism. It's not always a 'maladaptive' transaction, quite often it is a perfectly normal response to a terrible situation or experience. Terrible things happen in life and depression and sadness are normal and appropriate responses in the same way as joy and happiness are appropriate responses to the good things in life. I think people tend to put labels on things and this creates a 'victim' mindset and perpetuates and fosters something that is normal and transient, it makes it permanent. Psychologists like Skinner can't help themselves, they have to label people and label their feelings and behaviors. One of the paradoxes of depression that most 'experts' don't seem to understand is that when you are depressed, you don't FEEL depressed. You feel nothing. When I feel 'depressed' what I'm really feeling is sadness and I can usually work out the reason why I'm feeling this way. When I am actually depressed in a 'clinical' sense, the only way that I know this is when I begin to notice little things like the quality of my work is slipping, I'm late for work, I lose time sitting doing nothing, I stop listening to music at home, I don't go running, I don't exercise, I don't cook, I don't eat - and none of these things become immediately apparent. It takes time for me to see it and to realise what is going on. My friends and work colleagues always notice these signs long before I do myself. I become aware on an intellectual level that something is wrong but it's such a vague and nebulous feeling and my mind cannot seem to properly process what is happening. I don't have any answers or solutions. I stumble blindly through it not knowing or caring until I come out the other side and only then do I realise that I've had a depressive episode. My only suggestion is to see a therapist regularly if you think you suffer depressive episodes. At least they will recognize the early signs and perhaps circumvent a serious episode. Medication definitely helps but isn't a complete solution. Having friends definitely helps. Lovers less so. Good friends can get you through all kinds of crap that health professionals and lovers cannot. But that is only in my experience. There really is so much joy and happiness to be had in life yet it is so easy to lose sight of this.
"My problem is the conscious" hehe yeah, too much overanalyzing. Don't over think! You might get depressed. O hhh, I am oversimplifying it. Just wanted to bump this and say I listened and it was interesting. I needed and maybe still need to build up an acceptable repertoire for myself...but I'm hopefully getting there. Actually, I don't want to get my foot in my mouth here again (Well, happened somewhere off of HF), but I guess honestly, I kind of side with changing behaviors to improve one's state of being...but I don't want to argue. I too hope others will chime in... so I can then hide again. ^^
