Posted by Tancred62 on March 17, 2004, at 11:11:06
In reply to Re: Depression as response to reality » Tancred62, posted by Dinah on March 17, 2004, at 9:47:06
Indeed. After reading some of the posts here I realize that there is a distinction between "mild" and "severe" depression, and my sympathy goes out to those who are so debilitated by their depression that they find it hard to function. That said, the question I want to pose here is whether the presumption that people “should” be happy is any more logical than the one that says they “shouldn’t” be depressed. It seems the cultural pressure to be happy, one that is exacerbated by the pharmo-psychological complex, has created a multi-billion dollar happiness industry that is trying to convince nearly everyone that if they are depressed they are not “normal” or that their depression is the result of some biochemical imbalance rather than the reality of their particular circumstance. Cases of severe, debilitating depression aside, I really think that a lot more people are on SSRIs than need to be; including myself. I’ve always been a cynical person, but when I went through a divorce, and then when my new girlfriend was killed in a car accident, I became very depressed. Who wouldn’t be? But soon I found myself buying into the medication thing; Prozac, Paxil, and now Effexor, and it has done nothing to improve my outlook that life is, essentially, meaningless. This does not mean I don’t care about things, that I don’t get up and go to work in the morning, or that such efforts have no rewards, it only means that contemporary American life is usually about 60% tedium, 10% frustration, 10% disappointment, 10% pain, and 10% “happiness.” Happiness is a rare thing, and I cherish it when it comes, but I’ve come to believe that stoicism and skepticism is a good protection against the other 90%. We are living in a time where people are beginning to recognize that there is no omnipotent, omniscient “god,” yet they cling to that notion because the reality of a godless world is too much for them to handle. I say embrace that reality. Realize that heaven and hell are on earth, and do your part to create more of the former. Create meaning out of the meaninglessness. This is my positivistic nihilism, and I am working to promulgate this philosophy across the land. The barriers to its acceptance -denial of reality, belief in the supernatural (religion), mind-altering drugs- make my task a difficult one, but I will persevere. Be not afraid of the void. And on a political note, question capitalism and fight for global economic equity.
poster:Tancred62
thread:324687
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040313/msgs/325260.html