Member Since: August 7, 2012
Answers: 1038
Last Update: August 2, 2021
Visitors: 33723
|
| |
|
Lately I've been feeling really gloomy. I've asked lots of people online for advice, and they suggest I might be depressed. I'm kinda swapping back and forth with the idea, and I've taken test online and they say Im depressed. The thing is, even when I feel well, I just about always prefer depressing stories, movies, songs, anything depressing. I' even seem to enjoy it after I experience pain. My mom was even speaking to me a few months ago how that wasn't normal. I know I've had depression in the past for personal reasons, and I know it was severe then, and I know what I'm feeling now isn't nothing like what is was then. I haven't experienced any kind of tragic event, and this has been going on all week. Is there some way I could find out for sure if I have depression without some multiple test or going off to see a professional? I try too keep this kind of thing from my parents too. Anything I can do besides that? (link)
| |
Experiencing tragic and 'sad' situations and environments via the media of the performing arts (music, theatre, tv, movies etc) and/or literature is not in itself an indication of depression. It's as old as literature and the arts themselves. We 'experience' it in a safe and controlled way. As a third-party. We empathise and sympathise with the characters,but we do not feel the same level of trauma and gut-wrenching misery that they are experiencing within the framework of the fictional piece. That's WHY we have weepy-movies, tragic novels, tragic opera, sad songs etc etc. It's a way of connecting with the darker and dramatic corners of the human condition, without actually visiting them in person. I can appreciate that parents would not like to see their child dwelling on depressing material. They'd of course much rather see you more 'up-beat' and lively and visibly enjoying yourself. You seem to be familiar with diagnosed depression already? Aware that a truthfully answered 'test' can indicate depression (this is a standard procedure with doctors in the UK as a first line of identifying depression). But you have said that 'this time' it's not so severe? You may well be using the 'depressing stories' as a way of processing your thoughts. And as we've said, this is pretty much the entire reason for the existence of such material. OK. I'm assuming you've found an authentic test online, not some crackpot checklist with no provenence? Does it have values you can attach for 'Severity' and 'Frequency' (eg some days in the last month, most days, every day...?). If so, take it again. But really force yourself to answer them AS IF YOU WERE GOING TO HAND IT TO YOUR DOCTOR, and he/she was going to act on it. If you're still rating up near 'Severely Depressed' go an see your doctor straight away. If you are rating much lower then it might well be something you can work through yourself? If there's a similar test for something with a name like 'General Anxiety Disordrers' take that too. The symptoms of anxiety and depression frequently overlap. But unlike clinical depression, anxiety disorders are often relieved by identifying the sources of your anxiety and trying to resolve, or at least understand them. Clinical depression is a harder nut to crack, as you are no doubt aware?
|
|
Rating: 3
| |
Thank you. When I said about my mom worrying, it wasn't of the constant sad movies, stories, music, etc. it was the fact that I actually enjoy pain. Like how I would pour alcohol over an open wound because I like the sting. That's one example.
|
|