fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2894 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2894 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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06. [ SPOILERS for Over the Garden Wall ]

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07. [ WARNING for rape ]

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08. [ WARNING for rape ]

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09. [ WARNING for eating disorders ]

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10. [ WARNING for non-con/rape ]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 000 secrets from Secret Submission Post #413.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

ayrt

You know I can understand that, but I get annoyed with people saying "but I have depression" as an excuse for things, and a lot of people do it. I'm diagnosed, and I don't use it to justify my behavior, and it makes me angry when other people do or when other people who don't seem to actually have it whip it out as a justification because, first of all, it isn't a justification for anything, and second of all, you're (general you) making it harder for those of us who have it and have to deal with shit from society over it.

When people treat depression as an excuse, it just feeds into the attitude that it shouldn't be taken seriously.

I agree with all of that

I guess it just makes more sense to me to say that, instead of trying to de-legitimize peoples' mental illness

Well, but how do you define "justifying behavior"? I remember (though really rather repress) days where I'd lie on the couch by 4 pm and literally couldn't do anything - stand, eat, put on socks, whatever - I literally remember one specific occasion where my mom put on my socks because my hands just didn't have the strength.

I also remember being pretty egocentric, because I just needed what little energy I had for myself. So yes, it totally IS going to change my behavior. Undeniably. At which point do you call acknowledging that an "excuse"? If you use it to justify being a jerk to people, I agree with you. But if you say, "I couldn't do X because I felt shit because depression", that might well be true.

Problem with depression is, it can take many forms and your might have not been exactly like theirs, which doesn't make theirs less valid.

Problem is "depression" as a word is overused anyway, and "I'm depressed" is used colloquially anyway by people who are not.

nayrt

I agree completely that the word is overused. However there's also the tendency these days to over-medicalize normal responses, e.g. the stress from school tests, employment issues, difficult interpersonal relationships etc. which most Tumblr users by their very demographic will face. Those things are meant to make you feel sad/angry/frustrated/anxious, but all too often they get smacked with a label rather than helped to be processed in a healthier way. So I'm not sure I'd completely agree that depression takes many forms -- I'd argue that these days we call an awful lot of things under the depression umbrella instead. Of course it doesn't make their feelings invalid, but whether what those feels are is technically depression in its illness form is debatable.

That's why more recently when people talk about depression-the-illness rather than depression-the-feeling they'll use "clinical depression" and diagnosis has a set criteria of symptoms and duration thereof.

I sort of disagree that depression doesn't take many forms - which is why it's sometimes hard to differentiate between the normal responses that you mentioned and clinical depression. Though maybe we just disagree on definitions here. What I mean by many forms is that you have gradations of severity and duration, that the causes can differ, and that the way individuals react to it, or how symptoms manifest are different from person to person. And it gets especially tricky if depression is not the only mental issue in play.

The problem there in relation to the internet is self-diagnosis, which yes, is pretty rampant on tumblr.

That being said, I personally know the difficulties of getting a decent diagnosis, and to this day I'm not exactly sure what I had/have.

The thing is though, in case of depression caused by external factors all those normal things you mentioned - they can eventually lead to depression if not addressed in a helpful and constructive way. Not in everyone - but in individuals already prone to it - it can. So that's the thing. You could have two people who were unemployed for a year. They both feel bad about it, they both have negative feelings, and they both cal it "being depressed". But in one person the unemployment was an actual external cause for clinical depression (that they're already prone to), while the other person is just feeling really down by the situation (and calls it depression, while it isn't clinically so).

But, that's why I find it so tricky to call bullshit on depressed people on tumblr. Logically, yes, I know some made an incorrect self-diagnosis. However, as an untrained (and even trained) person it's pretty hard to judge that based on an online presence. Two people could be in near identical situations, react similarly - yet one could be clinically depressed and the other not. Which is why, when in doubt - I'd rather give them that benefit of the doubt. I'd rather treat 3 "healthy" people as depressed, than to doubt one actually depressed person who's reaching out.

I hope that made sense at all because I did have trouble formulating this somewhat.

[ SECRET POST #2894 ]

Re: What's up with everyone on tumblr thinking they have depression

Re: What's up with everyone on tumblr thinking they have depression

Re: What's up with everyone on tumblr thinking they have depression

Re: What's up with everyone on tumblr thinking they have depression

Re: What's up with everyone on tumblr thinking they have depression