The eyes of depression “It seemed like judgment day, but it was only rain”
I am writing this article driven by a curious consultation a few days ago, in which it was said that mental illnesses do not exist and that the brain can get sick, yes, but with diseases like Alzheimer’s, but not depression or schizophrenia.
More than “denying” this denial, I really don’t know what it means. Indeed, and a consideration that I often make, that the brain does not see itself and, therefore, many do not see the diseases, unless they have to do with “visible” parts of the same brain.
This is not to say that Alzheimer’s is visible and schizophrenia is not (both are visible microscopically at the beginning, and macroscopically at the end), or that depression cannot somehow be “seen” as an image (if desired, you can ). What I mean is that we tend not to conceive of the fact that the mental functions identified with the person (and therefore perceiving, thinking, wanting) are the expression of an organ , of a part of it indeed.
But you don’t need an image to understand it, or the color of bodily fluids, as the ancients thought (who thought blackened in depression). The clinic already gives a good idea.
Let ‘s take depression, a word that is quickly confused with a common emotional experience, with various possible names: sorrow, disappointment, demoralization. But depressive illness has tangentially to do with this: it shares some aspects, but its pivotal symptoms are others.
If we wanted to draw a line, the depressed “sick” person is the one who expresses his malaise, but is not clear if and why to cure himself . The more you feel bad, the more you get away from what would otherwise be the obvious, that is, the idea of feeling better. The interest is no longer: “how can I go on pushing my depression away”, but “how can I understand why I am like this”, or adapt to one’s state by avoiding living as much as possible.
The most amazing thing about a seriously depressed sufferer are the thoughts about itthe cure: what it is for, what it should do, what it can do . In fact, in the mind of a depressed person, things are like this because obviously it makes sense that they are like this, because they had to go like this and they will have to stay like this. A medicine that takes away a disease makes sense, sure, but not for that situation, from their point of view. Indeed, it is almost absurd to think that it could be a disease. How could a medicine change the vision of things, that is the reality of things as a depressed person lives them, how could it change his thoughts, if they are the result of negative considerations and experiences
In other words, those who are depressed “do not see” depression, because one cannot simultaneously “be” depression and see it as a state deriving from the brain .
There is a beautiful Bad Religion song, “Only rain”, which explains this kind of drama experienced by man, even if the song is perhaps not about depression but about the destiny of humanity.
It is said:
“Scientists, save us from our rainy days, because your enemies of the team of wizards are working to unleash the apocalypse
There is a strong wind blowing from the East, and it brings famine, drought and plague, at least so they say”
There is the doctor, and there is the patient. It is in this particular relationship that is established in psychiatry, the doctor is often like a scientist who must convince a person of magical beliefs. The fact is thatwhile the doctor as a scientist is full of doubts and knows his limits, the patient, on the other hand, in his vision of things, has convictions that appear to him much clearer, more defined and justified . The depressed patient goes towards apocalypse, depression and like a group of magicians who consume negative rituals, because he must finally arrive at total catastrophe. In fact, depression is a trap: cognitive, emotional and operational. Those who are depressed think, speak, act, feel, but do so in only one direction in which pessimism justifies sadness, which justifies not-doing, which justifies fear and which then further motivates pessimism.
“I know what is right, and what is wrong, and I know that evil exists, as clear as day and night exist. When a man falls to his knees and prays he will find the answer he can find, but he will find one anyway. ”
What does this mean?
Those who are depressed see things according to their (tyrannical) logic of depression. Not only does he see nothing but depressive logic, but he lives it in a syntonic way, that is, in agreement with the tyrant. And a militant of a negative logic, albeit passively. But the passivity of a depressed person can be stronger than any external stress, and it is for this reason that family members who accompanied him and will follow him in the treatment are not infrequently visited. He alone he wouldn’t come, and he wouldn’t take the meds. He does it, at the beginning and to please the others, because to make them stop worrying he agrees to be examined.
So, back to the song, when a depressed person falls to his knees he shouldn’t be taken for granted that he will realize, that he will react. He will react the way he does, depressed. For example, taking drugs to sleep, not think, forget. That is, not to correct the depression, but to try to shut down even more. To not be there.
And the tragic thing is that this kind of answer is not wrong, seen from within the depression: if one prays, the god who is praying will answer him. If you pray to depression, depression will give you an answer; and since you believe it, it will be perfect and convincing, indeed you already knew it …
The answer of a doctor in that case seems the most foolish, naive and unnecessarily optimistic thing that can be heard. Indeed, for those who are intellectually more complex, it seems a trivial, simplistic and “low” reasoning. An experience that takes a whole person reduced to a disease that responds to a pill …. this, the depressed person thinks and “magic”, other than his reasoning, which unfortunately are clear and true.
The doctor is faced with this problem, convincing that magic is magic, but in this case it only explains the reason for a sentence; and that science, although not omnipotent, exists and has solutions.
“I felt like the apocalypse, which pierced me through the windshield, it looked like the apocalypse, but it was only rain”
Link to the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch
v = IfPxBSCHb6U
49 comments
# 1
Former user
12 May 2021
People fail to see themselves as the source of their experiences.
Prayers rarely concern what is happening inside the one who prays.
I am not a theologian, but prayer should serve to ask for forgiveness and anything that caused the external circumstances.
Prayer as a reconnection with something greater, (for what you believe) which is invisible, the rest is trusting someone visible to heal, ie the doctor.
# 2
User 214XXX
May 16th 2021
some only some doctors are scientists others are like post office employees (with all respect for post office employees)
# 3
User 214XXX
May 16th 2021
another consideration: the world or perfect things do not exist the scientific world the world of quarks is platonic it is a world of ideas Real life is more a managed irrationality, a hidden chaos or an unsuccessful adaptation !
# 4
Former User
May 16, 2021
If someone yells, it means he feels pain. At the other extreme, it is not because one feels a pain that will obligatorily start screaming.Each one has his own threshold of expression of what he feels, as well as his privileged means of expression.
These make sense only when they exist, when they are expressed, they do not automatically work in the opposite sense and do not indicate what kind of disease, suffering,
One can always decide, according to the reasons for these tensions, another medium or another place of expression, unless one is aware and one simply decides to silence them.
# 5
Former user
June 08, 2021
“. Real life is more of a managed irrationality, a hidden chaos or a bad adaptation!”
universal laws, however, are not governed by social convictions and masochism does not mean courage even in our society, this is one of the many inconsistencies and signal how certain widespread and accepted beliefs are instead questionable absurdities.
“The wisest among them have reflected on the truth based on the order of the world; but their reflection did not grasp the truth because in the place where there is envy and competition, there is deficiency; while in the place where there is envy and competition, there is deficiency; there is unity there is perfection “:) hello
# 6
Former user
20 June 2021
” the depressed sick person is the one who expresses his malaise, but he is not clear if and why to take care of himself. that otherwise it would be obvious, that is the idea of feeling better ”
They feel, therefore, the need to reinforce uncertainty by allying themselves with the disease, rather than trying to change their perception, to feel better
# 7
User 214XXX
21 June 2021
uncertainty is the only result a man can reach (understood in both sexes) who proposes truth in good faith is a naive one who in bad faith is a scammer!
# 8
User 214XXX
June 21, 2021
uncertainty is a perfection because it exempts the man and the patient from looking for certainties that are not there!
# 9
User 214XXX
June 21, 2021
Sometimes it is not the patient who is sick but it is human nature itself that is imperfect!
(think about it as Luca Zaia says).
# 10
User 214XXX
June 21, 2021
The absurd is the only situation in which the human being is immersed. If you try to get out of absurd one enters another absurd even more absurd!
# 11
Former user
June 21, 2021
You are a supporter of the idea that the human being is caged inside a body that suffers the limitation of the five senses and that because of this one cannot access a broader
perspective. foundation of limited perception
# 12
User 214XXX
June 21, 2021
exactly! unfortunately in my opinion it is important to respect human limits and not to work with imagination!
# 13
Former user
June 21, 2021
“don’t work in fantasy” agree, but creativity shouldn’t be put aside.
The Reality that everyone lives is a continuous indication that allows you to identify your “imbalances” but also to understand what are the most effective tools at your disposal in order to recover the harmony that should be the natural state of being.
# 14
User 214XXX
June 21, 2021
harmony is not the natural state of being the natural state is conflict, again in my opinion ‘the myth of the’ good savage ‘is a fairy tale.
# 15
Former user
June 21, 2021
I associate conflicts with an excess of energy that is not consciously used in creativity such as sports, in relational, sexual relationships etc.
Not finding an outlet, this indomitable energy turns into attacks of anger, cruelty, conflicts etc.
Perhaps, to you, it may seem reductive and simplistic, but that’s what I think.
# 16
Former user
June 21, 2021
“uncertainty is perfection because it exempts man and patient from seeking certainties that are not there!”
One last consideration, (perhaps trivial) then I am silent, everyone in their existence thinks they have something wrong in the “right” direction (“vital or” superficial “as it may be) and would certainly like to straighten it and put it in place.
Since conscience is what manifests reality and conscience is influenced by one’s own beliefs, if one does not like the reality that one lives (either because of a discomfort, an illness, an imbalance, etc.) it does not mean beyond any reasonable doubt that their beliefs about that “problem” should be changed
# 17
User 214XXX
June 21, 2021
there are problems that cannot be solved only the ‘trivial’ problems can be solved
those existential regardless of the will and intentions of the subject the primate man and victim of his own existence!
# 18
Former User
June 21, 2021
What a sad sight!
Only translatable into:
– time passes
– death is real, inevitable and conclusive.
Thanks for your time, as promised now I am silent.
Hello.
# 19
User 214XXX
June 21, 2021
I’m certainly not the creator of this world. the vision is sad but without glasses!
# 20
User 214XXX
21 June 2021
# 21
User 171XXX
25 October 2021
Doctor Pacini, if you have read the Profession of living, its description seems to fit perfectly Pavese never a start, never a moment of joy, necessarily that women found it curmudgeon. Too bad that antidepressants did not exist in 1950, who knows, maybe he could still have given us so much
# 22
User 214XXX
25 October 2021
dear user define the great Cesare Pavese one of the greatest poets and writers of Italian literature depressed and really too much antidepressants are not like malox
and not everyone can be happy and content like the characters of advertising maybe only stupid !
the moods or mental states are not only a chemical fact there are also personal considerations. He read certain things is just depression.
A depression induced by the ignorance and superficiality of those who believe that the human drama can be resolved with a drug! Cesare Pavese has already turned in his grave!
# 23
User 214XXX
October 25, 2021
errata has to read.
October 26, 2021
Well maybe Pavese wasn’t depressed, but surely she is a rude
# 25
User 214XXX
October 26, 2021
dear friend better rude than anything else ………………
# 26
Here, one of the things that saddens me is this contrast between “the great” XY, in this case Pavese, and the hypothesis that he suffered from a disease such as depression or other, it doesn’t matter. Apart from the fact that it is a very verifiable notion that a host of great personalities from any field have suffered from disorders of this type, but then that greatness or non-greatness has to do with suffering or not from depression. I do not understand: who is “big” therefore does not suffer from depression, does not need treatment.
He cannot have a psychosis at a certain point in his life
. Who is great cannot become demented when old
. Indeed I say more. Since there have been antidepressants (and the rest) a myriad of great personalities have taken care of themselves, that is, it does not seem to me to have altered their artistic status, which is never determined by the disease, but if ever it coincides with a common root, to the disease and inspiration. Inspiration which then not for everyone produces important results, so there are other variables.
# 27
User 214XXX
28 October 2021
Dear friend I think the depression of some thinkers is due to their sensitivity and consideration of life
Highly educated and very intelligent people must necessarily be a little depressed and physiological eg. CIORAN CAMUS SARTRE LEOPARDI ….. it’s not medicine it’s philosophy!
# 28
User 214XXX
October 28, 2021
Then the world said my friend S it’s an open-air psychiatry ward!
# 29
User 214XXX
28 October 2021 I
clarify better there is: a depression that does not arise from an imbalance of the brain but from a bitter consideration of life. this depression that affects the GREAT is not curable because it is not a disease or disorder but an awareness and consciousness of reality. Medical parameters and psychiatric studies are beyond this fact.
The cure does not exist because even the cure is sick!
# 30
If he offends someone have the courtesy not to call him a friend. The statements that you make are blunders from an educated person. There are very cultured and artistically fascinating people who have not understood anything about psychiatry, unfortunately they have the opportunity to shoot their statements in an authoritative way.
I don’t really understand why when we talk about depression, according to you, we don’t talk about existence, philosophy, spirituality. We talk about all this, and always brain and. And depression can always be. The depression of the “great” is treated in the same way as the “not great”, according to its human categories. It would be like saying that a grown-up’s diarrhea cannot be cured with medicines. Of course, for you there is the brain, then the spirit, then the soul, then the cherubs etc. We need to know things, study reality, verify how things are going. Not these silly juxtapositions between being sick and being grown up.
# 31
User 214XXX Oct
29, 2021
It is impossible to achieve objective knowledge if the observer does not know how it interferes with the reality he is observing (Heisenberg uncertainty principle). Psychiatry is not like dentistry it is very debatable there are as you know many positions and schools then if you feel safe from any criticism and consider them offended you can do it freely. What I mean: the brain is a mystery and even the psychiatrist has his brain which can be sicker than the patient’s.
Curing the brain is not easy because life is a struggle between brains.
Understanding the brain is even more difficult because there is no third party that can act as guarantor.
But no one can have a monopoly on the brain! The Greats do not offend but especially if they are offended they do not respond with other offenses!
# 32
User 214XXX
October 29, 2021
ps
I don’t understand why friends can’t be offended being a friend doesn’t mean being free from offense!
# 33
User 214XXX
October 29, 2021
Leave the courtesies to politicians or priests!
# 34
User 641XXX
October 29, 2021
This “greatness” that depends only on the applause of a crowd, sounds strange to me but so be it.
According to this reasoning, in conclusion, depression is the condition of being “great”
(of what
this term is not
# 35
No, we leave the courtesy on this blog as well. What you say is formality, not courtesy. So in other words being rude and a sign of mental laziness, we try to do better.
That said, other offensive attitudes are unwelcome, as long as he can waste time obscuring them.
# 36
User 214XXX
October 30, 2021
The blog is his and he can do what he thinks. Certainly I will just read her excellent writings and I will not comment because she is better at writing than at commenting good day the dictatorship is long over in Italy!
# 37
User 214XXX
October 30, 2021
Under the guise of the lamb the big bad wolf hides!
# 38
He obviously can’t be polite. Do not be a wolf or a lamb, focus on education. Unfortunately we do not live in his dictatorship, I am not forced to say that his comments are “a bit fair”. I’m sorry, after all it’s not his stuff.
# 39
Then please, if he said he won’t comment, that’s fine. But as soon as he said it he again commented giving the worst. Please.
# 40
User 171XXX
October 30, 2021
Well but Doctor Pacini, paraphrasing my friends when Melandri accused Sassaroli “you gave me a crazy hysteric”. “well but we’re on a psychiatry block” ..
# 41
User 641XXX Oct
31, 2021
If we were not in a drama but in a sophisticated comedy, the protagonist would tell the antagonist that his erecting a crust of apathy, disinterest, insensitivity would therefore only be his extreme act of defense against the world which first excludes him and then annihilates: the last personal resource he opposes, to protect himself from the unbearable experience of living consciously as excluded.
Good job.
# 42
User 214XXX
October 31, 2021
the protagonist is the ‘big one’. that was what i meant earlier i agree
thanks for writing this. good evening. I hope I wasn’t rude.
regards !
# 43
User 641XXX Oct
31, 2021
Yes, it was, but apart from that it reminded me of an old legend where it is said that
sometimes small animals come out of the sea and go around the beach in the form of small hornless cows. In their true form they wear a red hat called a cohullen druith, usually covered in feathers. If this is stolen from them, they can no longer dive underwater.
Returning to the present day, the inner work is similar to the work that men did to light the fire.
To be born the fire needs wood but to flare up it has to wait for the wind, so you always look for fire in life, wait for the wind, because without fire and without wind the days are not very different from a mediocre imprisonment.
I reciprocate the greetings and wish you the best of luck.
# 44
User 641XXX
October 31, 2021
The antidote against fifty enemies and a friend, said Aristotle, if it was worth it then let alone now 🙂
Informally, I greet you.
# 45
Let’s hope so, because instead it is here that she continues to write when she was asked not to. An ostentation of philosophical references that demonstrates when even the “greats” like you can run into blunders about things they don’t know. It happens. Go on. Her next rude comments will be deleted.
# 46
User 641XXX
November 16, 2021
Doctor, user 214654
The fact is that this photographic snapshot of the restless community.
It seems to me a society imprisoned by media influences, reduced to a quantitative (rather than qualitative) conception, weakened by the satisfaction deriving from the primacy of the offer of “objects” (rather than subjects)
that were never really desired.
It looks like a sort of “bipolar depression” that swings from a state of indifference, disorientation, emptiness to a state of manic excitement where a collective unconscious without rules dominates with the result of producing behaviors marked by a self-referential egoism.
But this is really the happiness so sought after by Italians
# 47
But it must be said that this idea of the world that leads people in a subtle direction is also questionable. People actively participate in the phenomena, they adhere, they get excited, and they seem very willing to embrace above all easy theories that explain everything, today it is fashionable what explains to you how everything you know is actually falsified …. Psychologically speaking but the the question is between the position of knowing but accepting uncertainty and chance, and instead the position of believing beyond any doubt or logic, but then getting angry if the miracle does not come. The answer does not vary, which in both cases is there and is satisfactory for those who want it, because it purposely searches for that type of answer. Only that – at least according to the Bad Religion – then when you go into crisis in one case and only rain,
# 48
User 641XXX
November 19, 2021
“Today it is fashionable to tell you how everything you know is actually falsified.”
“The answer does not vary, which in both cases is there and is satisfactory for those who want it, because it purposely seeks that type of answer”
So what predominates is fear
A society is strong when it is sure of the Values it holds. form and the institutions that innervate it.
It serenely accepts the challenge of contradiction, differences and even ambiguities. Today’s community should perhaps be less concerned about what is happening, less disturbed by the essence and more interested in existence, trying to reweave the threads of the dialogue between the different. and rediscover the reasons for living together.
User 648XXX
March 21, 2022
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