Depression and Videos About It

[NotAllThatCreative]

I would like to hear your thoughts on this. I just seen a video on Facebook about depression. I don't believe it's scratched the surface of what it's like living with it. I've had depression since I was 10 and this video does a horrible representation about it. Depression is much more deeper than this video shows and it's not something to take so lightly.

What do you think? The video is down below this.

https://www.facebook.com/BuzzFeedVideo/posts/1641191776021698

 

[Hecatoncheires]

>Buzzfeed video

Well doctor, I believe we've identified the problem right here.

 

[NotAllThatCreative]

Buzzfeed is awesome and all but this is practically insulting.

 

[Jorick]

Buzzfeed is awesome and all but this is practically insulting.

I think you missed the point he was making.

Going to Buzzfeed for accurate or insightful content is like going to a shoe store to buy a gun. You're in the wrong place, pal.

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

I'm not for a second going to claim to have anything near a good understanding of Depression.

But yea, that video seemed to be pandering to the very high functioning/less severe levels of depression if anything.

+The ending actually seems like it's painting it as some sort of understanding/good thing... :/

 

[NotAllThatCreative]

No, I did not go to it for accurate or insightful content. I merely seen it on my newsfeed and decided to see their representation of it would be.

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

Buzz feed from my experience does whatever get's them the most click bait.

Never trust/follow sites that prioritize their number of clicks.

 

[NotAllThatCreative]

I agree completely.

 

[Hatsune Candy]

BuzzFeed is more for entertainment, they really should not be tackling serious issues like this.

Honestly it feels like this video was trying to represent some other kind of mental disorder and ended up confusing it for depression. With the way they presented it, they made it seem like a voice inside your head, other than your own, is talking to you and putting you down. That's not depression, that's something else entirely.

In my experience, depression is this consuming emptiness that takes over your life and your emotions and makes it immensely difficult to feel anything other than just absolutely worthless. You lack motivation, desire, and ambition. All the things that you used to love to do no longer boost your mood and you lose interest altogether. With depression, your entire life just feels pointless and more often than not you just want to lay in bed all day, but you can't because there's stuff you have to do that day. Depression is hard to escape from, and though not impossible, you end up feeling like it is. Escaping from depression is a long and bumpy road, you'll have your ups and downs and it might take you a while to get there, but you will get there. And I use the word escape because that's essentially what it feels like, escaping a high security prison.

And the thing is? Depression is different for everyone. What I just described is only my general experience with depression, apply it too someone else struggling with depression and it might just be completely wrong. That's the problem with psychological disorders and the like, there's no one way to describe them and that's what many people fail to realize.

If this video does a good job at anything it's at showing just how poorly understood depression is by people who don't have to deal with it every waking second. I almost feel everyone needs a dose of depression in their lives just so that they will fucking stop with that stupid as all hell "Just get over it," ideology. But the same time, depression is a terrible, terrible thing and I would never, ever want to wish such a dreadful experience onto anyone.

 

[Novis]

Really, the fact anyone is taking an once of this video as serious, is what shocks me. It came from BuzzFeed. That's all the value it holds, shock value to piss people off on purpose.

 

[NotAllThatCreative]

The only thing the video shows me is that other people can overlook it so easily. Other than that, it was horrible and it annoyed me. They shouldn't even have tried with something like this. Depression is different for everyone. Don't make a video about it to make it seem like it's "nothing to worry about" because that's completely wrong.

 

[Novis]

The only thing the video shows me is that other people can overlook it so easily. Other than that, it was horrible and it annoyed me. They shouldn't even have tried with something like this. Depression is different for everyone. Don't make a video about it to make it seem like it's "nothing to worry about" because that's completely wrong

I agree was wrong of them to take a serious subject and turn it into a joke.

 

[Hecatoncheires]

Buzzfeed is the most hollow and superficial website on the internet.

It stands for nothing. It has no opinion, right or wrong. It doesn't give two shits about the stuff it posts.

All it cares about is that people click on it, like it, re-tweet it or comment on it, positive or otherwise.

 

[Hatsune Candy]

What worries me the most is that there exists people out there that actually believe this type of nonsense about depression. I've run into more than my fair share and they are not at all pleasant to deal with.

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

Honestly it feels like this video was trying to represent some other kind of mental disorder and ended up confusing it for depression. With the way they presented it, they made it seem like a voice inside your head, other than your own, is talking to you and putting you down. That's not depression, that's something else entirely.

I think that voice was meant to be the depression.
You go on to detail stuff like feeling worthless, lacking ambition etc.
That is what the voice was (poorly) representing.

I mean yes Depression doesn't actually have a voice in your head, it's reactions and chemical imbalances in your brain.
But that's not easily expressed or shown via video so they do the next best thing, give it a voice.

I do agree the video was pretty awful, but there does seem to have been some effort at least.

And the thing is? Depression is different for everyone. What I just described is only my general experience with depression, apply it too someone else struggling with depression and it might just be completely wrong. That's the problem with psychological disorders and the like, there's no one way to describe them and that's what many people fail to realize.

Autism has the same thing where it's really different depending on the individual.
To the point that both Therapists, Parents and Charity workers I've talked to are expecting a day to come where Autism divides up into several different diagnosis.
And I would not be surprised if we saw something similar happen with Depression.

 

[Hatsune Candy]

I think that voice was meant to be the depression.
You go on to detail stuff like feeling worthless, lacking ambition etc.
That is what the voice was (poorly) representing.

I mean yes Depression doesn't actually have a voice in your head, it's reactions and chemical imbalances in your brain.
But that's not easily expressed or shown via video so they do the next best thing, give it a voice.

I do agree the video was pretty awful, but there does seem to have been some effort at least.

They didn't give depression a voice, they gave it an entire fucking person. I understand the need to give it a voice, that'd be the only way to represent a mental illness like that in a video. If they had her disembodied voice speaking to her from inside her head, I would have been okay with that. But instead they embodied depression into a human being that followed her around all day, who no one else could see, and that just really did not sit well with me. It wasn't even a different version of herself, but a different person altogether.

Autism has the same thing where it's really different depending on the individual.
To the point that both Therapists, Parents and Charity workers I've talked to are expecting a day to come where Autism divides up into several different diagnosis.
And I would not be surprised if we saw something similar happen with Depression.

I'm well aware of this, I've met my fair share of autistic people. I even had a close friend once who was autistic and you could barely notice a difference between him and someone who was "normal". There were some moments where you could kinda tell something was off within his brain, but more often than not you'd forget that he even had autism. And that's pretty much the most mild form of autism that you could possibly have, I've seen a lot more extreme cases and I've seen people who struggle with it, but generally manage to live a somewhat normal life.

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

They didn't give depression a voice, they gave it an entire fucking person. I understand the need to give it a voice, that'd be the only way to represent a mental illness like that in a video. If they had her disembodied voice speaking to her from inside her head, I would have been okay with that. But instead they embodied depression into a human being that followed her around all day, who no one else could see, and that just really did not sit well with me. It wasn't even a different version of herself, but a different person altogether.

Visual representation.
Some people might grasp it better if they physically see the other voice.

Though I agree it could have been handled better with something such as it being another version of herself.

 

[Hatsune Candy]

Visual representation.
Some people might grasp it better if they physically see the other voice.

Though I agree it could have been handled better with something such as it being another version of herself.

I think the reason why it bothers me so much is because it took me a while to realize that that other person was her depression speaking to her. And once I did, it just didn't feel right to me the way they were handling it, it reminded me of schizophrenia more so than it did depression. Even if they had used a different version of herself, if they had left everything else the same, I would have still preferred that they used her disembodied voice talking to her from inside her head instead, because at least then it's closer to what real depression is actually like.

It doesn't matter if the visual representation makes it easier to understand if the way that it's being used also makes it less accurate. In this case, the difficulty understanding stems more so from the fact that depression is hard for people without it to understand no matter what. I've seen spot on representations of depression, like in the game Cry of Fear (which uses visual representation rather well), and I still find plenty of people who fail to understand what it's like. Mostly because they fail to look at it from the right angle or are still under the mindset that it's "just an emotion".

My point being that it's not the form of representation itself, it's how you use it that matters. So I guess what I'm saying here is that I didn't like the way that they used visual representation, rather than that they used it at all.

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

In this case, the difficulty understanding stems more so from the fact that depression is hard for people without it to understand no matter what. I've seen spot on representations of depression, like in the game Cry of Fear (which uses visual representation rather well), and I still find plenty of people who fail to understand what it's like. Mostly because they fail to look at it from the right angle or are still under the mindset that it's "just an emotion".

I've never tried Cry of Fear, so I can't speak in regards to that.

But other than the "It's an emotion, snap out of it!" mentality, the main thing I find that muddies people's understanding of Depression is in fact Depression sympathizers.

I've seen a number of cases where people with a limited understanding of Depression join a conversation and then make an ill-informed statement.
Now generally the best response here would be to point out where they're wrong and then feed them with more accurate information.
But what generally does happen in my experience is someone who doesn't have Depression but is friends of people with it will step in, they'll say things such as "Stop being a jerk! Depression is so not like that! You need to be more understanding!" and generally they just put the ill-informed person through a guilt trip and that ultimately ends with them simply being told to be empathetic, rather than actually be told or taught anything about Depression.

Now granted, Depression is definitely a hard concept for those without it to grasp.
I've had multiple people seriously sit down with me and try to explain it, but I would still call my understanding of it very limited.

But the fact that a lot of the time the default reaction to misunderstandings is shaming and guilt tripping rather than informing and discussion is probably playing a decent contributor to the lack of understanding, and the amount of resentment and hostility towards Depression.

My point being that it's not the form of representation itself, it's how you use it that matters. So I guess what I'm saying here is that I didn't like the way that they used visual representation, rather than that they used it at all.

Well yea, we agree there.
The execution was outright horrible.
I was simply highlighting that there at least seemed to be 'a' effort to represent it.

In that it was 90% ignorant rather than say 100%.

 

[Hatsune Candy]

I've never tried Cry of Fear, so I can't speak in regards to that.

But other than the "It's an emotion, snap out of it!" mentality, the main thing I find that muddies people's understanding of Depression is in fact Depression sympathizers.

I've seen a number of cases where people with a limited understanding of Depression join a conversation and then make an ill-informed statement.
Now generally the best response here would be to point out where they're wrong and then feed them with more accurate information.
But what generally does happen in my experience is someone who doesn't have Depression but is friends of people with it will step in, they'll say things such as "Stop being a jerk! Depression is so not like that! You need to be more understanding!" and generally they just put the ill-informed person through a guilt trip and that ultimately ends with them simply being told to be empathetic, rather than actually be told or taught anything about Depression.

Now granted, Depression is definitely a hard concept for those without it to grasp.
I've had multiple people seriously sit down with me and try to explain it, but I would still call my understanding of it very limited.

But the fact that a lot of the time the default reaction to misunderstandings is shaming and guilt tripping rather than informing and discussion is probably playing a decent contributor to the lack of understanding, and the amount of resentment and hostility towards Depression.

Huh. Well, that thought never occurred to me; mostly because I've never had to deal with that before, so I didn't even know it was a thing.