- Chris Scott
- Milner, GA
- United States
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What can we do about the constant rise of depression and suicide in young adults?
I am seventeen years of age and have recently come out of a large stage of my life where I dealt with a lot of depression. I have dealt with and still deal with people in high school (and even middle school in some cases) that deal with depression every single day and never have anyone that they talk to about their problems.
I have known people that have committed suicide from the weight of depression upon their shoulders throughout their lives, and have heard about these cases all over the world. I, myself, have been driven to the point where I thought that the only way out of my depression was by suicide because there was nothing to help me.
I want to know your opinions and ideas on the subject of depression and suicide in young adults today and what we can do to prevent these problems in the future. Thanks for listening!
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M ER
Depression can be linked to many different things, like situations in life. Yet I think some reasons are largely overlooked. Depression is not always the result of a difficult situation in life like social standing, lack of money, disability etc. but can be the results of simply the persons brain or genes.
I, for example deal with depression, yet I have the most blessed life. If I had the option there would be nothing I would change, except perhaps have a bit more sun :) Depression can run in families and I believe I got it from my mothers side. My sister and me have both dealt with depression and my mother also, while she was alive, but not my father, and there is really nothing in my environment that causes it.
I believe every person has a kind of base happiness level and that search for happiness that is so prevalent in our culture to today is doing more harm than good.
I do not think that happiness should be set as a goal. There is no if you buy this you will be happier, if you didn't have this problem you would be happier. Rich people are often depressed even if they weren't so much before they acquired their wealth. And I think it's more this idea that is so dominant that there is some giant pot of happiness just waiting to be found. Happiness is more the journey it is the collection of a persons overall mood over a long period of time. Like snowflakes that fall from the sky collect on the earth to make a bedding. Do not wait for the giant football-sized hail-balls just stick your tongue out and enjoy the snowflakes.
Mark Meijer 100+
You say (paraphrasing) that some people are just fundamentally unhappy because of their brains or genes, despite otherwise favorable life circumstances.
But look at this quote from another post of yours: "This guy has these horrible problems and yet he is happy and enjoying life, so why can't we be like that? What is it about us that makes us unable to sustain our enjoyment and general happiness?"
You've already mentioned an important piece of the puzzle right there. The problem is not that you are fundamentally unhappy, but that there is apparently something preventing you from sustaining general enjoyment and happiness.
The fact that you want to "be like that" (enjoying life just like the guy from the youtube video), means that, in your heart of hearts, you already are like that. Otherwise, you wouldn't want to be like that, right? ;) The fact that you admire him for it, says something about your own values. So, something is standing in the way of you being the way you already are. That's good to know! So what is it that stands in the way? Ask yourself that question from time to time.
Ask yourself, for example, does it make you happy or unhappy, to always be mulling on thoughts like this one: "Why can't I be like that?"
Important clue here, and it's the same one that works for the guy in the youtube video. Those thoughts that determine your mood, are bound to arise. And when they affect your mood, even more of the same thoughts will arise, and your mood gets even worse. It's a vicious cycle. But you can't stop those thoughts by force, and you can't change your mood by force, so what now?
Think about it, what does the guy from the youtube video do? Do you think he never had thoughts like that? Or that he never had those thoughts influence his mood? Of course he has. So how does one step out of that vicious cycle?
Mark Meijer 100+
Soon enough, your brain will see this. And it will become instantly clear to you that those thoughts are only hindering you and not adding any value whatsoever. What's more, they're not even true. They only become true when you believe in them. When you believe a thought that says "I am not like that guy", then you aren't. Why? Because that guy does not believe such thoughts. Once you clearly see that you really have no reason at all to believe such thoughts, and you have every reason to stop believing them, you're there! Thoughts will continue to play out, moods will continue to play out, but now you stop feeding them and the cycle will wind down.
If any of this makes any sense to you at all, take this as your practice. Whenever you're having such thoughts, or moods, or both: Observe and acknowledge them to yourself. Don't jump right back into thoughts like "yeah whatever". Those are thoughts produced by a brain that does NOT want to see what it's doing! Don't even analyze their content or origin or whatever, this only produces more thoughts ABOUT the thoughts and the moods, and again you're not observing. Show your brain what it's doing, and trust that every time you do this, it will undermine the habit. Don't think. Look.
Mark Meijer 100+