I’ve noticed more and more people my age snowballing normal, fleeting emotions into full-blown diagnoses of depression and social anxiety.
It’s just like when people started calling themselves “nerds.” Playing N64 doesn’t mean you’re a nerd. Just the same, sitting in your apartment all weekend doesn’t mean you’re clinically depressed.
I get it, having a little dark side to your personality makes you varied. But, my god, how many people are going to blab on about their dark spells and debilitating sadness?
Being open and honest are all of the sudden considered signs of strength. Podcasts and personal blogs are filled with famous and non-famous folk alike pouring out their every trouble and heartbreak. It’s cool to be sad. And at this point, it’s weaker to admit you’re happy than to defer to depression.
The same goes for drinking. We all like to get a little shitty on a random Tuesday night. That doesn’t mean you’re dependent on the sauce.
The main flag of a faker is simply that they’re talking about it. Real drunks just drink. Real depressed people kill themselves. I am neither. It just peeves me out that people drudge up imaginary illnesses for attention. My nephew does the same thing. He’ll pretend to barf when I’m tired.
You’re not depressed and you’re not an alcoholic. You’re a bad actor and a meme. And most of all: YOU’RE A KID.
—PHIL MATARESE
I’ve noticed more people my age starting shitty, blogs websites and tumblrs. What make them think that they are so interesting. What makes them think they have a perspective that matters? At this point is is easier to start a shitty blog to show off their taste and opinion than to actually talk with people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_personality_disorder
Innit.
That girl in the top picture has the tongue of a baby. Eww. She also, now I think about it, looks like one of the goblins from Labyrinth. You know the one.
I’m one of those depressed young persons you mention and I think I might kill myself after reading this just to prove there’s nothing funny about depression.
tha girl in tha pic resembles the character ADDY from the accalimed new TV show, AMERICAN HORROR STORY. She is a retard that can sense ghosts and like to fantasise about fucking her elder milf mum’s young toyboy.
Pot calling the kettle black.
“I’ve noticed more and more people my age snowballing normal, fleeting emotions into full-blown diagnoses of depression and social anxiety.”
Yes? Probably just a perfectly normal response to an educational/job market/societal/economical/cultural/socio-emotional/evolutionary void opening up under everyones feet? You’d have to be a pretty sick puppy were you to exhibit a happy-go-lucky attitude towards life in this final stage of humanity grinding to the bitter halt it so desperately deserves.
“Being open and honest are all of the sudden considered signs of strength.”
Whereas being a “smart”, sly, calculating socially manipulative creep is slightly better? “Have a nice day” & service with a smile?
“It’s cool to be sad.”
Goes without saying. The foundation upon which “cool” rests. Bitter, sad sacks are cool; naive stupidity is not.
“You’re not depressed and you’re not an alcoholic.”
Oh, I beg to differ. Spent this whole summer holed up in my flat (with the occasional bursts of alcoholfueled street prowling) self-medicating with whiskey, psychotronic flicks, smokes and the Black Adder DVD boxset. The real sign of the non faker is being determined to bring the world down with you without gaining personally from it (internet anonymity, bless you!).
Anonana: as I suspect you really are clinically depressed (hence being susceptible to any random piece of frivilous internet journalism trash becoming your coup de grace that pushes you over the edge) I strongly suggest consulting öppenvården for some SSRI antidepressants/CBT/whatever floats your boat.
I’ve known a few clinically depressed folks in my day, and their main problem is their being to lazy/idiotic/stubborn to seek help for their ailments (which is of a physiological nature; yes: psychiatry being a subset of medicine); very much like a mountaineer lying on a cliff with a broken leg but being too stubborn to whip out his cellphone and dialling 911 for rescue.
However; being a melancholiac such as I ( being “depressed” due to reading too much 19th century German existential philosophy, Freud, evolutionary psychology + having my heart pulverized + being surrounded by mental midgets/phonies/thieves and flakes + having obscene amounts of resources but no real camaraderie) is a whole other predicament for which there is unfortunately no remedy. What to do but open another bottle of J&B, blast Psalm 69 on repeat and plunge headfirst into the sweet oblivion of alcohol vaporization? Well; pour your heart out over the WWW, of course! Think again…
dude, this will sound trite and flippant, but you really need a hobby. preferably one involving interaction with actual people.
Why, thank you, kind stranger, for this piece of invaluable advice! I shall leave my bunker first thing in next mornings rosy dawn to enlist at my local ballet academy
Nah, I’m fine, but feel I had to react to the admittedly “flippant” tone of this “article” trivializing a rather serious negative trend in society. Sure, there’s the odd negativist show-off. But I feel that the devastating majority of people put on a brave & happy face whilst feeling genuinely shitty on the inside. Depression is indeed not a funny thing, but I don’t think anythings gonna get better by pretending it does not exist. So while I agree that miserabilist “slumming” does exist, I believe that the opposite is a far greater and uglier problem.
Depression is just selfishness. It’s the ultimate form of egotism. It also gets you a lot of attention. Thinking that you’re so important that you deserve to be happy and don’t have to deal with the ups and downs of life like everyone else is very childish and weak. So, it makes sense that teenagers are morose, because they are all self-involved and narcissistic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaX8ZONYc9U&list=FLTJKGr3vKx0VL0IoM8SLW6g&index=18&feature=plpp_video