certain ideas or assumptions in humanity must be true for humanity to think they are happy,
in the psychology of depression Aaron beck said that we believe three things to keep us happy and without them we are in
a long term period depressed.
these three things are;
I must be approved or I am worthless.
I must do well or very well or I am worthless.
the world must give me happiness or I will die.
the hypothesis is that disappointment from not having these things leads to disappointment in the self and depression as stated by Aaron beck. For example ”I failed an exam.” ”I must be stupid.”
The depression forms from your belief that you are a failure in self not the exam itself.
ergo your feeling stems from a violation of these three things in a small or big way.however I want to argue against this, I understand that parts of this make perfect sense and I can see cases of this in myself but how can that be so systematic and concise. This doesn’t contribute to the others who’s condition where put on them by others not the self.
or that the biological approach to depression can be held in genes Zhang in 2005 found people with depression with low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin in genes of others.To think that someone else contributed with the way you feel goes against becks original idea but reading this doesn’t really lighten any mood about the condition.
what do you think?
3 comments
On the whole it probably describes typical depression, but not me. I suffer from what many soldiers, philosophers, celebrities and millionaires suffer from (though I’m not necessarily any of those). And that is, despite doing a good job and getting approval, I just don’t like what I see in this world, or I don’t see the point in the struggle.
So that contradicts beck’s 3 statements. I have approval, I have done well, I’ve even found bits of happiness/satisfaction. But none of that changes the feeling that all of this is a meaningless effort.
A soldier follows orders, blows up the enemy, gets medals and honors and parades. And yet so many veterans blow their brains out. Because they realize how pointless it all is.
I guess the other author zhang would argue that it’s a chemical problem and pump the patients full of serotonin. I tried that. Didn’t work.
You can’t cure something that’s not wrong. Some of us just don’t agree with life being a meaningless exercise that ends in death. They tell me “don’t think about it.” Nice cure.
Depression is a creation of the complex interaction between our biology and our environment. Biology influences the impact of our environment, but our environment also influences our biology. Approval is desired because most of us have an innate desire to be with others. Some people have rejection sensitivity and are acutely pained by rejection; others are able to take rejection in stride. One can become more resilent to rejection by exposing themselves to rejection.
Though there are multiple types of depression: typical, manic, etc. As Strange Days said, Dr Beck is describing typical depression. I do believe Strange Days is referring to existential depression – a depression arising from the confrontation of existence. The only constant in life is change. What is the point if rising to the top if I will eventually fall and be forgotten? Many great empires and people started out small, reached a pinnacle, then fell.
Existential depression, I never knew it had a name. Thanks I have some reading now. It’s funny whenever someone asks what’s wrong and you say that life is pointless, they glaze over or act like “whatever”.
But the truth is each of us will die and be reduced to nothing, just like every great civilization like you said. Imagine knowing that one day, could be today or could be 50 yrs a murderer will catch up with you, kill you and destroy everything you worked for. Wouldn’t you be tempted to quit working and just wait for the end… or make the end come sooner?
I told a psychiatrist about these thoughts and he didn’t say anything, just put me on meds and told me to come back next week.