Is depression self inflicted

I know depression is chemical imbalance in the brain, however do you think its possible to never reach that level if you live a 100% stress free lifestyle?

Thoughts?

 

Yeah mostly. Depression doesn't just happen, something has to ruin your life to make you go into depression, say if your family died. So i do think it would be impossible to be depressed if you had nothing to worry about

 

In the case of Martin St.Louis an NHL hockey player for the NY Rangers, his mother died the day before mothers day and he has become stronger for it. His level of play has increased substantially. I think you need a thick skin to prevent your self from reaching rock bottom.

 

Dont think its self inflicted, for example Rihanna was Chris Brown's punchline and the depression (if there was any) wasnt triggered by her.

 

I feel like depression is up to the individual. Now, I myself have been depressed before, for a small amount of time. I hated everything. Nothing made me laugh, not even my favorite jokes. I didn't enjoy the company of friends or family.
But then, I started thinking... I can either sit around all day and bitch and moan about everything and look at the world in black and white, OR, I could realize that life is what you make it. Happiness and sadness are a life choice. I decided to see the world in color! We're not here for a long time, so why spend the time that we ARE here sad and down?
I say fuck that! Fuck feeling sad for yourself! Stop feeling sorry for yourself! Instead of asking "why me?" ask "why NOT me?"!
And by that, I mean, when you ask why me, you're normally asking, "why is all this happening to me?"
My interpretation of asking "why NOT me?" means "why don't I be happy? Why can't I enjoy life and make the most of it?"
As cliche as this may sound, life IS what you make it...
Anyways, sorry for the rant, and I'm sure some of this didn't make sense, but just my thoughts!

 

That chemical imbalance in your brain can be triggered by other surrounding elements and traumatic situations in your life.

It can also be argued that it's caused by the way that you manage and deal with situations, and how you let certain situations take affect on you compared to others.

 

Worldviews are relative to each person in terms of depression. The brain may react the same way for a teenage girl who was dumped by her boyfriend in the United States as a teenage girl whose entire village was bombed in a conflict country.

 

There is a huge difference in being sad, which is what most of you are describing and being clinically depressed which is a mental illness. Only in a very few ways can mental illness be self inflicted. It can be caused my drugs and thinga that effect the chemical balance of the brain.

 

Depression in my opinion is caused by a major event that had a great impact in ur life. The extent of that event will probably determine how bad your situation is. Feeling sad is different but is also caused by different events however sadness usually occurs for a short time after the event while depression will last extremely long where medicine is needed

 

This is pretty much exactly what I was about to say... and whilst it may be possible to rectify such issues (temporarily, at least) by living a 100% stress-free lifestyle, that is pretty much impossible in the modern world and therefore an unfeasible approach.

 

The brain is a very powerful thing. Just like any other part of the body, it heals. The cliche saying "Time heals all wounds" really is true. I believe that depression is half chemicals half mental. Conciousness is such a complex and inexplicable part of us and just simple thoughts play a huge role in how you feel. Always remember that when you beat yourself up about something, mind over matter, keep your mind in a good place and you'll be in one.

 

This, ^
With Chemical imbalances in your body/brain which causes depression, ones state of mind definitely plays a role in how long/severe the depression is. It starts with a thought and escalates into hormones/chemicals being released which have a negative effect on the body. Stressors such as cortisol are released which if prolonged amounts are in the bloodstream causes devastating effects inside us. In my opinion it will come down to the person and how mentally strong they are, for instance previous mentioned the sports player who became better at what he does, using or diverting his depression to another source, driving the brain away from releasing those hormones in excess. If people could just stop and practice forms of relaxation to control and manage stress, it would help alot. In turn they can un-self inflict it from themselves, instead of spiraling into clinical or chronic depression, which can be caused by constant memory/thoughts or events that occurred. Today's society however it is very difficult to obtain a 100% free stress lifestyle, as soon as you wake up and look at the clock, the stress has begun, as soon as you get into the car and look at the fuel left, what is in the refrigerator, what clothes to wear, and in more severe cases obviously death/divorce/illness.

Sitting with depression and not dealing with it, is in my opinion entirely self inflicted, initial depression is humane.

 

You guys don't understand how mental illness works and that is why there is such a huge Stigma with depression and other mental illnesses. A person that isn't chemically imbalanced can become depressed which is a natural emotion when bad shit happens. A person with a pre-disposition to depression can become depressed out of nowhere because of that chemical imbalance not because they aren't mentally strong.

 

I've also heard thyroid regulation can mess up your entire body. Your thyroid can cause intense depression if not regulated.

 

As far as I'm aware there are two types of depression, clinical depression and normal depression both have different causes but usually similar effects. Clinical depression happens due to chemicals in your body and this is what happened to my brother. Normal depression is caused by something that's happened in your life e.g. bullying or a relative dying.

 

Even if you could live a 100% stress free life, a drug induced depression is still an available option. We do have some control over the chemicals in our brain, but we have no control over genes that make us more susceptible to depression.

http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/what-causes-depression.htm

Is depression "self inflicted"? It can be by making a decision to induce it. If you were to live a 100% stress free life, you could still have a gene mutation which could cause a change in mood towards depression once in awhile.

 

Without reading through it all I don't think it's possible to live 100% stress free life. I think naturally as humans we have stress and things that we worry about. I think that sometimes we're just naturally stressed and it's not always self inflicted.

 

It's impossible to live a 100% stress free life. EVERYBODY stresses at some point, and I don't think depression is self-inflicted, some people are just extremely unlucky to have it in there genes, luckily I have always had a positive outlook on life but I know perfectly good people with depression, and I genuinely feel bad for them - it ruins there life to a serious extent and they can't help it at all

 

This. An overwhelming amount of cases of clinical depression are reported by individuals with a genetic predisposition to such chemical imbalances. This creates an interesting situation where someone who has a genetic weakness to it could potentially enter a state of psychosomatic depression. But if they were already at risk for it, was it really self-inflicted or did they simply aggravate a latent mental condition?

There is potential for depression to be self-inflicted, but legitimate clinical mental illnesses generally are not.

 

Obviously not (if it's true depression). Given that depression involves a chemical imbalance, a person will experience it regardless of circumstances.