enquiring minds want to know

[tamaranth]

[Poll #1020026]

All unique and special snowflakes may leave comments below.

Comments

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

For a long time I thought there was no cause, now I understand it as the consequence of all manner of fucked-up-ness. These days the fucker-up-ness and the depressions are history.

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

I wish the lousy typing were also history.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

I'm very much hoping to identify a cause, but have failed so many times that I am starting to wonder if the cause is an invisible one (some weird chemical thing going on, or Zombie Rayz, or alien abduction, or subliminal radio signals ...)

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

Ah, that probably makes my comment elsewhere seem less than helpful. *shrugs*

[bookzombie.livejournal.com]

With me there are things that you could point at and say 'This could be causing the depression' but at the same time you have to ask 'but why didn't this cause the depression last time it happened?'

In fact this exact situation happened to me only last week when I had a couple of days of feeling really down which was almost certainly caused by some work-related misery. But this week work is not really any better, but I feel pretty much fine.

[easterbunny.livejournal.com]

For me, it's the "no apparent cause" that prompted me to say no. It took me a while to learn to recognize the roots of low periods, but they usually have fallen into either long-term: lonelines or sub-optimal health or short-term: low blood sugar, caffeine withdrawal, or clockwork hormones. On the plus side, once I figure out which is which, I can give myself a shake for the short-term ones and scavenge for a coffee and a sandwich. The long-term ones are more of a waiting game.

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

I get depression precursors, and if I catch them in time I can hoik myslef out of it before it takes root. Although I often don't immediately know the cause, once I'm no longer on the verge and my head's cleared I can generally work out what was causing it.

Of course, it would be better if I could spot the causes BEFORE i get the depression precursors, but that would make things too easy.

[dougs.livejournal.com]

"Apparent" being a bit of a vague notion in itself. It's sometimes evident after the fact, sometimes it remains a mystery. Often it's apparent to me but an explanation wouldn't make any sense to anyone else.

[pigeonhed.livejournal.com]

The day I had to go sit in the toilet at work crying for no apparent reason was a big shock. When it happened again and again I had to get help. I'm struggling at present but working on it.

[pennski.livejournal.com]

Mine are hopefully now identified and therefore avertable - but yes.

BTW - you are a unique and special snowflake too! Hurrah!

[andrewducker]

Not "no cause".

But I do seem to fall into depression quite easily over things that other people might shrug off rather better.

[pecos.livejournal.com]

Oh yes...I think it's in the uterus owner's manual. And of course once you ARE depressed everything that goes on just seems to confirm your faulty thinking.

[marypcb.livejournal.com]

I'm usually reacting to a large external event and a small local event. I think a long-term - can I call it tendency without sounding rude? - like yours is going to have physical, physiological or psychological causes that you haven't yet connected with the blackness. when stress makes me have a filthy temper I can't for the life of me work out in advance or afterwards why at the moment the thing that makes me bad-tempered happens that I can't react in a different way, but at the moment of reaction I can't even think of doing anything but reacting. this almost always turns out to have a large external event in the background but I can be painfully slow to see any connection. I have to work on changing the reaction I have and on recognising the effect of the larger event. So apparancy (!?) is variable depending on where I'm stning.