Reporting & whinging... and those who do it

Graham, serious question--presumably, you do understand that there are no hard and fast recipes for getting rid of depression, like getting pissed?

I ask mainly because a reasonable argument can be made that if you did understand this, you wouldn't try to dish out this 'advice' even in jest.

Now, of course, we all get sad sometimes, and perhaps some of the people posting in the Depression thread aren't 'clinically' depressed, and therefore not afflicted with an illness which they are generally helpless to resolve of their own initiative, and perhaps some would do therefore do well to perk up a bit and get on with stuff.

If you're genuinely unaware (and of this I'm not sure, so please tell me) that there are people suffering worse than just being a bit sad, you need to know that it is basically pretty arsey to tell a person struggling with depression that all they need to do is pull their socks up a bit.

As a depressed person is generally dependent on external factors to get better (if they weren't, depression wouldn't be such a widely-recognised problem), it is good for people to share, even if it is just with 'strangers on the Internet'. That may lead to more sharing with others, and perhaps some betterment. By far the worst advice is to opine that people can 'just do it', perhaps even on their own--the simple fact that they mostly can't can leave them with a feeling of powerlessness and demotivation that you may not be able to imagine, and may increase their isolation and a sense that there is no way out.

As I said above, I'm not sure if you're just trolling for a laugh or genuinely ignorant of this. There's nothing wrong with having one thread on the forum where seriousness reigns. Goodness knows that we have tens of thousands of others in which we can crack jokes. I hope you can see what I mean.

Gave up at 'Graham...'