Depressed

When one is depressed... the last thing you want to do is to tell them to stop being depressed.

It only shows them that you don't understand and that is not going to help them at all and might just make them feel even worse... believe me.

When I feel the being hit by a truck kind of depressed, I tell myself that--

"Yo, you are depressed like a dog (sorry, doggies, I don't know why but I like this expression). The bottom will eventually come, even though you might not have hit the bottom (:-x). However, after you finally hit the bottom, there is no other direction but going up-- since that is the definition of the bottom."

In addition, so far in my life, I have been hit many a time and they, thank God, have passed many times (:-O :-x). (and the sorry side of you is gonna ask now... then why do they come back... that you gotta ask that sadistic bastard... lol :-x God, I have sins... )

The second thing I make myself do is to ponder... what could I do to make myself feel better?

Humor always works, even with dark humors... they work because they make me, or, I try to let them make me either smile or laugh.

For instance, when you laugh, the level of catecholamines could be reduced-- an indicator of distressing... which scientists say is good for getting you rid of things such as anxiety, depression, etc.

Another good thing about laughing is that... it is a full-head exercise-- even with the least genuine smile, you have to use the muscles in your mouth, face, the eyes, and even the jaws...

For people who is trying to give a not so genuine smile, especially someone who is REALLY depressed, this takes a lot of efforts and the benefit of it might be you are actually putting your focus on faking the laugh or smile rather than on your depressed state of being... (remember the practice makes perfect thing? not so much practice-- hopefully, not so much enhanced learning-- yet don't know whether this rationale really would work... scratch my head) in addition, you might be able to cheat your head that you are happy and disrupt that sorry homeostasis of your neurotransmitters (remember... destruction proceed construction... lol

Also try to imagine how rediculous that smile or laugh might look like... I don't know what it would do to you, some might get even more depressed by thinking about how rediculous they look with that fake look... for me, that itself make me laugh at myself... lol

For people who still have the ability to appreciate the funny thing genuinely regardless whether it takes you too much effort or not, in addition to confusing your stable state of "mind", an added value of the appreciation is that--- given the limited cognitive capacity (and even more limited when you are depressed), the appreciation of anything funny might tie up all your cognitive capacity and the processing of sorry thoughts might have to be put on hold... And, the more you try the funny thing, the better you might become in attending to funny things, perceiving them, and make use of your cognitive capacity to interpret them... Then, theoretical, you could strengthen your happy pathway in your brain... (lol just my naive interpretation)

This is why... rain or shine... I have to find something to laugh about... no nothing to laugh about.. if possible, I have to smile.... (as long as they don't diagnose me with gelastic seizures-- a seizure manifested as laughter....)

And, by the way, shall you notice that I have not mentioned the thing called positive thought... for me that comes later-- after smile and laugh... because all thing positive have their negative inverse... I often find myself busy building arguments to prove the point of my sorry thoughts... unless that argument building process itself could serve as a distracter to help you getting yourself from the pure immersion in a sea sorry thoughts.

Whatever works...