I truly believe that depression is a disease or a sickness and more of a chemical thing in your brain for a lot of people that battle depression. For others is a lack of success, tragedy in regards to family or other things out of their control. I don't think success or lack of success has anything to do with it for this group of people.

I would say I'm pretty successful for my age. But, along with that comes a lot more responsibilities. A lot more things to pay attention to. A lot more things to worry about, liability or exposure to worry about. Keeping track of more and more things. The phone rings weekends and nights. Sometimes you simply want a weekend to yourself where the phone doesn't ring and there aren't 10 different things you have to do. The old saying more money, more problems, is definitely true in a lot of cases. Some successful people just reach their limit and can't handle anymore.



I've worked for a few professional athletes and celebrities while they're "trying" to take a vacation. It's a tough role as they're normal people, and maybe they just want to take a drive to the local supermarket to see what's on the shelves and don't want 20 people taking their picture, or hassling them for an autograph. Have to ALWAYS be worried about appearances. You LOSE a lot of freedom when you're famous. Some of these people just fell into the fame and never wanted to be hassled all of the time.

quote:

Originally posted by JALLEN:
This is a central theme of Jordan Peterson’s talks and writings. 12 Rules etc.

Yes indeed. Listen to JP and you'll get an education on the struggle of life and how to find meaning.

It's helped me a ton.

yes, successful people have problems too, I don't think anybody has argued that, its been proven time and time again.

That dosen't mean it isn't sad. I really looked up to Jason Hairiston and to me he was a larger than life figure ho also took the time to talk to me and pass on advice to me. As I notched my first sheep kills, I followed his success towards his grand slam and farther.

This one just hit closer to home than normal for me....Anthony Bourdain....yeah sad, i have no connection to him and can do without his TV shows filled with him pontificating. Jason on the other hand was a guy who would respond to my emails and never seemed bothered by my dumb questions when id call over to KUIU or send an email with a dumb rookie question.

I really liked Jason Hairiston he was a very nice dude who was very generous with his knowledge and his time, yes it seemed like he had it all, money generated from his passion, a beautiful family and the opportunities to pursue goals every year that most of us will hopefully get once in a lifetime.

All these things like money, toys, women, adventures mean very little if you aren't truly happy. to me, thats what makes it so sad, and for him probably what made it so hard. Losing his memory, getting confused, not knowing where he was and spending time every day trying to stay collected and hoping people would help him must have taken a toll on him.

Yes suicide is selfish and his family ad friends are the ones who are going to suffer the most but try as I might, I cant help but to feel bad for him, not mad, I truly feel sad for his loss and dont have any negative thoughts about him.

I hear a lot of relatively flip statements. Depression is real and a medical condition, not a lack of motivation or an attitude. If you experience symptoms, get medical help. The power of positive thought is wonderful, but sometimes medication is needed.

quote:

Originally posted by Fredward:
I hear a lot of relatively flip statements. Depression is real and a medical condition, not a lack of motivation or an attitude. If you experience symptoms, get medical help. The power of positive thought is wonderful, but sometimes medication is needed.

110% true. Anyone who thinks otherwise is ignorant and doesn't realize it, including some in this thread. And it can hit anyone, anytime. Normal brain chemistry is not a guarantee, like anything else in your body that goes sidways. I knew two church pastors who didn't believe that depression had medical connections. So when people went to them for help, they would tell them to pull up their damn bootstraps. Years later the son of one of them had to be admitted for severe depression, and the other pastor out of the blue became ill with the same disease, and then admitted that he had been wrong all those years of failing to get his parishoners help. You can have a perfect upbrining, great helth and success, and end up in a hospital with any and all kinds of psychological diease, including depression in all of its forms - unipolar, bipolar, etc. It's just another one of thousands of medical issues. Denying depression as a disease is equivalent to saying that heart disease is an imaginary disease.