Can one overcome depression by themselves?

I have been through depression ever since I was 8 years old. I can't exactly say that I completely overcame depression, but nowadays I feel much better. I have to give my thanks to all the doctors, counselors, friends, and family members that helped me get to where I am right now.

On the other hand, there are some unfortunate people that go through depression without much help, and my older sister would be one of them. My sister was going through some heavy depression during her end of high school and beginning of college life. To make the long story short, she didn't go see any doctors or counselors, and she literally did not have any friends. To make everything worse, even our parents weren't very supportive of her, which made her life miserable. Miraculously though, she recently overcame depression all by herself from what I have heard from her. She simply said, "I was enlightened."

I am no doctor or a psychiatrist, so I wonder; is it possible for a human to completely overcome depression by themselves without any outside factors? Hypothetically speaking, if someone that is depressed shut themselves in an empty room for years without any outside interaction, will their body or mind be able to magically cure depression like an immune system would fight off a foreign pathogen? Or is complete conquer of depression not possible in the first place? I would like to hear some opinions.

It really depends on what triggers the depression. There are certain things like a break up that working your way into a new relationship or just focusing on things you want can help you overcome it. Then others that cause you to question your own self worth day after day and with no support system that type really is just hard to get out of. It is possible to work out depression yourself, but you really need a strong will.

Also most times people say they worked it out themselves it tends to be triggered by something. Like some will say they found God which is a way for them to find self worth in themselves by devoting themselves to a cause.

I'm not gonna vote because I simply don't have a clue. All I can say has to be based on my personal experience. So, from what I can tell...

Depression, as I see it, can be cured with two things: being surrounded by a group of close friends and finding some purpose. The first is based on forgetting about your troubles, the second is based on having an idea of what to do with your life.

I remember when I was going through a bad bit and I could spend entire days with friends, playing around, hanging out, laughing pretty much the entire day and making them laugh in return. Then, when it got late and we parted ways for the day, I'd walk home miserable. Some days I was even crying as I walked home. Other days I managed to be get home happy, put on some loud music, sing, dance but eventually the result was the same.

I spent an entire year like that. When I got into college it didn't help at first because it can get pretty overwhelming and quite difficult until you make friends. But afterward, I think both things I mentioned mix: one finds himself constantly surrounded by a group of close friends as he fulfills a purpose in his life.

So, could your sister have done it by herself? Heck, I dunno... Maybe after months of soulsearching she realized what to do with her life and she doesn't feel like she needs close friends. I'm an introvert with not *that* many close friends and it even seems difficult to me. I mean, I think one can overcame depression alone but, in my experience, it doesn't last long. Music, videogames, books, exercise, long walks could help a bit but I don't see it lasting long.

I voted yes, but that's based on a very broad definition of depression.

Some people can have light spells of depression caused by some external factor (bad grades in an exam, for example). These are generally pretty easy to overcome, even on your own, as you just get back into the flow of life and forget about the problem.

However, when it comes to serious, long-term depression - either from major external factors or mental/emotional conditions - I would be alotless confident in my answer. Mental and emotional depressions are, for the most part, incurable, but can still be overcome. Whether or not they can overcome it on their own is a different matter. I would say that I would be able to, but I don't have depression, and people with depression don't always have the confidence in themselves that I do.

I would guess that it's possible, but to think that people have to deal with it themselves is pretty sad in itself.

Medic student here~

Overcoming depression by yourself is a really hard thing to do.
In the case of depression, the fault usually lies on the depressed one, or from it's environment.

Helps from families, friends, and of course the doctor is more than necessary for this. Even some drugs need to be taken in severe cases.

In conclusion, you shouldn't try to overcome depression by yourself, because the problem might not because of your own, but also came from the environment around you.

EDIT:
This might be useful. http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/286759-overview

Wow. "Chronic episodes of depression causally linked to coronary heart disease".

Not exactly something that would make them any less depressed.

I would actually really like to get better at comforting people who are depressed, so any advice would be much appreciated. Especially if it's from a Medic Student like lolitannia, or similar.

I do agree that depression can be solved when certain actions are met to overcome that. I am not saying it's a sure thing, but I know I overcame those dark times because somehow weird event that melted my depression away. Sure it sounds like a miracle but every person's brain functions different and so the methods of dealing depression varies depending on the individuals mentality.

Depressions are never solved on their own, it always needs an outside influence to begin the process of removing the depression, kinda like a shovel and the ground.
( Where our mind is the ground and the outside influence is the shovel )

Depression isn't something a person can overcome completely IMO, I've lost a lot of family in the last 15 years and I've had major swings both one way and the other and minor ones, sometimes days apart, sometimes months.

My experience with depression is something that, if you are effected by it, you'll go through the pains and, if you have a stable set of people to help you, you'll come out the other side. If you don't have those around you to help, talk to a doctor, a support worker, someone who can guide you through the pain.

The only thing I can say that helps me is, make tomorrow just a little bit better than the previous day, don't let the pain you felt/feel overwhelm you and if it does, talk to someone, get whatever is inside, out.

As someone who had it myself, it depends why you got depressed.

Usually it's one or two core issues, and then some other minor things that are the 'straw that breaks the camel's back'.

If your core issues go away entirely, you can probably get out of it.

Sometimes some problems can't be fixed entirely - that's when you might need some help - like seeing professionals, some medicines,etc.

It won't solve your depression, but those things are like a push to help you start running on your own again.

Reeealy vague question in my opinion. Not only can depression mean allot of things, so can "by themselves". If you literally don't talk to anyone, I don't think you'd recover from depression. That said, I don't think people necessarily need to go out of their way in order for you to recover (not to imply they shouldn't).

My personal opinion (and it is simply an opinion), is that depression can be overcome alone, but it is EXTREMELY dependant on the individual in question. If a depressed person is typically more at ease when they know they have good friends and/or family to talk to, then they are probably less likely to endure the depression battle alone.

On the other hand, people who typically prefer living the "lone wolf" lifestyle, and have lived most of their later life not depending on other people comfortably, can often have a better fighting chance on even ground by themselves. Exceptions exist in both cases, of course, but that's just how I feel about it.

@ Kuro vi Lolitannia

You forget the essential : ONLY the depressed one can overcome the depression. It is not as when you suppress a bacterial infection by puting antibiotics.


@ all

That's always the matter in the psychologic area. All what can do medication is "just" to atone suffering but neither supress it nor resolve the problem/source.

YOU. ARE. ALONE.

That thought in itself can make heavier the burden. Or trigger a reaction. It heavily depends on the mental state. Psychiatrists mainly help the depressed subject to find its own trigger to get through then out the depression. Because depression is a vicious circle what must be broken in fact.

What entourage and relatives can do is mainly to accompagny the subject or let it be -- once again, "accompany" is of use only if the subject is in a suitable state, which is not to help him/her cry on its own state or about its own concerns. A suitable state would be a moment when the subject is willing to enlight his humor, to have some fun and forget his/her concern at least for a brief (or long) moment. The ideal moment to recharge batteries indeed. That's what entourage should do.

All to say that nobody can really cure the depressed subject except the subject itself, with or without help.

Yeah, you really have to be careful if you're going to tell a depressed person this. It could serve to drive them deeper into depression.

But you do have a point, we can only experience our own minds, so we have no idea what other people feel. Everybody in the world is totally and completely alone, distracting themselves from this fact with fleeting interactions with others which make them feel like they belong. Our bleak existence is destined to be forgotten in the folds of time, and no-one will ever truly understand us, truly know what we think, or truly know who we are underneath our physical husks.

That sounds more depressing than I intended it to, but that is what I believe. And yet I have no problems with depression, and I have no idea why.




Some depressions can never be cured though. Sometimes there are actually problems with the physical way the brain works that cause depression, and these are (as of yet) uncurable.

But with the right mindset and support, the subject can still overcome the feelings of depression, but the cause of the depression will never be gone, meaning they could easily 'relapse', as it were, back to feeling depressed.

In medic, the "depression" is more called the bipolar affective disorder since subjects turn alternatively hyper and depressed.

When the subject is calm enough (between hyper and depressed), it's able to reach some comprehension of its own state and acts more or less in a right way. Those moments are the right ones to tell the subject she/he is the only one and alone to get through then out its mental disorder. Of course, out those moment the subject may need some help to calm down or energize up. Sometime that does not imply "just" drugs (depends on the gravity) but exercices (always), etc.

I've had depression since I was 14 and now I'm 31. I've been on anti-depressants and sedatives. I've tried everything from alcohol to sleeping pills to exercise. To be honest, I don't know what can 'cure' depression. Most of my depression comes from feeling inadequate and like I don't belong anywhere. Isolated. I've been to the deep end too and tried committing suicide multiple times, so it was pretty bad. But, I realized that occupying my mind with anything I can possibly occupy it with tends to alleviate the mood somewhat. I know even having hobbies was difficult, because I wasn't interested. But, It's about focusing on other things and not yourself. Going outside and just basking in the sun also helps.

While I know a person can overcome depression without seeking support, from my own experience, I don't think a person could be completely isolated from mankind and move on, or if they did it'd be extremely difficult.

I was in a very deep depression for about three years, at one people I thought I had reached my low and tried to ask for help from my childhood friend. Long story short, they were not my friend and things got much worse. Anyways, I had gotten so low that I was starting to turn to suicide. But one day I got to thinking, before I start to really look into killing myself, maybe I should try to talk with some people and maybe make some friends. If people were as cruel as I believed, then yeah go with the back up plan. I mean I had nothing to loose trying to do stuff. I had already reached rock bottom. And with that, I started making baby steps out of my depression. Today, while I'm still dealing with all the damage that took place during that period, I'm no longer depressed. (Much like your sister, I too actually feel pretty enlightened.)

Now in your scenario where there is no human contact. With no human contact would there be people near by? Did they like hide themselves far away from everyone? In a way it seems like if they choose to be far away from everyone, they'd have the space to think and feel things more clearly. When in school, I feel so much anxiety that I was completely exhausted. But when home schooled, I had time to reflect. Though I guess this would depend on what caused the depression- like another user stated. For the most part, I think if the person had time alone they'd either have the choice to sit there and wallow or reflect. But in the end, I think they'd eventually look at the whole situation with a new perspective and start to make their way out.

So I don't think it's magical or anything, but just a lack of clarity in the persons mind, which leads to the physical side effects. However once their perspective changes, so does everything else.

Depression will almost certainly spring due to outside factors so I don't believe that it can be alleviated without the help of outside factors. Personally, I think seclusion would be the worst way to cure yourself of depression. The isolation would be bound to drive you mad for one, the other is that even if you're cured you'll most likely end up depressed once more when you return to society.

Imagine not knowing what the heck was happening in the world for even a week. You'd probably feel even more alone not having all this information that everyone else has. That may just be me, there are probably people who can live and rather prefer not to know the happenings of our planet.

I think it's right to compare depression to something of an illness but it ain't like chicken pox and you can definitely catch it again even after you're cured of it the first time. The battle against depression is an endless one but it gets easier every time you pass it.

First of all : nobody here says or would say that you should/must isolate yourself !

Just read the post above yours -- all is said in this testimony :





Say rather that you sadly had rotten yourself your friendship :-/

I know, saying it bluntly may be cruel but you must realize how precious is a relation to be able to preserve any relation. Sometime it means you must test out your own errors in order to graduate. Sometime those errors waste precious/key moments, then end up in loss of relationship.




Your (previous and actual) friends are normal people I guess, each with its own life and possibly matters whose you don't know about, not even the existence. You are egotistically fixed on yourself. You don't really realize how tiresome/hard you may be for your circle, even less that you may threaten their own mental health by dragging them down with you. But people sometime must choose their own health before you, particularly if they have lot more or bigger matters than dealing with you. And yourself must do the same choice and withdraw any problematic relation you don't have the strength to support.




This was your own trigger, that you have found yourself. Congratulations, you have succeeded to cure yourself :-)




I don't give a damn from there because you misunderstood the previous posts. Then there's no really use to comment.







It's a lot more complex than that. There're a lot of internal factors too, some of them preventing depression and some others predisposing. They have a lot bigger impact than direct environment, thus you can't rely on the sole external factors to make depress or cure a given individual.




Again reread the posts above. Nobody say to isolate anyone.

If you mistook the


it is not an order nor something alike, just a matter of (mental) fact.




Just nonsense based on misunderstanding, so I won't comment.




8-| ... It is an illness, a mental disorder to be even more precise.

Even chicken pox you can catch it more than once, depending the individual's "liabilities and assets" and its environment.

Fortunately, there are people happily winning against their own depression, so it is not always/only some endless battle. At least there's always ALWAYS a hope for those still fighting ;-)

Yeah, I was just responding to this...



Same with this one. (Though I might have over looked the part, if it was no longer being discussed.)



This looks a bit broken, but I believe what you're trying to say.




I guess within this context, it does seem like the other party was not at fault, but when hearing more of the story you'd see that I was more of a terrible "friend" who didn't care than say a friend who just didn't know how to help.




Once again, context may be miss leading. My main circle was itself, spiraling out of control, and in a sense they helped to drag me down. While I was already teetering on some real issues, them being a "bad crowd" and taking advantage of me pushed me over. So I had no friends for support because they were feeding me more toxic energy.




Yeah, sort of, pretty much what I was trying to get across anyways. To not get consumed by your depression you need to look at everything differently and see what you're doing wrong and fix it. And along the way/afterwards, you can see what got you that messed up in the first place.

I was clinically depressed when i was a sophmore in highschool, and if i handnt had other people to help me, i probably would have killed myself. One of the worst things a depresed person can do is to "deal" with it by themselves.