This is another article that I wrote for a Mensa meet. Apparently, I am depressed.
What is depression?
Excessive sadness, perhaps?
So let’s remove sadness from life. By-product : no happiness. As it happens, you can’t feel true happiness unless you know what the absence of happiness means and the absence of happiness is sadness. Like darkness is just an absence of light, or chaos is just an absence of order.
But, Just like, a small beam of light can cause a dark room to brighten, a small act of shouting and cutting queue (chaos) when filling up the graduation forms in college can cause a small and exciting riot, conclusion : a small shock of sadness can actually break the depression.
No this is not a typo. I agree, that small bout of joy can also help with depression, but that is just for a particular moment. For long-term effects, you need a small shock of sadness. This will look at life from a different perspective. It gives the feeling that God just gave a smack on your bum and asked you to “man up” to life. He says life isn’t cruel, just mischievously sadistic.
How do you spot a depressed person ?
He is definitely not the one shouting “I am so depressed, that I can no longer work.” This is simply a lazy guy who wants others to do his work for him.
He is definitely not the person sitting quietly in the corner… staring blankly at a wall. He might just be admiring the colour or texture of the wall. Or perhaps he might be absent minded. Or perhaps he might think himself to be John Forbes Nash and thinks staring at walls may just win him a Nobel prize and he might get a beautiful mind.
He is definitely not the one who refuses to take baths, has long and dirty fingernails. He might be a gardener or he might have just buried someone,preferably not alive.
( I should stop watching police procedural dramas )
No these are not the depressed beings.
Notice the guy who keeps smiling, no matter what the situation ? Yes, the guy who is laughing all the time, cheerful, pleasant, cool to hang out with. Look at him closely. There might just be a hint of sadness hiding in those eyes.
The eyes, always trying to find something. Something they don’t know how to explain, something that’s missing. A spark in their life, maybe… ? or a purpose to live , perhaps …?
Have you tried to talk to him ? He might just speak for hours and you might gain a lot of general knowledge and absolutely no personal insight into this person. He has shut himself off, emotionally. He might put on weight, or loose some within a short span. He might claim to get plenty of sleep, almost 12 hours, and claim he needs it.
These are just some symptoms of depression. There might be more.
So next time you spot such a person, try to look into him, rather than at him. You might just learn a lot about him
