Anything to do with mental illnesses/disorders
The 'how do people get depressed' question.
Recently a friend of mine asked me how people get depressed. I wasn't exactly sure how to answer and said I wanted to do some research.
However on top of that I wanted to know what have you people told others or think should be told? They already know about my own mental illnesses so no worries about trying to skirt the question.




1) Brains run on chemicals. Brain chemicals don't always work the way they should. The "happy happy" chemical is borked in some people and is replaced with the "why the hell should we care" chemical.
2) Life sometimes just likes to shit on some people. Everyone has a breaking point. A lot of major life events in a short period of time can do a number on a person.
3) It's not a switch. It's not a person going to the store and saying I'm going to get depressed today. Some day I'm going to get a not-depressed. It's a process. It's a process going in and it's a process coming out. It's days and weeks and months of not necessarily feeling sad, but not able to feel happy. And sometimes not able to feel anything.
So asking how it happens isn't the right question. There really isn't a how. It's a thing that happens to some people because it does. Asking how can I support you is. No two people are the same. And no one person needs the same things at any given point. Sometimes someone may need space. Sometimes a person may need a person they can text. They may need someone to drag them out once a week even if they don't really want to. How did you get here? Not helpful. How can I support you now? Helpful.
If you want to sound smart and science-y, you can call the "happy happy" chemicals "endorphins". Endorphins are the class of chemicals that, when recieved by the brain, cause positive emotions. Many types of mental disorders can be traced to a problem producing, receiving, and/or processing endorphins. If youreally want to do your homework, here's a great video on the psychology side of things: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwMlHkWKDwM