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Is it insensitive or unhelpful to point out that many of these people also suffered opiate addiction?
I understand that addiction often has underlying causes itself and cannot be solely blamed for these people’s deaths. However, it may well have been a contributing factorthat many of these people also suffered opiate addiction?
hence the smiles.
a lot of people rarely smile because they’re just rocking depression without self medication.
perhaps this is simply the default state of the species and we’re loath to confront that.
As someone who spent more than a decade as a functional junkie, in my own situation I can say for sure that crippling depression got me there in the first place.
That first couple of months on opiates was the happiest I had ever been, especially that first night.
I sat back in this extremely comfortable gaming chair and listened to Nick Drake all night and felt like I was on another planet. I cried tears of joy and bliss. I was hooked immediately despite what I was telling myself at the time.
It didn’t take long for the opiates to become their own problem and then get wrapped up in the depression and self loathing.
Once I clawed my way out of depression, now I had this huge mountain to climb to end the problems of addiction. I didn’t think I could do it and I wanted to die. I was ashamed of myself and tired of dealing with all of the miserable souls caught up in that world. I hate to say it like this, but most of them were pitifully dumb. The main reason everyone I knew had spent time in jail and I hadn’t was the dumb stuff they constantly did. Driving around in cars with no tags or insurance, busted lights, fighting, yelling, just constant chaos.
If you’re a junkie, you will be ripped off. You’ll be desperate and someone will show up and they’ll be your last option. You’ll hand them your money and you’ll never see it again. That’s just the way it is. A lot of people I knew ended up in jail fighting over that. I just adapted and learned who I could trust.
It got to a point where every bit of living I was doing was a fight to keep from being sick. If I hadn’t gotten out of that I probably would’ve ended my own life, mostly because I hated having to have a social life wrapped up in the drugs. I was so sick of those people.
It was easy for me to drop the people, places, and things that kept me wrapped up in my addiction because I hated them all with a passion I can’t begin to describe, even the ones I loved.
I was suicidal before I ever did that, but I was driven and motivated to die by it. That’s for sure.
I’m glad I didn’t. I’m fighting depression right now, but it is NOTHING like what led me to become an addict.
You’re not wrong to point it out, but happy, healthy people don’t take risks like heroin. Before I ended up in that state I had a healthy fear of the drug. Depression erased that fear.
Sorry if I seem all over the place on it. I kind of am. Haha
What a great reply. Thanks
That’s how you do it. Talk about that shit. Thanks for that really, really good exposure to what it can be like.
Depends what came first. For me it’s being just naturally not a happy person, the feelings of numbness you get from painkillers is very attractive when you’re depressed. Same for something like Xanax which will just let you sleep your life away.
Too real. I have the opposite of an addictive personality. I’ll get physically addicted to caffeine because it has a social aspect at the office, and then when I’m off work, I won’t crave it, and take forever to find out why I have a headache. One time I wanted to start smoking and then after a little while kind of forgot and went to smoking once a week, before I forgot entirely and the tobacco went stale. But benzos man. Just sleeping all day and spend as little time as possible awake and depressed is so tempting it could ruin my life.
I feel it is not very fair to put Robin Williams there. His depression was actually caused by an underlying brain disease called lewy body dementia.
Therapy or support by friends or whatever you would want to do for others with depression, likely wouldn’t do anything in his case.
The gradually accumulating brain damage also would have killed him in a rather horrifying manner.
That’s still a real form of depression, most are caused by various underlying conditions.
It’s actually common for people with LBD, Alzheimer’s, MS, Parkinson’s, etc to get therapy early on or take antidepressants for the depression symptoms.
Oh man Anthony Bourdain always hits hard. He always seemed so down to earth and living the good life.
happy cake day.
Thanks but I just hope these links convince someone it’s not their time.
Nice poem.
Too much irl repetition for by taste, this should be left for the poems.
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Who is row 1 #4 row 3 #2 and row 4 everyone but Bourdain?
90% sure row 3 #2 is Chris Cornell. The first time I saw him perform live was with Soundgarden less than 2 weeks before he passed.
Row 4 #2 is Layne Staley, but I don’t know the two women
Gia Allemand and Simone Battle.
Above them is Lucy Gordon.
R14 is Mac miller, rap artists R32 is Phillip Seymour Hoffman, american actor
Row 4 is also a mystery to me beside Bourdain
Seen this type of thing before and, as a person who has been diagnosed and medicated for chronic depression in the past, I don’t really understand what kind of change it’s trying to achieve. Are we meant to suspect that everyone who looks happy isn’t, as a default? If that’s not it, how is this telling people to modify their behavior or reactions toward us? I don’t really know what the point is but I genuinely want someone who ‘gets it’ to explain where they are coming from with this.
From my perspective there’s two issues being addressed:
- People expect depressed people to always look depressed. So in turn if you are smiling and/or having a good moment people assume you can’t be depressed.
- The prevalence of toxic positivity in our society. „How are you?“ having to be answered with „good/great“ or something similar in most circumstances. An expectation of upholding an image and/or not burdening others.
These two might also feed into each other. A depressed person might not feel seen and/or might feel like a burden. Which most likely worsens their depression.
I think the intent is to make people aware that someone can externally be happy/successful/etc but still be in a very bad place internally. People who have or do deal with depression and related conditions probably think this is so obvious it’s not worth pointing out, but I think a lot of them would be surprised how often the average person takes someone’s externalized condition and assumes it’s their entire experience.
I have no idea if posts like this picture do anything to actually inform people (and I’d bet not), but I guess I get what they’re going for.
I appreciate the thoughtful response, thanks!
Nobody knew I had near-constant suicidal ideation until I finally told someone outright. It’s not a desire for suicide, but constant rehearsal, like an “earworm” song you don’t like, but can’t get rid of.
The sad thing is, if you don’t ask, you might never know. People mask well. So if you have a loved one, and things are superficial with that person, FIX THAT SHIT. Talk personally. Get close, try to get them talking. Give them an in to open up.
Hopefully you won’t be surprised to find they felt alone and unloved after they’re gone.
Even smiling people can be depressed. The rest is just window dressing.
I think the title should be “This is what depression can look like”
The marsks we wear in public can hide what we truly feel. Take some time to talk to people and check they’re ok behind the mask.
