Books that got you through depression

[Anonymous No.11406801]

What books helped you get through depression?

[Anonymous No.11406806]

>depression

[Anonymous No.11406813]

dude just open your eyes and be yourself. Life is wonderful

[Anonymous No.11406817]

This was a great read. Ex-SS soldier. The guy survived 10 years in Soviet prisons and gulags while most of his friends died of starvation/freeze to death. Was able to escape back to West when Stalin died.

Makes your own problems look like nothing when you think what this guy went through.

[Anonymous No.11406824]

>>11406817
Looks cool. I have Gulag Archipelago but haven't read it yet, is Gulag a viable alternative?

[Anonymous No.11406835]

The Bible

[Anonymous No.11407014]

I know what helps me. I watch a lot of gore videos- liveleak, accident compilations etc.

If you are depressed you need to take a deep look into the darkness in this world and let the suffering be your new favourite show. Every time I read about a shooting etc my heart sparks a little bit. Nothing fills my heart with as much joy as seeing other people suffer.

[Anonymous No.11407059]

>>11406813
seconded.

>>11407014
in a weird way, also seconded. but for me watching copious amounts of murder videos made me realize the true brutality of life and the ephemeral blessing it is to be alive right now.

[Anonymous No.11407082]

Suttree - Cormac McCarthy.

I can't exactly explain everything this book revealed to me but I can say that reading it changed my life. When you think of a novel you probably think of characters, setting, plot, lessons to be learned. However, with Suttree you will find just a moving, fascinating, softly joyous depiction of life itself. I think that should be literature's ultimate goal / accomplishment: communicate existence in all its breadth so that we may glean just a few drops of truth with which to nurture the gardens of our individual lives. There are small, evocative details in this book that sent me reeling. A certain line of dialogue towards the end totally realigned my worldview. Maybe it was just the book I needed at that certain time in my life but I hope it can do something similar for you, anon.

[Anonymous No.11407136]

>>11407014
there's no way your parents are still together

[Anonymous No.11407160]

Siddharta by Herman Hesse

any book about miserable poor people reminds you how well off you are so anything from dostoievski like the brothers karamazov or the dubliners or grapes of wrath will keep you humble

[Anonymous No.11407165]

>>11407082
well I'm not OP but you certainly provoked my interest, guess I finally found something to break my reading drought

[Anonymous No.11407182]

>ITT faggots who are just sad or lonely think they are depressed
The only way to cure actual depression is to wait for it to end and avoid ways to prolong it's existence.

If you did have depression you probably wouldn't even have the willpower to shitpost about how much your life sucks.

T.had actual depression

[Anonymous No.11407183]

>>11407082
>A certain line of dialogue towards the end totally realigned my worldview.

Which one?

Also, that is my favorite McCarthy book and I agree with what you've stated here. It's well worth a read.

[Anonymous No.11407188]

>>11407182
>le no true depression

Nah you were just a lazy faggot, you don't know what real suffering is or else you wouldn't even be making this dumb post

[Anonymous No.11407191]

When I read Swann's Way it gave me a feeling you described, to the point where I could literally change the word "Suttree" to "Swann's Way" in your description.

[Anonymous No.11407193]

>>11406801
>The Everlasting Man-Chesterton
>The Sickness Unto Death-Kierkegaard
>The Lord of the Rings-Tolkien
>Confessions-St. Augustine

Depression is a sickness of the soul. Get right with God, anon. You're life and your perspective will be much the better for it.

[Anonymous No.11407224]

>>11407183
>Nothing ever stops moving.

[Anonymous No.11407225]

>>11407193
Seek the source of all energy, all of time.

[Anonymous No.11407229]

>>11406801
http://www.abct.org/SHBooks/?m=mFindHelp&fa=sh_Books

Here's a list that might actually help you OP

[Anonymous No.11407249]

Thus Spake Zarathustra
Candide
Submission by Houellebecq

[Anonymous No.11407257]

depression is the reddit of mental illnesses

[Anonymous No.11407310]

>>11406801
It may have been just a period of melancholy, not depression, but Moby Dick helped me get through it and made me a more optimistic person. The final sentence of the 7th chapter I have memorized, so strongly it affected me. Apart from that, Notes from Underground helped me with my constant, paranoic overthinking of everything, as it made me realize how useless, detrimental, and crippling these thoughts were.

[Anonymous No.11407314]

>>11407188
>Blatant projection
>Muh true suffering is existential ennui I'm confused for legitimate depression
Nope, i was diagnosed with dysthymia in high school and when you are in a depresive state you lose the willpower to do anything - even eat. You don't watch TV or okay video games then go onto 4chan and complain abiut how much your life sucks, you lay on the floor and stare at a wall blankly for hours not realizing that time is passing by and forget where you are all the time.

It's a chronic condition that just happens, there is no intellectual aspect to depression

[Anonymous No.11407363]

>>11407358
Woops, wrong thread

[Anonymous No.11408001]

Camus is a fag who lied. Rather than grabbing life by the horns he puts on a fake smile.
Conquer life and put on a real smile.
read any Mr. Miracle

[Anonymous No.11408037]

>>11406801
Hahahahahahahaha How The Fuck Is Depression Real Hahahaha Nigga Just Do Things That Make You Happy Haha

[Anonymous No.11408067]

No Longer Human & Setting Sun, Osamu
Essays & Aphorisms from the Arthur

[Anonymous No.11408069]

>>11406801
>>11406835
this
Also picrelations

[Anonymous No.11408109]

>>11406801
Being No One
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Mumonkan
Poetry and Prose of William Blake
The Tantric Agamas
The Epic of Gilgamesh
lots of glycine

[Anonymous No.11408114]

>>11408037
nothing makes me happy

[Anonymous No.11408166]

>>11407160
You mean James Joyce dubliners? I just bought that today for $1

[Anonymous No.11408169]

lithium and a psych ward stay

[Anonymous No.11408173]

>>11406835
what parts?

[Anonymous No.11408220]

>>11407310
I bought notes from underground too today because it’s more short reading. Your post makes me think of the poem “garden of gethsemane” the last poem/part of dr.zhuvago. I memorized some parts of that poem. Mostly just the part that’s saying

“The night’s far reaches seemed a region
Of nothing and annihilation. All
The universe was uninhabited.
There was no life outside the garden wall.”

Shit bros I love that poem it makes me cry. I’m in public watching the World Cup demmmmit

[Anonymous No.11408237]

>>11408173
Ecclesiasties. Proverbs. Psalms. The 4 gospels. Acts of the apostles

[Anonymous No.11408246]

>>11408173
Also book of Job

[Anonymous No.11408268]

Whenever I felt depressed, I would lie down and watch the clouds roll by, and let myself think. If I was depressed, then I was depressed. If I was thinking sad thoughts, then I was thinking sad thoughts. If I was worried about being depressed, than I was worried about being depressed. If I was a horrible person, then I was a horrible person. If I wanted to end it all, then I wanted to end it all. That's all there was to it.

Maybe one day, after doing it for a while, you might notice that the sky is a pretty blue, or that cicadas are quite noisy. At least, that's what I saw. Maybe one day, you could tell me what you heard.
Godspeed anon.

[Anonymous No.11408305]

>>11408268
God speed anon. Remember your cassette player and your copy of dr.doolittle the book on tape. Don’t forget your earbuds.

[Anonymous No.11408315]

>>11406801
reading a good book or watching a good show makes me really sad. finishing something makes me sad because i don't want to say goodbye and afterwards i become haunted by the memories of it.
and whenever i look at real life i just get extremely bored.

book for this feel?

[Anonymous No.11408603]

>>11408114
Things only make me happy when i'm on opioids, even then, it's fleeting.

[Anonymous No.11409148]

Steppenwolf

[Anonymous No.11409730]

M E D I C A T I O N

Srsly

[Anonymous No.11409754]

Getting very drunk to then talk to people

[Anonymous No.11409787]

>>11409148

ya

[Anonymous No.11409791]

>>11407014
seconded wrt gore videos

also this >>11406835

[Anonymous No.11409792]

>>11409148
Reading that right now. Interesting since I just read Schopenhauer's essays and aphorisms and it's a similar vibe, but I'm only 50 pages in. I hope it gets better, so far it's good but not blowing my mind

[Anonymous No.11409798]

>>11409730
there is no medication that effectively treats depression that is not known to cause extreme long term impairment and hornonal dysfunction. if you have the neurological correlates for depression you are fucked. it might be “real” but its not treatable in a humane manner. you’re basically on ur own unless you want a huge risk and probable life long health problems

[Anonymous No.11409851]

>>11409798
This isn't true at all, and it's harmful to be this disingenuous. That being said, medication alone is not a solution, medication should be the stopgap that gets the patient into therapy.

[Anonymous No.11409895]

Tolstoy's books, Swann's Way and Freud.

[Anonymous No.11409932]

I Can Has Cheezburger?: A LOLcat Colleckshun got me through some shit.

[Anonymous No.11409962]

Im not even christian but the story of job was kino

[Anonymous No.11410125]

>>11409730
>ur brain chemicals make u sad

[Anonymous No.11410383]

>>11406806
>>11406813
>>11407014
>>11407059
>>11407188
>>11407257
>>11410125
itt /lit/ doesn't understand mental illness

[Anonymous No.11410420]

go get some sunlight you fucking NEET im serious spend 60+ minutes in direct sun tomorrow for 4th of July

[Anonymous No.11410450]

>>11406801
The ending of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem "Ulysses" is very hopeful:

Come, my friends,
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

I'd also recommend reading the Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, and perhaps Walden by Thoreau. As far as environment for reading, if it happens to be shining and sunny, go outdoors and read under a tree. Play some soft music if you like. I suggest some lieder by Schubert, Brahms, or Strauss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec7RsTvDxmM
Bask in the world and in the word. You'll start feeling a little better, and every little bit helps.

Believe me, I know how it feels. Don't lose hope, bro. You'll make it. We will all make it. :)

[Anonymous No.11410484]

>>11407014
You are scum

[Anonymous No.11410510]

Honestly 'Just Kids' by Patti Smith. If only for being something that made me genuinely excited and made me regain my interest in art and artmaking in general

[Anonymous No.11410874]

>>11409792
it gets waaaaayyyyy better, dont worry

[Anonymous No.11411597]

Ulysses by Joyceyboi is basically my favorite antidepressant (other than actual antidepressants). I’ve spent my whole life being like Stephen (super stuck in my head, melancholic, never present) and this book taught me to be a little more like Bloom and appreciate simpler things, allowing myself to exist in the moment, being curious but not overly cerebral. Bloom is an exceedingly uplifting character, despite having an underlying sadness to him. Likewise Ulysses is definitely a bittersweet book but only as much as life is bittersweet. It is overall optimistic I think, and the biggest theme (Love) triumphs over all the little slings and arrows.

[Anonymous No.11411693]

>>11411597
I often quit Ulysses every 100-150 pages then go back to it a few months later because I am still admittedly a gigantic fucking pleb, but I still find profundity in it, even if it require reading some analyses to fully get it