/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.21928750]

what are some books you would recommend to someone dealing with depression?

[Anonymous No.21928754]

[Anonymous No.21928762]

>>21928750
Bible.

[Anonymous No.21928806]

>>21928750
"Character Strengths and Virtues."
Available on Library Genesis so you can save your $150 for something else.

"Meaning in Positive and Existential Psychology"
Same. LibGen. Save $120.

What you focus on gets bigger.
If you're on drugs, even ADs imo, look up
"The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants"
May be on LibGen, or not, haven't checked. And see about slowly breaking your addiction to either and weaning yourself off those.
In my, desu extensive, experience... There's a "depression" -to- "BPD" -to- "schizophrenia" medical pipeline where young adults feeling sad f a variety of totally natural and curable causes, are instead prescribed a pill . That makes them worse, and are then told it's their "illness" and they just need more or different pills. This goes on for an average of ten years until they either literally now have BPD or are just bumped up to that class of pharmaceuticals"because your depression is hard to treat" or "because we wanted to stay slow and possibly misdiagnosed you". Rinse repeat. 10 years later you "have" "schizophrenia."
?
In this way they keep hundreds of thousands of people paying monthly deductibles for life and the insurance paying as well.
It's a billion dollar industry and destroys lives and really ... People just crave meaningful interaction and a work life balance that's healthy and career and friends that matter and add *meaning* to their short, miserable lives.

There's articles about this "pipeline" but don't expect major media corporations to be broadcasting it from the rooftops.

Anyways, that's what I think.

[Anonymous No.21928886]

>>21928762
Ecclesiastes.

The Bible is a large book.
Heaven help OP if, like many approaching it for the first time, he thinks..ok, I'll give it a shot. let me start at the beginning!
He's in for about 200 pages of history and mythology and ancient laws (that no longer apply, second covenant) and loooong lists of
>________, who begat ______, who begat ________

But I will say this:
When I was at my absolute lowest I prayed out loud to God, confessed all my sins out loud (I know, I don't know why ...can't He 'see' inside my head? But this is what worked for me: out loud) and was y'know crying and carrying on. (hey it's been a hard life, you'd cry too if you'd been through what ive been through)
And anyways that was my one religious experience which took me from an atheist, at best agnostic, to a true believer... For about three years.
I guess I've lapsed now, I dunno.
Anyways,
Ecclesiastes, the "gothic" book of the Bible. Being depressed and reading Ecclesiastes is like seeing an old friend who has seen the same shit you have, a million times, and knows your problems and sympathizes.
https://biblehub.com/esv/ecclesiastes/1.htm

[aaa No.21928892]

>>21928750
Seagull by Johnathan Livingstone. Find your purpose and live, my friend. Once upu do, nothing can bring you down.

[Anonymous No.21928893]

why, le sad russian guy of course

[Anonymous No.21928903]

>>21928892
>Seagull by Johnathan Livingstone
is this some kinda /lit/ meme I'm not aware of or just a pretty good bait?

[Anonymous No.21928921]

>>21928903
It is. Real OGs know that [picrel] is Jonathan Livingston's most glorious work.

[Anonymous No.21928938]

>>21928886
why've you lapsed?

as i may as well effortpost now,
reading order:
Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts, John, Epistles, Revelation, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, rest of the OT.

[Anonymous No.21928974]

>>21928750
Prometheus lookin ass nigga

[Anonymous No.21929245]

>>21928750

For depression i don't know, don't really know what depression is...

If is sadness, i would recommend greek tragedy.
If is lack of energy i would recommend Reinassance theology.

[Anonymous No.21929252]

Not a book, but you should watch this if you haven't yet.

[Anonymous No.21929271]

>>21928938
Perhaps because I wasn't a very good Christian and needed "proof" to begin with?

I wrote an...even longer post but erased it out of embarrassment and because, even though this is a literature board and you might think that people here enjoyed reading, or at least weren't goldfish about it, you'd be wrong. Its still filled with many goldfish n guppies with tiny attention spans who think tiny, simple thoughts and *blub* out short, turd-like pebbles of correspondence.
Heh.
Anyways, too much shitposting and low-effort crap makes many places indistinguishable from AI bot spam, right?
Right!
I don't mind filtering 99.99% of the ADHD crowd, do you?
Clearly not.

Clearly not

Anyhoo...
LAPSED... because after that religious experience I was having pretty-much daily, joyous breakdowns and crying with JOY that God existed and LOVED ME and was real, I could literally feel his presence,.
After a decade+ of near suicidal suffering!
:'(
But our Western society 100% doesn't acknowledge or even know what to do with that, and usually prescribes pills to *make it stop* (lol, why?)...and I also stupidly assumed I'd always have access to that presence.
That if I just prayed and thought about the original experience, that ... "presence" would come.
But bursting into ecstatic tears
of joy in the grocery store, @
red light in traffic, etc...again, it
scares people. They think you're crazy.
YOU probably think I'm crazy. LoLo.
So, I also ran from it
because it was too intense.
That much happiness was
sort of draining. And, like I said:
I thought it'd always be there.
And, weirdly enough, life went on.
I still had chores to do, a house to clean, meals to cook, a family to raise, etc.
A year went by, then two.
Somewhere along the line I realized that no matter how hard I prayed, the presence
wasnt coming back. I guess?
It's more complicated than that but "effort posting", right? Lol.

(This generation is sick in the
head. You have tech allowing people to connect
and express things they're too
chickenshit to say out loud but still too "cool", afraid to sày anything real or revealing on it.)

Or whatever.
:-)

Anyways you asked.
There's the answer.

Now I more and more see that experience as some weird psychotic episode, "hearing voices", etc
That's what modern science would call it.

Still read Ecclesiastes though!

"The day of death is better than the day of birth
But better still not to be born at all.
It is better to go to a graveyard
than to a party!
for death is the shared fate of all mankind
and the living will think deeply about that.
Sorrow is better than laughter
for by sadness your soul is made clean.
The thoughts of the wise are in the cemetery
but the thoughts of fools are in the party.
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise
than to hear the praise of fools.
For as the crackling of sharp, dry thorns in a fire,
so is the hollow, brittle laughter of fools online;
this also is vanity and cringe."
https://biblehub.com/esv/ecclesiastes/7.htm

[Anonymous No.21929282]

To Stay Alive: A Method, an essay by Michel Houllebecq. I wish I had read it and taken it more seriously when I was younger.

[Anonymous No.21929296]

I'll second what the Bible guy said.
Matthew is a must read.

[Anonymous No.21929334]

>>21928750
Epicurus

[Anonymous No.21929335]

>>21929271
i've had times i felt that joy about everything.

you had the ecstasy, but no substance to uphold that.
i'd say study more, if i am to be blunt.
I was a fencesitter before i properly studied.
it's natural to want proof, and it leads to a stronger faith to look for it. i nearly despaired every time i came up with a new doubt, but time and time again i answered it and came out with more belief.

funnily enough, your main answer is in Ecclesiastes. life is as boring and meaningless as it appears; God is the meaning it all lacks.
i've found that rewriting of the ecclesiastes passage in especially bad taste too.

[Anonymous No.21929343]

>>21929296
based.
what's your favorite passage?

[Anonymous No.21929377]

>>21929343
Hard to pick a favorite, but you can't go wrong with anything from His sermon on the mount. Maybe the mote and the beam parable? It's especially relevant these days with online personas being different from people's real lives. Everyone wants to talk a big game when what we all need is humility.
What about you?

[Anonymous No.21929379]

>>21928750
Anatomy of Melancholy

[Anonymous No.21929401]

>>21929377
the sermon on the mount.
seems simple, but it's unbelievable how much depth it has if you really try to understand it.

i also really like the whole of Matthew 7, especially 7-12.
ask, and ye shall receive. echoes another one i like, Jeremiah 33:3.

[Anonymous No.21929439]

>>21929401
I just had another look at it and Matthew 7:7-12 is awesome. I totally forgot about that.
Seems like a similar message in Jeremiah 33:3.
What version do you read? I know the KJV isn't the most accurate, but the language is so beautiful to me.

[Anonymous No.21929443]

The only time I was able to read David Foster Wallace was when I was depressed. So this is your opportunity to try that out

[Anonymous No.21929456]

>>21929439
not american, so it wouldn't help you.
i find the BSB quite nice. one of the best and most accurate from the times i had to look up verses.

[Anonymous No.21929478]

>>21929456
>not american
Since Americans use the same Bible variations as other English speaking countries is it fair to assume you are not a native English speaker? Does your language have similar problems with historical translations and disputes among different versions as the English speaking world does?

[Anonymous No.21929513]

>>21929478
yeah.
funnily enough, not at all.
everyone mostly agrees on a single translation being great, and any variations are usually slight changes on that same version.
we do have some 'the message' level shite, like one where it basically rewrites everything for "thought equivalence".
none of the shitflinging you find with english translations, so its nice.

[Anonymous No.21929608]

>>21929334
Epicurus is a good one.
Everyone says "Seneca", which is fine and dandy, Seneca is worthwhile. But Epicurus is really good as well
I'd forgotten about him so thanks.

[Anonymous No.21929637]

>>21928750

You unintentionally wrote the title of one I know of - 'Dealing with Depression' by Paul Gilbert. In that same vein of self help literature informed by studies in Cognitive and Behavioural psychology, there's 'The CBT Handbook' by Pamela Myles and Roz Shafran. For something with a less secular bent, 'The Road Less Travelled' by Scott Peck(?)

I feel I can't list a lot of these philosophical texts without a hint of irony because of this cursed website. But, I may as well:
'Meditations' (Marus Aurelius), The Bible (KJV), 'Discourses' (Epictetus), 'How Much Land does a Man Need? And other stories'

As for Fiction... well, these might help in very indirect, transcendental, and unforeseeable ways. Or you might finish them feeling you've wasted your time; they may not have the attenuating effect for you that they did for me. All the same:
'Jane Eyre', 'Watership Down', 'The Sense of an Ending', 'Crime and Punishment', 'Notes from the Underground', 'Vox', 'Stoner', 'Paradise News', 'Persuasion' , 'The Trouble with Happiness' (some of the stories, anyway), 'The Catcher in The Rye', 'Franny and Zooey'

Books of Poetry that may help:
The Golden Treasury
The Poetry Pharmacy and The Poetry Pharmacy Returns
Works of Emily and Charlotte Bronte

[Anonymous No.21929678]

>>21928750
as someone with chronic depression: meds. luckily the first thing my doctor tried -- Lexapro -- worked for me and is available generic cheaply. but that requires making an appointment and going to see a doctor, which is not something a depressed person is good at doing because new people and places are anathema. luckily my friends got me on track before I got kicked out of my apartment.

so try to see a doctor or get someone you trust to set it up.

but in the meantime -- and this is no bullshit, it definitely has a noticeable positive effect -- face the sun for twenty minutes as soon as you wake up. if it's night or overcast, there are lamps you can buy of a certain lumens value that are easily found online. it's not as good as meds, but it's something you can control and do by yourself in the meantime.

hang in there. I'm living proof that you can get better.

[Anonymous No.21929698]

>>21929678
OP asked for books. Not chemical restoratives.

[Anonymous No.21929707]

>>21929698
this thread is a cry for help, books ain't gonna do shit.

[Anonymous No.21929713]

>Actually being able to read books when you're depressed.

My books just sit there and I can't motivate myself.

[Anonymous No.21929731]

>>21929282
Need to read my copy of 'Serotonin' by him. Have you read that?

[Anonymous No.21929742]

>>21929713
push yourself to read a few pages. it'll snowball into interest for the story.

[Voluntary Fool No.21929757]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91gT68xeDMM

[Anonymous No.21929882]

>>21929335
>I've had times i felt that joy about everything.

Not to belittle you or anything but I'm not sure we understand each other. It wasn't just "joy about everything" yknow? To me at the time, and for three or four years afterwards, it was Literal, Irrefutable Proof That God Exists.
Undeniable, like an OT prophet!
I'm not saying I was equal or even close or on any scale of with them.
I'm saying it was a stereotypical "religious / mystical experience" that many many many people have had.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Varieties_of_Religious_Experience


>you had the ecstasy, but no substance to uphold that.
Maybe.
I mean, the exstasy was the substance for me.
I just wish I could've found a way to either maintain that connection (at a lower 'frequency') or live in a society more understanding of it. As it was my next door neighbor's teenaged kid would loudly pretend to cry when we left the window open (but hide when I walked outside to see what was up, lol). I tell this to Pete and they get upset, "YOUR RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE WAS BULLSHIT" (actual quote). Etc.

>i'd say study more, if i am to be blunt.

Bluntness is great with me. I did study quite a bit, though. For years afterwards. The Bible is quite bereft of practical advice for achieving and maintaining a *direct line* with God or angels.
>Pray
Okaaay, but how, *exactly*? Because we've all prayed and waited and the only "still, small voice" to be heard... could easily just be our own mind. And usually nothing at all. What I experienced was *definitely* NOT my own mind. Or, that's what I believed for years afterwards now I'm not sure.
In have to have "faith" in my own memory of the experience.
Faith in my past self. Etc.
And I don't anyways have that

When looking for confirmation or guidance...Catholic study Bibles sorta kinda helped (the 4 meanings of Scripture, etc) but not really I had to find "Christian mysticism" then sort through 90% that was new age stuff or that also described *textural* analysis, symbolism, etc. Like just reading the right words or having the right understanding would initiate contact. It wasn't, and rarely is, about direct experience.
Like Judaism, much of Christianity is "of the book" and just stories. Lots of stories about things happening to other people. Compare that with Hinduism or some branches of Taoism / Buddhism.

Only recently have I come across:
Miguel de Molinos and Quietism which is closer.
Catholics kiboshed people directly interacting with the Divine, long ago, I guess.

[...]

[Anonymous No.21929889]

>>21928750
Exercise is more effective against depression. Try walking in the woods or near a body of water. Do some jumping jacks or burpees or push ups to really get the blood flowing.

That said a cozy audiobook may help. Try Watership Down or The Civil War: A Narrative History.

[Anonymous No.21929945]

2/3 whoops!
>>21929335
>funnily enough, your main answer is in Ecclesiastes.

Yeah, I got that. LoL. That is kinda funny. I dunno...
I had an experience and then after some time the experience went away. I could be happy and gracious and content that something happened that rarely happens. Maybe I should do that. Maybe you're right.
I think if I put my mind to it, maybe? And God is willing. And it's in His plans...I could have a similar one?
But how do I then interact with a world where that mode of consciousness is seen as a problem...to be medicated? Where people recoil in terror?
Or want to attack you for expressing it? For mentioning it?
About a year (?) after that first time I was distraught and praying and asking God why I had to suffer all that time. A decade+ of utter, utter misery, cursing God, praying, nothing, abandoned.. Alone... etc etc .. Why didn't He reveal Himself *then*, and this ...lesser ... extreme presence asked something like, "do you want me to show myself like I did last time?" And I immediately went, "Nooo no no no no! No thank you!" Lol. The understanding was that had He done it sooner it would've messed me up (worse) or something. I dunno.

Not sure why I'm saying all this. I guess just that maybe other know that it does happen? I'm glad to revisit the topic though so thanks.


[...]

[Anonymous No.21929950]

3/3
>>21929335
>life is as boring and meaningless as it appears; God is the meaning it all lacks.
"And there's no afterlife either. So just enjoy your wine and work!" You forgot that part. Lol. Blew my mind when I read that ...in the Bible! Truly, it's a much more complicated book than most people know.

>i've found that rewriting of the ecclesiastes passage in especially bad taste too.

Sorry for offending you. The way I see it, the Bible was written and edited by fallible humans as prone to sin as anyone else.
To the best if my knowledge, Jesus was never quoted as saying, "and lo, in 382 years from now, there shall be a council in Rome and they shall put together a book and within that book, and only that book, shall be everything you need to know about me and your Heavenly Father."
You know?
I mean, who were they again?

>The list of books included in theCatholic Biblewas established as canon by theCouncil of Romein 382, followed by those ofHippoin 393 andCarthagein 397.
From:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible

I don't even know the names of the people on that council. Bit they weren't apostles. They weren't Jesus. They were people, as prone to sin, vice, vanity, etc as others right?

Who knows why the choose some letters and not others.

Etc.

All that to just say that, imo, me creatively embellishing the scripture in a way that everyone reading would know why meant to mislead, isn't that big of a deal.

It's the Great, Beating Heart of the message, not the nit-picky details... that's important.

I doubt I could've continued calling myself Christian if I associated or even spoke to the majority of Christians.

They are a great, repulsive force chasing people away from Jesus and God, if you ask me.

And now I'll be quiet.
I hope OP finds his way to some solace. Assuming "he" or "she" is not an automated bot.

Ciao
https://youtu.be/mI6QjZJm6uA

[Anonymous No.21929975]

>>21928750
The only book you'll need.

[Anonymous No.21929989]

stop saying the bible
4chan is not a bible thumping site
it used to be the opposite, in fact

[Anonymous No.21930010]

>>21929882
>>21929945
>>21929950
least spastic christcuck

[Anonymous No.21930012]

What are some books on dealing with somebody who has Depression? I can't fucking stand the miserable prick and he only tries to drag me down with him whenever I interact.

[aaa No.21930762]

>>21928903
What bait? Seagull, who flues for the sake of flying, dies and is reborn, now with purpose. Doesn't it give you hope? Each one of us is born for something. Dont hive up. Find your thing. World can be beautiful.

[Anonymous No.21930787]

>>21928762
>>21928806
>>21928886
>>21928892
>>21928893
>words, words, words
Depressed people are mentally and physically incapable of reading any book. They are anhedonic and lack motivation. Books will not help them. That's like suggesting books for an illiterate person (actually even worse because an illiterate could have someone read to them or learn to read, a depressed person cannot and will not read). Feeling le sad is not depression.

[Anonymous No.21930959]

>>21930787
'Words, words, words. Whereas one needs deeds'

[Anonymous No.21931070]

>>21928750
>>21928762
Lol no the Bible is terrible. It is boring. It is hard to understand. It is not convincing. And it has terrible advice. Instead, unironically study NDEs and realize that there actually is an afterlife and that we are eternal and will go to heaven unconditionally when we die, and that life is like a video game or a simulation and you actually chose to come here, and that the meaning of life is to learn to love and be kind and thrive here despite how hard it is in this world. So how is it going anon? <3

Here is a very persuasive argument for why NDEs are real:

https://youtu.be/U00ibBGZp7o

It emphasizes that NDErs are representative of the population as a whole, and when people go deep into the NDE, they all become convinced. As this article points out:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mysteries-consciousness/202204/does-afterlife-obviously-exist

>"Among those with the deepest experiences 100 percent came away agreeing with the statement, "An afterlife definitely exists"."

Since NDErs are representative of the population as a whole, and they are all convinced, then 100% of the population become convinced that there is an afterlife when they have a sufficiently deep NDE themselves. When you dream and wake up, you instantly realize that life is more real than your dreams. When you have an NDE, the same thing is happening, but on a higher level, as you immediately realize that life is the deep dream and the NDE world is the undeniably real world by comparison.

Or as one person quoted in pic related summarized their NDE:

>"As my soul left my body, I found myself floating in a swirling ocean of multi-colored light. At the end, I could see and feel an even brighter light pulling me toward it, and as it shined on me, I felt indescribable happiness. I remembered everything about eternity - knowing, that we had always existed, and that all of us are family. Then old friends and loved ones surrounded me, and I knew without a doubt I was home, and that I was so loved."

Needless to say, even ultraskeptical neuroscientists are convinced by really deep NDEs.

[Anonymous No.21931075]

>>21931070
stale pasta

[Anonymous No.21931080]

>>21928750
>>21928762
>>21931070
So read NDE accounts and basically all you can about NDEs. Books, YouTube-videos, articles, everything. They will make you realize that there is an afterlife, that there is meaning to life, and that NDErs say that the primary purpose here is to learn to love everyone and everything, no matter what. That it does not matter so much what kind of things we do, but whether we do them with no strings attached, and summon that kindness, love, and compassion on the inside of our own minds as we do it. So the meaning of life then, according to NDErs, is the small things. Whether it is helping someone with their homework, cooking dinner for our family, cleaning the bathroom, or picking up trash from the ground. Whatever it is, if we do it with love, then that is so huge on the other side, it is amazingly huge. So life is like a game where the goal is to summon as much kindness, love, compassion, and generosity as we possibly can squeeze out of our intentions. Which admittedly is definitely easier said than done!

You are playing life on a higher difficulty anon. We are here to learn to shine with love and kindness _in a world where it is undeniably hard to do so_! So are you up for the challenge? You can do it anon. Show us you can do it.

So sure, suicide shoots you directly to heaven and infinite bliss. But at the same time, you were there when choosing to come here. Suicide is therefore like turning off the Silent Hill video game and going out in the sun and playing with your friends. Which is totally fine! But it's not beating and 100%-ing the game, which is to live until death takes you, and being kind and loving all the time along the way.

So choosing to come here is like choosing to go to Harvard. It is not easy, and you have to be somebody to even get to come here. As NDErs say, everybody on Earth is a star on the other side for having the courage and endurance to come to this nightmare hellhole.

I know it is hard to accept, see pic related, but your challenges in life - like your depression - are here as gifts. You wanted these challenges when you were in paradise to see if you could overcome them, to shine with love and kindness when it is hard to do so. To bring positive flow to negative situations.

[Anonymous No.21931101]

>>21931080
>They will make you realize that there is an afterlife, that there is meaning to life, and that NDErs say that the primary purpose here is to learn to love everyone and everything, no matter what.
Most Saints in the Roman Catholoc sacred and fully true tradition simply say God asks you one question, "How much did you love me?"

[Anonymous No.21931119]

As much as I want to have a recommendation for you, nothing has helped me. The only thing that helps depression is immediate action and changing your life, which is probably the hardest thing to do when you’re depressed.

[Anonymous No.21931122]

>>21928750
Sit in the sun. Go for a run. Do some pushups and pullups. Talk to a friend. Eat well. Sleep well. Book is the least effective at curing depression.

[Anonymous No.21931149]

>>21928750
>what are some books you would recommend to someone dealing with depression?
Depression has a LOT of causes. Is it a lack of motivation? A lack of zesty love for life? I mean mostly depression stems from nihilism which is a lack of belief in the afterlife despite contrary teachings and evidence.

[Anonymous No.21931167]

>>21931122
The problem is when these don't work. And drugs don't work either.

[Anonymous No.21931660]

>>21931080
>that cover
vore