/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.22587915]

Books for curing my depression?

[Anonymous No.22587921]

>>22587915
fly to some third world country, stay there for a month and come back

[Anonymous No.22587941]

>>22587915
This worked for me, as in I don't think about killing myself every day, and now actually laugh out loud. Still not over the melancholia and/or alienation, but it's progress. During the same time I tried two kind of SSRIs for two months each, with no effects, and therapy too, with no effect too.

[Anonymous No.22587967]

You don't cure depression with books. Depression can only be cured with sex.

[Anonymous No.22587970]

>>22587921
>go to shithole country that's bad to live in due to the aftereffects of industrialism from "first world countries", then you'll REALLY appreciate the modern world
Only mentally retarded boomers think like you do.

[Anonymous No.22588006]

>>22587915
You can start by going outside. No, not in your shitty yard or down the road. These are all containment zones much like your house. You need to get into some wilderness, do some hiking, open your senses to your surroundings.

[Anonymous No.22588014]

>>22587915
Unironically - Harry Potter

[Anonymous No.22588078]

>>22587915
Pride and prejudice is just so comfy.

[Anonymous No.22588430]

>>22587915
For clinic depression, seek professional help
For depression idk

[Anonymous No.22588437]

>>22587921
He will be more depressed if he do that
>t. thirdwolder

[Anonymous No.22588568]

>>22587915
Travelling did it for me. I went on a trip to another country for three weeks. I was going somewhere new each day, explore new territory - physical, intellectual, social. Talked to people. Ate well. Tried new things. Even pushed myself to do things I am normally uncomfortable with. Each day I woke up with a long list of things I wanted to do, planned to do, had to do with limited time. This kept me feeling joyful. I am not exaggerating when I say that I felt a divine presence arrive and keep me company. Then I flew back home and within two weeks I was depressed again.
C'est la vie, at least when you're retarded like me.

[Anonymous No.22588573]

Infinite Jest and DFW essays

[Anonymous No.22588581]

>>22587915
unironically ISAIF
it didn't cure my depression but it, along with some of Simone Weil's writings, gave me the language to articulate my problems in a way i never quite could before. and once i could properly identify what was wrong, it became much easier to take practical steps towards dealing with it

[Anonymous No.22588628]

>>22588006
Not OP but the weather is way too hot to be outside because of global warming (I'm not even going to try to debate those who deny it when I can attest that 20+ years ago, it was never this hot in my life). There are no parks or any places of interest since this is a shithole flyover town with nothing significant and they keep building apartments after apartments all over the fucking place because for some baffling reason, people want to move here because of the cheap housing. I fucking hate it. Everything is so fucking ugly outside. It's a suburban nightmare.

[Anonymous No.22588638]

>>22588628

[Anonymous No.22588639]

>>22587915
Mein Kampf

[Anonymous No.22588644]

>>22587915
Playboy magazine

Batman omnibus

[Anonymous No.22588648]

[Anonymous No.22588684]

>>22587915
Not my diary desu

[Anonymous No.22589087]

>>22587915
The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson
Made me feel better, at least.

[Anonymous No.22589586]

>>22588628
Time to go north brother

[Anonymous No.22589609]

Anon always suggests hiking/camping, walking, travel, hitting the gym, meditation.

I do these things, but they do not help.

[Anonymous No.22589656]

>>22587915
Start with:
1. Eating 3 solid meals a day. No junk. Nothing fancy.
2. Minimum 7 hours of sleep a day.

[Anonymous No.22589666]

>>22589087
Hail Eris! This is certainly a good book to read when down and out, literary equivalent of an LSD trip. But fiction is probably not going to be enough for our dopamine deficient OP, so let's add Anthony de Mello's Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality.
There are ways to get out of the hole, been there done that. How?
>Hiking
>Walking
>Hitting the gym
>Meditation

[Anonymous No.22589679]

>>22587915
Everyone gets a little depressed and apathetic from time to time. If it is constant then you need to examine your life. If you are in a rut, time to make a big change. Books help as you absorb consciously and subconsciously, but they take a long time till they have a positive effect on you, and not just a brief reprieve from a funk

[Anonymous No.22589688]

>>22589656
TRUTH
do this before medicating yourself. make sure you're drinkin enough water/electrolytes too

[Anonymous No.22589693]

>>22587967
This is the best answer. Assuming you are an isolated man. Just going after women starts to heal you.

[Anonymous No.22589699]

>>22589656
>>22589688
Really people need to fuck off with this advice. You are retarded if sleep + water + food is making you depressed. We are assuming OP isn’t retarded, his life is just bad.

[Anonymous No.22589704]

>>22587915
Like suicidal depression, everything is gray with no highs or lows, or just feeling a little blue?

[Anonymous No.22589713]

>>22587915
Therapy, sadly books are meaningless.
But therapy is also meaningless unless you REALLY want to change ie you're REALLY sick of being/existing the way you are. Usually people don't do that until they've hit rock bottom and/or survived a suicide attempt.
Shit sucks, but I believe in you anon.

[Anonymous No.22589719]

>>22589699
It's just people who use routines as a coping mechanism for their depression/anxiety, it's a useful and healthy one but it's far from enough on it's own, regardless of what CBT-hacks would have you believe.
Likewise these anons just try to self-medicate with healthy lifestyle to avoid having to face their demons more than necessary, instead of actually dealing with them.

[Anonymous No.22589776]

>>22588430
There is no "professional help" for depression. Therapy is a scam. Therapists only want to make profit from privileged white women. They hate men who actually suffer, because that exposes their lack of therapeutic methodology.

[Anonymous No.22589777]

The bible

Depression isn't real, the sooner you realise that the sooner you will be on the path to recovery.

[Anonymous No.22589783]

>>22589777
>the bibble

Christianity has been refuted and btfo by Nietzsche

[Anonymous No.22589967]

>>22588628
You sound retarded considering you think you can accurately use how warm it felt to you 20 years ago as evidence of global warming. Bodies change drastically over 20 years, assuming your memory isn't flawed (big assumption), you probably can't regulate heat as well in your old age and/or you have put on weight which acts as an insulator. Considering you are clearly lacking in intellect maybe you should work on that and it might help you handle the world. So smart books to train you how to think, Infinite Jest.

Also you mention how your area has gotten denser, did you ever stop to think for one millisecond that it may have an effect on residual heat?

[Anonymous No.22589971]

>>22589719
Okay true. When I say his life is bad, I’m also including inner demons with that. You have to deal with your “inner” and “outer” life, if we want to look at it like that. Not everything can be solved in isolation.. not everything socially.. but people saying to drink enough WATER? I’m assuming most people have that figured out

[Anonymous No.22589975]

>>22589719
The key to overcoming depression is to learn to see yourself and your mental health (and the world) as something other than a lost cause aka optimism. Easier said than done, sure, but if you just force yourself to take better care of yourself (with those 'coping' mechanisms) then you will subconsciously start to believe you are someone who can improve (and you will actually improve if only a tiny bit).

Demons are a meme that narcissists create for themselves as they idolize suffering. Even knowing this they won't change but it will somewhat humble them to realise that these silly things and silly advice they have discarded for so long out of laziness/narcissism actually had something to it (assuming they honestly self reflect). It's cliche advice for a reason

[Anonymous No.22589977]

>>22589783
Have you even read both? He was clearly trying to reconcile the underlying morality with the modern materialists

[Anonymous No.22589980]

>>22589971
You clearly havnt met many "depressed" people, most of them think that their mood is 0% related to biological factors and due to their "depression" disregard taking care of themselves in the most basic ways.

[Anonymous No.22590016]

>>22587915
Pic related had a lasting impact on me despite only reading like 1/4th through it. Still over a year later i employ the methods outlined in the book quite frequently. Didn't cure me but gave me a silver bullet against the worst symptoms of catastrophizing and obsessive suicidal thoughts.

[Anonymous No.22590054]

>>22589975
I just said demons because I didn't feel like using more Jungian terms.
Having a very fucked up childhood and multiple siblings who ended up in the bin, (luckily two only temporarily), I can attest those problems are real and can be very debilitating, so calling them demons seemed fitting in layman's terms.
I used to disregard others' issues in the same way, until I realised that was my own coping mechanism.
>>22589980
The state of disrepair depressed people fall into is a symptom in itself. It's just the intro to depression that people mistake for a cause when observing the individual from outside. Sure, it can make things worse, but when a person stops taking care of themself, they're already having clear issues with themselves.

[Anonymous No.22590153]

>>22590054
Then why are you so dismissive over people telling them to make sure they are managing their water intake appropriately? Chances are they are not and it will help. You expect us to give targeted psychological advice for dealing with their "demons" when we don't know what bad thought processes they have instead?

[Anonymous No.22590181]

>>22589776
>privileged
Just because progressive retards misuse the word does not mean you have to do the same

[Anonymous No.22590201]

>>22590181
What was wrong about their use?

[Anonymous No.22590204]

>>22590016
good book.
>>22588684
lol

[Anonymous No.22590208]

I have come to accept I will always be depressed in my life, the hard part is managing the symptoms of it so that my mom won't worry too much about me. That makes me feel worse than anything.

[Anonymous No.22590218]

>>22590153
Because treating symptoms is not a solutioni know we can't do that for them, hence why I said therapy in the first place.
Regardless of you classify their issues as cognitive problems, bas thought processes or emotional complexes, it's something that's solved case by case with a good trained professional.
Treating symptoms is, more often than not, a way to AVOID treating the underlying causea.
And another thing, as >>22589971 says, it's very dismissive of the person's actual issues or their feelings, which makes sure they will avoid tackling them.
Depressed people are not retarded, unless you're dealing with a depressed 7yo, you don't teach it basic bodily functions but instead examine their underlying cause(I know I'm repeating myself a bit here but cannot help it).

[Anonymous No.22590221]

>>22590218
In defense of this awful spelling, public transport is nearly as bad as it is.

[Anonymous No.22590234]

>>22590218
I didn't say once that depressed people are retarded or incapable of taking care of themselves or that we shouldn't treat the underlying cause but the symptoms.
I don't know how you got all that from my post. It was simple. Start with eating and sleeping well. Emphasis on "start with".

[Anonymous No.22590240]

>>22590234
I think you are deeply emotionally invested in this subject. Hence your overreaction.
The fact still remains: sleep, nutrition and exercise play a big role in physical and mental health. Most people don't sleep well, don't eat well and don't exercise well (if at all). If the reader is already doing those things for a significant length of time, they can consider talking to someone or reading a book (to examine underlying psychic causes, as you've repeated many times).

[Anonymous No.22590241]

[Anonymous No.22590265]

>>22590240
Let me try to explain it a bit better.
>Most people don't sleep well, don't eat well and don't exercise well (if at all).
And most people are not depressed. Focusing on the symptoms it diminishes the importance of other actual issues they have which is dismissive which then in turn leads to them feeling not being heard/seen(not as problems but the person in question feels disregarded), which is bad for the depressed person thus likely won't help them or will make them truly accepting help harder.
Perhaps you could argue I'm drawing too much from my own experience here, but I've tried varieties of methods(CBT, hypnosis, stoicism and getting over it, psychoanalysis in the end) and the only effective one(psychoanalysis) lead to a slow and gradual improvement of my symptoms(addiction, sleep schedule, eating and exercising), rather than trying to force myself into those things when I wasn't properly motivated for them - and motivation literally originates from emotions and the only way to get it working is to deal with them properly. There is an amazing difference between getting up in the morning and simply "feeling good/liking myself thus doing something good for me" and "getting up and forcing myself into doing stuff that will make me feel better", which I find kind of hard to put into more specific words for now. The second one seems to come from a place of resentment of yourself rather than love for yourself.
When I say my own experience I refer also to my observations of other people both dealing with depressed people and depressed individuals themselves. Of course my knowledge is severely limited as I'm not even 30 yet.

[Anonymous No.22590267]

>>22587915
No Longer Human

[Anonymous No.22590269]

>>22590181
I used it correctly. Women are privileged in terms of social and emotional support from soiciety.

[Anonymous No.22590272]

>>22588573
based and hanged myself in the garage pilled

[Anonymous No.22590278]

>>22590234
I actually meant to reply to you with >>22590265, but I'll take the chance to try and word it a bit differently yet again.
Consider this:
Telling the person the way they act is wrong means telling them the way they feel is wrong, because feelings are precursors to actions.
To resolve emotional issues it's very important to acknowledge the person's emotions are correct from the perspective of their experience. There is a good reason they are like that, even if that is not a good thing. The defense mechanisms which formed and led to that state also ensured the survival in whatever environment which fostered it was. In my both experience and opinion, you cannot resolve emotional issues as long as you invalidate the feelings stemming from them. Every single time the person will react to that invalidation in a negative way. Most often by repressing them further, sometimes with anger, but those cases are not often depressed as they are anxious or have other issues.
Validating those feelings leads to them actually gathering the courage and support(not from outside but from certain parts of themselves) to finally actually FEEL the things repressed and that way process them and resolve them.

[Anonymous No.22590287]

How do i become more courageous, outgoing, confident and most of all assertive? I don't want to live my life like a warm. Constantly fearing that I'll be walked over or be crushed or at beat used and thrown away.

[Anonymous No.22590293]

>>22590287
>Constantly fearing that I'll be walked over or be crushed or at beat used and thrown away.
Has that happened a lot to you so far?

[Anonymous No.22590298]

>>22590278
>Perhaps you could argue I'm drawing too much from my own experience here
Yes you are.
The rest of what you wrote doesn't contradict what I said. You are deeply invested in this subject. START WITH eating well, sleeping well and exercises. Let me repeat the key phrase: START WITH. How does that invalidate your feefees? Stop projecting.

[Anonymous No.22590301]

>>22590298
I've already explained how it does in multiple ways, sorry I can't do it better. I'm fine with disagreeing on the subject, so thanks for the discussion, I don't have much more to add.

[Anonymous No.22590303]

>>22590293
More often than not. I avoid confrontation. I lose most negotiations.

[Anonymous No.22590312]

>>22590303
And you managed to pull through every time. It must've felt horrible, but there always was a person who had your back and didn't walk over you or crush you or throw you away - you yourself. Whatever happened, you managed to deal with it every time. You're still here, you're still alive and you still want to help yourself - you've already accomplished much even if you don't think so. Try appreciating what you did for yourself so far, it might prove to be a mighty source of confidence which is the starting point for the other things you mentioned wish for.

[Anonymous No.22590317]

>>22590301
No you haven't. You have only explained your particular history: how you felt forced to go through routine and techniques instead of facing and accepting your underlying emotions. But you haven't shown that following routine actively prevents facing those emotions. You also refuse to acknowledge that biology in part contributes to psychology and a healthy lifestyle will help in the long run.

[Anonymous No.22590324]

>>22590317
Yes I have, if you don't think they were good ways that's fine. I honestly don't mind as I have given my 2 cents on the subject.

[Anonymous No.22590328]

>>22590317
contd...
I know you are deeply invested in this. You've been through certain things and feel like you've seen it all. But rest assured that both your views and my tips are correct. One doesn't invalidate or prevent the other. You feel like they did in your particular circumstance, but that's not a universal rule.
My guess is that you were exposed to Freud or something similar and for the first time in your life you were truthful with yourself and hence, you overvalue that particular experience and project it to everything else.
Following a routine AND facing emotions can be done at once and has been done my countless people without psychoanalytic help.

[Anonymous No.22590331]

>>22590324
You know I don't think you have given your 2 cents. I think you will continue to repeat the same line over and over again, and continue to proffer advice like you have above because you are deeply invested in your particular cirumstances. You can either throw up your hands and say "huh huh I honestly don't mind" and feign feeling unaffected, or you can understand what is being said. My guess is you will do the former.
Somehow you still think facing emotions and following routine are mutually exclusive... hahhahha.

[Anonymous No.22590590]

12 rules for life?
mechanics wise dr andrew huberman

[Anonymous No.22590672]

>>22587915
Read the delighful Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club by Mr Charles Dickens

[Anonymous No.22590849]

>>22587915
Books can't cure that.
>Take vitamin D, at least 1000 IU per day (or be in sunlight often)
>Don't watch or read any news
>Limit your phone/computer screen time to one hour per day
>Do activities that don't include looking at any screen (this can be for example reading books - but don't read anything too complicated, philosophical or with too much drama)
>Do activities that physically exhaust you: sport, manual labour (ideally outdoors)
>Go to sleep at least one hour before midnight and sleep as much as you can (even during the day) - depression is exhausting
>Don't blame yourself for it. Depression is just a part of how brain chemistry works.

[Anonymous No.22591085]

>>22587970
every shortcoming everywhere is because of muh oppression

[Anonymous No.22591435]

>>22587967
>>22589693
This

A French teenage boy in 18 century left his home for city and the only advice his mother gave to him was "fell in love with every women you meet". This is the only way to save a young man from depression in his 20s.

[Anonymous No.22591451]

>>22590672
This. A million times this.