straightener
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Who said this: 'Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone?' |
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LillyB
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Agree completely - no room for life's ups and downs. People even routinely get prescribed drugs when they are grieving which is really unhelpful. Its OK to be sad some of the time. |
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Oisin
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sadly no |
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katy
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hallo darkness my old friend? |
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dollymixture
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Its Society that makes us unhappy - its not that we are striving for ultimate happiness - we are striving for some vague resemblance to happiness and some sort of quality of life.
Generally speaking people are unhappy! In all honesty how many people do you know of that you would describe as a truly happy person?! When surrounded by a melancholy attitude its harder be upbeat so people just slip in the same mudane patterns! i guess we liek to deny this to a degree so an ouvert unhappy person makes us feel uncomfortable because they represent what we feel inside. Rather than get root problem many take "easy" option and get anti depressants. (Granted i do realise there are people who are gueninely depressed and need them)
We are to a degree, conditioned to always be dissatisfied with what we have! How much better would we be, I wonder, if we recognised the simple things we take for granted or if we contented ourselves with what we have? |
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BIG D
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Deep question.
So little time to answer.
Look at it like this.
People sometimes say of nostalgia that it is OK to look back but we shouldn't stare!
Perhaps, as with nostalgia it is a question of balance.
Some is OK but too much is unhealthy.
As for me I don't do doctors and pills. I try to rely on inner resources and good friends. For me. it usually works |
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Voluble
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Melancholia is a personal affliction, which is a private affair with yourself. It is not a social condition. Therefore, society as a whole has no room for melancholia. However, within society individuals can use melancholia as a great creative force.
If it was not for periods of great sadness, or depressions, then many of the greatest artists or musicians in the world would have nothing to be creative about.
As I said at the beginning, society as a whole has no place for group melancholic sessions. However, within societies there are places of isolation for those that seek to explore their dark islands. |
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sosgez
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Melancholia isn't as good as it was in my younger days. |
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foxy
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we should not have to try to do or be anything......i,m happy as larry |
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fieldmouse
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not enough time in today's society for that kind of thing. |
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Jude
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I think what you say is largely true, we do find it uncomfortable to be around people who are sad. But being sad is sometimes normal. However when someone feels depressed or sad most, or all, of the time, then it may be time for them to find a professional to talk to about what may be going on for them. |
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nativexile
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Joy Division album for us all!! |
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LYNDA K
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I remember a couple of years ago mentioning to my doctor that i was a bit down about things and he said we shouldnt ever expect to by happy all the time it is very natural to peaks and troughs in our lives and its true i dont know anyone who is happy all the time and likewise anyone who is sad all the time i think its something we need to expect and accept |
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jimgdad
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Them folk just don't know the satisfaction in a good dose of misery.
Remember Marvin, in The Hitchhikers guide, my hero
"Here I am, Brain the size of a planet, all they can get me to do is park cars".
All this happyness is pathertic escapism, we all know we are doomed, why not acceot it and just wallow in it. |
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Chrispy
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Good question. I think there is always too much emphasis on conforming and censure (drugs,shrinks,detention) for too many people who simply see the world as a very dangerous and depressing place - I challenge anyone to tell me they are wrong.
So many of our great artists would have been committed to asylums were it not for their talent (sometimes not even that saved them). Literature and Art would be meaningless without tragedy and so would life. We should always resist the inclination to view those of a cynical or paranoid outlook as somehow "broken" or "unwell".
I am not saying that some people aren't mentally ill, only that just because you think maybe there won't be a happy ending it doesn't mean you are mad! |
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MT K
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who is Melancholia, where is she from.,? surely someone has got room for her and intro spection her friend |
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magiclady2007
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no they dnt recieve a script not from my gp. he advises other ways of curing but u are always told to return if no better then a srcipt is issued. some parts of society are trying to be happy all the time. i.e celebritys! no i dont think we do. i think its a case of people making time for themselves and others who need a helping hand |
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Kiera
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In the past GPs were happily prescribing anti-depressants to quickly despatch the melancholic patients without offering them any real practical help, but nowadays I believe they do refer them to counselling or some kind of therapy.
As for being told to buck up...that is usually us ordinary folk who are too wrapped up in our own lives to care too much for others or lack any sympathy/empathy for others. I actually people complain more..they are 'too stressed', 'going to have a breakdown', or 'they feel depressed' when really it's not that bad. |
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Buzzard
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Is it normal to write 'normal' in block capitals? Who can say?
Melancholia and depression are parts of life... I've had brushes with depression, and struggled to avoid getting on medication for it. According to the doctors I saw, it's a partly mental and partly physical condition, and whilst they can't necessarily sort out the mental side, they can perscribe drugs that will sort out the bodies chemistry to give you a chance to get your head together.
I don't think introspection and melancholia are the same things necessarily. At the same time, I think it could be true that trying to be happy all the time leads to a crash... but being down for a short time and being down for extended periods are quite different things. With extended periods of depression, treatment of both mental and physical aspects may be necessary, but it's not like doctors come running with pills the moment you feel down. Still, I think there's a feeling that doctors can be a bit quick to perscribe anti-depressants when you go to them feeling run down... and that can be a slippery slope, because it's easy to get dependant on those things.
There's space in society for feeling down and taking time out... but I think a stigma remains against people who are reliant on medication in their daily lives... of course, if someone's feeling down, people are less likely to hang around them; then again, maybe the melancholic fellow would prefer to be left to his own devices? It's hard to be introspective when people are talking in your earhole and demanding attention... |
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swot
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a bit of melancholia shows we are human but too much can be unhelpful. it is possible to be happy most of the time, only some people get jealous of this and want to pull you down to their toxic level.
if you are grieving then malancholia/depression can be part of the process you go through in order to accept your loved one is dead, or your loss is a reality.
you can't have sunshine without rain. |
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Joanne W
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I must have. My boyfriend gets very depressed, but I wouldn't swap him for the world... I love him. xxx |
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chuckler
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It is true that my depression pushed me into looking at where I had gone wrong in my life-many,many times. I have dealt with the most life threatening aspects or causes of my depression, but if I let problems which I should be addressing slide, then I am again building up difficulties for myself. I am still taking antidepressants because I damaged my brain during my alcoholism(sober 20 years now). Alcoholic's brains and body's have been found to be different than most beause there is something lacking(some would say common sense ;-)) neurologically. This missing part causes the pre-alcoholic and active alcoholic to be nervous and jittery hence his/her seeking something to calm down or feel 'at one' with the world. We break down alcohol differently too which gives rise to the phenomenon of craving. |
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sarah c
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Melancholia is not depression, any GP or psychiatrist that can't tell the difference needs to be struck off.
Introspection will be banned soon. It might make you start thinking. Its also an admission that our consumer obsessed society isn't that great, and that stuff can't make you content or happy. |
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carolynsherratt
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I like to feel melancholia sometimes. It keeps me in touch with who I am and what pleases and displeases me. I think its a crime against nature not to be able to feel it. It generally passes in a few days. (I am well aware that this is different to clinical depresion). Whenever it happens I (and close friends and family) know that I will come out the other side a better person, and a hell of lot healthier than if I had gone running for some pills.
Good question by the way. |
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Duncan Disorderly
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The tendency is for people to be told to ''do something'' about it. Society only really cares about house prices. What the individual person who is a bit meloncholic needs is good friends, good times etc.
And doctors in England have been reported for prescribing pills too easily, so yes. |
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Hibee
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It's called a Leonard Cohen concert. |
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NutstersChick
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we all learned a long while ago.
laugh & the World laughs with u.
cry & u cry alone.
or is that just coz i'm a brit that i'm used 2 saying, everything's fine,
even when it's not! |
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absolved lemon
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2 snails are trying to cross the road, suddenly one snail becomes tired of life and generally pissed off halfway across.the other snail stops and turns and shouts "dont stop stay focused stay with me and we'l......splat!
dont let no mofo bring ya down. |
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Who Yah
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Sadness, melancholy & true depression are not easily tolerated by some as they really don't have time!
How often do we ask someone "How are you?" and expect them say say "Fine, thanks." even though their left leg just dropped off!
I really couldn't give a short(ish) answer to your question about society trying too hard to be happy because it is a DEEP question but I think we are expected to be more extrovert now than perhaps we were in the past. Even so, introverts have always been seen as a "bit odd" I think!
I think you are right that pills are given out too easily sometimes. Years ago after a huge disaster in my life I went to my doctor to tell him I felt depressed. He took a quick recent history from me, said he wasn't surprised I was depressed, told me to come back in four days and sent me home empty handed. Once I had permission to feel that way it almost seemed OK.
I think you have hit the nail on the head with that word "time". That is what seems to be really missing from many people's lives now. That and the fact that we live in a greedy, commercial society which denies most of the finer feelings that human beings have. |
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