Depression Is Contagious

"1 idiot + 2 smart people = 3 idiots"

-Unknown

From the above, the same can be said with depression. If one depressed person goes in a room with 2 non-depressed people - 3 depressed people are going to come out. When I hang out with a person that is depressed, it often feels like the entire conversation is around their mental state which negatively impacts my own, fragile, mental state.

Depression is a sickness of the mind - it's a focus on the wrong things. The sufferer has little to no thought except the negativity he keeps repeating to himself. In a conversation, it can be difficult to move away from the subject because there's not much else the sufferer can talk about.

If you are in a bad place you need to seek help. Whether it be therapy, medication or lifestyle changes there are ways to fight back. Your mind, as is your body, is your responsibility. There's only so much your friends can help with until it starts to negatively impact their own mental state.

Prevention is always better than medication. 

While I'm not a medical professional I think we can all agree that exercise, good sleep and proper diet have tremendous health benefits not just on the physical self but the psychological one as well. Many depressed people I have encountered are failing at, what I consider to be at least, the basics required for a healthy mental state. 

What we need to keep in mind is that it's also possible to be depressed while doing the basics. There are no guarantees in life ... we can only decrease the chances of it something like this from happening. There are also exterior, often outside of our control, things that can happen that would negatively impact our mental state - such as loss.

“Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. This is but saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but nettles. Men understand this law in the natural world, and work with it; but few understand it in the mental and moral world (though its operation there is just as simple and undeviating), and they, therefore, do not cooperate with it.”

-As a Man Thinketh by James Allen

Listen to Your Body?

We only have a surface level understanding of what our body needs. We know it needs rest, good food, muscles... and we know the actions that helps in those areas but our body has never flat out told us "I need more vitamin A". How it communicates with us is by giving us visual, or psychological, cues that we must decipher.

What this tells me is that we're not supposed to have awareness and our bodies didn't evolve to communicate effectively with it. The current communication system between our body/mind is no different than one with a dog and its mind. While we do have the power to diagnose an issue there's no way for us to ask what it needs. It feels a bit like the mind is trapped into this moving prison that we control parts of.

Maybe it's better this way?

If we could communicate with our body, the same as we could with other people, maybe it would be too distracting? Like when we're in pain the pain is constantly reminding us that its there.

"Our" thoughts?

Humans are creatures of habits with a tendency to take which ever route is easiest as it conserves energy. When it comes to thinking, it's easier for us to adopt someone else's ideologies than to come up with our own. 

If our mind isn't sharp, if it can't think critically, then no thoughts are really our own. 

When too many people can't think critically we end up with a cult like mobs that can be swayed which ever way the opportunist chooses.

“A man whose first thought is bestial indulgence could neither think clearly nor plan methodically; he could not find and develop his latent resources, and would fail in any undertaking. Not having commenced to manfully control his thoughts, he is not in a position to control affairs and to adopt serious responsibilities. He is not fit to act independently and stand alone. But he is limited only by the thoughts which he chooses.”

— As a Man Thinketh by James Allen

Meditation and diligent study is required for anyone who wishes to think for themselves.

Be Mindful of The Advice Given

"The man who says in his heart, "I will teach all men, and learn from none," will neither teach nor learn whilst he is in that frame of mind, but will remain in his folly."

-Mind is the Master: The Complete James Allen Treasury by James Allen

In one of the leadership seminars I attended, the speaker said something along the lines of "be careful who you get your information from as you may end up with their results." While we can learn something from everyone we should first analyze the data before we apply it within our own life. 

Don't take financial advice from those who don't have their finances in order. Don't relationship advice from those that haven't been able to keep a relationship longer term. Don't take advice from those that don't have the results that you want in life: If anything they're teaching you what NOT to do.

Making Things Better?

Is the goal of tech companies still to make things better for humanity or are they now trying to replace us altogether? The philosophy of tech companies seems to have changed in recent years for the worse. "If we don't do it someone else will" seems to be their motto.

• Streaming services have changed the landscape of physical media. Now only a handful of companies control our entertainment and they rule with an iron fist often to the detriment of the artist. 
• Meta has tried to create a separate world, called the Metaverse, where they would of monitored everything.
• A.I. is disrupting all sorts of industries to the detriment of employees.
• Robots are coming...

Where does that leave us? 

It will leave us with a handful of companies with more power than governments. Some people will be able to buy an army of robots and overtake these governments if they wanted to. There needs to be a better understanding of what the end goal is in all of this as well as better regulation surrounding it.