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Buddy, it's both.
Plus, our brains literally trick us into feeling better by complaining about things. So you get all the happy feeling about "doing something to improve the situation" without putting in any of the work.
If you aren't going to do the work to improve things (both yourself and the world), the distinction of the cause doesn't matter anyway.
Plus, our brains literally trick us into feeling better by complaining about things. So you get all the happy feeling about “doing something to improve the situation
One can make constant, meaningful improvements to all aspects of their personal situation and still have valid reasons to be depressed.
I feel that it is a perfectly normal reaction for one to be discouraged when they are overly limited by the world around them; while the people who are mostly not limited do absolutely nothing to put anything back into society (in practice, they are mostly doing the opposite).
without putting in any of the work.
Not everybody is capable of putting in the work you feel is necessary to empathize with them.
If you aren’t going to do the work to improve things (both yourself [...]
It's society's job to do better - as a whole. It is likely desirable for society for individuals to take responsibility for their actions and to do what they are able (at their own pace), and hopefully be given the freedom, support (if needed), and allowed the opportunities and circumstances to do their best.
Sometimes just existing is all that somebody can do at certain points in their healing journey and I feel it is desirable for us to accept that - safety and stability can be provided regardless of personal effort or externally visible effort.
[...] and the world)
Individuals putting the weight of the world on their shoulders likely isn't beneficial for their physical or mental health.
the distinction of the cause doesn’t matter anyway.
The distinction always matters. There are many, many reasons why people develop mental health disorders; that is why the chemical imbalance theory is mostly debunked - it's overly simplistic. This belief likely reinforces stereotypes and narrows treatment focus.
I firmly believe trauma and other environmental or physical health causes are discounted in most mental health treatment.
Change the "they are" to "I am" and you got a me_irl, or even a 2meirl
Yeah well, antidepressants are cheaper, easier and probably healthier than doing a revolution. Also, it's hard to do a revolution when you're depressed - organizing a revolution takes a lot of time and effort and just because the reasons for the illness are external doesn't mean you don't still have that illness.
cheaper
If you want to live to old age (I'm ambivalent) you literally cannot afford to not have a revolution. More on this later.
easier
Nope. Those supply lines are crazy, the contrivances of insurance and IP law require so much bureaucracy, and then there's tje side effects; of both capitalism and the drug.
healthier
Los Angeles kinda burned down and was drowned by toxic smoke last winter because we spent all the city and county money on cops to protect rich people from hearing the poor say "please stop" at scale and nothing preventing or preparing for the disasters our city/region is known for, that my grandmother, who had never been here, loved songs about. Best economic system. We're rebuilding in the same places, with houses just as flammable. The people know it's dumb, but the wealthy make the decisions. There was toxic fallout over the entire god damn city. It got everywhere. I'm almost certainly getting at least one cancer about this.
This summer those cops saturated us with so much tear gas it poisoned the water protecting capital's geopolitical interests from people asking the government to stop paying to blow up hospitals with their tax dollars. Billions of dollars annually. Basically the only industry employing certain kinds of engineers. To blow up hospitals. So healthy. So cheap. So safe.
Today (technically yesterday but my sleep schedule is fucked) theres a potential for flash floods and I got emergency warnings about 'debris flows' which is like mudslides/flash floods but of toxic waste that nobody cleaned up because there's no profit in that.
We aren't special. This shit happens everywhere.
depression makes revolution harder
Yeah, it does. But wanting to die can also be a strength, and capitalism causes and worsens depression.
Historically the biggest problem with revolutions is what happens after. It's very common for people with some form of power to use the opportunity of a revolution to step in and take over after the previous government is destabilized, which usually results in even worse corruption and abuse of authority. Revolutionaries often don't plan very well for how to actually run a country post-revolution.
The US revolution is an exceptional case study. I think it's very important to recognize that the people who led that revolution spent a lot of time planning how to actually run a government that was not a monarchy. There were a lot of meetings, literally people (OK all white men, which created a host of follow-on problems, but that's another story) sitting around talking about government operation for hours, days, months, before they agreed on the Articles of Confederation, and then in a few years they realized they fucked it up and they needed to start over. Then they had years more debate about government bureaucracy before finalizing the Constitution. How many people do you know, personally, today, who have that kind of patience and obsessiveness about the minutiae of government structure, to sit and talk about it for days at a time? Do you even have the attention span to read this entire wall of text? How about the Federalist Papers?
Also, those people had a rare context:
They functionally existed in a shielded bubble that provided years to get their shit together, with room to restart after failure. Few other revolutions have had that kind of opportunity.
The point being, if you want to actually create a better society you have to plan for it extensively, and you need the time and space and resources to actually implement it, and you had better be thinking about that before the revolution. If you don't have the passion for building a better world, if your primary interest is just in tearing down the existing one, then your priorities are fucked and the world would be better off if you didn't start. You're just angry and angsty, you want violence and destruction, you don't actually care about the consequences or the well-being of other people.
Hear, hear! Government is indeed genuinely hard even if you go in with good intentions, have at least some qualifications and don't need to fight off counterrevolutionairies and external enemies all the time, and untreated depression (or whatever other mental illness one might have) would be very detrimental every step of the way.
My distress stems from a combination of alienated labor, eroded social contract and kakistocracy.
My complex biochemical divergence stems from birth.
I think you'd rather externalize blame for your dysfunctions and demand the world change rather than seek evidence-based medical treatment so you can be functional enough to make the world change.
The medical and especially psych fields are incredibly toxic,fo used on capital-friendliness of solutions over effectiveness of solutions defined by their inconvenience ro capital rather than the patient.
So theoretically, sure.
But revolution can be great fucking therapy. Getting out there to organize and be around people who give a shit can be really nice and healing and empowering. Taking the knife out is good and helpful for healing sometimes.
incredibly toxic
If this is how you feel about modern medicine you have zero standing to comment on divergent brain structures and their inherent changes in biochemical processes. There are plentiful evidence-based, peer reviewed research papers written by curious, highly specialized doctors on the impact genetics and fetal development have on differing brain structures that lead to various behavioral, emotional, and mental conditions you diminish.
Yes, finding community that shares your sentiments is absolutely good for you; I myself experienced this recently at a workshop on organizing labor and community. While that feeling of solidarity was sorely needed and positively effected my mood, it had zero impact on the biochemical processes and structural differences in my brain that lead to my various executive and mood dysfunctions.
The best way to treat and compensate for those dysfunctions is via consistent, appropriate medication and therapy from medical professionals. Those professionals have put blood, sweat and tears to get where they are because they want to help you. The private industries surrounding health care are absolutely toxic, zero argument there.
You may get frustrated trying to fight for treatment for yourself, but I'd wager that frustration pales in comparison to the frustration felt by the doctors who have to fight against insurance to properly treat their entire population of patients. Finding the right therapist and health care team is far too difficult and expensive, yes. The benefits of getting your shit sorted out now rather than later, however, are immense.
Mistrusting evidence-backed knowledge because your idealogically-driven desire to tear everything down feels better broadcasts your fear of introspection and lack of forethought. How do you expect to rebuild a healthier society from the ashes of our current capitalist hellhole if you yourself aren't healthy? How do you think your compatriots would react if you start spouting the same denial of modern medicine and, by extension, the scientific method as a whole? That's the bullshit my 'centrist' ex-friend spouted in between cheering on the dismantling of the Department of Education and complaining about the 'transgenderism indoctrination' happening in schools. Anti-intellectualism and distrust of expertise are key components of the conservative ideology and I'd advise you to examine how you've come to subscribe to them.
Based on the workshop I attended, many of the compatriots you want to stand with are queer and neurodivergent. If you are neurotypical you're going to have a hard time finding solidarity and community amongst people you insist just need to revolt against society rather than radically accepting their existence and working alongside them. If you are neurodivergent but have not developed tools and skills to compensate for your dysfunctions you won't be nearly as useful or instrumental in the revolution you dream of.
Another way to look at this: Stress negatively influences digestion, causing limited uptake of essential nutrients, leading to chemical imbalances.
Might not be the case for us all, definitely for some.
