You have got to be kidding me

Why are you surprised, just look at how he defines himself : "My name is Toma. Once upon a time I wrote about the integration between humanity and technology. I now mostly write about spiritual psychology. I am strongly pro-religion and subsequently write with an anti-secular rhetoric."

This is basically a declaration of "I don't believe in scientific evidence and methodology".

 

Thank God professional people don't think this way. This suck-it-up mentality is bullshit.

 

I really shouldn't have read the comments. For some reason, I keep breaking this rule of the internet.

I do a lot of volunteer work with people that are mentally ill and/or in crisis. Reading things like this really upsets me. The author's attitude is one of the reason people are afraid to seek help.

I also noticed that the author doesn't provide references to prove all of his assertions. Also, here are some quotes from the author that are located in the comment section for those that don't want to click the link. Any errors in spelling or grammar that may be present are from the author, Toma.

This guy is an idiot

 

I stopped reading after the first paragraph of his "article", but now I've got to read the comments. This is just too hilarious. Next thing you know, he'll be praising homeopathy. :roflmao:

 

This is why I hate people...
Has Toma never has a depressed relative? Like the nerve of some people..

 

"Stupid" doesn't even begin to cut it. His words are aggressively detrimental to human progress.

 

People are dum.

 

The man is a blithering idiot. The imbecile also thinks pseudo-Buddhist pseudo-science is sufficient proof that depression is not real. The point of depression is feeling down, and his solution is to "stop feeling sad". That's like saying someone should just stop having cancer; a mental disorder is exactly the same principle, even if he thinks otherwise. Clearly he has never witnessed real depression, and is so egoistical that he has to put down others.:tantrum::tantrum::tantrum:

 

I was depressed for 3 or 4 years. Severely depressed, suicidal and self harming. Does he really think that if I'd been able to stop being depressed by thinking positively that I WOULDN'T HAVE FUCKING TRIED IT?

 

If only I'd known all along that all I have to do is go sit under a tree and think about puppies and ice-cream, my life would have been just peachy long ago.

 

So basically I spent most of the day curled up in bed unable to move, wishing I could just stop existing, because I just wasn't thinking positive enough? It's not like I've done nothing but try to think positive thoughts for the past two or three weeks.

And people wonder why I'm so strongly against using spirituality as an excuse for keeping ideas away from scientific scrutiny. It generates real harm by allowing ideas like those by the article's author to spread. You can believe whatever you want, but as soon as you start making factual claims, you have entered the realm of science. The existence of depression and other mental illnesses are factual claims. To discard science, then, is to be completely unreasonable.

 

Wow, just wow. People who say things like that are the very reason that I try not to talk about what ails me.

 

Sounds like this guy has never left his house to me.... That's like saying, "You're not sick. You just want someone to take care of you." Well, guess what, people get sick, and when they do get sick, they need a doctor. Depression is the same way. It's a medical illness. There are people who do use being depressed or pretending to be depressed for selfish reasons, and screw them for ruining it for those of us who actually have experienced it. There is nothing wrong with being upset when bad things happen, and there definitely isn't anything wrong with self-examination and the pain and confusion that sometimes accompany it.

 

People like this Toma guy are particularly annoying because they are so blithely condescending.

 

As I look at the concept more than just the words from the article I see this a little different. They are arguing the concept of treating depression either by the methods of a psychologist vs psychiatrist or therapy vs medicine. As my depression was cured by therapy at a psychologist that is my only reference and I can understand thinking that way but you have to consider both sides.

 

Insensitive gobshite. Every word.

 

All quotes are from the article

I'm not sure how you got the concept therapy vs. medicine from this article. That concept doesn't even seem to be alluded to in this article unless you're counting him thinking that depression can be handled with a belief in God (only mentioned in comments). This article explicitly states that depression is not real. For him to argue if depression is best treated by therapy or medication, he would have to first believe that depression is real. (Depression can be treated by both therapy and medication but I digress.)

Toma is claiming that depression isn't an illness but is really people being too selfish. According to him, the best way to treat depression is to simply think about others. If curing depression was that easy, there wouldn't really be any depressed people on this planet.

The problem with the article is that he is pushing the stereotype that mental illness is not real. It isn't a serious concern. This couldn't be farther from the truth.

I don't mean to pick apart your post but Toma's article is not only scientifically inaccurate but it is also harmful. Mental illness has a large stigma around it and this stigma causes some people to avoid getting the help they truly need. His article is adding to that stigma by calling depressed people selfish and blames them for being depressed. The author's comments are not only uneducated but they are also reprehensible. Like I've said earlier, I do a lot of volunteer work with the mentally ill and people in crisis so this topic is close to me

 

Grrrrrrrrrr.
That was extremely mind-blowing, in the fact that I believe my brain has been temporarily torn to shreds violently from that.

 

This is a psychiatrist view and is treated with drugs
Doctors see depression as a chemical imbalance in the brain that causes negative thoughts.


This somewhat a psychologist view and would be treated with therapy

As humans we get in this state of sadness over very real psychological issues and we think about them endlessly, feeding them and making them worse than they ever needed to be. This creates emotions and chemical reactions in the body that doctors diagnose as ‘depression’.

I mention the concept not the intent of the article. Depression as I had to deal with was all the pain and confusion growing up with crazy parents and as an adult this doesn’t go away but instead makes its way to the surface. Why does someone’s article matter to you? Most of the articles I read on psychology are written by clueless people. You have to have lived it to really understand it. It is like someone saying gay is a choice and come from someone who has never experienced it.

I have doubts that depression is a chemical imbalance and not all caused by upbringing and circumstance. My last therapist thought that you could turn off the issues caused by your upbringing just by deciding to not let them. I can see how this article runs along the same lines. She turned out to be crazy.