This week the QOTW is focused on the topic of depression, and the effect that our media may have on it. It has been an eye opening journey reading all our posts, and writing my own. Before I started I really did have the media and never ending negative news as a big source of depression in our world.
Now after reading and writing I have realised that there are a lot more things to consider, and that depression is something that we can not really just pin on one thing or any external source. Our outlook on the world is our own unique creation, and we create our view of the world in each and every moment as we live, breath, think and feel.
As someone who is currently dealing with a quite challenging depression I can say that we have to take the time to really understand ourselves and where these feelings arise from. It is SO important for us to nurture and understand our own needs so that we can give ourselves what we need to heal. That healing may include therapy, medication, spending time in nature, or a whole host of other options. The most important thing is that we seek help, and also the right kind of help. It is essential to break the cycle and spiral that depression can bring, because if we just let it take over our lives it can sink us into a black hole that is harder and harder to get out of.
If you are experiencing depression, or know someone who is depressed I hope you will find some genuine help and support reading these posts, and encourage you to share with us in the comments if you can relate or need support. Sometimes sharing and opening up can be the first step to healing. There is no shame in being depressed, it is a very understandable disease that is often the result of circumstances or experiences that were not in our control.
Sending you all love and great hope and faith that we can all overcome our challenges in life, and find our path to freedom.
This was always quite obvious to me from a young age and one reason I hated watching the news (most children do) and if children can't stand it then why is it any better for me?
Where are all the positives stories because the world isn't all bad but we are taught that it is, we only taught one small part of what is going on and it's normally the most scary stuff, that someone wants to harm us individually or collectively or that other people are suffering and there's nothing we can do to stop it, we are helpless.
Further more what we are taught in schools reemphasize this and normally our history books are filled with the darker side of our humanity.
Obviously the news would filter into my life one way or another but in general I didn't have a clue about the ins and outs of political news and some of my friends laughed at me for being uninformed, maybe yes I was uninformed of the facts but I was not when it came to
The article below I actually started writing last year but found it difficult to finish. The topic is something very close to my heart and which our family are still going through with my 13 year old daughter. At that time emotions were too raw for me to continue writing about it and it was around this time that I took my 8 month break from Steemit. I now feel this topic holds more purpose and hope that my insight and analysis will make it a valuable contribution to any parent with a teen or young person who is struggling with their identity in this world today.
I also want to mention that the subject of depression is a very sensitive one to many and it is also a condition that has a variety of different forms. The type of depression I am referring to in this article is one of circumstance and influence. In no way am I trying to discredit anyone's feelings and I hope that whoever reads this will understand that.
'Today my forest is dark. The trees are sad and all the butterflies have broken wings.'
The above is a quote from happyplace.com and the moment I came across this, I was like 'Woah, that does describe my feelings when I feel depressed.' When you feel depressed, you do find everything in black and white around you. At least for me, it is like that. The colors drain out of things real fast. It is like I see a blue pillow, but my brain interprets it as grey. I see my son smiling, but my brain sees as it as a frown. I see everything around me going smoothly, but my brain, well it makes me see chaos everywhere.
Life isn't all roses and daisies as I have said that several times in my many blog-posts so yeah there are times when I feel stressed and chaotic. That said, all those times have been quite manageable for me. People often confuse chronic stress with depression and anxiety, but all the three are different terms.
My grandfather hanged himself, my father was a manic-depressive and I´m also no happy-go-lucky kid.
So any feelings of unwellness I could quite easily and credibly blame on genetics.
But we all know it´s the media´s fault.
We are so out of contact with ourselves, we can´t even muster up a decent depression on our own, we have to watch Fox News for some greater achievement in that realm.
It´s the media´s fault because they´re so fucking negative, if only they would bring a few more pictures of baby kissing politicians, I would feel already much better.
This week's question of the week, 'To what extent is the negative media, media biases responsible for depression?' in this article am going to talk mainly on social media biases .
Parallel to the growth of the Internet and the use of social media , there is currently an increase in cases of depression and other mood disorders among adolescents, which sometimes come to be lethal.
The social media , like Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, and many others, have become an icon of modern times. Facebook is the most known and used platform in the world. Almost a third of the world's population has a profile on this site.
Parallel to the growth of the internet and these platforms, there is currently an increase in cases of depression and other mood disorders among adolescents, which sometimes come to be lethal. Numerous research on the use of social media has repeatedly shown a correlation between increased use of social media and increased cases of depression and mood disorders.
Here we are with another Great EcoTrain question of the week, one that is as thought provoking as the other ones I have took part in. I always feel like I have a plan when it comes to answering these questions, but then I start to write and so much more always comes up. This one was no exception. Thank you @eco-alex for constantly keeping my brain turning and forcing me to dig deep.
To write about Depression, is no easy thing, it is a huge subject. The effect that it has on the people that suffer with it, is enormous, it can be very debilitating.
We are all so different and unique, everything that happens to us affects how we live our lives. How we are born depicts our first impressions of what life is like. How many of us experienced a traumatic birth or a gentle birth. How we were cared for as babies, who we were around, the time we had uninterrupted with our mothers, these all paint our first picture of what life is like. How quickly where we taken from our mothers after birth, really has a huge impact on how we deal with separation later in life.
The thing with the Ecotrain QOTW is I never know what is going to come out when I start writing and today so much decided it needed to be typed...
Guerillas VS Gorillas!
I remember once as a child watching the news and they mentioned guerrillas and I sat there waiting throughout the whole news programme for the gorillas to appear. I only saw scenes of fighting.
Only afterward when I talked to my mom did I realize that there was a difference between guerrillas and gorillas. I think I have been disappointed in the news ever since and it was the start of a lifelong hatred of news.
I stopped watching the news a long time ago, in fact, I don't think I ever started, as I recognize that I am just a sponge for all the negativity that goes on and the feeling of uselessness of not being able to help is overwhelming.
Influence
We become more like the top 10 people that we hang out with, just like we start to think along the lines of the information that we take in (especially when consuming information in a non critical nature like with TV consumption- more on that later.)
In fact, the first definition that comes up when you google Influence, the example the dictionary provides is an oddly close representation of the television's influential impact.
I think it goes without saying that the media and television in general have a huge influence on the people who consume it.
I say consume because media is prepared and presented to us in a way to make it easily slip into our consciousnesses. There are many documentaries and studies which go into this. Perhaps the most complete is a British television documentary series called The Century of the Self.
This week the @ecotrain are discussing a very important question, and one which we have nearly all be touched by either directly or indirectly. Depression is a unique feature of human effect, and one that we almost never see in nature or in other animals.. I mean, when did you ever see a horse lye down and just sit there looking sad all day? When did a dog not wag its tail in utter joy when was running around a field? We are unique in that we have the ability to overcome our instincts, and act in ways that defy our natural tendencies. Why do approximately 20 percent of teens experience depression before they reach adulthood? Between 10 to 15 percent of teenagers have some symptoms of depression at any one time. That is a pretty high figure, and it is not really obvious why this is so.
So let us start with the media! Is the media the cause of our depressive tendencies, or is it one of many effects? It is clear to anyone who does read the news that they portray a world in a very negative light, and from what I can see that trend has only gotten worse of the last decade. Our news feeds seem to be an endless stream of horrifying and desperate stories and images.
This is the @ecoTrain question of the week. For those who may be new to me and my posts, depression is a topic near and dear to my heart. I have my own battle with it, as do several members of my family. What causes depression is surely something we'd all love to know. Yet it's a topic tangled up in taboo, shame, unrealistic expectations, and mystery.
I would guess a majority of people still don't understand the difference between sadness and depression. Even for those of us dealing with depression, it can be hard to tell. One can slip to the other quickly. Depression can also come straight out of the middle of nowhere. Life can be moving along swimmingly while the depressed person drifts in a fog of shadows and heavy weights. Sometimes depression doesn't have anything to do with anything external. Some chemical change drifts in, for me I believe pregnancy was the trigger, and suddenly the whole world is shrouded in shit.
Environment is everything. A flower can't bloom with poor soil, can it? Surround a person with negative media and media bias and they will become depressed, right?
My greatest teacher is always my garden. Whenever I am faced with deep philosophical challenges and the seeming contradictions of life, I grab a drink (iced moringa tea, strong organic coffee, neat whiskey over ice or excellent red wine, as the mood, budget and time of day dictate :) ) and I wander. I observe, I look, I inhale deeply, I try NOT to think. I try to open my wiser, witchy, intuitive self to the inherent wisdom of Mother Earth. I try to let the answer come to me.
And so today, this late afternoon here in Chiang Mai after a rain shower, I wandered and found my self gazing at this.
https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://gateway.ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXhHpppdbJsWS6XrcF9LUHq2dae4Rv9ahaiFF5zjxQsyC
I work with teenagers, and their concerns can often sound like this:
"What's the point, Miss? I'm not going to get a job anyway, I'll have this awesome education but I'll be living in a cardboard box'
"You guys have totally screwed up the environment for us – they'll be nothing left to fix!'
"If we're the future, how come you don't let us vote on it?'
Do we have to study the news? It's all so depressing!
Of course, this is all concerning. I worry about them. If this is the talk we hear in the classroom, how does it bode for their mental health? What kind of Earth do they they are inheriting they think they're inheriting, and if it's all doom and gloom, no wonder they feel such resistance against the world that's raising them. I see their anxiety as they approach exams, pinning everything on a score that they have been misled to believe dictates their future and their involvement in the world, but perhaps the state of the education system is for another time.
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