I've been depressed for over 20 years

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>>18216656
When you write a great American novel

>>18216656
>For the socially retarded.

The only advisable course of action that minimises the distress caused by being socially isolated/retarded is to get a menial job that isn't too taxing, then start a collecting hobby that will occupy a decent amount of time. I myself have started a gaming collection of a certain system of which I am edging closer and closer to completion but probably never will, in the same way Achilles will never beat the tortoise. It's an ultimately fruitless endeavour even if you do complete it but it's really for speeding up the passage of time and to avoid thinking about your current situation. Also when you go about collecting occasionally you'll run into normies, usually fucking hipsters, who for some reason are impressed by your dedication and/or collection. Savour that crumb of acceptance but DON'T get addicted to it. Acknowledge their interest but don't give them much satisfaction.

If all goes well, you'll die a busy man. Not happy mind you, just someone who was too busy to acknowledge his depression.

A tip I learnt from Dr Steve Brule:
>Go to bed early you doofus. Cos when you're sleeping there's no lonely times, just dreams.

I guarentee no one here will give better advice than this.


THERE IS NO HELP HERE.

>>18216656
>have never been able to make friends and never dated

I bet if you fixed this you wouldn't be depressed anymore. But hey, if the ultimate tranquility of death is less frightening to you than talking to people, your road to freedom is clear.

Take care.

4chan can't help you. They can't help themselves. They just go round and round or shitpost the thread.

Case in point>>18216738
Telling you to fix yourself.

>>18216704
I'm a math major writing has never been a strength of mine but I always wanted to try stand-up comedy, just never had the courage.

>>18216730
I already have a gaming rig. I go through phases where I will play a lot for like a month then won't play for a few months. I tend to like single player games like kerbal space program and city skylines.

I was into Minecraft but haven't played in a while. I'm a gril so when I do play online games I get a lot of attention.

Playing vidya games just doesn't seem to cut it anymore.

Thanks for responding.

>>18216759
They have classes for stand-up. I had a friend who was good, but taking the class made him even better. If you take a class, you can get a foot in the door without having to full-on be up there on stage. This could be a hobby for you like >>18216730 stated.

I love video games too, but they can end up feeling shallow after.

>>18216759
>playing vidya

I think you missed the point, I'm not playing the games I'm collecting. They're all sealed and put away in the attic. I'm collecting them for the sake of collecting them. Since I enjoy (or used to) videogames, naturally my collecting hobby involves videogames. Your collection could involve anything.

The effort of collecting, especially hunting down rare items, plus your menial job will occupy the majority of time. You will be too busy to be depressed, and whenever you score a major haul you'll get a (VERY) short burst of happiness.

>>18216803
I don't really have money for that. Also I think buying games and nvr opening them would make me feel worst.

>>18216773
yeah I'm just so shy I doubt I could bring myself to do that. Also not having money to pay for a class makes it difficult.

Damn, anon, you need Jesus.

No, but seriously, I think your only option here is to find something you believe in. Unless you believe that you can "beat" depression chances are, it's not going to happen. And at this point it would be pretty hard to convince yourself that you can be rid of it. Hard, but not impossible.

There probably is a genetic component to depression, some nerds even discovered a so-called depression gene and they estimate that 40% of people with depression have it. But this discovery has been contested by other nerds, mainly because one of the biggest causes of depression is being raised by depressed people, which is environmental. Either way, what you need to remember is that there were people who "cured" their depression, no matter whether they had the "depression gene" or if it was purely environmental. So it's do-able, only not very easy.

There is a lot of debate on what causes depression and what could cure it. It has been linked to a multitude of things, from bad diet and lack of exercises to, as funny as it might sound atheism and college graduation. But I strongly believe that, before anything else depression is a mentality. A way of thinking. I think that if you can rewire someone's way of seeing the world they can be pulled out of depression, no matter how bad it is. But that's a very hard task. Getting rid of an established idea or habit is one of the hardest things a human can accomplish. First of all, I encourage you to study some psychology and philosophy. You should form an idea about how your brain works and expose yourself to different ideologies. This is necessary if you want to change your current mindset.

And then try meditation. "meditation" is a very broad term that's surrounded by a lot of mysticism and fanaticism, but at it's core it's simply training yourself to understand and manipulate your own mind. Read "Happiness" by Matthieu Ricard, it's a book about meditation from both a buddhist and a scientific perspective.

>>18216829
>no money

Get the menial job before you start collecting and again, it doesn't have to be video game related.

And as for never opening them, that's up to you. Me, I like things in pristine (or good as new), I've bullshited to myself (and others) that I'm gonna to sell it for a profit once the collection is completed (that's never gonna happen).

>>18216854
>broad ass advice

Don't listen to tripfags. Fuckers probably a reincarnation of truckerfag.

>>18216854
There's been a lot of suicides in my family going back generations so I think it's more than reasonable to say my case probably has a large genetic component. Suicide is very rare. Also other mental illness is rapent. Including schizophrenia, bi polar, anerexia, obesity, drug and alcohol abuse. It all comes down from my maternal grandmother's side. The suicides seem to come later in life and don't seem to be triggered by any particular unfortunate events.

I have had suicidal thoughts since I was 8 years old when I wrote a note saying I wanted to die. My parents found it and made me go to therapy.

My plan was to always commit suicide after graduating college just so people didn't think I was killing myself because I was a failure. Then I got into grad school and then I got a job.

If it wasn't for the student loans most would consider me to be highly successful with a stable career.

I'm just so unhappy and lonely and I've been this way for some long.

I probably could eat better and exercise more but my energy levels are so low I can't seem to do more than a microwave dinner most nights. Also I get extreme anxiety just leaving my apartment even when I'm just going to work.

>>18216880
my job requires random overtime where I have to work on the weekends and evenings so it probably wouldn't be possible for me to get second job.

>>18216910
>If it wasn't for the student loans most would consider me to be highly successful with a stable career.

Well, if nothing else you have a decent career.

I just have my collection, a maths degree from 2011 and a job in a supermarket.

One note about collecting, don't stop in the middle, cos then you'll want to look back at the time and money you wasted on collecting.

>>18216890
Specific advice in this case is impossible. As is with many cases. You can't "overcome depression in these 10 easy steps". If there was a how-to guide on this matter that worked well you wouldn't see so many people struggling with it, making threads about it here, or seeking professional help for it.

Yeah, you can say "start jogging", "go live in the woods", "go fishing every weekend" and things like that, but the chances of it working are actually pretty small. If you were to fix a problem with a few specific changes in your life you would need a nearly perfect understanding of its causes. And with depression we just don't have that. The general causes are really broad and they differ for every individual. Psychologists struggle for years to understand the root causes of their patients depression and in many cases they fail. The person who has the biggest chance of understanding and changing these issues is the one who's afflicted by them. They can understand their mind in a way that can hardly be expressed in communication if they train long enough. That's why I suggested meditation and reading into psychology and philosophy.

At the end of the day it's he who has to figure out and fix the problem, we can't do it for him. We can only give him some hints on how to do it. Most specific advice to complicated issues are simply telling the other person what worked for you, or what you know worked for someone else. But, since the problem is very complicated and obscure the causes and/or effects are likely to be very different, so the same things that worked for one individual have very small chances of working for another.

>>18216942
>blah blah blah
>we don't know
>blah blah blah

This is 4chan, chances are (and she is) that OP's an introverted person with few to no friends that spends the majority of her time on the internet and tv.

Not connecting with other people and being isolated is the root cause of most depression on 4chan.

Nobody has an answer for this. It used to be go to where nerds/geeks congregate but that shit has gone mainstream and our little niche is gone.

>>18216958
Yes connecting to people is very difficult for me. The only person I talk to semi regularly is my brother but I've never felt comfortable opening up to him. I hate burdening people I know with my problems so I thought posting anonymously would be reasonable.

Also I wasn't really asking for ways to overcome depression but if it was ever okay to admit the depression won and put an end to misery.

>>18216980
>I hate burdening people I know with my problems so I thought posting anonymously would be reasonable.

I get you. But killing yourself is going to be a bigger burden on them isn't it?

>>18216656
Depression is something you simply can't cure. Yes, if you have a family history of it then it's genetic.

I'm 31 and still have depression. I don't take medicine anymore because I learned to have a better handle on it. Like another anon said, pick up a hobby that will keep you mentally focused. Maybe pick up martial arts, it will help you mentally and obviously physically, on the plus side you will be around people.

Start slowly, don't let your depression take over. Be around people that you like and that they like you. You need supportive friends/family. Cheers.

>>18216958
Maybe that is the main reason because OPs depression. But then again, why is she an introverted person with few to no friends that spends the majority of her time on the internet and TV?

It's never this simple. It's never just one problem that can be solved by a few actions. It's a bunch of interconnected problems. Sometimes lack of meaningful connections lead to depression. Sometimes it's the other way around, depression leads to lack of meaningful connections. Most of the time these issues evolve together, "aided" by other problems. Being an introverted loner is as much of an effect as it is a cause. What can she do, knowing that the root of her depression is loneliness? Just make more friends? It's clearly not that easy. Learn how to talk to other people thorough reading books about social interaction and practice? That might be very helpful, actually, but there will inevitably be other problems that will hinder her path.

Look, all I'm advocating for is trying to deeply understand yourself and human psychology as a whole. I know my advice tend to be repetitive and revolve around this idea, but it's because I believe it to be the most beneficial knowledge you can posses. I believe that learning these things is the best possible use of your time in most circumstances. Maybe I'm wrong and there is a simple fix for OP, but without a good understanding of herself and the world and without a strong, positive ideology to guide her other problems like this are bound to arise.

>>18216993
That's only yours to decide. I believe that any mental issue can be overcome or coped with and trying to do that is favorable to suicide, but you obviously see the world in different colors so my perspective on this matter is of little use to you.

>>18217017
>But then again, why is she an introverted person with few to no friends that spends the majority of her time on the internet and TV?

Not really difficult to piece together. Not meshing well with the kids at school has major knock-on effects on social ability in later life. This could be applied to a huge chunk of anons. When you don't mesh well, you retreat and sink further and further into the background and miss out on the social development until you're shitposting on 4chan to random loners and psychopaths cos you crave attention.

>>18217046
>>18217017
Also you replied to me twice instead of OP.

>>18216656
Are you dead OP?