Yeah, and I sunk into depression despite over a decade of various lifehacking philosophical gizmos, and you don’t hear me saying that all of it is fucked and we should all just get on the happy pills. (You do hear me gushing overmuch about said happy pills.) If we’re trading anecdotes all we’re going to learn is that lots of stuff sometimes work but everything usually fails.
Obviously you’re helping people, so go you, and obviously you’re helping people more than conventional therapy because conventional therapy is just paying someone to kvetch at them regularly and that can only possibly help if you have no friends to do that with. (The advantage is that you can be suicidal and it’s their problem because it’s their job, whereas if a friend notices you’re suicidal it’s a suicide threat and you are a bad evil manipulative person and I should stop reading Captain Awkward.)
But I see no evidence that your coaching should be a first resort for mild depression, rather than a n-th resort after conventional means have failed or proven insufficient. And for major depression (where meds are much more useful than for mild depression anyway), what kind of presentation of major depression leaves you able to make big life changes?
Obviously you’re helping people, so go you, and obviously you’re helping people more than conventional therapy because conventional therapy is just paying someone to kvetch at them regularly and that can only possibly help if you have no friends to do that with.
Some of the conventional therapists are good to chat with and making it an economic transaction rather than talking about all the negative stuff with your friends can reduce the extent that you are a drain on them or the relationships. Trade is a wonderful thing!
Yeah, and I sunk into depression despite over a decade of various lifehacking philosophical gizmos, and you don’t hear me saying that all of it is fucked and we should all just get on the happy pills. (You do hear me gushing overmuch about said happy pills.) If we’re trading anecdotes all we’re going to learn is that lots of stuff sometimes work but everything usually fails.
Obviously you’re helping people, so go you, and obviously you’re helping people more than conventional therapy because conventional therapy is just paying someone to kvetch at them regularly and that can only possibly help if you have no friends to do that with. (The advantage is that you can be suicidal and it’s their problem because it’s their job, whereas if a friend notices you’re suicidal it’s a suicide threat and you are a bad evil manipulative person and I should stop reading Captain Awkward.)
But I see no evidence that your coaching should be a first resort for mild depression, rather than a n-th resort after conventional means have failed or proven insufficient. And for major depression (where meds are much more useful than for mild depression anyway), what kind of presentation of major depression leaves you able to make big life changes?
Some of the conventional therapists are good to chat with and making it an economic transaction rather than talking about all the negative stuff with your friends can reduce the extent that you are a drain on them or the relationships. Trade is a wonderful thing!