Edvard stated: source post
Turncoat stated: source post
I don't know, I've seen people too depressed to even motivate getting out of bed or moving their limbs. Their brain is practically dead weighting the rest of them.
If they don't even get out of bed, who feeds them?
At that point they're usually willing to stop eating, but it tends to continue both physically and mentally from an external enabler that doesn't want to see them die and isn't sure what else that they can do.
If it is that bad, medical help is necessary. Anyway, it has to gradually get at that point.
For the usual person? Yes, it usually takes context and a series of painful failures or scares, or one really large one of those two that shocks them deeply.
For the unusual person? Their chemical makeup could render them this way, be it naturally or from being a med burnout. It's kind of scary how many of the latter there are now...
And the environment always plays some role, if not in triggering then in encouraging it.
Environment contributes more often than not, but I've encountered more than one case where, at most, the only role it played was letting them live longer like that through feeding them. There's naturally where a person is dramatically depressed enough to stop eating, but then there's... the sort where they are so broken mentally that they don't even care if they continue to live, as even trying to kill themselves is too much work.
With enough depression, a person can almost go full veggie. If that depression is contextually based, they can be psyched out of it, but if it's chemically based... they aren't really capable of listening quite as much. Natural levels of depression are like wearing weights that can't be taken off when it comes to doing everything, and very rarely does it feel worth the effort to them.
I'm thankful to not be veggie-depressed, but it remains a possibility for the future.
I genuinely wonder what would happen if that depressive fellow is given some money and put on the streets in some developing country. I'm certain at least some of them would be snapped out of their minds and into reality.
It'd highly depend on why they're depressed. There's been loads of depressed people known to give away all their possessions, and once in a foreign country that tendency could become even stronger from no longer having an essence of familiarity to beach out on. Either that or they might just use the money to rent a place and veg out until it runs out, figuring that they'll just die anyway once it's spent, or they might just use that money to go back into their home-cocoon. Edit: Actually... they'd probably just sit where they are and do nothing.
The ones that would be "snapped out of their minds and into reality" in these cases would be those that are depressed from feeling caged within a cushioned first world society. The source is the most important context to factor in, as contextless depression is a thing, as each version and reason has a different set of core problems that, if handled in a one size fits all fashion, will leave a lot of people depressed with only a few thankfuls escaping it.
While you're able to strive for achievement, ask yourself, why does it feel worth it to you? You scored high on that self evaluation a while back in Optimism scores, and you've stated that you can't relate to the depressed mindset, but imagine it for someone who lacks that. Even success to those lot won't be the same as success is for you, as how good or bad something is or feels is purely self-appraisal instead of anything objective beyond their past and chemistry.
Even if they're planted into a situation of success from good connections and opportunities falling onto their laps, they tend to not actually want anything.
I get that. Planting people into success is not the solution, and a big part of the problem imo. They don't grow their own wings that way.
Why would people without the means to be motivated spread their wings?
You bring up that, in the case of being planted into success, that they won't really appreciate it or grow stronger from it like many an affluenza infected rich kid because of the lives they were raised within. This is true for those it applies to, but as I said above, there's many different forms of depression instead of one standard. The motivation has to come from somewhere, and for a variety of reasons it can be absent. The people you're imagining are like lumber, simply waiting to be lit ablaze with passionate fire, while the people I'm imagining next to them are like mud. Non. Flammable. Mud. Re-doused by their own continuous flow of tears upon their moistened months old sweat, bed-sore ridden, limp and lifeless form.
Depression is scary shit when it's not purely a matter of morale. There's people who feel broken and underwhelmed, but then there's people who exist as the embodiment of it even within the perfect life, the life that'd contradict how they appear.
The main idea of the rest of the post is that you are trying to do stuff, you want to evolve, but
For every talent I have, especially with the internet now, there's people already in place that do what I do twenty times better.
You know you are only talking about the USA, right? I get that in a too competitive environment it is hard, and the USA is very competitive. Brains and talents from everywhere moved there and they encouraged a dynamics with high standards where even the average person feels trapped and unable to move up the ladder. But my man, the world is huge. There are places where simply mastering English is a huge advantage. Places where simply being American is seen as awesome. Maybe look into cental or south America or eastern Europe. There are so many gaps there to be filled for someone with your education and talents. Learn Portuguese or Bulgarian for example, try to make a living where your skills and education are 20 times better than the average. You know Meta, he might even help you out at first. There are many opportunities in those countries, they don't have stuff you are used to or your services, or even know they exist. You mentioned a course in birdwatching in some post. How full do you think birdwatching tourism is in places like Bulgaria or the Danube Delta? I honestly don't know and you need to research stuff of course. But it is these sorts of ideas that are literally life changing if you let them be.
I've taken four years of Spanish... and all I really know how to do is ask how to use the restroom alongside recognizing some sentence structure, accents, and the occasional "HEY! PERRO MEANS DOG! HOLY SHIT I KNEW A THING!" moments. Language is my weakest area, so I'd need to find a place where the English language has invaded, forcing itself on people as the convenient common tongue.
Otherwise the rest is solid. My college peers mostly either left the US or stayed behind working in work unrelated to their field that they'd have been able to get without a degree (other than one guy who made it into Amazon, another guy who's working some sort of crazy job that involves both of his majors, and a few who aren't working). The most successful ones commonly seem to be those that left the US.
