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Brooke Tatum
Mr. Negley
English 1010
October 17, 2014
How Should We Treat Depression?
The world is ensnared in a controversy over how to handle rising stress, depression, and
suicide rates. Recently there has been a massive increase in these rates; more and more people
seem to be getting stressed, depressed, and suicidal. In todays society there are many pressures
placed on the average person, one of those pressures is to be, perfect. This is a problem
because no one is perfect; therefore people are striving for an impossible goal.
One potential way of overcoming this saddening problem, of the rising depression rates,
is by developing a mindset in which you view yourself as a perfect individual. Many people say
that to overcome your depression you need to focus on yourself. You need to be happy with who
you are, in every aspect. You need to be able to view yourself as perfect to be happy.
To what extent will viewing yourself as perfect help? Will this solution cause more stress,
or will it really help the individual?
Many people think that the method described above is the way to go about battling
depression. According to a psychological study done by James Battle, Clinicians generally
agree that depression tends to be associated with low self-esteem. In other words Jamess study
explains that if you dont view yourself as perfect, your more at risk for depression. Another
common way to combat depression is to focus on, you, first by changing your diet, changing
your behaviors, and changing your negative thoughts. Jane Framingham (PH.D) states in her
article, Overcoming Depression, As you do take steps into the future, trying out new behavior
strategies or relationship skills, reward yourself for your successes. What she is suggesting is
that you need to focus on changing your behaviors. She also mentions that you need to focus on
what you do to overcome depression.

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Jane and Jamess views quickly sum up how people believe that the common view to
battling depression is by focusing on yourself. All we have to do is change our diet, our
behaviors, our thoughts, etc. and the depression will be gone. This is one way to fight depression.
However, what I have found in my research and experiences is that we cant just focus on
the individual. While doing this helps, to an extent, it takes way more than just that. We cant
ever strive to see ourselves as, perfect, because, perfect, just doesnt exist, and this will only
make the problem worse. What I have found is that overcoming this battle comes down to
building strong, positive relations, about how we view ourselves, and with the people around us.
First I will mention how building positive relationships helps battle depression, then I will
discuss how building positive relations with the people around us, communitarianism, helps, and
last I will discuss how building positive relations with yourself help battle depression.
One approach to overcoming depression is by building strong, positive relationships. This
is a battle that is extremely difficult to go at alone. Dr. Michael Yapko argues that the main cause
of peoples depression is a lack of solid, and healthy relationships, If we have many, close
healthy relationships in our lives, its hard to be and stay depressed. Although this may be hard
for a depressed person to do, once they build solid bonds, its all a downhill battle. Keep in mind
though, that these relationships need to be positive. One of my favorite artists and author, MOD
SUN, says this often, Look up, now look down. Up is endless, down has an ending. Always
look up. This is an example of the type of people you should surround yourself with; the people
full of optimism, always look up. These examples show how building strong, positive
relationships helps to overcome depression.
Another approach is by building a more communitarian, less individualistic, personal
ideology. By doing so, you will notice that this also helps your relationships. In our society this is
a little tricky to do. You will notice that we live in a very individualistic world, where people
seem only to care about themselves, take a look at media and notice how many, selfies, a

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person posts. But if you overcome this, individualistic way and adopt a more communitarian
ideology, you will soon realize that the shape of your body, amount of income, and social status
doesnt really matter. Its the relationships that you build and the memories you make that make
you happy. Something that I have learned from my family is that, the point of life is not
necessarily to be loved, but to give love. This shows that giving love is what really matters.
These examples show how a more communitarian ideology could help you overcome depression.
Another way to battle our rising depression is by developing a way of seeing the beauty
and positivity in, self. First by, self, I dont mean an individual, I mean yourself and all of
the things you exist with, because you do so interdependently. By a sense of beauty I dont mean
what media and western culture value as beauty, you need to find a different type of beauty that
few people wake up to. Its inner beauty, beauty of interdependence, and the beauty of just being.
MOD SUN, the author of, Did I Ever Wake Up? says, Pretty on the inside, not worried about
the outside. This shows how he believes you can fight depression through positivity, and a
different view of beauty. Additionally, during this battle you need to see everything as it just is,
and the beauty in that. Anais Nin once stated that, We dont see things as they are, we see them
as we are. Nins point illustrates that we need to just view things for what they are. Can you
imagine if you were depressed, most things would seem depressing to you because thats how
you view them? However, if you took a moment to truly see things for what they are, you would
begin to feel much better. This shows how building positive relations with yourself helps to
battle depression.
I agree with the many sources that say the way to fight off the rising depression rates is
by focusing on yourself as an individual. You need to keep yourself healthy and change your
behaviors, but they also need to add in more than just that. Studies have shown that building
relationships, and being able to see beauty for what it is, plays a major role in battling

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depression.
Works Cited
Battle, James. "Relationship Between Self-Esteem And Depression." Ammons
Scientific. 1 Jan. 1978. Web. 12 Oct. 2014.
Framingham, Jane. "Strategies For Overcoming Depression." Psych Central. 30

Jan. 2013.

Web. 12 Oct. 2014.

Investigator, Quote. "Quote Investigator." Quote Investigator. Quote Investigator, 9 Mar. 2014.
Web. 19 Oct. 2014.
Sun, Mod. "Look Up, Now Look Down. Up Is Endless, Down Has an Ending. Always Look Up.
Http://t.co/iL8u4keD." Twitter. Twitter, 16 Aug. 2012. Web. 12 Oct. 2014.
--- "Pretty on the Inside, Not Worried Bout the Outside." Twitter. Twitter, 09 Aug. 2014. Web.
12 Oct. 2014.
Yapko, Dr.Michael. "Strategies for Overcoming Depression." Psych Central. 30
Web. 12 Oct. 2014.

Jan. 2013.