What was it?

Don't really remember what it was when I first started posting. But I do know I chose my current one after high school (which would've been the tail end of 2004.

Well Jodo mentioned the sources are psychological problems, and I would think drugs primary affect a person's psychological realm (physical secondary), so the addiction and abuse of drugs is psychological as well. Is that conflicting info there?

I've already considered that problem and I have an answer. The choice that led to the taking of drugs was psychological in nature, whether through peer pressure or clandestine curiosity. Thus, one susceptible to drug use already has some psychological problem. The problem with drug users is to try to determine why they made the choice in the first place. The drugs themselves aren't the problem, because the person had made the choice before using them.

This is what I'm talking about when I'm referring to figuring out what went wrong. Just like with spending too much time playing video games, the problem is not the wasting of time, but the thought processes that led to such a waste. There is an exemption from psychology, in the form of your habitat. You didn't consciously pick your own habitat when you were growing up, so any problems that it caused are not your fault. One trick in figuring out depression is to analyze your entire chorological behavior (where you were) and compare that with your general mood (at each location).

I don't think I'm wrong. This is because the problem with those people happened before they started taking drugs. So drug use is 100% exempt from any explanation of depression (in my view). I'm not saying you're wrong, because I understand your point of view. I can see how it's "right" for drug use to be an explanation of depression, but I'm much more interested in the thought processes before the actual drug use. That's the key - what happened before.
   Ultimately, we're attacking the same problem, but from a wildly different perspective. It's not easy to see things my way and many people aggressively resist my ideas. I'm used to that.

   To try to summarize:

   1. The Avatarian view of depression states that drug use is a major cause. In other words, habits.
   2. The Jodo Kastian view of depression states that thought processes are the major cause. In other words, choices.

   So this is a battle of habit vs. choice. By my reasoning, choices make habits, so choices are more culpable. (For example, one must first make a choice before using drugs. The habit must follow the choice. The choice can not follow the habit.)

That's the exact problem I had to solve! And I solved it. While you disagree with me, it works for me. (It may not work for a drug user. I've never used drugs, so I can't imagine how that habit affects depression. As I stated, it does not cause depression, but I can see how it could be seen that way. I would suspect that drug use hijacks investigative thinking, which explains why they need help from others.)

*rolls eyes* I'd respond to some of the gibberish in this thread but I honestly don't have the energy, and I doubt I'd change anybody's mind

Exactly, although I think it's important to note the while the idea of "thinking" your way out of depression is pretty far fetched, with time and the right help "becoming aware" of triggers that stimulate depressive moods is totally possible.

Also, if ten years of inner battles has taught me anything, the more constructive stuff you have to do the less likely you mind is to slip into negative thoughts.

I'm an INTP, so I value knowledge above everything else. Learning makes me happy, so I was able to think my way out of depression, by investigating my life. Only about 5% of the human race has my personality type, so most people would not consider my approach efficacious.

While we're on the subject of depression, I have suggestions for people who suffer from it:

01) Eat a well-balanced diet.

02) Exercise regularly (1-2 hours every two days, if not daily)

03) Get about 8 hours of sleep a night.

04) Get a natural tan sitting on the beach...although, this point not being as essential as the first 3, but sunlight IS good for the human body, in moderation, of course...but using a tanning bed in tanning salon WILL make you sick. That's some overexposure to unnatural light, and they don't clean off those things from the previous people who used them, either.

Seriously though, most people are "Depressed" or diagnosed with depression, because they don't eat well, they don't exercise, and they don't get enough sleep. Their bodies simply aren't getting what they need, much like a plant left in the darkness, away from the sun, away from rain, and potted in bad soil.

Now, if you're doing all of the above, and you still feel like crap, then, yeah, it probably is a mental thing that needs to be sorted out.

We most likely have very different perspectives on these things, with equally different experiences. I don't think you will change my mind, but hopefully you will add something to it with your perspectives and narratives.

I read somewhere once that some kind of apes with depression (or lower serotonin levels) got away from their parents earlier in their life, and thus had the chance to make social acquaintances and girlfriends earlier than other apes. That could explain why depression exists from a genetic perspective. Depression is, like anger and anxiety, something which directs an ape's actions. The apes that make girlfriends are the apes with grandsons.

Now... If you... Manage to fool your ape into believing that a doll is a girl... Perhaps the ape won't be depressed anymore? Because it would've been happy if it had met a real girl-ape, right? If... One can do that kind of cognitive trickery... (Which everyone does, all the time, in a way...) [Oh, this isn't my mind. It's a narrative.]

But damn, who would trade a real girl for a doll if they know what is happening?

Damn, bro. Women frustrate me a lot sometimes, but I thank heaven upon my knees for their existence in an otherwise pointless universe.

That thought up there is depressing. For whatever reason.

On the original topic of being a pirate, Southpark also thinks it's a good time to be a pirate, as the kids in yesterday's episode joined in the Somali Pirate action, heh.

You know, for someone that has every box set, I never end up catching / remembering the new ones when they air - yet I have to watch Family Guy every night at 11:00/11:30.

Seriously... can can you blame them! This whole situation is analogous to a bully that beats-up the schoolboys and then the teachers tell him "oh, you're being mean. Well, here's some money so behave, OK?"

Lars might!

p.s.- Do you have any children, Grassie? Just curious.