Article re: treatment of depression

[pegkerr]

Happiness: Enough Already
The push for ever-greater well-being is facing a backlash, fueled by research on the value of sadness.

I am trying to figure out why this article upsets me so much. I guess because several members of my family (including me) are on medication for mood disorders. I read this as insinuating that perhaps we are just a little too eager to forego a truly authentic life in exchange for a surcease of the pain of depression. Well, actually, the article is talking about the pain of sadness, which it seems to conflate with depression.

Am I over-reacting? Your reactions?

Comments

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Too many people confuse depression with clinical depression. I think the article (which I just skimmed the first page of to get the gist) is trying to point out that sometimes it's normal to be sad. If something bad has happened to you, it's best to deal with the problem than it is to take a pill. If you're depression is chemical, then you should get it fixed medically, by all means.

Yes, I think you're overreacting, but not too much and for the right reasons. The problem with smoothing out the lows is that it smoothes out the highs as well. Life, as the Buddhists say, is suffering. The good stuff is, all too often, few and far between. Most people (it seems) will gladly forego the truly authentic life for one with less pain. Is this bad? At some level, no. But it can be taken too far.

Cf Norman Spinrad's "No Direction Home" (iirc the story).