Can Current Events give you Depression?

[growcheekatt]

I haven't felt like myself for one day since I first saw 'Ferguson' in my news feed.

Whenever it's brought up in passing, I could be chatting in a room full of people and suddenly I feel this intense loneliness. Like I'm an alien being beamed down from Mars or something.
I've felt constantly emotionally exhausted, I wish I could just change the channel, or shrug it off.
I wish it was as easy as spouting off something ignorant under the guise of curiosity.

People saying these crazy things, these things they don't even understand are deeply hurtful, kind of like a kid on the playground. It all really hurts. And it hurts just as much when I have white friends who seem to be curious, but instead of just asking a question they make some bold statement and pretend to be an authority on the matter.

I'm so tired, I'm drained, I'm irritated all the time. I'm terrified.

Now Eric Garner is all over my news feed, and I know it's going to be quite a while more of this feeling.

Is there a place for people like this?
I can't be the only one... are there groups for us to get together and just talk?
Just so we don't have to feel so alone?

[Teslapirate]

Honestly, if it affects you this much, you may want to just stay off Facebook/news sites for a while. Then sit down and think hard about *why* you think these kinds of things affect you in such a manner. Do you have some kind of personal experience that's related? Are you maybe sick of all the drama? Are you sad because humanity is pretty darn ridiculous at times like this? Could be any reason, just think about it for a while, maybe talk to your parents or close friends to try to gain some perspective.

[growcheekatt]

It's not just on facebook, it's not something I can turn off or tune out.
I work as a server, in a large restaurants with hundreds of employees, people mention it here and there. And you overhear a million conversations when you work in a restaurant, after all, no one is paying attention to the servers or watching what they say around you.

And if I could just turn it all off, I still don't feel like it would be right. Just ignoring the parts of reality that bother you is hardly ever right.

edit also, thank you for your advice/input.

[Teslapirate]

growcheekatt

It's not just on facebook, it's not something I can turn off or tune out.
I work as a server, in a large restaurants with hundreds of employees, people mention it here and there. And you overhear a million conversations when you work in a restaurant, after all, no one is paying attention to the servers or watching what they say around you.

And if I could just turn it all off, I still don't feel like it would be right. Just ignoring the parts of reality that bother you is hardly ever right.

edit also, thank you for your advice/input.

Ah, there may be some misunderstanding, my apologies. I didn't intend to imply you should completely ignore reality, just take a break from it sometimes. There's nothing wrong with an occasional healthy escape from reality to relax and de-stress. I wasn't aware you had to deal with this every day, no wonder it's getting stressful. I'd stress too in your position, I'd be too afraid to voice my thought/opinion on the matter and risk upsetting customers. sad

[Little Dead Soldier]

Actually, yes...it can. It's called situational depression.
Situational depression is a short-term form of depression that can occur in the aftermath of various traumatic changes in your normal life, including divorce, retirement, loss of a job and the death of a relative or close friend. Doctors sometimes refer to the condition as adjustment disorder. A person with situational depression may have symptoms that are more or less identical to someone with clinical depression; however, there are certain key differences between the effects and treatment of these two disorders.

Perhaps seeing a doctor and talking to him about your options on what you can do to get better. I hope all goes well for you!

[growcheekatt]

I've started having a lot of difficulty connecting with the people around me today.
A few people today noticed the change in my behavior and asked me if I was okay,
I don't know how to talk about it. I can't explain it. And they probably don't care, even if they did, it's not something that makes sense. So I'm at a loss right now.

My fiance is currently across the country on business,
my house is empty. I try to invite friends over to distract me but then I have trouble being social.

I really don't know how to be proactive right now.

[Cosmic Jirachi]

Current events can absolutely affect your frame of mind, even if you don't realize it. If you're surrounded by negative news or negative posts on the internet, you're going to feel more negative in general. However, if you're surrounded by positive news and posts, you're going to feel better.

Given the circumstances of your depression, I'll leave out my own opinions, but I will say that certain topics used to make me feel very upset and negative for a while. I liked a ton of Facebook pages relating to certain groups of people on a certain website, mostly to make fun of how ridiculous and idiotic they sounded. After a while, I realized I started feeling more negatively towards people in general and when my fiancé told me that surrounding yourself with news and posts like that can really alter your state of mind I knew I had to get rid of the sources. I unliked the pages regarding those topics and blacklisted a bunch of words and phrases on Tumblr so I'd avoid seeing those posts. It got to the point where I would get SO mad when I'd see ANYTHING related to those topics. Like right now, I haven't really browsed Tumblr much since all of these recent events you mentioned started getting heated. I can't ******** stand seeing anything about it now. So I just stay away from it.

It's a lot easier to tune this stuff out than you think. If you're on Tumblr, use Savior to blacklist words and phrases that upset you. No matter what side of the argument you're on, your wellbeing comes first, and seeing content that makes you upset is not good for that. (Side note: anyone who posts dumb s**t like "if you don't reblog x then you're terrible and I'm unfollowing you and blocking you" needs to just go ******** themselves, don't force people to talk about what you want to talk about and completely disregard their own mental health, for ******** sake LOL) Unlike any pages on FB that might talk about those things a lot, and avoid clicking on links regarding those topics. If your friends or family bring it up, you can either change topics or you can just tell them you don't feel comfortable discussing it. If they try to push you, just leave. If it's a public place, focus on other things around you instead of what other people are talking about.

Trust me, it's worth it to just distance yourself from the topics that bother you as much as you can. You can't COMPLETELY escape them but you can definitely control how much of them you see and hear.

[Choeozu]

Little Dead Soldier

Actually, yes...it can. It's called situational depression.
Situational depression is a short-term form of depression that can occur in the aftermath of various traumatic changes in your normal life, including divorce, retirement, loss of a job and the death of a relative or close friend. Doctors sometimes refer to the condition as adjustment disorder. A person with situational depression may have symptoms that are more or less identical to someone with clinical depression; however, there are certain key differences between the effects and treatment of these two disorders.

Perhaps seeing a doctor and talking to him about your options on what you can do to get better. I hope all goes well for you!