I think I just have a stereotypical image in my head of “depression = alone eating very sad meals and in a dark room on the internet all the time, very lonely lives…”
It turns out sometimes people with depression are still hot!
I’ve been married to someone with severe depression for a very long time. It isn’t necessarily a 24x7 experience. During the good times, she is an incredibly happy and fun person to be with. During the bad times, it is really hard on both of us. Medicine has helped, but isn’t perfect. We do our best to get through the hard times and enjoy the rest.
Depression is a clinical chemical state; people respond to it in many different ways; some respond by chasing dopamine highs.
Many socially active people are actually depressed, and the activity is their way of attempting to deal with it.
Many introverted people aren’t depressed at all, and enjoy their own company more than that of others.
The normal way. Flirting, talking, dating.
As long as someone is addressing their depression (e.g. therapy or whatever) and not expecting a relationship to fix it then it is fine and healthy to join one.
Granted loneliness can definitely cause depression, so an exceptional case there.
In terms of dark room vs. extrovert, i can speak from experience that both can feel lonely and the depressive episodes still come and go. IMO better to have higher highs because you’re getting the lows either way 🤷.
Masking, baby!
There’s more than one kind of depression or triggers. People can be depressed but still function doing normal tasks. Some people are better at masking depression than others.
