topic This saying about depression made sense to me - does it make sense to you? in Depression

This saying about depression made sense to me - does it make sense to you?

Suzbj — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 11:19:45 GMT

The friend that held my hand today and has been through depression herself said something that was passed onto her. "Depression is anger turned inwards". Still out on that re the jury of my mind but it did hit a cord. What does everyone else think? I think there is some merit to that saying to some degree...

Cheers

Suz

This saying about depression made sense to me - does it make sense to you?

cancerianmoon — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 12:08:51 GMT

Hi Suzbj,

I've heard this phrase before too...from a friend who has endured anxiety for decades. I'm not sure about it and have given it thought from time to time. Such as: "does that mean anger is depression turned inwards" Like you I'd appreciate hearing what others think.

Thanks for bringing this up! Looking forward to hearing people's thoughts on this one!

Cancerianmoon

This saying about depression made sense to me - does it make sense to you?

triforceofcourage — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 12:23:36 GMT

I haven't heard that before, but now that I think about it, it makes sense to me. We get angry because of things that have happened or are happening, and the anger hurts us mentally instead of physically, and in my opinion mental pain is just as bad as physical pain. I want to see what other people have to say about this, very interesting.

This saying about depression made sense to me - does it make sense to you?

Suzbj — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 12:37:39 GMT

Yeah me too Triforce,

Could it be that we have internalised the stuff that has happened to us as opposed to externalising it? Is it possible that suppressed anger has it's foothold in depression?? Interesting. The jury is still out for me as it is for you - but worth considering. Would love to hear a response from BB re this

Cheers

Suz 🙂

This saying about depression made sense to me - does it make sense to you?

Neil_1 — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 22:09:56 GMT

Hi Suz

This is a new one to me … and I can’t get my head around it.

Anger is an emotion. Just like sadness is, just like happiness is, just like rage is.

Depression however is an illness and it chokes down our thinking and our ability to perform in our daily lives at 100% It controls us, dominates us. I’m not really sure what I’m saying, but I don’t quite agree with the view that depression is anger turned inwards.

I believe that depression is very similar to cancer. And yet I don’t think anyone would ever label cancer as being anger turned inwards. Hence we have this illness and for the most part, we need medications to assist us to function on a daily basis.

I think by having depression it can greatly increase our emotions, such as sadness, anger and rage, but also feelings of emptiness, low self-esteem and more. You know them all.

I’ve just re-read my post and in no way was I trying to make my post be nasty at all … I was just throwing my opinion into the mix. Having said that, I’d be keen to hear other people’s thoughts on the original post but also to see if anyone thinks similar to my projections above.

Cheers

Neil

This saying about depression made sense to me - does it make sense to you?

White_Rose — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 22:59:33 GMT

Hi Everyone

I think anger, just like all the other emotions mentioned by Neil, is a symptom of depression. Depression is anger turned inwards sounds like one of those trite comments made by people who know nothing about depression. It really trivializes the illness and appears to make the cure or solution quite straightforward. Just get anger management treatment.

Those people who boil down any illness to one fairly simple cause have no insight, no compassion and in my opinion, very little sense. My husband used to say that I could cure my hay fever by stopping sneezing and that I could do this by will power. Just stop sneezing and you will not have a problem. I wish! And to take the analogy further, sneezing, like anger, is a symptom of a medical condition with far more consequences than merely a sneeze or two or a feeling of rage on occasions.

As far as I know there is no medication for anger and I'm not yet cynical enough to say all the anti-depressant medications are so much hogwash developed by pharmaceutical companies to make money. I'm sure we all know how much our medications help us but they are pointless if all we need is anger management.

So in my opinion that particular comment is rubbish.

Whoops! I hope I have not stood on anyone's toes in my rant.

White Rose

This saying about depression made sense to me - does it make sense to you?

White_Rose — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 23:23:36 GMT

And I have left out the most important reason for my opinion. Comments such as the one under discussion appear designed to put down the the person with depression and make them feel guilty for not realising the solution and acting on it. Do we spend all day refusing to get well, especially when offered a (relatively) easy or simple solution?

So when someone offers a one-sentence cure it would be great to come up with a similar one-sentence reply. Unfortunately I am not able to do this on the spur of the moment.

You may have noticed that I am pretty well steamed up about this. To me it's all part of the "blame the victim" mentality. I hastily add I do not see you or myself as victims, but I hope you get my meaning.

If someone refuses/can't see the solution it is so much easier to dismiss them on the grounds that they are not worth bothering about because they refuse to help themselves. It is at times like these I want them to have a taste of depression and then make their simplistic, foolish and denigrating remarks.

Having well and truly spat the dummy I think I should get off-line and cool down. See you late.

White Rose

This saying about depression made sense to me - does it make sense to you?

geoff — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 23:35:21 GMT

dea Suz, and all the other people who have commented on this, 'is depression anger turned inwards', well I'm in two minds with this comment.

How do we describe anger, is it a physical violent event, or are we thinking of anger to ourselves, or perhaps someone has made us angry, but by being a pacifist we don't exchange our own anger, or are we angry because we do have depression and this has messed up our entire life.

I then believe that this word has many meanings to it such as, if a small kid doesn't get his icecream is he cross, annoyed, disappointed or is he angry, and if so then this will instantly disappear if you give it to him, so is being angry long term or short term, and by now I have confused you all.

So what do we call depression, is there a noun that typifies this word, maybe being upset, and how do we feel when we lose our job, marriage, our family, or unfortunately we lose someone close to us, surely anger must come into this, or a disappointed anger, and now you are too confused, but I would like some feed back on this and whether you still believe that depression is anger turned inwards. L Geoff. x

This saying about depression made sense to me - does it make sense to you?

Neil_1 — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 01:34:56 GMT

Hi,

I’ll run with this a little more.

A small kid doesn’t get his ice-cream … he displays emotion – be it anger, disappointment, annoyance, etc. He doesn’t display depression.

Someone loses their job, their marriage, family, etc … they then suffer a wide range of emotions; enter sadness, disappointment, grief and yes, anger.

Some people experience these things and suffer those emotions for a while but then they have chemicals or something or other in their minds/head/brain that then allows them to feel those emotions but then they are able to move on.

While others who experience these issues, simply compound into themselves and their brain/mind is unable to cope with what they’ve experienced. What then eventuates is a series of emotions that are ongoing for that person … emotions of hurt, overwhelming sadness, guilt, shame, embarrassment, dis-trust (is there such a word as that), annoyance, and yes, anger is amongst it; and there are so many other things there as well – failure, hopeless and so it goes on.

Again, I don’t quite know where I’m going with this, but Suz it is an excellent thread you’ve started and after all, we are all mates on here so there’s no dramas with anyone expressing their points of view and right now I have an overwhelming feeling of sadness, feeling low, feeling useless, feeling tense and stressed – all part of my depressive symptoms. But at present, I have no emotion of anger within me … I might soon, if those grrrrrrrr people over the next partition don’t stop laughing and joking and carrying on!!

Que sera sera

Neil

This saying about depression made sense to me - does it make sense to you?

Beetle — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 02:14:32 GMT

Mhhhh good one.

I believe every intense emotion can, over a long time, damage our health. I don't thing depression is anger turned inwards. I believe depression is rather an exhaustion of our natural resources to cope with life's trauma and our brain 'waves the white flag'. Anger is never good since it releases damaging chemicals which can cause all sorts of problems to our body.

If you turn the saying around and turn your anger outwards-what does mean-screaming, punching, running ,biting into a pillow......Imagine everyone doing that!!

Just my 50 cents of thoughts towards this saying, just saying....

Beetle

This saying about depression made sense to me - does it make sense to you?

White_Rose — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 05:55:04 GMT

Good one Beetle.

You are on the ball. As I said above, anger is a symptom of depression, and at times a huge problem. But there are other symptoms which Neil has listed. Is depression any emotion turned inwards?

Anger is anger whatever the cause. It doesn't cause us to become depressed. It's like having aches and pains when you have the 'flu.

I thought I had cooled down a little over this but obviously not.

What upsets me about this whole process is that it is constantly happening. People are labelled one way or another and put in a pigeon hole. Once there you cannot get out because the illness or disability or whatever has defined you. You are no longer a complete person, you are a diagnosis. e.g. you are a diabetic, a Down syndrome, deaf, a paraplegic, a schizophrenic etc. etc. etc. Please forgive me if I have upset anyone here.

People with depression also come into this category because they are their illness. Not "you are a person with an illness", you are that illness. And there you are expected to stay. The whole person has been shrunk to that one description with no recognition of the rest of their skills, ideas, life.

At work I spent so much of my time fighting the stereotypes that ruled the organisation. The only reason I was tolerated was because of legislation and the need to appear to comply with it. There were huge reactions if a woman was promoted beyond a certain level as they could not possibly be competent, sexual harassment was not recognised and neither was bullying. Little understanding of the needs of the clients because they were not seen as people but as useless and hopeless.

So when someone makes a glib statement about any illness, in this case depression, it's time to stand up and shout that this is not true. Depression is horrible, painful and complex. It doesn't go away because someone has thought of a smart-**** comment and it certainly doe not help the person struggling to manage their condition.

Cool down time again. Would love to know your reactions.

White Rose

This saying about depression made sense to me - does it make sense to you?

Neil_1 — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 05:53:50 GMT

White Rose,

I agree.

Neil

🙂

This saying about depression made sense to me - does it make sense to you?

Damien — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 06:49:15 GMT

I can't say I agree with that at all!

When I was Depressed it wasn't about Anger so much as Sadness. Now I am working through Anxiety which is fear. Anger is part of it, but it's not the defining factor.

Depression is having been brave for too long.

This saying about depression made sense to me - does it make sense to you?

White_Rose — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 07:06:23 GMT

Hi Damien

Not sure what you are disagreeing with. Is it the statement depression is anger turned inwards, or something in one of the posts?

This saying about depression made sense to me - does it make sense to you?

Damien — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 10:03:56 GMT

Hello White Rose,

Yes, it's the original comment I was disagreeing with. I think "anger" is too easy a target, and therefore a cop-out. As you said later in the discussion it's an easy mark for those who want to posit simple solutions.

I'm agreeing with you, and disagreeing with the original concept. It was good of suzbj to ask it though, it's got us all talking. 🙂

This saying about depression made sense to me - does it make sense to you?

JessF — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 23:54:22 GMT

Well this is a good talking point! Depression can be a lot of things. Swallowing anger and keeping it in can be a big part of depression, but also it can be anger turned outwards. How many times have you lashed out at a friend or family member or partner when depressed?

Re: This saying about depression made sense to me - does it make sense to you?

TryAgain — Fri, 02 Sep 2022 02:25:13 GMT

Depression as anger turned inwards... that strikes a cord for me too. The two are definitely intertwined. However, as everyone here likely already knows, the symptoms and causes of depression are never as simple as equating it to one phrase. And the way depression is experienced can vary dramatically by each individual.

I would like to explore this anger-depression connection further, as it has affected me personally. Sometimes the anger can be manifested both outwardly and inwardly. Anger can be a symptom of depression - often a reaction to the inner suffering that is going on, such as the feelings of powerlessness, isolation, guilt, shame, and having to bottle up the pain for so long. Those repressed emotions have to come out somehow sometime.

For me, it could start out as being very irritable or "ornery" for no clear reason. The "smallest" things, like my partner forgetting to run the dishwasher, for example, would set me off. The irritability/anger may have felt like a distraction from my inner pain for a moment, but in the end, would only exacerbate my turmoil.

I think another close relative to anger/irritability is criticism. We are often our "worst enemies", and that inner critic can sometimes come out on others, so I have to watch that. It's not fair for me to hold such high expectations of others, and I shouldn't be holding expectations of such high caliber on myself either.

I had come across this Psychology Today article a while ago, which sheds some light on this depression-anger connection and mentions a study that confirms the association to a degree. It concludes by stressing the importance of managing not just the anger itself, but clarifying all the details surrounding our pain. As we all know, so much of this is unconscious - what we see is just the "tip of the iceberg". So it's important to try to go deeper and uncover the roots of our various symptoms.