Depression and weird stuff

[Beakmoo]

This poll was suggested by the discussion in "Weirdspace" in the General Forteana forum. Where the poll says "haunting" I mean all the weirdness that one might associate with this, like EM radiation, feeling "bad vibes" etc, (which I had to leave out for reasons of space), whether or not you believe that dead people are involved.
Could we be on to something?
Remember - it's the cracked head that lets in the light.

 

[butterfly27]

Beakboo, I'm just SO upset that you included the last option. And some rotter's voted in it as well.


I can't remember where I read it now - it may have been a Jenny Randles book - but anyway I read that more reports of paranormal phenomena came from persons fulfilling all the criteria in the following psychological profile:

a) above average intelligence
b) very powerful imagination
c) a particular brain chemistry

Dunno what everyone else thinks, but this is possibly a similar psychological group to the one that suffers depression.

I'll try to find the exact quotation and edit it in later.

Thanks for doing the poll Beakboo - you're SOOO helpful.

 

[carole]

Well, Susan, there's always some smart alec who likes to give a 'clever' answer!

I've never come across this idea before, h'mm interesting.


Seeing as how I fulfill criteria a and b, I should be seeing ghosties galore!

Carole

 

[Pete Younger]

The results so far are quite interesting, do the hauntings cause depression, or does depression cause the hauntings?

 

[carole]

MEA CULPA Susan - see my PM!!

Carole

 

[butterfly27]

Au contraire, Carole. My sense of humour must have gone to bed and left me sitting here! Sorry

 

[Anonymous]

Interesting that most respondents so far (self included) have experienced depression. Does that mean that:

A) Most people have experienced depression.
B) Most internet users have experienced depression.
or
C) Most folks with an interest in things Fortean have experienced depression.

Not a poll... just me wondering out loud.

 

[Glensheen'sGirl~]

Some scientist somewhere is going to read this and want to do a study on all of us... RUN WHILE YOUCAN!

 

[Anonymous]

If I've experienced something someone else might interpret as a haunting but I just consider it a hallucination, how do I answer?

Nonny

 

[Beakmoo]

Nonny, the word "haunting" was meant to include all of that stuff.
I put in the last option because I believe that that's what some people would think, and I think they should have their say too (I'd love to know who it was though Or would I? )
My personal half formed theory is that there may be a relationship between seratonin levels in the brain and receptiveness to whatever phenomena cause hauntings/hallucination/weirdness call it what you will. On the weirdspace thread a few of us realised that we grew up in a "haunted" environment and subsequently (or in my case, at the time) developed a depressive illness. Which is cause and which effect would be pretty hard to unravel methinks.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't remember being haunted...not by actual ghosts, anyway.

 

[Glensheen'sGirl~]

As I realize I didn't put this in my first post, I picked option #2 because other than the usual "it's tough being a teenager" stuff I've never really suffered from depression. But I've known people who have though, and I've known people who've had some experience with ghosts (see some of my posts in the Ghosts forum.)

 

[Anonymous]

I picked the first one, I'm afraid.
Pity, really. I'd quite like to see a ghost, it sounds rather exciting.

 

[NilesCalder]

I've cataloged my depression+haunting experience on another thread somewhere (to tired to look).

I'm quite interested in the number of us who've suffered from depression. Could there be a link between depression and an interest in Forteana?

Niles "Hmm.." Calder

 

[Anonymous]

I think it's fair to say that most people who might be subject to the label 'fortean' have in common the tendency to 'think outside of the box', so to speak - to analyse, and above all, to question the consensus view. This keen curiosity about matters of existence is, on the one hand, laudable in so far it is more honest, if not more true, than the 'scientific' principle - of scrutinising all the data without prior judgement.
On the other hand, it might be compared to the donkey-and-carrot routine - the dogged pursuit of a possibly unattainment goal. And therein lies the problem. Once opened, the mind cannot contract to mindless conformancy or habit. The enlightened 'donkey', if not careful, is liable to lie down in frustration and despair at its thwarted efforts?

 

[gyrtrash]

Is it a stereotype then...?

The people that attempt to think 'outside the box' end up being depressed...

Now where's that Goth thread...?!

Is it not just a case of anyone who has a brain, and considers the fate of wo/mankind, ends up being slightly melancholic or a tad pissed off?
No disrespect to sufferers of depression, having suffered mildly myself, but if you attempt to plumb the depths of existence you dredge up the detritus with the treasure...
...

Hope you all find your personal trove!

 

[Anonymous]

I could not answer the poll. I have suffered depressions and i have had hauntings but the two did not coinicide.

Kent

 

[Anonymous]

I've often wondered if depression is a symptom of intelligence, when we look around and realise what life really is.
Isn't it strange that people who are mentally deficient, and I don't mean this in a derogatory way, usually have a smile on their face. Maybe ignorance truly is bliss.

 

[Anonymous]

depression and haunting not coinciding

I could not answer the poll. I have suffered depressions and i have had hauntings but the two did not coinicide.

Kent

I read this post AFTER I had voted ..... so I might have ticked the wrong thing! I agree with this statement - I have had both but not at the same time.

 

[rynner2]

I've often wondered if depression is a symptom of intelligence, when we look around and realise what life really is.
Isn't it strange that people who are mentally deficient, and I don't mean this in a derogatory way, usually have a smile on their face. Maybe ignorance truly is bliss.

I believe some pschologists once did a study on this, and discovered that depressives do have the strongest grasp on reality. So 'normal' people are really just cock-eyed optimists!

Certainly a lot of famous people have suffered depression - but then a lot of them haven't...

I'll shut up now.

 

[Anonymous]

Another possible connection is that depression often involves sleep disturbances, and sleep deprivation can certainly lead to experiencing strange phenomena. During a two-week bout of anxiety/depression-related sleeplessness I once became convinced that strange messages were being left on my answerphone in alien languages at a frequency that I could not hear. (Although if the World Service is making people's toasters speak Russian..hmmm..)
A lot of it also hinges on how people interpret the phenomena - as another poster said, what one person sees as a haunting, another will interpret as a hallucination. There is still a lot of stigma attached to mental illness and some people may feel more comfortable seeing these phenomena as having an external cause, e.g. ghosts.
The problem is that if you see them purely as external phenomena, then people with mental health problems get discounted as 'unreliable witnesses' because 'of course they will see things, they're mad, aren't they?'

 

[Pinklefish]

sorry but I answered the last option. I wasn't taking the piss I just clicked that one because I've just woken up and had trouble differentiating between the other options. It was the wording I think. It could be have/had depression and maybe not haunting but some kind of "experience" maybe.

I shouldn't have voted really...I can't see how to remove my vote now.
Sorry.

pinkle

 

[Beakmoo]

Pinkle - don't worry dear, I wasn't offended, that's why I put that option there
Amphibian - good point about the sleep deprivation, I had a 10 day sleep deprivation/anxiety attack a few years ago, and was getting all sorts of odd hallucinations and delusions.
Kentigern and Vampirus - That's ok it doesn't have to be at the same time. Just in the same lifetime , so you would vote for options 2 or 5.

 

[Anonymous]

I think the experiment that was refered to above went as follows:

The participents were asked to assess their ability to correctly guess the outcome of a random number, as to whether it would be higher or lower than the previous one. As the numbers were random there was, of course a 50% probability of being right. Non depressives were more likely to rate their chances higher, and also to rate the chances of others in the same situation as higher. Depressives were generally more realistic about the chances of others, but were significantly lower in their assessment of their own ability, giving themselves a far lower chance of being correct.

One factor that has not been mentioned in regard to depression and weird stuff is schizotypy. This a measure of the weighting that individuals give their own thoughts over outside factors. When people get a high score on a schizotypy questionaire they are often worried that this makes the more likely to suffer schizophrenia. This not the case, but schizophrenia is an extreme example of schizotypy, where the individuals interior world comes to outweigh evidence of the outside, objective world. Depression, it seems to me, makes the individual more prone to schizotypy, as depression alters the functioning of the body slowing it down, making it less efficient. When suffering from the symptoms of depression, sensory input is not as vivid, because the processing of that input is hampered by a general slowing down of the person.

In this gap, subjective 'thought based' perception is interpreted as stronger, that is 'more real' than in a person who does not suffer depressive symptoms. This it seems to me would make a person more prone to perceptual 'mistakes' and to being more certain of the 'reality' of those mistakes, with the thought based understanding of an experience becoming more important and stronger than the objective truth of it.

'Wierdness' lies at that exact boundary between an actual concrete occurence and the sense that the mind makes of it.

 

[Glensheen'sGirl~]

I believe some pschologists once did a study on this, and discovered that depressives do have the strongest grasp on reality. So 'normal' people are really just cock-eyed optimists!

Certainly a lot of famous people have suffered depression - but then a lot of them haven't...

I'll shut up now.

I consider myself to be an optimist because if I'm having a bad day and nothing seems to be going right I automatically think of the person whose spouse or child died today, or the person who was in a car accident and left crippled. Makes my problems seem a less significant...

It isn't that I don't have a grasp on reality, just that I know things could always be worse.

And I really despise the term "normal".

 

[Beakmoo]

I'm an optimist and a depressive. And no, I don't know how that works. It just does.

 

[Anonymous]

I can vouch for that...no, really...

 

[Anonymous]

I think the experiment that was refered to above went as follows:

I think I remember that one, though a conclusion I heard either from that or a different study was that people who consider themselves to be unlucky have a worse grasp of probability than those who don't. Maybe depression is the factor that alters their perception such that they're unable to accurately predict the right outcome.

 

[intaglio]

Whoops

I chose the top answer before actually reading the intro letter. And I cant change now - damnit. I thought ghosts, creaking doors people with the name of Nigel and Moonflower going insisting you contact the Psychical Research Society.

 

[gyrtrash]

I'm an optimist and a depressive. And no, I don't know how that works. It just does.

I prefer to think of myself as an 'optimistic realist'...
...shit happens, but it could be worse...