Two Approaches to Recovery - a serious question

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gandolfication
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Joined: Fri Jul 07, 2017 6:13 pm

Two Approaches to Recovery - a serious question

Postby gandolfication » Fri Jul 07, 2017 6:29 pm

Hi I'm new to this forum, but have been dealing with depression and seeking to recover for quite a few yeas.
I wanted to pose a question, which I think will describe better where I am at than anything else.


Thought experiment:
2 identical twins turn 30. Both are stricken with severe, debilitating depression. That's the closed-universe hypothetical here. They don't think they have depression, they're diagnosed and have it.

One does everything he can to treat and get better. We'll call him Andy. Everything Andy does is in accordance with the literature, professional help from psychiatrists, therapists, CBT, group the whole works. Everything and anything everyone here, including me talks about all the time. Everything he does is predicated on total buy-in that depression is a real, extant disease that must be treated. He pours effort and energy into recovering, which necessarily means that he focuses an inordinate amount of time, thinking and action upon this hideous disease and its affects.

The other takes an opposite approach entirely, deciding through brute force of will, let us imagine, that it is a mood, which is something he has or should have quite a bit of control over directing. We'll call him Bob. He does not so much deny that he feels badly, but rather that he has anything like a disease or condition that is in any way permanent beyond a mood which he chooses to focus on as passing in nature. Everything Bob does--still acting on the obvious visceral instinct to want to feel better--is predicated on his belief--sometimes natural and organic, other times, deliberately chosen and rote--that the thing is a myth, above all else, absolutely nothing more than a phantom that cannot and will not have lasting power over him and that he can exercise sufficient control over to engineer away.

For 6 months at least, despite their respective approaches, they both suffer immeasurably and nothing seems to help at all.

Question: What happens after that?

Who is more likely to recover more, feel better faster, go on to lead a happier life, more fulfilled, etc.? Andy or Bob?

I have asked this question in other forms before, but for sake of this experiment, will intentionally stop here and see if anyone has thoughts about this.

Disclaimer: please note nothing in this should be understood to imply any blame, fault, self-perpetuation, etc. of any kind whatsoever. Something prompted me to think about this and post this, but it isn't overly-significant, and I'd prefer not to share it here now. I am genuinely curious to know what people here think.

Thanks
-g

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