Why does deep thought lead to depression? (ritual, evolve, Revelation)

[Druidus]

I find that when I engage in serious deep thought, I end up feeling at least slightly depressed. Perhaps it's because I no longer see any constants, and much of the thinking revolves around questions that cannot be answered. Perhaps the answers I come up with logically don't appeal to my emotional side. There are a myriad of possible reasons.

Does deep thought lead to depression for you? Why do you think it does/n't?

I don't know, really. I'm pretty depressed anyway right now. When I think about things deeply, I lose touch with the shallow aspect of everything, the aspect which our socially minded brains attach a great importance to. In the absence of constants and in the realization that all, or most all, of the things that we do are meaningless. Chatting about the weather with a stranger? Why? You both can obviously watch the weather channel, or look outside. It must, therefore, be the petty social interaction that brings the pleasure in the activity. And logically, petty social interaction is meaningless and unimportant. Our brains evolved to make us feel pleasure in such interactions, however.

When the brain realizes that much of it's mental constructs, ideas, and patterns are meaningless yet self-reinforcing, I think depression is a result.

I don't even know if that makes any sense to anybody but me. There's nothing to hold onto anymore, and, much as it sounds good, being awash in unsympathetic, emotionless, logic and reason is not very pleasurable.

It creates a personal quandary: whether I should strive for happiness and forget about remaining logically consistent; forget about deep thought, or strive for logical consistency and deep thought while forgetting about happiness. Neither is wholly appealing.

It's paradoxical anyway. I wouldn't want logic and thought without happiness, but I don't want happiness without logic and thought. If I strive for a balance, then I have just enought logic to realize that my happiness is irrational and that most everything I do is transparently meaningless.

[Mister Emu]

Does deep thought lead to depression for you? Why do you think it does/n't?

Generally, yes.

Because generally when I think deeply it is about my deep shadowy darkness that I constantly fight to keep down, how horrible I find myself... etc. etc.

[ChrisP]

Deep thinking always takes me places too. I think it's "Hail Hail" by PJ, but the lyric is "But I don't wanna think I wanna Feel... oh how do I deal?" Another lyric I like on the subject is Tool's Lateralus "Over Thinking Over Analysing seperates the Body from the Mind".

The realisation that you experience where opposites cancel each other etc is probably close to Nihilism. The realisation of such things eventually causes dual-mind to collapse into heart-mind as one, which for a lot of people is a big step on the path to spiritual understanding.

But anyway, that's my honest opinion. Once the conclusion that all logic is self supporting is reached, the truth of nothing/everything as one becomes clear.

[Ori]

I know how you feel Druidus, the amount of time i've upset myself from analysing things too much is ridiculous.

[michel]

I though that was something that happened to me only.....................

I think you would have to be a pessimist for that to happen though ? Am I wrong? (you guys above me)

[Sunstone]

Why should the notion that life is meaningless be depressing? Some people find liberation in the thought.

[ChrisP]

You're wrong

It's not pessimism, it's the realisation that reality is meaningless, as all physical existence is a construct built and supported by itself

[Super Universe]

For me deep thought is the path for revelation. How can I figure out why something is the way it is if I don't go over it again and again, and again?

The things we do are meaningless?
Not so. One of my favorite people works at the Wendy's restuarant down the street.

I'm sure she only makes minimum wage but she always greets me with a smile and is prompt with my favorite lunch.

Her name is April and that's really all I know but I'm glad she's there. I'm glad she is the person she is and that she does such a fine job for me, a complete stranger.

Everyone goes through bouts of depression. For me it helps to determine the cause.

Was it something I did? Something I didn't do? Something someone else did? Usually once I know what it is that is bothering me I whisper in my head "I forgive you" either to the person or myself. It always brings a smile to my face.

Believe it or not it really helps.

[ChrisP]

The deepest thinking is intuitive and I think this is what you're getting at, but it seems (provided I'm not wrong like usual) as if Druidus is talking about Logical deduction and reason.

What Ymir is saying is so true Druidus, I'm in the process of moving through at the moment. Be forewarned however, from what is happening to me at the moment, the deepest depression is ahead when halfway between the two.

[Ormiston]

Deep Thoughts don't depress me....they make me laugh!

The Wisdom of Jack Handey
*
If I could be a bird, I'd be a Flying Purple People Eater because then people would sing about me and I could fly down and eat them because I hate that song.

*

Once while walking through the mall a guy came up to me and said "Hey, hows it going?". So I grabbed his arm and twisted it up behind his head and said "Now whose asking the questions?"
*
I think a pillow should be the peace symbol, not the dove. The pillow has more feathers than the dove, and it doesn't have a beak to peck you with.
*
Instead of studying for finals, what about just going to the Bahamas and catching some rays? Maybe you'll flunk, but you might have flunked anyway; that's my point.
*
Too bad Lassie didn't know how to ice skate, because then if she was in Holland on vacation in winter and someone said "Lassie, go skate for help," she could do it.
*
If you're ever shipwrecked on a tropical island and you don't know how to speak the natives' language, just say "Poppy-oomy." I bet it means something.
*
One thing vampire children are taught is, never run with a wooden stake.
*
If you want to be the most popular person in your class, whenever the professor pauses in his lecture, just let out a big snort and say "How do you figger that!" real loud. Then lean back and sort of smirk.
*
I love to go to the schoolyard and watch the children jump and scream, but they don't know I'm using blanks.
*
If you work on a lobster boat, sneaking up behind people and pinching them is probably a joke that gets old real fast.
*
I think college administrators should encourage students to urinate on walls and bushes, because then when students from another college come sniffing around, they'll know this is someone else's territory.
*
Marta says the interesting thing about fly-fishing is that it's two lives connected by a thin strand. Come on, Marta. Grow up.