I remember telling my counselor. “I’m not suicidal. But suicide just makes sense. You know what I mean? It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

I’ve found that it’s easier to logic your way into depression than out of it

the problem with depression its that its not an emotion like sadness, its a state of mind.

In my 5th year of depression, someday I suddently noticed that the trickiest thing about depression, is that it makes you believe you don't want to get better, as if you're depressed because it's the way things should be. All the things it tells you in your head sounds so true that you even begin to doubt that the life before was just a delusion, a fake image, because you're unable to see "the truth". It controls you not by some irrational thoughts, but by the fear of being irrational. The harder you try to "make sense", the deeper it controls you.

It's hard not to be depressed in the modern era. Our "purpose" has changed so fast due to technology and social constructs of this era that we feel unfulfilled or empty.

Depression: "So life is pointless." Me: "Yes." Depression: "You believe you're so worthless to other people that you're actually detrimental to other people." Me: "Yes." Depression: "You don't believe you have value even to yourself." Me: "Yes." Depression: "So why don't you-" Me: "No." Depression: "But that doesn't make any sense!" Me: "Yes."

There's two types of depression: logic says I shouldn't be depressed but I am, and logic says I have no reason to not be depressed, the second one is what gets me

As someone who suffers from an auto-immune disease, hearing the analogy of "depression is the auto-immunity of mental illness" was genuinely an eye opener. Now, being able to actually change from hearing new information and new ways of looking at life is still extremely difficult, but at least with the more lenses we have, the easier a resolution is able to be achieved.

I actually have a relative who struggles with this logic. She always says her life won't get better so there's no reason to go to a therapist. I tried to reason with her for years. Now after watching this video I told her what you said and she finally agreed to seek help. Thank you so much.

I did this for a long time. Didn't even realize I was depressed I thought it was just logical that I should feel that way. I have a hard time being in touch with my emotions due to being autistic. I think it's quite common for autistic people to get depressed and still be able to function, and to get stuck on logic.

"The madman has not lost his reason. He has lost everything **but** his reason." -- G. K. Chesterton This was written in the early 20th century, so the terminology is clearly antiquated, but it has really helped me understand, contextualize, and cope with my own mental illness.

This is why I strongly agree with Sun Tzu and his statements about "battling oneself is the hardest battle one man can face."

2:31 this is so on point. I was a "gifted child" and didn't develop emotionally very well and in my adulthood I look around like, "why do these people have all these things like friends and family and relationships and I don't?"

I've struggled with "being too smart for myself," or rather, forcing myself to get out of my own head and stop doing things "logically." I've grown to use logic to make myself feel safe in times where my emotions are on high alert, but sometimes it is more harmful than helpful.

I have an IQ of 139. 140 would consider you to be a genius and is pretty rare. Ever since I had depresssion I have always thought of trying to just “logic” itself out as exactly as how you stated. However, it never works. I’ve worked out, eat well, and have good experiences and still feel bland or numb. This is a video I needed to re-route how I think of my depression so thank you so much.

I like how you use logic to explain how logic won't fix my problem... and it still makes me feel a little better

The autoimmune analogy for depression is a fantastic one. It's a "the bigger they are, the harder they fall" situation.

"You are not your thoughts" is the key to breaking that loop/cycle

I suffered severe depression and mental disorder due to my addiction to heroin. Not until my mom recommended me to psilocybin mushrooms treatment. Psilocybin treatment saved my life honestly. 6 years totally clean. Never thought I would be saying this about mushrooms.

I am not depressed but there are a few people in my life who are. This video was very insightful, thank you. I am one of those fiercely logical people and I have realized lately that the more logical I am to someone to try and help the more upset or emotional they seem to get. This video made me realize I was 1 of those "smart" kids that relied on logic over emotion so don't have much EQ. I am trying to learn.

If you have relied on logic your whole life it's nothing but surprising how much of therapy for depression is actually focused on recognizing your emotions as if that has been an option all along

Logic is not the same as rationality; logic is a tool for rationality, but it can also be used in a irrational way. Take a valid deductive argument, it's valid because if you put true premises in its structute, it creates true conclusions. However , if you put wrong premises in a valid deductive argument, you can get things that are very wrong. Thus, if you are using logic on unsound premises like "I'm unlovable", "people hate me", "I have no reason to live", you can logically get to wrong conclusions.

This takes "ignorance is a bliss" to a whole new level

As someone who's living with depression since childhood days, was suicidal at later school days, I can say, this is 100% correct. Even that my opinion doesn't say anything for anybody. I was suicidal like 15 years ago, some years later I kinda understood how my depression works, not why it is there, just understand the working progress of my depression itself, and I learned how to handle certain situations and thoughts. Now I know when I have those negative thoughts, that they aren't mine. so I learned to get a feeling of this and I learned to handle it on my own and learned to figure out to know when it's not my thought that is roaming in my head. Hope it makes any sense. (English second language) Everything he says, is absolutely right. But you will know it in the aftermath. You won't understand it in you negative phase. But one day. I hope that you figure yourself out someday

Man, the part near the end when he addresses feeding the cycle of depression by being unable to "fix" it and the guilt of failing constantly really got to me. Good video, it's good to have more awareness.

So true. You should take steps to fix things, but I found that just going through day to day blindly believing "everything's gonna work out" without thinking how it will logically happen has helped me much more than trying to think of detailed steps of getting me out of many situations. Usually everything worked out in ways I never expected or never factored in.

“Logically correct, but operating on the wrong assumptions” That is HUGE

There is a quote i read a long time ago that i like to use to describe my depression, "the more the human mind understands about reality, the more it seeks to destroy itself" that quote has been the one that stuck with me the most.

Man this is so valuable for people with depression. It took me years to figure this exact thing out on my own. Also this is tougher for high IQ ADHD people, because they are at such a IQ / EQ imbalance. High IQ and ADHD is basically a recipe for depression.

I coulda used this explanation 12 years ago, but I'm happy to hear it now.

You are right up my alley. The way you dissect illnesses and complexes and your perspective is spot on and I've not come across someone who tells it so succinctly with such gusto. You are a godsend

I have an interesting take on this, I kind of came to this same conclusion but differently. I was depressed and used logic for everything. Later I got a chronic illness and had to realize that no matter how hard I tried to understand this illness not even the biggest professionals know how to treat it. I could either spend all my energy trying to figure this thing out or just realize that I don't know what the fuck to do for the most part and use that energy else where. That really took me away from thinking too logically. It allowed me to step away and just feel the world around me and not feel like I had to find the answer or understand it and it's okay to not know because logically there is actually a lot we will never fully understand, and even if we think we do It may be proven otherwise much later. I was able to go "you know what I really like spending time with someone" instead of asking why I just did it and enjoyed the feeling. or if I didn't' like something I didn't over analyze it and try to fix it I just allowed myself to not do it. however I want to mention depression can be very much linked to many illnesses (simply not having enough vitamin D can destroy your happiness and your ability to fix it)

I remember being especially younger and longed to be a stupider person because while I did fine in elementary and middle school it seemed like if you were not quite as smart you didn't calculate risks and it allowed them to do all these other fulfilling things like ask girls out and have these relationships that I wished I could have. I probably still feel this way much longer into adulthood.

I'm in the top 2% and the awareness factor is definitely huge. It's not really surprising that if you recognize our world is basically a dumpster fire right now and you as an individual have essentially no power to change it, yeah that's gonna trigger hopelessness and depression pretty easily.

Every video is literally life changing. I can’t thank this channel enough. Just so incredibly informative, clever, and genuine.

This is absolutely true. One of the problems my therapist helped me figure out was that I was consistently intellectualizing my depression and mental health in general and that it was actually making things worse by trying to logic through it rather than coming at the problems from a totally different starting point to best take advantage of the benefits of CBT and various positive coping strategies that allowed actual progress (even if slow) via the therapy sessions and lifestyle changes suggested and just generally being willing to both open up emotionally in talk therapy and focus on what I _feel_ without filtering it too much through what I _think_ in the wrong contexts.

Also highly intelligent people often deal with loneliness. It's hard to find people who they can have stimulating conversation with or find people with similar interests/hobbies. Loneliness often leads to depression too

Here’s what at least worked for me to snap me out of a 8yr depression pit from 22-30. I noticed my mind/ego was playing tricks on me giving me this idea I was not worthy of good things because of my childhood upbringing being told this over and over by a parent. As a child hearing these types of things over and over seeded this belief deep inside me without me realizing it at the time because I remember I never agreed with the statements at the time but little did I know it wouldn’t really effect my self worth until I was in my 20s. Maybe hearing such toxic things being said about you as a child by a parent (father) that society teaches us we should always listen to and obey was the only way my child self could make sense of it. Apologies as English isn’t my native language so I may not be articulating this as best as could be. Simply put- child loves parents, parent abuses and tells child they are useless/stupid/and the reason for any trouble/problems in the household etc, child tries to makes sense of this but is not possible as child would dare to question/talk back to said parent so the only way subconsciously maybe even is for child to believe what parent says about their child because why else would a parent beat/abuse/punish us if it wasn’t true… (remember as a child we are always told by society/culture/school to be obedient to our elders and especially our parents as they supposedly “love” us more than anyone and brought us into this world so they know what’s best for us. 😅 Anyway I went off tangent but basically I noticed I wasn’t doing anything in life because I actually perceived myself to be worthless and therefore incompetent to make anything of myself etc. Instead of dissecting my deeply rooted childhood trauma and seeing it for what it was, I instead just always made excuses for myself whenever I wouldn’t do something I knew I should have done that would lead to better my life. This coping mechanism became habitual to the point I thankfully noticed myself having a victim mentality to excuse my own self to anything and everything in life that I feared to do (most likely out of fear of failure or rejection). TLDR Victim mentality was killing my potential to do anything in life and I kept using it as an excuse. Had to teach myself/ learn how to genuinely love myself as I never did growing up because in my head I will always be worthless/stupid since this was what I always heard from my parent of whom I should love and listen to since this is what society and schools generally teach us. Slow at first but once momentum started to build up, the thick depression fog/cloud finally cleared out of my life. Sorry for the ramble, I honestly thought I would just write a quick sentence or two going into it but got carried away and can go on in detail but at the end of the day, this is just my story in a general sense. I truly believe everyone of us still in that dark place, whether it was our fault to begin with or not, we can and WILL rise out of it into this beautiful light of life that we have been far too long without. 🤟🖤

Good video, i can relate to this. I feel like a failure and so objectively I am a failure (the fact I see myself as a failure is, in itself, a failure). Turned 35 this year, still haven't gotten rid of the depression that has been with me all of adulthood and there is no hope for ever sorting life out the way i wanted to. Hopelessness in a way is actually very relaxing, because you can stop having anxiety about all the unsolved things and instead realize they won't get solved and that it all doesn't matter too much anyway.

Man.. I wish I could have learned this 20-30yrs ago. I think I started dealing with something like this before I was even in my teens. However, for me I think it was less logic and more emotion. But I'd dealt with some things early on, and I knew that they had messed me up to some degree, but I didn't even contemplate how. When you learn ways to survive with it, when you distract yourself and find ways to think less, it just gets harder and harder to change your way of thinking. I've had people tell me what I need to do all my life, and it sometimes makes sense in my head, and sometimes I even feel like I'm progressing temporarily, but then it's always just like.. an all-too-familiar overwhelming recognition of truth that overcomes you like certain doom. Therapy wasn't even a discussion when I was younger, and I've only recently been piecing together what's happened to me over the decades. But, after years of compiling problems on top of problems, and missing out on so much in life, it just feels like what's the point? I'm told it's not too late over and over, but my brain just doesn't comprehend how it couldn't be when I missed out on so many important things that develops peoples character from an early age. Understanding how depression works certainly puts things in perspective though, so thanks for getting this out there.

i have a reasonably high IQ in the 130s. i also have diagnosed bipolar and ADHD. i took these IQ and diagnostic tests under the supervision of a psychologist fyi. when i was off my meds and retested during a depressive episode, my IQ was barely 90. being depressed nukes your IQ temporarily. once i was stable on new medications and in therapy, i was tested again. my IQ increased by 2 points from the initial testing. I think developing a higher EQ can help strengthen your IQ.

This is what is meant by the phrase "being too smart for your own good." It takes a certain degree of folly to actually be optimistic about our own lives and futures.

I opened youtube without expecting to find anything really interesting to watch and now I feel I can finally fix my whole life lol. Thanks for talking about this stuff man. Hope you doing well!

I cannot put in words how valuable this was for me. Thank you.

I definitely tried this multiple times.. I am a very very logical person and I have to do a lot of analysis regardless of how I feel so I know why I feel that way.. Writing it down, talking it out with a therapist, HG coach, etc. It was not enough. Professionally got diagnosed by a doc with severe depression and had to get Zoloft daily.. Helped TREMENDOUSLY.. Did a rescaling of my regular day to day feelings after month 6 and my depression and anxiety levels went from maximum 10 all the way to 0 and 1....

This is so interesting! It reminds me of what I say when someone says I must be great in university because I'm smart. I always say "No, I'm smart enough to rationalize procrastinating or not doing my work". Growing up, happiness is glorified, unpleasant emotions are demonized, and neutrality is ignored. I've realized feeling sad isn't fun, but I don't need to escape it. I also try to take note of feeling neutral and appreciate it for the calm it brings . I also like to use past experience to remind myself that my extreme emotions are temporary, for example "I'm really overwhelmed right now. I know I'll feel better by tomorrow, so I need to focus on taking care of myself for now." And then I just wallow a bit cause sometimes that's what you need.

It is true. Not even the most convincing philosophical arguments can't convince you when you are depressed.

Wow, from the beginning to the conclusion, you "depicted me", doc. This video has been so comforting in a way. I don't consider myself as a bright mind, but since age 13 (I'm 35 by the way) I recognized that I have been relying on logic and analysis as the "optimum" way of scoping and solving different problematics in my life. Three things hit right near home after listenning to you: firstly, whenever I talk about my depression and the fatal vision of my life I become a Mister know it all: I know all the reasons, I know all the means, and I know that I'm ultimately in a no way out ditch. And that's it, there's no option, no alternative, but apparently dying. Secondly, I have noticed that as the years go by, I have become overly emotional in the sense that I'm easily triggered by situations in which I'm negatively predisposed, I take things very personally, and I unneccesarly tend to raise my voice and I act aggresively when I asses that I'm being threathen or challegened. And lastly, I felt so identified when you said that in the end the most painful ordeal is not knowing how to fix yourself. I consistenly tell to others around me: the thing that kills me is that I'm unable to make an U turn in my life. As you said, my perception is so damagining and caustic that any idea that comes to me as a valid alternative, I have made it useless and worthless by my falacious reasoning. There's also mix of a transversal fear and a wide and deep comfort zone, but I have identified myself as my very first enemy and I'm irionically and sadly so eager to self-sabotage, self-loathing, and self-pity. Yet, thank you.

As one of the greatest depression researchers of the last century said - the people in depression tend to have the most objective and clearest view of the world and human condition.

Struggled with this for so long and i still am but it’s getting better. The fact that i also have ADHD makes it awful. When i first started college my GPA was 3.9 and i was on the deans list for some time but when the depression + mental purgatory started to secure a place, it dropped to a 1.9. I was unable to function and do anything. My room stayed dirty and things started to seem useless. Suicide made the most sense to me at one point and i felt as if i slipped into a hole that was impossible to get out of. It was like a video game boss that was impossible to beat. You can make progress, do some damage, pull off some clever maneuvers, and put up a good fight but you ultimately NEVER actually BEAT it. At least that’s what it felt like. I started to see hope when i deleted all of my social media. I started to train Muay Thai and MMA seriously and fight competitively. I also started to dive deep into my musical instruments and music production. I was completely away from social media and i stopped gaming for a while as well. I changed my diet, and developed a strict routine. I ran 3-5 miles every morning, hit the heavy bag, and pushed myself as much as physically possible. I also practiced my craft everyday. I started to become happy with personal progress and i had no care or attention to the outside world. It all changed when i got perspective from a guy who was from a different country(he was from Haiti i believe but i could be wrong). His worldview was so different. the aspirations, motivations, and overall meaning of life was SO much different. The things he found important were very common but different at the same time. The concept of suicide, depression, and many other things that are common in American society was almost foreign to him. Idk exactly what changed but i took something so important from that. I’m still trying to make sense of why that changed me because it feels too good to be true. Something that doesn’t seem like much of an answer or a escape put a battery in my back and changed me. I’m in such a weird state of my mind but i just know that i can’t stop because i refuse to go back to how i used to be. Still making sense of things and trying to figure out the direct cause of this change but one thing i know for damn sure is that i feel much better

I never thought I needed this, but I am in a very rough situation with an undiagnosed disease that causes me chronic fatigue and headache... And I work so hard to become MY OWN doctor... Because I want to rest properly again... And a few days ago I got an emotional hit out of nowhere, and now I am so scared... The whole day... Scared and my logic undermines me... I'm also autistic (aspergers). So this video came as a godsent, so perfectly timed and you hit the nail right on the head. Sadly, as emotions are so powerful, it will take time to fix it but I REALLY hope you have more videos, because I want to get out of this mentality... I want to do your meditation and become hopeful again!

I’ve been dealing with this for months. I keep trying to get past it thru exercise, healthier diet, decreased alcohol consumption… it only stuns the beast momentarily.

As I've gotten older, I can't cry. When I used to be able to cry, it was very cathartic. It is nature's anti-depressant. I have seen a few counselors who are hung up on DBT and kept asking me, "Well, what are you going to do after you cry?" They were insinuating that crying isn't a long-term solution. I would say to them, "I'm going to feel much better and be able to function better." OMG, soooo many opinions out there!

It is incredibly scary, I've even had anxiety over even remembering the thoughts I had back in the peak of my depression, literally thinking that my life was so empty and feeling caged in my own existance, to the point that the only logical solution for me was to end it. It scares me that I didn't even felt sad about it, I felt sad that I couldn't do it. I was 100% convinced that it was the only way. Today I am much better, and still working on healing, and have not even thought of that final solution in years, but it terrifies me to believe that at some point in my future, life could kick me so hard that I can fall into that endless spiral of twisted thoughts once again. Depression fucks with your brain and mind like nothing else. SEEK HELP, and if you can, get out of whichever toxic circle is causing this to you, it doesn't matter what else you might need to give up or lose, there's nothing else that you can't recover or replace, except for your own life.

This was explained so well. Thank you! This made a lot of sense. I have a genius level IQ, and I've struggled with depression and anxiety for most of my life (ever since I was a kid). And I just was diagnosed with ADHD a month ago. I'm still trying to figure it out with my therapist, but not being able to logic my way out has always baffled me. This made so much sense on why it's never worked. Thanks so much!

Actually. My first bout of depression started when I was 14 - I remember it clearly as it was a complete surprise and I had never experienced anything like it before. I was in my 30s before I sought treatment. Talk therapy: interesting but had no effect on the depression bouts as they kept showing up. Meds: I believed I felt better but I learned I could not trust my decision making. It helped when I read in the literature that bouts of depression last longer each time and occur closer together as we age. Finally, the thing that did it for me was reading about the chemicals and the neurons - depression is a biochemical process or state that has nothing to do with “me”. Like my stomach processes food without “my” intervention, my brain processes chemicals without “my” intervention - or permission. Now, as a 77 years old, I know that the best way to get the elephant off my chest is to get moving. It is never easy to move under an elephant but it is necessary - as necessary as food and water.

I was on the verge of searching for therapists after trying and failing to cure my depression with logic for 6 months. I open KZfaq and Dr. K uploads this. Dr. K never misses.

I’ve never been suicidal but definitely have felt hopeless (especially recently). I consider myself a decently intelligent person. I do so many of the things you say here in this video. I feel like know what makes me depressed. I feel like I know what I need to do to fix it. But I never do. I’d almost rather sit in my sorrow. I know it isn’t healthy but it’s how I behave. Quite frustrating

I just read something about this in a book I've been reading and this solidified the concept for me. Thank you so much. I've been dealing with a lot of stress recently and feeling pretty down. I have a therapist and she's amazing hut I haven't been able to see her in a few weeks and it's been a really rough few weeks. Thank you again for putting out such great videos. ❤❤❤

A few years ago I got to my lowest low, I had never attempted, but it was always on my mind, basically every waking moment. Luckily got help that turned down the flow of suicidal thoughts from 99.9% to ~10%. I was able to get off the medication, and after a couple more years, I've finally gotten to the point where I've started to recognize my short comings with my emotional capabilities and start working on them. It has not been a fast process, nothing that matters ever really is, but I am feeling so much more "normal" and happy than I ever have in my life. Just... Stay strong, as strong as you can. Always try, because it will be worth the effort.

It took a long time for me to recognize this pattern personally. When one is emotionally compromised, they can end up feeling logically convinced that their current perception of reality is the ONLY one there is. The stronger the emotion, the stronger the conviction. And the stronger the desire to not want that point of view to be countered by others. Ironically, no matter how well reasoned the point of view may seem at that time, often it is the emotions driving the thinking, rather than the other way around. (during the compromised state of mind) Since getting a reality check with others who are not emotionally compromised for the moment is helpful, indulging the habit or compulsion toward social isolation can become unhelpful, since at that point the only one available to save the emotionally drowning person is the emotionally drowning person.

Oh. I don't know why, but I burst into tears when I watched this video for about 2 minutes. I think my depression, which is now cured, kind of traumatized me or something... As always, many thanks for your content.

This guy just explained my entire life. It's what I've slowly been realizing as I've talked with my therapist over the past year, but to hear it all laid out like this, as explained by a professional, and to hear that there are ways to fix this, is so helpful and validating. I was violently nodding and pointing at the screen at one point, lol. I can see how my cycle of thinking keeps pulling me downwards - I take my conclusions from past failures and decide that I will always fail, that nothing will ever get better. It's so easy to use logic to come to a depressing conclusion, especially in our modern world, which, besides being unnatural and soul-crushing in itself, demonizes emotion. Emotion is bad, emotion is useless, being emotional means you're dumb, having emotions doesn't solve problems - in a world where Productivity is the only thing that matters. Also when you're a smart woman, you use your intelligence and logic to further protect yourself from emotions because being an ~emotional woman~ is just further ammo to be attacked and/or brushed aside by men, and even other women (men (some men, gotta preface for the idiots) hate smart women too - you just can't win as a woman). Being vulnerable is the fastest way to get hurt. I've definitely worn my intelligence as a shield, but it's become my prison. I think my perfect storm was having a narcissist as a father, being 'smart', and also possibly being neurodivergent (not sure, trying to figure it out - trauma, anxiety, and depression can have the same symptoms as ADHD, but they also feed each other, yadda yadda). When I had emotions as a kid they were either made fun of or openly criticized - what a great way to raise a child. Emotions were annoying, a nuisance - ostensibly because he couldn't handle or understand his own. I'm emotionally stunted by a trifecta of narcissistic abuse, social anxiety (and/or neurodivergence?), and my own intelligence working against me. I'm finally learning, as a 31 year old, that it's okay to have emotions, and sometimes logic doesn't fix the emotions, and that's okay too. I've done yoga and meditation before, and I've been wanting to do them again, so hopefully this is further motivation for me. Now, to actually do it is a whole different thing... (yay depression? anxiety? adhd?) sigh.

I remember challenging my therapist on the logic of my suicidal thoughts back in August last year, figured much of it was based in stress after taking 8 months off.

I took an EQ test "for fun". I am very very below average on everything but empathy. Empathy is pretty much like everyone else. I suck at emotions and its killing me literally

Depression+Logic is almost more of a torment. The suicidal idealization that you mention is a very real threat. In addition, understanding that you need to get up and do something, but also being unable to do so, while telling yourself there's no rational reason that you cannot do said thing, absolutely makes you feel worse because "This is stupid, why am I not just doing this thing?" Being aware that it's entire "in your head", and despite that still being unable to do anything to change it in that moment... It's absolutely a sinking ship mentality. This is SUCH an important topic. Thank you so much for talking about this. And to anyone reading this: If you find yourself in that spiral of "I should be able to but I can't" and beating yourself up for it, please seek help. I've been to the bottom of that spiral and it doesn't end well.

26 yr old here. There was a time where I didn’t think I would be on this earth. The only way out is THROUGH. Whatever it is you’ll make it through it. Having friends/family will always make the difference as well.

So I’ve seen a couple of your videos, and I’ve always felt like you were talking ABOUT someone, this one, this one really felt like you were talking to me. Thank you.

I think what most therapists forget to realize is depression really depends a lot on the environment. I lived in UK for a while, I was a very smart and productive kid I got best student of the year award. I went back to Iran, if you haven't heard already just search up Iran's situation. In these scenarios, what am I supposed to do? Not feel depressed? Not feel that nothing matters no matter what I do there's no escape from this hell called Iran? When there's a huge problem out of your reach and control what are you supposed to do? Even if I change my perception, the fact remains that Iran is hell...

Ignorance is bliss The more you know, the worse it gets, you really have to "just believe" that you can make things better somehow.

Lately I feel like giving up but my parrots have special needs and I'm afraid of what would happen to them. They would be so confused and I don't know who would give them the care they need. The thought of them feeling scared and not being taken care of and suffering is the worst. That unpleasant scenario is keeping me here. I refuse to abandon them. I will fight depression for them.

Will always love this channel. 100% he's always on point. I'm just working my days away until I find a fun way to die. Doing what little I can till I poof. Good luck out there homies and I hope you get a smile today.

A lot of very smart people are undiagnosed autistics. If you only knew how hard life us as an undiagnosed autistic. Since getting diagnosed last year, and learning to understand my autism, I wonder how I made it as far as I did.

"Why do these things come so easy to other people?" Yeah...that hits. I do not consider myself very smart but there are social nuances that frequently elude me.

I have never felt more understood about my mental health than I did while watching this video. Thank you for this.

"Logic" is one of the things that caused / worsened my depression. That's why part of my therapy was exactly to get a logical explanation for why I was wrong. Without that, the "logic" explanations I was telling myself would have kept going

I've always been a "logical" thinker. I've always enjoyed problem-solving and figuring out how things work, which is definitely a double-edged sword when you can't "find the answer" to happiness (even though there is no one single answer). I've been in therapy now for a little over 2 years now and on meds for about a year and a half. I should've started therapy 9 years ago in high school when my dad was sick and passed from cancer, but my logical brain went into survival mode to help pay bills and pay for school. I also "felt fine" about it, like, yeah he was sick and passed, it's life-that's how death and loss affect me now, but that random grief with him comes and goes with hard cries every now and then of course. Other than that, I had a wonderful and privileged childhood with 2 loving parents who supported me with every interest I had. All my old hobbies, interests, and passions died, and the majority of things don't seem "fun" to me. I'm "fine" these days, things don't feel bad but they don't feel "great" per se-just kind of like floating in a weird purgatory from day to day. WAY better than I was over a year ago though, which is good to remember. The meds definitely helped with my chronic exhaustion, but don't seem as "effective" as other meds have been for people I know, and I'm on my 3rd med combo. When I try to do a hobby my brain processes it as a chore and says "this should be fun and enjoyable, but it DOESN'T FEEL fun and enjoyable.. WHY?!" and then I don't want to do it. It's the expectation of how it should be making me feel (here comes all my logical thinking). Nothing piques my interest enough-I've never found video games fun, if something isn't meant to physically help my living (like cleaning or cooking, although those also aren't fun) my brain says "there's no point in doing this" and is always searching for efficiency for functioning. I really liked what Dr. K said about how "you feel worse for not being able to fix the problem that I should be able to fix". It's true, it's a shame cycle. Something doesn't feel worth the time or effort, but I don't know what that other thing is and the answer should be "just do something no matter what it is if it serves a purpose or not", and then I do, hoping for that relief of fun and enjoyment, and when it isn't there shame, guilt, and frustration come in and it repeats. It's a cycle, and an indicator that habits need to change. I feel like I took a lot away from this video and will be bringing up these points to my psychiatrist and therapist in the next week.

Thank you for this video! By now I think this is one of the most worthy channels on YT to find. ❤

Emotions work like signposts. You can be conscious of them, not necessarily follow down their pathway ALL the time, but you can notice them and use them as a guide to things.

The problem for me is that I just really really *want* to logic my way out of it. It’s ironic, of course, because doing the same thing that hasn’t worked before is itself illogical but no matter how many times it fails, telling myself that I just didn’t logic hard enough will always be a more palatable proposition to me than trying to build emotional intelligence because I just don’t want to have to acknowledge my emotions; I’m scared of my emotions. I’ve been trained from childhood to see my emotions as dangerous. It’s hard to get help with this because I’m not even comfortable talking about my emotions with therapists. I’ve had about 5 therapists throughout my life and every time it’s just been too easy to talk in circles about vague abstract philosophy for an hour so the conversation never has to get real. Every single time I go I tell myself this time I’m not gonna do that but then I do it anyway. Honestly, I hate hearing that emotional acknowledgment is the answer because I hate the experience of having emotions. I wish I was like a rock or something, just stoically floating through space never feeling anything. Makes me think of that line from that song: “if life’s not beautiful without the pain, I think I just would rather never even see beauty again”

Man, I'm 41 this year, and it wasn't until I found your channel that I've come to really see some of the major issues I've been dealing with. Just having this information now helps me to feel calmer and more confident about healing my mind going forward. Thank you so much! You're helping so many people and I'm really grateful I found your channel.

This is one of very few actually useful videos out there! I resonate so much with most of this. I tried therapy and they’re all like “there is no problem” but I know by evidence there is a problem. This casts light on some of my thinking processes I’ve been using and how it all make sense! All the therapists are just talking cliché nonsense which I keep feeling like I can refute with one argument. This actually does make sense! Thank You 🙏

This is so great, thank you so much. I wish someone would have told me this when I was younger, I had to learn this myself and well, the path there wasn't always really constructive, so to speak. But I ended up setting up structures and rules for things my brain is not allowed to convince me of during certain emotional states. I have Dysthymia, and it's come and gone allthrough my life, so light depression and major depression is unfortunately recurring, but these rules has made it possible for me to survive. I also write letters to myself while healthy, so I can read them and remind myself when I'm not healthy. Thank you for your channel and what you do, it's great that more people get access to this information, and especially young people.

Came here to find help for my ADHD people, but am immensely thankful for the help I am personally receiving from this channel. Your radical move away from Harvard is doing some pretty amazing things for this world. Sending you a huge thank you.

I feel like Dr. K is talking directly to me with this one. It's almost like I'm not alone in my problems.

I’m in depression from 2020 (better or worse throughout the period), and in therapy from 2019, and man, you’ve just described my personality from head to toe. I just can’t thank you enough for that insight I’ve got while I watched your video. Thank you very much!!!!! ❤

I think that you have given me something that I haven't had in a while, I have watched a couple of your videos and been so awed at the information you have to share. I've been to more mental health professionals than most people will see in their entire lives. At some point, I decided to myself that I wasn't able to be helped. I still believe that, but you've presented information that I have not heard before. I hope that what you have to share helps me, because I am not sure if I can handle life as it is now. You're the closest to the truth than anyone else I've met, when I could afford it I would like to take your coaching. I hope it helps me, because if you and your programs can't, I'm a lost cause brother.

THANK YOU!!! As someone who tends to look at things very logically and from an unbiased perspective to solve it, I can assure you I couldn’t “solve” my way out of depression. It goes beyond any sort of reasoning or inner workings, it bleeds into the very soul, and that is what people who don’t have it chronically can’t understand.

That makes so much sense I'm wondering how I never connected the dots. Never heard it put this way before (never been to therapy or anything unfortunately), but it could also be that you are just S+ tier at explaining things in a way that makes sense to people without all the technical information. Thank you so much for doing what you do, man! You are an absolute saint.

Thanks🕊🌟Really appreciate your time and the energy you pour into your videos. Always learn a lot from you.

OMFG thank you. This has been my perpetual curse. I remember, when I was 9, I'd go for walks so I could be alone, and I'd just cry because I was aware of all the really horrible things in the world, and I wished I wasn't aware of them. I wished I could have a lobotomy (yes, I was 9 and knew what a lobotomy was), so that I could be stupid. I just wanted to be blissfully unaware of all the crap floating around in my head.

It’s hard to take a discussion on depression seriously that doesn’t include larger sociologic factors or in other words the health of one’s environment.

i think one of the coping mechanisms i came up with after going through a terrible long depression was to detach a huge part of my brain away from my identity. i see most of my brain as a kid that only a part of me inhabits. the kid wants to do the right things and make things easier for itself, but it has little knowledge how to do it, and easily gets frustrated and self-sabotaging. whenever i get washed up by negative thoughts or feelings i can look at my brain from a detached perspective and see its the kid acting up, give it a few words not to be so hard on itself, and then put it aside and take over. if i have any positive thoughts or experiences, it no longer drowns in the negative feelings. i can separate the two from being a product of the kid brain and actual experiences i have had i dont know if it makes much sense. i think the idea is just not to take your brain too seriously. its locked inside the cranium and doesnt actually know whats going on beside what nerves around the body tells it. yes, we are kind of the brain and have a much bigger perspective than a lump of wrinkly fat hidden in the darkness, but i think our conscious self is just a desk worker sitting inside the brain. we dont run the actual brain department. we have to stand up for ourselves when the boss of our brain department does not get the full picture and acts irrationally because of it. i guess in my case i turned that boss into a confused kid so its easier for me to take the reigns instead and guide the brain, without having to endlessly argue with it as an equal, which otherwise just devolves into insults i think just a quick sidenote, this isnt how i view kids in the real world haha. for me the association is just that the brain is too immature to know what its doing, so its not fit or responsible enough to lead me, and its okay for me to dismiss it. this also helps a lot with being skeptic. instead of just second guessing what other people are saying, you also second guess your own thoughts and feelings

Me as a medical student, I thought depressing is just because of the thing that I face. But actually because I’m extreme logical in stuff. When I feel good, It’s very useful. But when I feel bad, I thought why I’m so ‘overthinking’. But when I found this clip, bro I’m so thankful😊. I reallize why I am so good about analyzing but hurt so much when I use logic to solve my emotion. Many time depression give me bad assumptions and now I understand now why it happened. Also this ensures me why I need meditation for develop my emotional awareness. Thankyou again❤

Ive learned more from you than 4 years of behavioral health counseling and therapy. Thanks for spelling things out in a way that makes sense.

I've had this exact struggle and have been dissecting it in therapy for the last few years. Thank you so much for sharing this talk!

This hit hard, I was never considered smart by any means through out life but once I got into a environment that I needed to leverage my abilities people saw me as super intelligent. The issue though is that I grew up in an emotionally distant and abusive household, so most of my resources were seeing when and where the next threat was. Logic in the past year has crippled me and caused me to hate myself, and have those ideations. In the past few weeks though I've been able to start "feeling" emotions again for the first time in what seems like years and be able to label them (albeit maybe not labelled the best lol). I start TMS next month so hopefully with that and more targeted therapy I can tackle this after half my life being in this state.

Highly analytical and logical person here who thought she had no feeling after a childhood trauma and unprocessed grief nd pain. 5 years ago I figured out that besides my high cognitive capacities am also an underdiagnosed highly sensitive person. Relying on my smartness worked well in my early years afterwards it got upside down until I had to learn to accept that I have feelings and to cater to my emotional world. Thanks for this video! At least am not alone ❤

“It's nonverbal: I need love. I need the thing that happens when your brain shuts off and your heart turns on. And I know it's around me somewhere, but I just can't feel it.” - Elizabeth Wurtzel (1967-2020) author of "Prozac Nation: Young And Depressed In America" (1994)

This was very helpful to hear, thank you. Emotions can really be scary, the way you don't have control over them, and they gaining more control over you the more you try to control them.