The opposite of having influenza is not having influenza. Duh. This is not semantics.
The opposite of having influenza is not having influenza. Duh. This is not semantics.
Some people are unwilling and/or inactive participants in their own lives for reasons other than depression, so this isn’t truly an “opposite”. And many, many people with depression, even if not in full remission, are high-achieving accomplished people.
I’m not sure why there has to be an opposite. But to be pedantic about it, I would say the opposite is not being depressed.
Sometimes we describe mania as the opposite of depression, but that’s not exactly right, and it’s not something a depressed person should hope for in any case.
Maybe, but I think it's an important point that when you treat depression, the goal is not happiness. I mean, that's the ultimate goal for most people in life, but that's not the purpose of the treatment, strictly defined. Treating depression opens a door that allows someone to do the things that will result in happiness. They still have to do those things. Nobody has invented a real happy pill yet. So I would not say that happiness is the opposite of depression, as many people are unhappy and not depressed, and in some ways I think someone with depression can actually be happy. Difficult to do, but I think it's possible.
But the idea of opposites is tricky when you're talking about disease states. You could make a case that the opposite of having AIDS is having an auto-immune disorder. I'm not sure where that gets you, though. I don't really want either.
To put my shrink hat back on, there are literally 227 different combinations of symptoms that, when present, can meet criteria for major depressive disorder. So there are many people with depression, as defined medically, who don't have a single symptom in common with one another. We know that depression is a heterogenous illness, but don't really know if there are 2, 3, 5, 10 or more variants of underlying biology at work. Some people respond briskly and fully to psychotherapy alone, some to SSRIs, some to Wellbutrin, some to SSRI + antipsychotic, etc. etc., and yes, some to TRT. Others don't. And it's not easy to predict who will respond to what. Some guys I look at and think, "you need T," others I think "you need antidepressants." Some of that is based on evidence, mostly it's based on experience, intuition, and willingness to try things and adjust as we go. I am not always right, but my track record is pretty good, and i will hang in with a patient as long as they are willing to work with me.
So, defining the opposite of Depression is kind of like defining the opposite of Texas. I'm sure it can be done, but it's more of a thought experiment than anything else, and it will always depend on whom you ask.
I think Mark was just wryly observing the polarity of "dep-ression" and "agg-ression"..not actually claiming that psychological states have well-defined inverses.
Damn.
I am changing my last answer:
The opposite of depression isA composite weighted score of euphoria, aggression, not-depression, serotonin levels, dopamine levels, testosterone levels and happiness indexed on a scale from -5 to 5 where the total score must be the equivalent number of points above 0 to offset the preexisting below 0 depression score