A thread that began with the post “When you’re in a depressive state, any hope for the future disappears, and your days off end with nothing more than a trip to the supermarket or convenience store” caught fire on 5ch. Responses split over how to gauge the severity of the symptoms, with some arguing “real depression means you can’t even manage to go shopping” and others countering “you go shopping because you’ll die if you don’t.” The discussion branched into other flashpoints too — “would getting 100 million yen cure it?” and “is depression really that easy to get diagnosed with?” — as people who’d been through it traded experiences.
Once you're in a depressive state, that "hope for the future" disappears completely. Everything you do gets dominated by a feeling of "it's such a hassle," and you end up constantly worrying about money and your health.
Your personality darkens too — you get irritated by little things, sink into gloom, and keep blaming yourself over and over. Even on your days off, you think, "wherever I go I'll just get tired, so right now I just want to save money," and end up staying home all the time, which only makes things worse.
Did you actually learn about what real depression looks like somewhere, or are you just going off your image of it?
You go shopping because you'll die if you don't.
There are people who end up in that kind of confused, catatonic state. Some stop drinking water entirely, get rushed to the hospital with dehydration, and are admitted on the spot — bedridden with an antidepressant drip running nonstop.
Seriously, that's what a "day off" genuinely looks like for someone like that.
Honestly, even the feeling of "liking" something disappears.
You'll die if you don't go buy food, but you won't die from skipping an idol event.
That's a naive way to look at it. People die without someone to love. You should keep supporting your idol (oshi) precisely so you don't die.
You're the naive one — you've never actually had depression.
You can live just fine without anyone to love.
Talk in your sleep if you're gonna talk nonsense.
And then, worried that you stopped showing up to events, your favorite idol (oshi) will file a missing person report — and be the one to find your body after you die alone.
That's the thing, it wouldn't.
Getting 100 million yen would just start feeling like a hassle and an annoyance too.
I knew someone with plenty of money who disappeared and was later found dead by suicide.
People who've gone "invincible" (mutekino hito, slang for someone with nothing left to lose) are terrifying — simple incentives just don't work on them anymore.
Right, there's always that one self-proclaimed depression case talking down to everyone lol.
Like they're some chosen one burdened with suffering lol.
That varies from person to person.
Even among people with depression, some are on the mend while others are severely ill — it's a whole spectrum.
Why are you stating the obvious?
I've never been to a hospital so I've never technically been told I have depression, but isn't this something anyone goes through?
Depression isn't going to get better just because you're eating.
I think having someone you love actually matters quite a bit.
Even perfectly healthy people can go through a temporary depressive state, you know.
It only meets the criteria for clinical depression once it lasts more than two weeks.
That has nothing to do with how depression is actually treated.
Mine didn't get better for years when I just left it alone.
It was only after I started going to the hospital that I began to see signs of recovery.
If it's "new-type depression" (slang for depression that conveniently only flares up around work), you're fine — leave it alone and they'll just whine "I caaan't work" while still happily going out drinking.
Keep doing that forever, why don't you.
I got better once they moved me to a different workplace and sent me on a short-term assignment.
You've got to change your environment, no way around it.
They can't function without booze.
Go to the hospital, describe some depression symptoms, and boom — you're diagnosed with depression that same day.
It's that sloppy a process.
Depression isn't diagnosed that easily.
At first they just prescribe you medication for insomnia or an anxiety disorder.
No, it's diagnosed plenty easily.
Source: me, who went doctor-shopping like crazy just to get the meds I wanted.
It's not that common to get diagnosed with an anxiety disorder when your symptoms are actually depression.
Sure, there's depression with a strong anxiety component, but that's not usually the main issue there.
Background and Key Points of the Discussion
International diagnostic criteria generally define depression as symptoms like depressed mood or loss of interest and pleasure persisting for most of the day, nearly every day, for at least two weeks — so the point raised in comment #49 is broadly accurate. That said, severity varies widely: cases range from the kind described in comment #32, where dehydration leads to emergency hospitalization and IV treatment, all the way to milder cases where the person can still manage to go shopping. Much of the thread’s disagreement over what counts as “real depression” comes down to this gap in severity. It’s also worth noting that “new-type depression” isn’t an official medical term — it’s more commonly used as slang for cases where symptoms only flare up around work, which likely explains some of the skepticism toward it. As for how easily depression gets diagnosed, in practice people are often first treated for insomnia or anxiety disorders before eventually being diagnosed with depression, so it isn’t necessarily as instant a process as some suggest.
*This article is composed as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “A day in the life of someone in a depressive state is heartbreaking — it ends with shopping at the supermarket or convenience store.”
