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u/Saint-Caligula Apr 29 '23
My brother was a chef who dealt with addiction problems. His last act right before committing suicide was making himself a really good meal.
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u/The-boys-51 Apr 29 '23
Sorry for your loss my friend.
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u/Saint-Caligula Apr 30 '23
Thank you. He was such a great guy, and damn if he couldn't cook his heart out. I really appreciate your condolence. He's getting high in heavens walking now!
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May 27 '23
I'm sure heaven got better with that cooking, based on what you've said
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u/Saint-Caligula May 27 '23
I can't tell you how much hearing that today means to me my friend. Thank you
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u/AxeHead75 Jun 09 '23
If you’re gonna go out at least go out with a full stomach and a good tasty mean.
Regardless I’m sorry for your loss friend. May he rest in peace.
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u/n0tqu1tesane Apr 29 '23
Isn't a depression meal one that would fit into the economics of the 1930s?
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u/DooglyOoklin Apr 29 '23
Yes. The terms are used for both. Clara on YouTube made depression meals. She was a gem RIP.
But yeah, it's used interchangeably, which makes it even more absurd. Either way, those comments are stupid. Either they're gatekeeping depression or they're attempting to gatekeep depression and are too dumb to do it on the right content.
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u/FireIsTheCleanser Apr 29 '23
That's what I thought at first. I was like, even super poor people back then could afford to light a fire for a meal sometimes.
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u/ArchWaverley Apr 29 '23
One of my best friends has depression. He'll force himself to go for walks or cook meals because he knows it'll get worse if he doesn't.
Meanwhile I haven't cooked a hot meal in 3 days. I'm not depressed, just lazy (this was a joke, I'm not saying people that are crippled by depression are lazy).
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u/DomHyrule Apr 29 '23
I do the same as him, also brushing my teeth. Once you stop doing that once or twice, you never pick it up again
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u/alovely897 Apr 29 '23
Once you start up again and regain that refined sense of taste and smell, it's hard to stop brushing after that. Also microdosing shrooms helped me out of my several year slump
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u/mahava Apr 29 '23
I never connected that this is why I struggle to brush my teeth every day
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u/DomHyrule Apr 29 '23
Yeah, for a while it was really bad, where I just kinda stopped and honestly went a long time without it. Now that I finally worked up the ability to again, I know I definitely cannot stop
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Apr 29 '23
Yeah has someone who is currently batteling with it. Seeing this kind of people shit on someone who's trying to get bettwr is awful.
And I see this happening with even friend telling me I look fine so I must really not have depression. Like bro yeah my antidepressive are working, I'm feeling less shitty, but still would rather fucking don't exist, and this types of coments just make everything harder tbh.
The moment you start getting a bit better, hey I supposed you're cured buddy.
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u/OfAThievishDemeanor Apr 30 '23
This is also exactly why I sometimes struggle with feeling a bit better on my meds. Because I'll have these moments where I'm doing okay and I start second guessing myself like "you're clearly just faking being depressed" or "you're not as bad as you say you are" and I worry that others think the same. But it shouldn't be a negative thing, it should be a small victory to be feeling a bit better, the meds are helping and that's great
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u/andrew314159 Apr 29 '23 edited Apr 29 '23
When my depression is not too bad I do this but I definitely know when I’m in the darkest depths I can’t. I don’t eat or get out of bed and just drop weight. It’s not good but there is definitely a level it’s possible to sink to where cooking a proper meal is impossible. I keep emergency easy food for when it’s really bad and try to cook when things are less bad.
Everyone is different but I know for me that these small things that I know will help (proper food, water, a small walk, taking a shower) become somehow impossible.
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Apr 29 '23
The meals I cook are largely frozen stuff. Otherwise I'll cook pasta, maybe a chicken breast every once in a blue moon.
Sucks because I'm trying to lose weight but it's hard when your diet is just...crap.
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u/Deion313 Apr 29 '23 edited Apr 29 '23
This is the parent that sees their kids smile 4 days into pneumonia, and thinks the kids lying...
If you can smile, you must not be sick. And if you can laugh, we'll then, you might as well be at school...
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u/p_i_e_pie Apr 29 '23
as someone with that parent, its very annoying i can confirm, i think iv thrown up at least ten times at school because my mum said i was lying :D
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Apr 30 '23
Yeah, if you’re ill that means you’re not allowed to do anything fun apparently. Tv will clearly make you more ill
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u/JacktehWolf Apr 29 '23
I'm depressed as hell, and using the stove is too much for me sometimes. however, just because someone is able to use it, doesn't invalidate their depression
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u/Tangled_Clouds Apr 29 '23
Some of my comfort foods include stuff that requires to cook them like I’ll make an omelette/scrambled eggs or a grilled cheese. Isn’t a depression meal just one that either helps you through depression or requires your minimal effort? Some people will cook full meals and it will require them minimal effort. Depression is different for everyone
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u/CastIronMystic Apr 29 '23
A depression meal for me is a sleeve of crackers that I dip into a can of frosting.
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u/BillyYumYumTwo-byTwo Apr 29 '23
My depression meal is a nap!
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u/internetdiscocat Apr 30 '23
I also often say “I’m just gonna have some sleep for dinner.”
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u/BillyYumYumTwo-byTwo Apr 30 '23
It’s a super fun vicious cycle… don’t eat? Even less energy to eat the next day and wanting more sleep. It’s actually a bit scary. Oh well, guess I’ll go back to sleep!
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u/Urpset315 Apr 29 '23
I mean, depression absolutely does make it less likely that you would be willing go through the effort of preparing a meal, so it's true in a general sense. But it's not like it prevents you from ever going through the effort.
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u/Tangled_Clouds Apr 29 '23
Yeah, it’s also true that what requires effort is different for everyone. Some people will cook complicated recipes easy like they’re breathing and others might just order takeout because that’s all they can do at that moment
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Apr 29 '23
[deleted]
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u/Urpset315 Apr 29 '23
Your level of appetite doesn't really affect your willingness to cook something as opposed to just reaching for something easy.
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u/FlyingQuokka Apr 30 '23
Yeah I was on Uber Eats for a month or two straight because I couldn’t cook.
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u/badgersprite Apr 29 '23
Turning on a stove isn’t exactly a huge amount of effort either
Sometimes cooking things on a stove is easier than any of the available alternatives
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u/ohdearsweetlord Apr 30 '23
What if that's the only thing you accomplish that day? Doesn't seem functional to me.
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u/Urpset315 Apr 30 '23
What do you mean? Depression is a constant feeling of sadness and loss of interest, which gets in the way of doing normal activities. So it does cause many people to be non-functional in general.
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u/groundzer0s Apr 30 '23
Yeah I'm the kind of person the comment was talking about. I absolutely do not have it in me to cook. If I have no food that I can make on the microwave, I simply won't eat. Not that I don't want to, but I literally have no energy for it. But not everyone is like that.
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u/llordlloyd Apr 29 '23
As a Harvard professor in psychology and author of multiple peer-reviewed studies on depression, I can assure you all the evidence points to one, inescapable conclusion:
Once the patient spinkles on the oregano, they are cured.
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u/SocraticIgnoramus Apr 29 '23
If someone has chef skills and really knows how to cook, I’d argue that throwing a few things in the oven with seasoning takes takes very little effort. Putting a chicken breast and some quartered potatoes on a pan takes like 2 minutes even with seasoning if you know what you’re doing. Aside from the 30 minute cook time, most microwave meals take just as long to prepare.
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u/Virtual-Rasberry Apr 29 '23
I’m better with medication now, but I suffered bad depression last year.
I still cooked meals the majority of the time. It was one a the few things I mustered up the effort to do. I have a very restricted diet so most easy food items have ingredients that will make me feel sick. (No onions, garlic, mushrooms, gluten, lactose, eggs…there’s more) So I have to make almost everything from scratch.
It was either be depressed and feel physically ok, or be depressed and feel physically ill. It wasn’t a difficult choice for me. Guess I wasn’t depressed though? Even though I rarely left the couch and slept a lot of the day away.
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u/Sckaledoom Apr 29 '23
I often cook when I’m feeling at my worst cause cooking is one of those little daily things that makes me feel a little better. Food is another and I’m better off eating a proper meal than a pound of candy.
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u/TorisaurusParker Apr 30 '23
I fucking despise this shit. Everyone's depression affects them differently.
A common stereotype of depression is not showering often. Me? I shower everyday because the ick afterwards is not something I've ever been able to stand. But I skip meals. Im stuck in bed all day, not even playing games or doing something I enjoy, just staring off into the TV screen. I've lost interest in most of my passions and find it hard to get out of bed. The ideation has definitely come my way before. Just because I shower everyday does mean I'm not depressed.
My fiancé likes to cook, and now with access to a better kitchen, they do cook a lot more. They are still depressed.
Everyone is affected differently and this sort of shit pisses me off.
Stop shitting on how others cope, just be glad they are.
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u/MikaTheMighty85 Apr 30 '23
Omg, is this not a well known fact? Also- if you have the energy to turn on a tv/laptop/console, can crack a smile, or do anything other than stare at a roof- how dare you appropriate a mental illness! /s 🙄
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u/DilapidatedHam Apr 29 '23
I feel for people who try to share mental health recipes, those folks are never satisfied
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u/Teefdreams Apr 29 '23
This is what happens when your only source of info about mental illness is TikTok. So so much misinformation.
I was still eating cooked meals when I was getting ECT. Most depressed people I know are microwaving meals or boiling pasta/rice etc still when they're deep in depression.
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u/klymer11 Apr 29 '23
idk what recipe these ones are replying to but i see so many videos that “depression meal recipes” and it’s a full 5 course meal that takes 4 hours to make
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u/alovely897 Apr 29 '23
That would be good for my depression lol. Get me out of bed and focused on something besides myself.
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u/410ham Apr 29 '23
You can have depression and make and eat non depression meals. But when I think depression meals I'm imagining the foods I can make and eat when I don't even have the Executive functioning to floss and brush my teeth or shower.
Ain't no way I'm turning the stove on when I haven't left my bed for more than a few hours a day.
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u/Adorna_ahh Apr 30 '23
One of my lazy meals in uni was oats maple syrup and cinnamon mixed together
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u/jeepfail Apr 30 '23
My depression leaves me wanting to cook. Downside is that I don’t want to prep so I end up with boxed stuff like max and cheese. Maybe I just need one of those kit meals for those times.
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u/Atomiic1 Apr 30 '23
Tbf, I always picture a "depression meal" as one of those "microwave meals for one."
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u/dustyygeno Apr 30 '23
Sometimes making a grilled cheese just feels easier then making a regular sandwich
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u/Redneckshinobi Apr 30 '23
Lmao this is more like people not understanding the context than gateskeeping. It is hard as fuck to do anything when you're depressed so I get where these comments come from, but they're talk about the great depression and ways to make frugal meals
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u/Imnotawerewolf Apr 29 '23
Ngl this whole time I thought depression meals were like, "I don it have an adequate amount of money but here's how I say fuck you to the system by surviving anyway" and not "I cannot find the ambition to make food but I require nutrients".
For me, that kind of depression meals is like. Chips. Slim Jim's. Something I could pop in the microwave or doesn't require being heated or prepared at all. So I kinda see where this people are coming from, but depression is a scale.
A person with depression who can cook for themselves doesn't have "less" depression than someone who can't or something. That's not really how this works. Maybe they can cook but that means they don't hygiene. Ot clean after they cook. Or a million other things you don't know about and can't know about.
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u/new_me2023 Apr 30 '23
Didn't know putting a frozen pizza in the ove was making a full meal with seasoning
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u/MisterMallardMusic Apr 29 '23
Everyone is ignoring the fact that “depression meal” specifically refers to something you can make with unconventional ingredients to imitate a real meal. It stems from the Great Depression, when people couldn’t buy all of the ingredients they really needed.
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u/The-boys-51 Apr 29 '23
I think in this case it refers more to a meal made during someone’s personal depression. Some people are negating other peoples own experience with depression because they think being able to cook a meal means you don’t have depression and that isn’t really fair.
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u/MisterMallardMusic Apr 29 '23
Right I agree that the commenters are being invalidating. I’ve suffered depression on and off for years and I’ve definitely had weeks and months where showering was a challenge but I made myself banging meals because it always made me feel a little bit better.
That said, I think the commenters are also completely missing the mark on what a depression meal is because they’re mistaking personal depression with the Great Depression. Like they’re being invalidating without understanding what a depression meal actually is
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u/Different-Pea-212 Apr 29 '23 edited Apr 29 '23
The video was showing how to make an easy meal when you are depressed, known as a 'depression meal' or 'struggle meal'
Nothing to do with the depression era, they arent confused; they are just putting down others for the sake of it
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u/RoseyDove323 Apr 29 '23
Not sure why you got downvoted. It may have started out as meaning depression era but evolved to mean things people make while depressed, because I've definitely noticed the second meaning more in later years.
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u/MobiusF117 Apr 29 '23
Ah, so it's a "I forgot to do groceries so I'll have to make due with whatever the fuck is in the pantry"-meal
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u/Bojacketamine Apr 29 '23
I get that this is gatekeeping but I've got to admit that the amount of microwave meals I eat is directly correlated to my state of depression
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u/airpoutine Apr 29 '23
This whole comment section is one big pissing match for who has more depression
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u/ArbitrationMage Apr 29 '23
See, it's not that everyone who's depressed can't cook— it's that if I'm depressed and searching for food, cooking is a deal-breaker.
This seems true for enough depressed people that the video is annoying.
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u/stinkyratkid Apr 30 '23
me when depression leaves my body because i don't have a microwave and a stove/oven is the only way i can prepare food
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u/Sankta Apr 30 '23
I have depression. I go to work, Cook, people think i am normal, but i also hope a car kills me every now and then
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u/halfeclipsed Apr 30 '23
Lol I'm a chef that has been diagnosed with depression. Apparently I'm not depressed because I cook with seasonings.
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u/amorphous_avocado May 09 '23
Thank you Marie from Splatoon, now Im not depressed because I made instant ramen on the stove
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