Depression seems to be one an increasing mental disease in our modern society. People are cut of from emotional input, as they spend more and more time in front of a screen instead of in direct human contact with each other. I myself find it at times really stupid that I would spend so much time on message boards or social network sites, instead of calling my friends and going for a drink. Anyway what I try to say is that we tend to forget how much time we spend in indirect social interaction, compared to the direct way. Recently I did an experiment (if you can call it that), in which I reduced the time I use sites like Facebook or software like MSN and ICQ to an hour a day. Of course I never sat around and only used these sites, but I will work, read or watch stuff in the meantime, but then your concentration really suffers and most of the time you spend even more time doing these different activities than you normally would. Still, the amount of newly found free time and especially productive time I gained was astonishing. So my tip to fight loneliness and frustration (especially if you don’t get any work done, because you waste time idling around the internet) would be to simply get out more. Be it going for a walk or calling your friends to have a drink or watch a movie, direct social contact will often make you feel better (even if it doesn’t immediately cure your feelings of depression).
I’m still not sure if I should like the following article or not. There are some interesting ideas in there, but maybe the “4 easy ways to treat depression” method oversimplifies the issue a bit. Anyways have a look yourselves and tell me what you think on the topic of depression.
Say What???? 
i like this article. i think it can help many people who are slowly going down that road of depression to do different to occupy their minds, hands etc. i think i might try some of these things because i spend a lot of time texting instead of meeting up with my friends. But on a real note though, i agree with this, everyone should read i and hopefully apply it to their own lives
I read your article, and it is easier said than done. I move to IL 5 yeas ago, just to see if the people I know would miss me, plus I was downside on my job and I retired because of disability issues. I am a middle-aged woman. I used to live in MI, and I knew alot of people, but found I still couldn’t talk to them, oh, occasionally, but to go someowhere with them, no…..they only person I could visit when I was in my hometown, was my foster mother. Her daughter and I weren’t close, she is a snob, she feels she is too good and has too much more than I….and she is better than I. Her conversation tells that. Here I don’t have friends because I am ambivalent about people because of what has happened to me in the past with people…stealing, people coming in my apt….I cannot afford to live in an area where I can trust people. oH, I speak, but that is where I leave it, I will hold a conversation, when I see them, but to party, no I learned about those parties…..and have friends that still do that, but because I don’t do that anymore, I don’t have anymore friends.