Originally posted by Slay

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I voted, and I must say, Beck is the greatest name in the history of language. Few things bring me as unbridled joy as shouting the name Beck angrily, ala Roger Smith. When most people get angry, they swear, "Dammit!" or "Hell!" I call out the name of my arch nemesis, as if he is the sole cause of the ails in my life.

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Oh, right, I suppose I should make a better contribution to the topic than that. I dislike static, especially numerical depression tests. People's personalities and emotions vary so greatly that it's an insult, in my opinion, to ever try and attach a number to them. I also have a problem with tests like these because they are only used to decide whether or not to prescribe antidepressants, and some of you may remember that I am quite vehemently against psyche drugs.

We're all sad. We're all scared. That's what makes us human. Life would be utter hell if we were happy all the time. Happiness, in fact, loses it's meaning when it has no opposite; if there is no pain, we can know no pleasure, and if there is no suffering, we can know no bliss. I must say that I feel that being sad is not abnormal, even for extended periods of time. The teenage years are when we first really take in this whole crazy thing we call life, it's when that bubble our parents put us in pops and we first face up to the fact that there's a lot of terrible things in our world, all around us, all the time. It's natural and I think healthy to be sad about it.

What you need to do, I think, is come to accept the fact that there's a lot of horrible things in this world, but resign to the fact that you can't eliminate them all. You have to find purpose in life on your own. No drug, no test can ever give you hope. You can only search within, find what it is in this life that makes you happy and persue it. Not just passively, don't just persue it, leap to your feet and chase after it, running as fast as you can, for as long as you can, with all your might and mettle!

I think that people don't know how to live anymore. You see, life is what you make of it, so eat when you're hungry, sleep when your tired and have fun, because you're not going to be around for very long. Face up to the fact that you can't control everything in life, so let what my happen, simply happen.

The only person who can tell if you're truly depressed is you, and the only person who can make you feel better is you. Trust and believe in yourself foremost, and you'll do fine.

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