Essay: Depression to Optimism

Sample Essay

Depression and optimism are considered the predictors of physical and mental health. ‘What do you see’, asks O’Dell, ‘when you look at a glass that is filled half way?’An optimist would answer that it is half full while a depressed person who is likely to be pessimist would answer that it is half empty. The relationship between the contradictory elements of optimism and depression is very strong. A depressed person cannot be always pessimist but the fact is that he/she would have strong tendency to fall into the state of pessimism.

Depression, says Seligman, is the ultimate expression of pessimists (Seligman, 1998). It is better to say that a pessimist person gets depressed more often than an optimist one. On the other hand being an optimist does not necessarily imply that he/she is void of depression, but an optimist deals with depression better.

The symptoms of depression are extreme sadness, loss of pleasure and lack of energy which eventually leads to pessimism. The term ‘optimisme’ was coined by the Jesuits in 1737 to describe the world based on the argument that God, being all wise, chose to create the best possible world out of many other possibilities (Klein, 1967). Another more secular definition of optimism is the general expectancy for the positive consequences in life.

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