Fight depression or fight off depression?

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Do you fight off disorders such as depression/OCD/etc or do you just fight them?

Also, do you fight your inner demons or do you fight off them?

BTW, is it correct to say, "to fight off them" or should I have written, "fight them off"?

Thank you.

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Type: Question • Score: 2 • Views: 1,723 • Replies: 41

[+3] - camlok - 01/20/2018It simply makes it into a phrasal verb, one of the options English speakers have. Definition of fight off : to defend oneself against (someone or something) by fighting or struggling : to avoid...

@paok1970,

Quote:

BTW, is it correct to say, "to fight off them" or should I have written, "fight them off"?

The second one (fight them off).

Quote:

Do you fight off disorders such as depression/OCD/etc or do you just fight them?

Also, do you fight your inner demons or do you fight off them.

You can do either. Fighting them "off" implies that you have won the battle. Merely "fighting" them suggests that the winner has yet to be determined.

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@layman,

Great answer indeed! Thanks again for your kind help.

1 Reply

@paok1970,

You're quite welcome, Poak.

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@layman,

Quote:

You can do either. Fighting them "off" implies that you have won the battle.

I'm not familiar with any use of the present continuous showing a finished state in English.

To my mind, neither 1. or 2. state or imply a finished condition.

1. He is fighting off depression.

2. She is fighting off a cold.

1 Reply

@camlok,

If you use it that way, you are, at a minimum, predicting victory. But some one who has "fought off" (past tense) has already won, whereas someone who has merely "fought" has not.

1 Reply

@layman,

Quote:

If you use it that way, you are, at a minimum, predicting victory.
But some one who has "fought off" (past tense) has already won, whereas someone who has merely "fought" has not.

Your qualification does not apply to the present continuous.

He is fighting off a cold holds the same meaning as He is fighting a cold.

The 'off' does not in any way predict victory.

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@camlok,

camlok wrote:

The 'off' does not in any way predict victory.

Heh, so you say, eh, Cambo? What does the word "off" add, exactly, ya figure?

1 Reply

@layman,

It simply makes it into a phrasal verb, one of the options English speakers have.

Definition of fight off
: to defend oneself against (someone or something) by fighting or struggling : to avoid being harmed or overcome by (someone or something) by fighting or struggling They fought off the attack/attackers. I'm trying to fight off a cold.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fight%20off

1 Reply

@camlok,

Quote:

I'm trying to fight off a cold.

Exactly. "Trying" to fight something off is quite different that actually fighting it off.

Quote:

1 to keep someone away, or stop them doing something to you, by fighting or opposing them

The company managed to fight off a takeover attempt

2 to succeed in stopping other people getting something, and to get it for yourself

Allan fought off stiff competition from throughout the UK to win one of only four places at the college.

Examples from the Corpus

• Still, it looms as a perverse temptation, and Blue must struggle with himself for some time before fighting it off.

• I tried to fight it off, of course.

• She would never be able to fight him off physically.

https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/fight-off

Fighting is simply not the same as "fighting off." You don't, for example, fight off the indians when they kill you. In that case, you fought them, but you didn't fight them off. You fight them OFF when you force them to retreat (or kill them).

1 Reply

@layman,

Quote:

Exactly. "Trying" to fight something off is quite different that actually fighting it off.

Regardless, neither are finished events. They are processional events, which means that your contention, "you are, at a minimum, predicting victory", has no merit.

1 Reply

@camlok,

Heh. Read it again.

1 Reply

@layman,

It's your contention, explain it. None of your examples are the present continuous.

1 Reply

@camlok,

camlok wrote:

It's your contention, explain it. None of your examples are the present continuous.

There's nothing more to explain. Try fessin up that you're just wrong for once, eh? Not a chance in hell of that, I know.

Read the examples from Longman. Like I (and they) done said: Fighting simply does NOT mean the same thing as "fighting off."

As illustrated by your own example (and mine) if the struggle is still in progress you don't even properly say "fighting off." Instead you say you are TRYING to fight it off. Or, more simply, just "fighting" it.

1 Reply

@layman,

Quote:

Read the examples from Longman. Like I (and they) done said: Fighting simply does NOT mean the same thing as "fighting off."

That isn't at all in contention. Only your mistaken belief that "Fighting them "off" implies that you have won the battle" is at issue.

As illustrated by your own example (and mine) if the struggle is still in progress you don't even properly say "fighting off." Instead you say you are TRYING to fight it off. Or, more simply, just "fighting" it.

Again, false. But the only issue is your false contention that "Fighting them "off" implies that you have won the battle".

The present continuous does not imply or state a finished action.

He is living in Brazil. doesn't mean that he has moved from Brazil.

4 Replies

@camlok,

No comment. Just bluster some more, eh? It's kinda entertaining.

0 Replies

@camlok,

camlok wrote:

Quote:
Read the examples from Longman. Like I (and they) done said: Fighting simply does NOT mean the same thing as "fighting off."

That isn't at all in contention.

Yeah, right, eh?:

camlok wrote:

He is fighting off a cold holds the same meaning as He is fighting a cold.

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@camlok,

camlok wrote:

Only your mistaken belief that "Fighting them "off" implies that you have won the battle" is at issue.

Read much, eh, Cammie? Know what "succeed" means? Know what stop by fighting means?

Longman's wrote:

1. to keep someone away, or stop them doing something to you, by fighting or opposing them

The company managed to fight off a takeover attempt

2 to succeed in stopping people...

0 Replies

@camlok,

camlok wrote:

Quote:
As illustrated by your own example (and mine) if the struggle is still in progress you don't even properly say "fighting off." Instead you say you are TRYING to fight it off. Or, more simply, just "fighting" it.

Again, false.

False, eh? Kinda funny that both your dictionary citation and mine said "trying" to fight off, rather than "fighting off" as you originally put it.

camlok wrote:

He is living in Brazil. doesn't mean that he has moved from Brazil.

"Living in" doesn't mean "has moved from!?" Who knew!?

How could "living" possibly be relevant here (other than for the purpose of obfuscation, I mean)? This assertion is merely a meaningless tautology. You might just as well try to buttress your claims by saying something like "elephant" doesn't mean "snake," or, more analogously, "white doesn't mean not white."

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@camlok,

camlok wrote:

He is fighting off a cold holds the same meaning as He is fighting a cold.

The 'off' does not in any way predict victory.

Surely it does, unless you expect you might die? And.. oh look! "Fend off"...

https://images2.imgbox.com/7f/e8/VAu69VL5_o.jpg

2 Replies

Fight depression or fight off depression?

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