people who have dealt effectively with depression- ??

[mopinko]

what changed about your life? and what didn't?
please share your stories.

[elleng]

1. Dear mop, wish I had a magic formula.

Realized one day 'husb' is sociopath = reason for much of my misery over last 10+ years, being under his thumb emotionally and financially. Gave me an AHA which helped quite a bit, enabled me to stop effexor.

Recently, grey cloud returning. In litigation w 'husb,' so regular need to strategize and think about all the crap.

Effexor was quite helpful, and did a couple dose adjustments.

Best wishes.

:thumbsup:

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Still in the midst of the struggle..

Menopause did not do me any big favors. Having no job and therefore no health insurance for several years did not help either.

Been thru Prozac, Topamax, Lexapro, Effexor, & Zoloft...THAT almost made my anxiety drive me off a cliff.

Thanks to Medicare, I am currently seeing two shrinks, an MSW therapist, taking Clonipin, Prozac..again. Latest prescription is for Perfenizine..to "stop the voices" that bother me during my anxiety attacks. I never thought I would end up as a character in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".

Would love to get into a women's depression group therapy situation. Have not been able to find anything of that sort near me.

Trying nutrition, acupuncture, yoga, calling friends. Even called the Suicide hot line a couple of weeks ago.

No answers yet. Those that are not in this place think it is merely a decision we can make.."BE HAPPY". "Get up and do something productive" is what someone told me.
They have no idea how it feels to go to sleep every night praying that you will not wake up the next morning.

Whatever I may know rationally does no good when it comes to working out the emotional terror of anxiety, panic and depression.

If I find any success in current path, I will let you know...and please do the same.

Thanks.

BL

[elleng]

3. DEAR Bklyn

:hug:

[BrklynLiberal]

4. Thanks elleng

:pals:

[mopinko]

8. i tried to explain it to my husband. i told him

imagine i only have one leg. it just slows me down, wraps me up in fear, and most of all, makes me ruminate about every problem. whether it is mine, or one of the kids, or even his. it just rolls around in my head until i have to do something. since there is often nothing to do, i end up doing useless things. lather rinse repeat.

hope you find some peace bl. the med go round is hard. i have pain problems as well, and i wouldn't want to recount the number of meds that i have tried. but as long as you are above ground, ya gotta keep trying.

[BrklynLiberal]

10. I completely empathize....and thanks for the good wishes.

[EFerrari]

5. What is happening?

[mopinko]

6. not much

but having conversations with hubby about the effects of untreated depression, and what can be expected from therapy. will be taking him along to the therapist to get him a little educated about the situation, to help sort out what is me and what is depression.
treatments are starting to help. also figured out that after 5 years of taking ambien, it turned on me and was causing major, major depressive symptoms. i had quit taking it cuz the doc thought it was giving me short term memory problems and i felt better the next day. i got along fine without it. then i took it 3 nights in a row because i had to get up early, and by the third day i couldn't stop crying. so, that was a useful bit of information.
my biggest problem after that was anxiety. meds are starting to kick in. did a stress reduction class which was of some use. i can feel the old constant rumination quieting down and realize that it has been like a bad case of tinitus for a long time. the peace is much appreciated.

so, the whole point is- once people get a grip on depression, what kind of changes happen? what gets better, what stays f'ed up, what doesn't matter anymore?

[EFerrari]

7. Hmm.

Well, just me. When mine is handled by meds or by nature, I have more energy, my mind is sharper, I can concentrate as long as I want to. I don't need long convoluted rationalizations for things because . . . nothing bothers me as much because I'm not as vulnerable. And I'm more likely to let go of conflict, between me and you or between me and me.

With my depression meds, I feel lighter and don't need to notice myself so much. That alone is worth the price of admission. :)

[BrklynLiberal]

9. I aspire to reach the level you have described. It sounds like heaven to me.

I ma still at the endless ruminating, panicking, heart palpitating stage. No light at the end oft he tunnel...no end of the tunnel, even.

[EFerrari]

11. Hi BrooklynLiberal.

You can actually train yourself to take your attention off of endless ruminating and put it onto something else. One of my friends taught me an easy "thought stopping" tool where you just say, "stop" to yourself when you notice that it's happening. It works with practice and it's free and always handy for you.

I used to have a panic disorder. Therapy helped me quite a bit but little tools like that one helped a lot, too. I didn't always have my therapist with me, lol, and sometimes, no access to meds so, little tricks really got me through a lot of that stuff. :grouphug:

[mopinko]

12. my doc nudged me to take a mindfulness class that they did

in the practice. stress reduction for folks with lots of reasons to need it. it was a tad hokey for my taste, but i did learn some useful stuff. just the breathing techniques alone were worth it. just slow mindful breathing, with something to concentrate on to stop the cycle. they taught to think to yourself- just this one breath. but i find that john paul george ringo works just the same.

[EFerrari]

13. I tend to learn that stuff better on my own, even if out of a book.

I get empathy overload or something in a group and the whole thing becomes exhausting.

(And now, can blame mirror cells, lol!)


Whatever works. I used to talk myself over bridges -- and in the bay area, they are everywhere -- as if talking to a daughter or younger family member. It probably sounded silly but it got me over the bridge with the least amount of sweaty palms and hyperventilation. It worked, that's all that mattered.

[BrklynLiberal]

15. LOL. I will have to try that johnpaulgeorgeringo mantra.....

[BrklynLiberal]

14. Thanks so much for the suggestions....

I intend to try them all.:pals: :pals:

[EFerrari]

16. I need to try to do more so it'll be me next time, asking for suggestions.

:toast:

[Critters2]

17. A combination of two things--cognitive behavioral therapy and 5-htp.

Oh, and getting divorced didn't hurt either.

But seriously, 5-htp, available at Walgreen's or health food stores, is WAAAAY more effective than any Rx anti-depressant. And CBT is more effective than other therapies. 5-htp helped me to think clearly enough to make use of the skills I learned in CBT. Together, I'm doing well, and know what to do when I start to crash (go back to therapy). CBT is generally a short-term form of therapy, not years long like the Freudian and neo-Freudian nonsense. If you can't afford private therapy, Recovery International teaches the skills of CBT in a group setting, for free. http://recoveryinternational.org/

Emotions Anonymous is also a great source of help. Doesn't call itself cognitive behavioral therapy, but the coping skills are similar.
http://www.emotionsanonymous.org/

I hope this helps.

[mopinko]

18. thank you.

yeah, the whole freudian 'rip the scab off once a week forever' school of therapy is b.s. imho.
cbt is interesting to me. i did a 4 week mindfulness training thing that i think is a similar approach. it was a little on the hokey side, but useful. i will check out your links.
jury is still out on the whole divorce thing. done with school in a couple weeks, and will re-evaluate it then. need a damn job, tho.

[Critters2]

19. You're welcome. Good luck! nt

[Le Taz Hot]

22. Interesting.

"rip the scab off once a week forever" school of therapy . . .

I thought I was the only one that had that experience. When I was 18 I had that type of therapy for 7 weeks -- the results were very nearly fatal. During the process of recounting a terrorized childhood, I "re-lived" it with the same horror as when it was happening. When you remember that stuff you remember it and feel it in the eyes of that 4-year-old or 10-year-old or 15-year-old. I never went back and have been struggling off and on ever since.

[HereSince1628]

23. That's something of a classic PTSD/cPTSD response.

Most folks want you emotional so you have an opportunity to deal with the feeling and the things that make you emotional.

However it's easy to become overwhelmed and then it's just another traumatic experience.

You might be interested in reading about the "Self-Trauma Model" of Briese (sp?). He argues that a patient needs to deal with traumatic memories but that it must be done within a 'therapeutic window' and both the patient and the practioner must pay attention to emotions getting too strong.

[mdmc]

20. What worked for me

I was pretty much a "fake it until you make it" guy.
Sad, but tryin to put a good face on it.
Then I got sick with RA. My physical pain overwhelmed me.
When I got relief from the pain, my depression lifted.
While I am in some ongoing physical pain I no longer suffer from chronic depression.

[mopinko]

21. yeah, pain puts me in a bad place

mine had been good for a while, but has kicked up again. i aggravated some arthritis in my foot, and was taking some meds to quiet that down. it took a while, but it was feeling better. so i tapered off the meds. now the pain in my foot is back, accompanied by pain in other places. i think it is basically a disruption of the pain chemistry by taking/stopping the meds.
now have to decide to tough it out or go back on the meds. thinking that quieting the inflammation and keeping my foot from degrading is pretty important. damn if it isn't always something.

[Pharaoh]

24. My Sig Line is

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. Krishnamurti (1895-1986)


I truly believe depressives are just more sensitive to the fact we live in an insane society. I once thought there was something wrong with me till I realized it was the whole world that was fucked up. I am not insane, the world is. I am just much more sensitive to it.

[mopinko]

25. canaries in the coal mine.

there is some theory out there that mental illness are really variations that served a hunter gatherer tribe. it's a deep subject, but i can see how that might be true.