Good morning all,
I know that mental health issues can, quite unfairly, attract stigma and prejudice. This is ridiculous, particularly as the World Health Organisation categorises depression as a disability.
So, does anybody wish to be brave enough to hold their metaphorical hand up and say 'yes, I have mental health problems'?
I'll start the ball rolling. I have suffered from clinical depression for the best part of twenty years. I'm still on medication for it, and am about to embark on a course of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in an attempt to rid myself of this insidious illness. I am also currently being assessed to see if I am cyclothymic or even bi-polar.
I acknowledge that many people see depression as just 'feeling a bit fed up' and that sufferers should just cheer up. One friend of mine, quite sincerely, said to me that he couldn't understand why I was feeling down when I had a loving wife, a job, a house and a car. Obviously, I am better off than some people, but depression isn't fussy who it envelopes. Winston Churchill was a sufferer, and made many mentions of his Black Dog in his memoirs.
www.signpostuk.org/mental-health-issues/cyclothymia
www.mind.org.uk/help/diagnoses_and_conditions/depression
www.bbc.co.uk/health/emotional_health/mental_health/disorders_bipolar.shtml
www.euro.who.int/en/what-we-do/health-topics/noncommunicable-diseases/sections/news/2012/10/depression-in-europe/depression-definition
|
Hi Badwolf. Brave thread! :)
I too have depression on and off, probably since my teens, so over 20 years now.
I also have generalised social anxiety, which is closely tied in with the depression.
I think that as we begin to understand the brain better, the stigma will one day be lifted, but until then ignorance and misgivings will persist.
A part of me also wonders whether depression is a normal human state, given how demanding and unforgiving this game of life can be. Of course, it's not a healthy state, but remarkably common.
Anyway, good luck with the CBT Badwolf. I was seeing a psychologist who specialised in that technique this year and it's definitely helped me.
|
I suffer from anxiety which has on a couple of occasions progressed to being near depression and made working impossible. Ended up taking sick at our busiest time in 2008 and nearly wobbled off again this January.
Fortunately I've responded well to Citalopram on both occasions.
Good luck with CBT - I know a number of people it's helped.
|
Prob best to link back to THAT thread I started a long while ago now only I have no clue when exactly it was, I dont fancy listing all that out again.
I guess the headlines are depression 20 years, one suicide attempt, and social anxiety issues.
Never taken time off work, I find my work is a quiet time to process things which I think helps alot with how depression affects me. Not a fan of big crowds or people in general most of the time which some people find odd, but Im a happy anti-social :-)
|
>> Prob best to link back to THAT thread I started a long while ago now
www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?t=5260&v=f
|
Thanks for the link, I missed that thread first time round.
Christ Stu, that's one hell of a story. Seems your childhood was worse than mine, which takes some doing. :(
|
>>Christ Stu, that's one hell of a story. Seems your childhood was worse than mine, which takes some doing. :( <<
Hope you can see why I didnt want to try and re-explain that lot! I havent given it too much thought for a while, I have been having a good period.
I think loosing one of my parents will be the next big test, it invites depression really and in the last 3 years both have had cancer detected by chance and my dad a heart attack - as my mum said, lets have a quiet year!
Last edited by: FoR on Wed 28 Nov 12 at 14:26
|
>> Hope you can see why I didnt want to try and re-explain that lot!
Too right. It got me thinking about me problems and how I got to be where I am today. I wouldn't know where to begin in explaining them. You get a big thumbs up from me for managing to do that yourself!
>> I think loosing one of my parents will be the next big test, it invites
>> depression really and in the last 3 years both have had cancer detected by chance
>> and my dad a heart attack - as my mum said, lets have a quiet
>> year!
>>
Fingers crossed for you all. My step-dad is suffering from terminal cancer and I can see it's destroying my poor old Mum. It's the first time as an adult I've really understood what this terrible disease does to people, and not just the people who are ill with it, but also those around them. I hope the prognosis is better for your parents.
|
>>Too right. It got me thinking about me problems and how I got to be where I am today. I wouldn't know where to begin in explaining them. You get a big thumbs up from me for managing to do that yourself!<<
It can be quite good therapy to trace back your personality development. I felt, especially as a teenager that I didnt connect with people and that I was an outsider. Now as an adult who understands their past and has spent much time reading about personal development, I can look back and see the process that happened, what triggered certain traits. I feel that it has helped me learn to love who I am, however odd I may seem, even to myself ( actually, since I was about 11, being a bit leftfield as been a badge of honour! ).
When explaining things about yourself, try being straight to the point, tell it how it was. Even if you dont share it, writing it out can be quite a voyage of self discovery as it were. Also, never dismiss things as insignificant - one thing I learnt hardway about what happened to me is that the mind can adapt your memories to protect you from them - I had the memories as clear as day but it was 25 years before I was able to give them proper perspective. Once I managed that, looking at pictures of me as a child, never smiling, allowed me to connect with him, it was quite emotional but well worth it.
|
"...does anybody wish to be brave enough to hold their metaphorical hand up...?"
Yes - and I believe I did so when the subject was discussed before.
I've had three serious episodes of clinical depression, each one worse than the previous one, triggered by various personal crises in my life. The first was when I was about 21 and seriously disrupted my university course. The second occurred at around age 45 and the most recent peaked a couple of years ago when I was 64.
Last September, having previously tried and rejected various drug therapies on account of the side-effects, I completed 16 months of one-to-one counselling by a professional described as a "Psychodynamic Counsellor & Psychotherapist". I would rate the outcome as excellent. Before, I would have described myself as someone who was basically depressive, though not seriously so, but who went "over the edge" when things got tough.
Now I don't see myself like that at all. My whole mind-set has improved, and the best thing about it is that I feel that the changes came from me - they were not solutions imposed from outside and they were not off-the-peg processes or strategies. (That may seem as though I'm knocking CBT; I have tried that too and it didn't work for me, though it clearly does for some.)
But, most importantly - I firmly believe that the more mental health issues are discussed the more they will be understood and the greater the likelihood that those who need help will get it.
|
This all assumes that one actually, deep down, wants to be cured. Supposing it were the case that actually sanity comes from using periodic depression as a comfort, and so by definition trying to cure it would make it worse?
Just asking for a friend, you understand.
|
I lurch from euphoria to the blackest of moods most days, weeks, months, years and indeed decades. I thought it was normal. Never considered taking any pills for it. Maybe I should. Must be cheaper than whisky !
No, really I'm not making light of any of this, I know some people suffer terribly.
My own view of these things though is that we get but a brief kick of life's ball and no matter how bad we feel, it's rarely worth wasting too much time dwelling on any physical or mental indisposition for too long. Keep calm and carry on sort of thing.
I've lost everything material and emotional a couple of times but have also managed to come back to some kind of normality ( whatever that is ) on both occasions. Somehow now, despite a certainty that there will be at least one more period of adversity, I'm really not frightened of that. I'll just do what needs to be done to make the best of whatever situation I find myself dealing with at the time.
My own "thing" is that I loath the night. Not a fear of darkness but more a dread of the interminable waste of time it generally is. I love to be busy and abhor inactivity. I can't help feeling I'll spend more than enough time lying down in the dark in due course so I'd better do as many things other than that while I can!
We're all different of course, but for me, when things seem insurmountable, I like to get close to and face up to nature in some way. A walk on a deserted windy beach or a bike ride in a forest even ( or maybe even preferably ) in the wildest of weather knocks me back into shape. Humbling, if that makes sense. Makes more mundane ( aka modern life challenges ) things seem trivial. To me anyway.
|
>> No, really I'm not making light of any of this,
>>
You should. Laughter is the best cure for it.
Joking aside, I subscribe to the theory that depression is a western disease, related very much to the politics of envy.
>> I can't help feeling I'll spend more than enough time lying down in the dark in due course so I'd better do as many things other than that while I can! >>
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrdEMERq8MA&feature=fvwrel
|
"...I subscribe to the theory that depression is a western disease, related very much to the politics of envy."
If you mean that there is something in western attitudes that contributes to depression, that may well be true. I'm prepared to believe that western preoccupation with materialism is involved somewhere.
However, if you mean that those who suffer from depression have been made that way by dissatisfaction with their material lot or even by some superficial lack of acceptance of who and what they are, I strongly disagree. It is much more complicated than that.
I would accept that there are probably many people who are discontent with their lot in life because they have bought into a unfulfillable version of reality peddled by the media and by a consumerist society, but I doubt most of them are depressed in the clinical sense. That is on a lower level even than Seasonal Affective Disorder, brought on by the climate.
|
>> "...I subscribe to the theory that depression is a western disease, related very much to
>> the politics of envy."
>>
That was written a little tonque in cheek, even though there are studies (google "depression is a western disease" ) to test the theory.
I know from my own personal observations in third world countries that there is little evidence of depression there. Whether it is because those people have a different genetic make-up, or whether it is the climate/environment, or their close-knit families, or what, I have no idea.
>> the clinical sense. That is on a lower level even than Seasonal Affective Disorder, brought
>> on by the climate.
>>
I do get S.A.D.; I could cure it by moving in winter to a sunnier climate, but choose not to do so. Instead on dull dreary wet winter days, I just get an extra dose of bright white light to my eyes. I try to look at things as "glass half full" when faced with problems, I don't worry about ill or sick relatives possibly dying early from their disease (although I wish I could take their pain away), I don't worry about having my life curtailed short by events outside my control, I don't worry about UKIP, or loony Lab, or the ConLibs messing up the country, I don't worry about Jimmy Saville, I don't worry that EU is destroying the UK, I don't worry that Kate&William are costing the country money that Alanovich thinks is coming from his pocket, I don't worry that Vettel winning and Hamilton lost because Button did not act like Massa did for Alonso, I don't worry about Zero's poor spelling, I don't worry that people think I am rude and/or arrogant, I don't worry about the fact that I don't worry about anything that I cannot control.
>> I don't think envy is perhaps the correct word in this context which implies a relationship with another person/external influence. >>
I was just trying to be very brief about what I think causes depression. Whenever some friend or relative tells me they feel depressed, it always seems they are wanting something more than they have got and it is something they think other people have but they don't have. Envy and Greed explain most of it.
p.s. I am not a Doctor.
Last edited by: John H on Wed 28 Nov 12 at 19:25
|
>> I was just trying to be very brief about what I think causes depression. Whenever
>> some friend or relative tells me they feel depressed, it always seems they are wanting
>> something more than they have got and it is something they think other people have
>> but they don't have. Envy and Greed explain most of it.
>>
>> p.s. I am not a Doctor.
>>
I think you're in cart before horse territory there. People who are depressed think that money/career/relationship changes would solve their depression.
It won't. They'd just be rich/successful/shagging a model and depressed.
|
>>People who are depressed think that money/career/relationship changes would solve their depression. <<
Sometimes they do. I would happily credit my wife with stabilising my self-worth.
|
|
You have self worth Stu.You are uniek in your own way.I had this discussion with my clinical support nurse regarding my situation.Lower you'r own worth is the first thing people do when they are down.What is the saying laugh and people laugh with you.Cry and you cry alone.
|
>> You have self worth Stu <<
Poor self esteem is one of the very common effects of childhood abuses. You have to imagine that essentially the person who abuses you simply sees you as a toy and it has a deep effect on how a child thinks about themself. After the assaults I was also bullied relentlessly for 8 years.
When your life seems for all the world to you like your only role is to be used at the whim of others for their amusement, self worth is hard to come by.
In the formative years it has a fundamental effect on the way you think about yourself going forward and in the end it becomes a self-fullfilling prophecy long after the actual abuse stops because you struggle to recognise you own worth and if you hate yourself, people find it hard to see past that, so it is easy to end up alone, thus confirming that you are not worth anything.
|
"Whenever some friend or relative tells me they feel depressed, it always seems they are wanting something more than they have got and it is something they think other people have but they don't have."
It's difficult to explain how it feels to be depressed to someone who doesn't experience it. As far as I was concerned, at my lowest all I wanted was for this thing - this state of half-functioning, slowed-down consciousness, this feeling of being crushed beneath an almighty burden, where tears come easily, where colours seem grey and sounds are distant, where nothing seems right and where there's this sense that it's a downward slide that will end goodness knows where - all I wanted was for this to go away. I never even thought that what I wanted was happiness; some kind of relief was all I hoped for. Though I don't believe I got close to suicide, I can understand why for some that represents the way out, because they can see no other and going on as they are is intolerable.
I really don't think "wanting something you haven't got" comes into it.
|
>> I subscribe to the theory that depression is a western disease, related very much to the politics of envy.
Um ok.
|
Edit fail!
I don't think envy is perhaps the correct word in this context which implies a relationship with another person/external influence.
Many sufferers of depressive illnesses 'envy' the perfect version of themselves that they try (and in their minds fail) to be - often setting themselves impossible goalposts and chiding themselves they only manage 90% of it.
Of course society and external influences can affect how we feel we should be but the usual battle goes on within the sufferer, and not truly directed outwards at things they aspire to have - this is why we often hear "I don't know why I feel like this, I've got everything I want - no money worries, family are great, etc".
|
Sorry to ask what might be a dumb question, but it has just occured to me that I've no idea what "causes" depression. Or indeed if it is "caused" by anything or if it's just that some people are unfortunate enough to randomly suffer from it? I guess everyone / anyone can relate to and think of events or sociological circumstances which may trigger feelings of deep and even lasting "lowness" but it seems to me anyway that those of us who have never conciously had the real deal can't begin to understand what clinical depression really means.
So, a question for those better informed or qualified than me, what exactly is it, how does it manifest itself, what causes it and what's the ( or is there a ) cure?
|
That's like asking "What causes cancer and how do you cure it?"
I'd suggest you need to research it yourself and see what bits make sense as it's a massive subject, affecting directly 15million+ people in the UK.
Depression affects every culture - how it manifests itself is very variable, often depending upon social stigmas and expectations.
Before the 1980s/1990s there was a gigantic stigma attached which meant many sufferers complained of other symptoms eg. back pain/headaches as they didn't wish to, or know how to discuss their mood.
Since then, with much more open discussion of mental health issues it is less common to have people coming in with physical symptoms as a smokescreen for mood problems (still happens though - usually in 'tough' guys).
Separating what is 'illness' from what is simply normal mood and behaviour can be difficult as there is a huge overlap.
Perhaps a similar cause for the rise in autism/dyslexia/ADHD/etc where greater recognition means less kids are labled as 'retarded' or the 'stupid kid' that otherwise can function fairly well - the diagnosis does not mean there is any easy cure however especially where there are big behavioural problems.
|
Thanks for your reply Lygonos. I think I sort of maybe understand but as you rightly stress, it's a big subject. My wife sometimes accuses me of being a depressive but I like to think I just sometimes take things a bit too seriously. Conversely, I can also be rightly accused of not taking things seriously enough depending on my mood. Mercurial is her assessment. I don't have a problem with that. Others might, but that's sort of, well, their problem isn't it?
:-)
|
I too missed Stu's astonishing revelations, though it would appear i contributed earlier in the thread.
I've had some experience of dealing with the aftermaths of humbling mistreatment of children, often by their own kith and kin.
Won't go into detail but SWMBO's childhood had striking similarities to Anna Raccoons (from her jimmy savile blogs), abandoned and pushed and pulled from pillar to post.
She has suffered her whole life due to this, she laughs about it but i've seen and held her when it cuts her to pieces once in a while, not often because her natural defences kick in which is instant anger.
Anyone who wants to see a 1/3rd of a second fuse blow, be horrible or unjust to someone who can't defend themselves, bullying, the resulting whirlwind is something else to witness
It doesn't happen often now, because she has security here.
She missed her vocation really, she should have been in a role to use that instant and accurate retaliation to defend those who can't defend themselves.
I take me hat off to Stu and any others who have been terribly traumatised in their most vulnerable years and have come through it to make the best of things they can.
I had what some would see as an idylic childhood, if in a somewhat belated Railway Children story, i had a secure loved childhood despite being a mistake to parents who were still living in the early 20th century, i wouldn't have changed a thing, poor in materialistic objects of little consequence but rich in the important things.
|
I'd like to add to the list that the OP has in the thread title - much more rare than good old Dep, but the one that I find trouser-browningly scary more than all the rest:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postpartum_psychosis
Seen it a few times and would happily never see it again - tends to be a bizarre and severe form of past-natal depression.
About the only mental illness I'd have no hesitation recommending ECT for as a treatment.
|
>> the one that I find trouser-browningly scary more than all the rest:
I seem to remember a recent thread discussing a woman who had murdered her baby, who may well have been affected by something like that.
I believe the psychoanalytic view of depression is that it can stem from a perceived inability to please or 'satisfy' the parents' demands or expectations. It's easy as a parent to nag or carp at a child in a habitual way without recognising the weight of that steady, aching drip drip drip of sour dissatisfaction. In the absence, or relative absence, of countervailing affection and support, it can make a child miserable or rebellious in ways that can last for life.
My own observation over many years, in my own case and others, is that neurosis and psychosis are effectively hereditary: they tend to be passed on in one way or another. Both though are mistaken, 'bad' strategies for dealing with life. Cures or partial cures are possible.
|
>> My own observation over many years, in my own case and others, is that neurosis
>> and psychosis are effectively hereditary: they tend to be passed on in one way or
>> another.
>>
>>
I probably agree, if you mean "hereditary" in the wide sense of not just inheriting actual genes (as in identical twin adopted at birth, brought up 200 miles in different environment), but the whole family of parentage, environment and circumstances.
Humph I think asked "what is it?"
It's a black whirlpool that suddenly looms up, often unexpectedly, often in circumstances that ought to be happy, frequently triggered by nothing in particular. It's seeing it coming, knowing one is going to get sucked in, expecting it, dreading it, welcoming it, and then going down, helplessly, as friends or particularly loved ones watch.
It's sitting dumbly while someone asks, anxiously, what's the matter, can anyone do anything, was it something I said, say something, please, tell us what you want, we love you, we want to help.
But still going down, caring, not caring, wanting only to go to sleep.
But perhaps others experience it differently. The greatest mistake is possibly assuming anyone else can understand it.
|
>> It's a black whirlpool that suddenly looms up, often unexpectedly, often in circumstances that ought to be happy, frequently triggered by nothing in particular. It's seeing it coming, knowing one is going to get sucked in, expecting it, dreading it, welcoming it, and then going
>> down, helplessly, as friends or particularly loved ones watch.
>> It's sitting dumbly while someone asks, anxiously, what's the matter, can anyone do anything, was it something I said, say something, please, tell us what you want, we love you, we want to help.
>> But still going down, caring, not caring, wanting only to go to sleep.
>>
>>
>> But perhaps others experience it differently. The greatest mistake is possibly assuming anyone else can understand it.
>>
That's pretty much the way it hits me.
Having read most of this thread, and rereading the old one, where I too briefly explained my story, I find myself with damp eyes.
This can be the start. A letter I received today hasn't helped.
Depression is like alcoholism, it is so easy to fall off the wagon.
Its just that rather than one glass, it can be one letter, one comment, one TV programme, one photograph, one.........................................
|
>>Depression is like alcoholism, it is so easy to fall off the wagon.
>> Its just that rather than one glass, it can be one letter, one comment, one
>> TV programme, one photograph, one.........................................
+ 1
|
>> TV programme, one photograph, one.........................................
Renault?
Sorry ! Only kidding !
:-)
|
>> >> TV programme, one photograph, one.........................................
>>
>> Renault?
>>
>> Sorry ! Only kidding !
>>
>> :-)
>>
Quite possibly!
Having owned one, and never willing to touch another Renault, I can see through the joke!
|
>> >>Depression is like alcoholism, it is so easy to fall off the wagon.
>> >> Its just that rather than one glass, it can be one letter, one comment,
>> one TV programme, one photograph, one.........................................
>>
IMHO also like alcoholism, you can never be fully cured.
Its always there, waiting.....
I'm in my 50's, as I said in the old thread, it hit me, and nearly took my life about 11 years ago. (marriage break-up)
But.. it started when I was 17.
I had a spat with a colleague, we never did get on.
I said to him, I wish you were dead.
Next morning, he wasn't at work.
He was in the morgue.
Last edited by: swiss tony on Wed 28 Nov 12 at 21:53
|
>>I said to him, I wish you were dead <<
In the words of Jerry Lawler, be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.
Morbid curiosity - how did he die?
|
>> >>I said to him, I wish you were dead <<
>>
>> In the words of Jerry Lawler, be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.
>>
>> Morbid curiosity - how did he die?
>>
Car crash.
Mini, head-on into a coach.
If I hear anyone saying similar words to another person, I have a habit of pretty much losing my temper. Even if said in jest.
|
>>Car crash.
Mini, head-on into a coach<<
Well I suppose atleast he didnt act on your advice, it was just one of those things.
Ive never been one for wishing people dead, always seems extreme even for ones enemies.
|
>> Well I suppose atleast he didnt act on your advice, it was just one of those things.
Indeed it was.
But, I have lived with guilt every day since.
I know that my words had nothing to do with his demise, but the guilt is there.
|
but the guilt is there.
>>
Were you raised a Catholic ST?
The guilt and personal responsibility for so much that happens is part of my own burden, its no bad thing IMO, but could be taken to extremes.
|
>> but the guilt is there.
>> >>
>> Were you raised a Catholic ST?
>>
>> The guilt and personal responsibility for so much that happens is part of my own
>> burden, its no bad thing IMO, but could be taken to extremes.
>>
No, I was born to a non-practising CoE family.
The guilt isn't normally an issue, except on my darkest days.
My common sense tells me it is something I shouldn't feel, but since when have human feelings made sense?
|
>> My common sense tells me it is something I shouldn't feel, but since when have
>> human feelings made sense?
They make us who we are, warts and all.
|
>>They make us who we are, warts and all<<
I know of a 'wise woman' in West Cornwall who can charm warts, gord, lemme know when y'all down this way.
|
>> I know of a 'wise woman' in West Cornwall who can charm warts,
wot, she tell 'em what they want to hear in a seductive earth mother sultry voice?
i'll be in touch :-)
|
Sorry had to shoot off sharpish and never did finish the above post.
BW i sincerely hope the new treatment offers you some help, goodness knows this depression lark is often taken lightly, but not by those who are touched by it or sufferers.
Though the few sufferers i've personally known do, in their high periods, make light of it they and their close ones know its always there lurking at the door ready to give them a bloody nose whenever the right or wrong set of circumstances combines.
edit...one woman i knew, her face would physically change shape around her eyes/forehead as her depression took on its full devastation, almost eerie to witness.
Last edited by: VxFan on Thu 29 Nov 12 at 00:51
|
Maybe my view is more simplistic than the resident Dr's - Depression was described to me as largely in two groups.
1. Reactive Depression -i.e. caused by some experience.
2. Clinical Depression - caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain.
|
|
Live for some is a roller coaster ride and we have to make the best of it.No good answer I know,maybe there is no answer.
|
Life is a bitch, and it's on heat ... we're thrust into this mortal plain from our Mothers loins, battle through life as best we can, and then get burnt or stuck down a hole at the end of it all.
I've spent decades trying to understand what this ere blimmin life is all about, but I still haven't a clue.
I lit my multi-fuel stove this afternoon for the first time this year and I'm H A P P Y.
:-))
|
>> Joking aside, I subscribe to the theory that depression is a western disease, related very
>> much to the politics of envy.
Is the politics of envy the explanation for everything?
It apparently accounts for my attitude to Public Schools, the Murdoch press and now my health as well!!
|
>> It apparently accounts for my attitude
>>
Only you can explain why you would take pride in dissuading someone's daughter from going to Oxbridge.
>> the explanation for everything? >>
Yes. Anything else is madness and irrational.
Last edited by: John H on Wed 28 Nov 12 at 19:29
|
>> Only you can explain why you would take pride in dissuading someone's daughter from going
>> to Oxbridge.
That is an example of a lie being round the world before the truth has it's boots on.
A close friend of my daughter bailed out of her Oxford interview and went to do languages at a redbrick instead.
The lass concerned was been a regular at birthday parties and occasional sleep overs from yr 7 (2004) until they went up to Uni. I never discussed HE with her. Although my Guardianista politics are on my sleeve it's inconceivable that a a few mealtime discussions of wider politics chez B had any influence
|
What about these immigrant nippers being traumatised by their UKIP foster parents then? Little kids listen to their elders' conversation and school leavers don't you mean?
Only teasing Bromptonaut. I know you are a reasonable person.
|
>> Is the politics of envy the explanation for everything?
>>
>> It apparently accounts for my attitude to Public Schools, the Murdoch press and now my
>> health as well!!
Well it's good to know that you only have one underlying problem isn't it ;-)
|
This is from a m8 in Plymouth, he's a professor of sociology & psychology, almost:
"Artistic, creative, imaginative, intelligent, sensitive - all of em" :-
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_with_major_depressive_disorder
"This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you" D McLean
"The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness" - R D Laing, still pretty relevant to this discussion even today.
|
An important and often not discussed topic.
Personally speaking I have suffered throughout my life and am at the moment at the bottom of the deepest hole I can remember being in.
Doesn't help when my doctor (new as my old surgery closed) doesn't want to help. All others locally are over subscribed.
I've been like this since March and can't see it improving either.
I find that I am going in to a self imposed isolation. Haven't actually seen or spoken to anyone in over a week and this happens quite often.
|
I've been deeply moved reading through this thread.
Whilst I HAVE needed a little bit of professional help with being down-in-the-dumps (most recently after a car accident), I've never suffered from the debilitating horror of true depression as described by others.
I don't want to come across in a sugary-sweet way, but I feel huge respect - and even affection - for the excellent human beings who have shared insights into their personal feelings. Even though I like to think of this as a friendly forum, that takes bottle!
|
"...I have suffered throughout my life and am at the moment at the bottom of the deepest hole I can remember being in."
I'm reluctant to offer advice where none has been sought, Zippy, but your post disturbs me. I'm especially surprised and disappointed by the attitude of your doctor, who is the obvious first port of call. Maybe changing your doctor might help, but if it were me I'd seek professional help of some kind.
Despite your isolation, you know just from this thread that you are not alone.
|
|
As another on the list of sufferers, I echo FP's comments. I was lucky to have a GP who was helpful and interested. One GP in another practice was much admired when he admitted his struggle with depression in the local paper. Superficially a very successful man, centre of the community, wife a former mayor and prominent conservative. These steps help to bring the issues into the open, but they take some fortitude I would think.
|
Keep ya chin up zippo, try to get out in the fresh air daily if you can, you'll feel better for it.
There is help out there, but one just has to fight one's corner so to speak - never take no for answer, like.
Also - keep well away from our 'friend' Ale Cohol as it will only make things worse IMO.
|
There is always help you have to be lucky to find the right people.There is a saying in Dutch.
Maak van je hart geen moordkuil.
|
What an interesting and thought provoking thread. I'm sorry to say I missed Stu's first thread as well, but have caught up.
I'm afraid I am one of those irritating sods that for me the glass is usually half full.
But, over the years in my public service, I soon worked out that life isn't like that for all and some get dealt a rough hand. It has had me become grateful for what I've got and wish I could have done more professionally to help others.
I had a brief wobble when my first wife had a breakdown (and I didn't know at the beginning) and I couldn't help someone who really needed it (not that she wanted help). We were divorced remarkably quickly, at her behest and I had to help her mother through it all as well, as i'd started to understand the issues, with professional help, but her mother didn't...not a nice time, it really kicked me in the nads, albeit luckily for me it was temporary (2 years).
That brief foray into another world gave me a taste of something unpleasant...and made me realise, a little, what some have to endure constantly. It made a better person of me, I think, more compassionate, more understanding.
I respect the utterances of others on here, in this context, and wish them well with their travails. As someone else has already said, 'chin up'..other people do actually care.
|
>>I find that I am going in to a self imposed isolation. Haven't actually seen or spoken to anyone in over a week and this happens quite often<<
I know it well. I have been what they call a loner since childhood, often with a great desire to 'get away' from things, mainly people, although at the time I was limited to a BMX and an ordanance survey lap ( I could often be found 30 miles from home on it though ).
I have had to over the years learn how to lessen my isolation - having a fantastically understanding wife helps a great deal because she doesnt punish me for being me, perhaps that is why one seeks out the isolation - to get away from the judgement of others.
I ducked out of this place some weeks back because I fancied a break and I have stopped visiting as many forums as I used to, I think the net can be good, but it can also take over so occasionally stepping back can give you some space to think and adjust your focus.
Dont ever find yourself thinking you are on your own OR that you are in any way unusual as there are many, many people who feel just as you do at one time or another.
|
Thank you, all of you, for your responses. I am humbled by some of your replies.
Zippy, please push for treatment. Speak to your GP's practice manager and insist on being seen by another doctor. Or ring you local Primary Care Trust, explain the situation and ask them to find you a GP. If you were showing all the symptoms of, say, bowel cancer and you were treated as you have been the national papers would have a field day. But, because it's mental health people don't tend to be as vocal for fear of ridicule. Even if you can't get immediate treatment then please do keep posting here.
Mods - please pass on my email address to Zippy, I'd like to suggest a way to help him/her. Thanks.
|
|
I'll do it later Badwolf. Unless one of the others has.
|
I am on anti depressants myself but for anxiety rather than depression although I do sometimes get down. It is really is amazing how many people of my generation suffer from it.
Been feeling a lot better due to the medication but the last few days I have been quiet and starting to get very edgy and nouty again :(.
|
R&S,
Totally understand that. This time of year is well known for symptoms to worsen.
Don't know what the answer is but some here more qualified then me may be able to help.
All the best,
Z
|
>> Been feeling a lot better due to the medication but the last few days I
>> have been quiet and starting to get very edgy and nouty again :(.
>>
What's nouty?
Is it a Northern expression?
|
>> What's nouty?
>>
>> Is it a Northern expression?
Never heard it myself, but a bit of deduction took me here -
www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nowty
|
Nowty....well used round here in Manchester for many years. I remember me ole mam using it when I popped a moody as a young kid.
Ted
|
|
Blimey! Don't Northerners talk funny? Not like what we Southerners do, innit?
|
Depression/Bi-polar/Cyclothymia - oilburner
