Dealing with depression

[Jangalian]

Yes, I know, it seems everyone has it nowadays. I don't want to get into ..very personal details, I'm just curious if any of you suffer it, and how you deal with it. I'm only frustrated because I have no energy to draw, and that makes it worse!

Halp.

[Saturo]

I know it can be tough, it really sucks. My depression kind of varies, I'm usually worse during the winter/spring, but it's definitely here now too.

I get by with games and friends, really. Antidepressants can work wonders, but that varies per person.

[Jangalian]

I'm pretty wary of pills....when I was a kid, my father kept me doped up to keep me quiet so now I'm like no pills. >_>'

[Rawr]

I'm Bipolar so I feel for u, well half the time anyways I normally try and do some physical activities like running/jogging/walking or walking ur dog/cat/giant lizard, swimming is good this time of year, things like that help get u back to ur normal self. Also I find watching exciting/funny movies helps too. Hope this helps and u feel better soon

[Saturo]

I'm Bipolar so I feel for u, well half the time anyways :? I normally try and do some physical activities like running/jogging/walking or walking ur dog/cat/giant lizard, swimming is good this time of year, things like that help get u back to ur normal self. Also I find watching exciting/funny movies helps too. Hope this helps and u feel better soon :hug: :mrgreen:

I can attest to the efficiency of running. Midnight runs work quite greatly.

No pills, eh? Well, there's natural stuff that can help too. Hasn't fish-oil been proven to work against depression?

[Rawr]

Pills are a last resort, trust me, 1 pill leads to another then another to off-set the side effects of that pill then soon ur on 5 anti-psychotics and 10 others to off-set the side effects of those pills and u shake so much u can't pour urself a glass of soda and are so out of it everything seems like its on fast forward!! Sorry for ranting I'm just very VERY against pills.

[Mania]

Bipolar here also, but it's the depression that's given me the most trouble over most of my life.

I've had good experiences with Effexor, although I know lots of people who haven't. But I've been on and off it several times; when I'm off or waiting for it to kick in I tend to do things that blank out my mind: read, watch terrible TV, play WoW. This doesn't help me function, but it does keep my from hurting myself. And the Effexor eventually kicks in and lets me function. But that's just me.

Other things: my husband's mother chants. (She's Buddhist.) My husband does karate. My sister exercises. My mother drinks -- but I wouldn't recommend that one.

[Palladiamorsdeus]

Talk to some one. I really can't stress this enough. You need to find some one, a friend or an actual therapist, and talk to them. I work with depressed people all the time, and you really need to get it all out before you can even begin the healing process.

[Saturo]

Pills are a last resort, trust me, 1 pill leads to another then another to off-set the side effects of that pill then soon ur on 5 anti-psychotics and 10 others to off-set the side effects of those pills and u shake so much u can't pour urself a glass of soda and are so out of it everything seems like its on fast forward!! Sorry for ranting I'm just very VERY against pills. :x

It actually depends on the person. Some people have that one pill, and it works greatly without any serious side effect, and some get worse for every new pill they try.

Palladia speaks truth.

[Mania]

Ooh, good point Palladiamorsdeus. I didn't think talking to a therapist would help, but it really did.

[Rawr]

Maybe its just me then, but I don't trust therapists and doctors in general. Its too easy for them to over medicate ppl these days. But u should talk to someone, I suggest close friends and family, not paid strangers. Also there are only 2 medications I could say helped me at all, Lamotrigine (Lamictal) and Lithium, both just stabilize mood, don't take uppers or downers.

[Saturo]

Maybe its just me then, but I don't trust therapists and doctors in general. Its too easy for them to over medicate ppl these days. But u should talk to someone, I suggest close friends and family, not paid strangers. Also there are only 2 medications I could say helped me at all, Lamotrigine (Lamictal) and Lithium, both just stabilize mood, don't take uppers or downers. :mrgreen:

You can trust therapists and doctors. Their salary is dependent on you feeling better. :P

[Palladiamorsdeus]

You can also go to a psychologist, who don't hand out pill's. Trust me. I never finished college for it, but that was my major while I was in. I don't function in any sort of paying role, but I still practice it a lot for people. Sometimes random people in airports.....er, don't ask.

But really, it can make all the difference in the world. Pills can help to stave off the effects, but it doesn't really fix what's wrong. You have to get to the root of it, and you have to come to certain realizations yourself. But you can't usually do that by talking to yourself. Or the wall. Or your cat or dog.

[Mania]

Heh. I trust therapists in part because there is not much they can do to me. I tend not to trust doctors, but I eventually found a psychiatrist that I feel is pretty trustworthy.

Rawr: I am also on Lamictal! It was only after the Effexor took out the depression that my doctor realized I was bipolar, and a small dose of Lamictal helps that immensely. (I still get slightly hypomania, but that's fine. It's the manic ranges I want to avoid.)

[Sarayana]

I'll pretty much be repeating the others, but you really gotta find the path that works for you. Exercise is usually great because it gets you out of the house, makes you feel accomplished, and gets your blood pumping. Pills work for some, not for others. I've also heard about fish oil...

My own story (no actual diagnosis, but it was a depression/anxiety/anger mix) involved a whole medical prelude, so medication was a natural step - I took Paxil for a year and had a great experience with it. I started with a low dose and increased it to a large, just to start decreasing again right away. I think I was at the highest dose for about a month. The whole second half of that year was about getting my body used to doing the work by itself again, once things were physically mended. I don't think it would have been as effective if I hadn't seen a therapist though. There were times I wanted to run out of her office or, heck, throw her out the window... but she was an immense help and I can't stress enough how important she was to me during that time. Her and my husband (boyfriend at the time - dunno why he stuck around, I'd have thought most people would have run from craziness like that, beating up payphones and dissolving into sobbing messes... )

Hang in there. Don't give up trying, something will help you, you just gotta find out what it is.

[Saturo]

There were times I wanted to run out of her office or, heck, throw her out the window...

0.o

That probably means she was doing a good job.

[Rawr]

Yah, I'm now quite sure its just me, or maybe I just got the doctors that get paid when they prescribe pills.............At any rate I wasn't just ranting about the 15 pills at 1 time, shakes/tremors and the "underwater" feeling, that really happened to me. So I am quite adamant about the whole doctor thing.

[Palladiamorsdeus]

You just had the wrong doctors, or flat out bad doctors. The whole reason I went for being a psychologist was because I refused to prescribe pills to people. Not really my idea of a long term answer.

[Sarayana]

I agree Palla, it definitely isn't. In retrospect, I kinda saw it as a "getting over the hump" kind of thing. The quality doctor is the one that know what to use, when to use it, and when not to.

Saturo, I couldn't agree more. I had a huge argument with my hubby in a restaurant about it. Told him I refused to go back. Screaming, crying, hiding in the bathroom for 1/2 hour. (Again: why he stayed, I've no idea...) She just... she managed to get in under my defenses, you know? It's unpleasant, but it's what it takes for some people to face what's causing them trouble.

[Rawr]

Well after dropping all 15 meds at once (apparently I should be dead right now for doing that ) I got a doctor that only gave me one pill and it seems to be working. Went through 2 before her who wanted me on about 5 meds at once, so I guess ur right not all doctors are bad, just stay away from the ones who just keep adding pills.