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Ask me about being Clinically Depressed
CaptainNemo
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I hope this thread is alright to make, if not it can get pruned or moved to a larger thread or somesuch.
Basically, with the rise of the internet I've noticed a lot of misconceptions and questions about the mental illness called depression. And as a professionally depressed person with five years of experience, I hope I can clear some of them up.
So, fire away.
Basically, with the rise of the internet I've noticed a lot of misconceptions and questions about the mental illness called depression. And as a professionally depressed person with five years of experience, I hope I can clear some of them up.
So, fire away.
PSN:CaptainNemo1138
Shitty Tumblr:lighthouse1138.tumblr.com
Shitty Tumblr:lighthouse1138.tumblr.com
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People who say they are suffering from depression but have not consulted a medical professional are in fact incorrect.
How far off the mark am i?
If someone with cancer never sees a doctor do they still have cancer?
Okay now that's just getting in to philosophy here!
@Marcus, you just have to pray at the bloodstone circle over E. A. Poe's grave. Then you'll get your badge.
Shitty Tumblr:lighthouse1138.tumblr.com
You don't have to "have depression" to be depressed. It can be caused as a side effect of medication, a symptom of a seemingly unrelated illness or injury, it can have environmental triggers, and it can also happen acutely because of upsetting life events and not knowing how to process them in a healthy way.
Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.
Does a tumor shit in the woods with the Pope?
Secret Satan 2013 Wishlist
Something, something, 'holier than the average melanoma, Boo-boo'.
It sucks.
I caught this before the edit and would say so not do those things.
To expand on this, Depression can be caused by undiagnosed or untreated anxiety disorder or ADHD.
This is a good book on dealing with depression, even if the title is a little misleading.
Don't think of Depression like Influenza, it's more like a cough.
Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.
I don't quite understand what you're trying to say here
ineedmayo.com Eidolon Journal Updated
I've never had a Depression Quest.
Antidepressants have their uses, but they're not a first step.
Shitty Tumblr:lighthouse1138.tumblr.com
por que no los dos
Not much help booking therapy sessions if you're incapable of leaving your room.
Shitty Tumblr:lighthouse1138.tumblr.com
I was prescribed pills for this.
I stopped taking those pills about a year after I started on them.
I was told I shouldn't just stop taking my meds.
Did anyway.
Meh.
Of course! What I mean is that antidepressants should be used in combination with some form of therapy in most cases. Even if it's just self therapy.
Then again depression is a complex thing and I shouldn't act like there are hardset rules for treating it. I just found that antidepressants didn't help me deal with the bad habits I developed because of depression. I needed to be made aware of those bad habits in order to manage them and slowly be able to really feel again. Not to mention be able to be aware of when I was falling into a deep depression again.
Without taking care of the coping mechanisms one develops with depression I was liable to make my depression worse as I continued to make decisions based around feeling safe instead of making decisions based on what I wanted.
But even still I'm doing a bad job of managing it. Frantically posting today just to ignore things I actually should be doing because it makes it so I'm not thinking about my problems.
She's lucky in that the medication is super successful for her, but she still needs to go and talk with her therapist occasionally to stay on top of things and be held accountable. She found that the key to her high functioning was identifying the precursors to a depressive or manic period (which the medication mostly suppresses, but not 100% of the time), anticipating the effects and almost sitting back and letting them happen, comfortable in the knowledge that it is just an effect of her disease, and it will pass.
She'll still get depressed for a few days, but we've both learned how to deal with it. Most of my job in that situation is not expecting too much of her. Making sure she eats well and doesn't over stretch herself. And then she snaps out of it.
Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.
This was my experience. I got on medication right away simply so I could get out of bed and stand a fighting chance of not losing my job. I put off getting help for far too long, and getting on pills was a necessary first step for me.
Once I started to balance out, I eventually got off my medication and found help through other means, but I'm convinced I wouldn't have been able to get better if it weren't for antidepressants. I'd have stayed in bed, lost my job, and maybe would have killed myself. T'was bleak times.
We understand very little on how the brain operates. Hell, most people don't see medical doctors for their depression.
And speaking as a person with a chronic illness in general, I have been told by multiple docs that my theory of my purely physical disease was impossible.
So sometimes you just know your body better than most.
They're also not "happy pills" or The Devil.
They can have their uses, sometimes they can be overprescribed but they don't all turn you into a complete zombie, they can give you a leg up on getting the help you need
The way I think of it, from my experience, is that if life with all its big and little stressors is like turbulent water, depression is a weight belt that pulls you down under the waves. Antidepressants don't make you magically float, but they take the weight away so you can tread water.
Ironically one of the antidepressants I took made me gain 30 pounds.
Heeeey glad I'm not the only one!
it wasn't fun
Instead I just exercise, work too much, drink lots, and ignore my general malaise and inaction.
yo gimme dat