It was a real pain in the you know what (can you say ass here?) to get committed involuntarily. I have no doubt that it saved my life, though. I was in really bad shape.
I still go through phases where I think that I need to go back in the hospital for a while. I think its getting better, though.
Were you ever hospitalized?
Holy crap, I’ve got a three page thread.
I’m not quite so depressed. It’s amazing how that brought me up. I just thought I’d share.
Simetra’s test: 48
Dodgy’s test: 60
DigitalMuses’s test: 60
Considering I have been on antidepressants and therapy for the past several months, I tried to kill myself last May, and my self-mutilation problems and severe mood swings, I think I was expecting those kind of answers. shrugs
Sqrl, I can’t figure out how to download my test results for that http://www.ansir.com test.
Thanks for the offer, but I’ll stick with 'zac. When I take it (which is nearly all the time that I have it, but having been through three insurance systems in six months my life’s a bit too upside-down to keep me in good supply) I know it works. As I’m known to say (when I’m on), “60mg a day for better health!”
[hijack]BTW, I know this isn’t the place for this kind of rant, but I just want to thank those in control of the health insurance industry in the U.S. for making my life so…interesting. Just another reason to leave, I guess. <checking apartment listings in Stockholm>[/hijack]
Simetra’s test: 20
Dodgy’s test: 19
DigitalMuses’s test: 24
I’d probably do better on the first 2 tests - these past 2 weeks I’ve been sick and things haven’t been going right for me. 
A test for major depression claiming to be a test for depression. Apparently the people at “InteliHealth” aren’t up on their set theory.
Okay, for those of you who have been misled by this test, there are several kinds of depression. I will deal here with only two (leaving out bipolar, psychotic, and compound depressions):
Major depression. Typically has a definite onset period. This is why statements like “1. I was bothered by things that don’t usually bother me” apply only to major depression. Causes sleeplessness, loss of appetite, and loss of interest in sex. People with major depression often seem completely unaffected by their environments, and impossible to cheer up.
Atypical depression is the kind the people who write these tests don’t give a rip about. Restless sleep? Not a standard feature of atypical depression. Atypicals tend to sleep too much, sometimes eat too much, and feel quite easily affected by their environments. Can rarely recall a time when the depression “hit”; often say it has been around for as long as they can remember. So obviously there is a lot distinguishing atypical from major depression.
Here is a little parable describing how atypicals get ignored by simplistic tests:
Examiner: Have you been feeling worse in the past six months?
Atypical: No, I’ve felt dismal and crappy all my life.
E: Have you experienced a loss of appetite.
A: [wipes taco sauce off chin] No, not at all. Got any nachos?
E: Have you experienced a sudden decrease in sexual desire?
A: [imagining the Examiner nude on a silk bed] Huh? Uhh, no, not at all.
E: Having trouble sleeping?
A: zzzzzzz
E: Okay, so you’re not having trouble sleeping. Do you feel immune to the affects of your environment. Like, do the things people say have tremendous impact on your emotional state?
A: What do you mean by that? Are you saying I’m a weak, spineless individual? That I have no courage of my convictions? Well you’re right! I should be shot.
E: [scans Depression Indicators List for “zero self esteem”] Has it been possible for you to be cheered up, even temporarily, in the past six months?
A: Are you asking if I’ve ever been happy in the past six months?
E: Yes.
A: Why, yes I have. That time I won the lottery I felt pretty good. The rest of the time I’ve felt like I’m in a living hell.
E: Well, it sounds like you’re doing just fine. I recommend a program of exercise, fresh air, and a positive attitude. Keep smiling!
A: What’s “smiling”?
(I scored a 33 by the way, but I don’t trust it since I wasn’t paying much attention to my answers.) Yes, I’m a little strident about this. I’m starting to feel less like this is an oversight by the “professionals”, and more like immoral negligence. Look knuckleheads, I don’t care if someone eats a side of pork at every meal - if they feel like lemon juice in a paper cut 23 hours a day they are probably depressed. Just admit it.
(And yes, I did read the little
This seems like partial admission that the test covers only a single type of depression but it’s really just more psychobabble. To equate major depression with significant depression? So the suffering of the atypicals is “insignificant”? I’m not even going to comment on that one.
Crack’D:
Nope, I’ve never been hospitalized for depression, voluntarily or not. The trick is to be all 
and sunshine twice a week for one hour 
I’m on the meds though, something called seroxat at the moment, supposed to be similar to prozac. Don’t do much in my oppinion, except maybe take the edge off life in general, rather than the pain itself. Everything is just a tad off somehow, but I don’t feel like doing anything about it.
Weird stuff, huh?
That’s what ya get for eating the pills that strange people in robes give you
Yeah, they’re weird. There’s been stuff happening in my life the last few days that I know would normally be making me really upset. And I am actually really upset. It’s just like there’s an invisible wall between me and acting upset that I can’t get through. Very strange, because I’m so aware of it. To be cut off from what your ‘normal’ emotional response would be is…odd and rather unsettling.
Then you start to over-analyze yourself. “OK. I know I should be upset. It feels like I cannot be upset, though, becaus of the meds. I am, though. Sort of. I just can’t express it. Should I really be upset about this? Would a ‘normal’ person be upset?” It gets to the point where I just can’t trust my emotions at all.
Still, with my history of self-harm, it’s probably a good thing.
I do buy pill from strange people. Most of the time, they’re not wearing robes. Except at Burning Man. Quite a few robes there. Quite a few pills there as well. 
Sounds like we have similar problems these days
What’s Burning Man though?
— G. Raven
The first test just keeps on throwing a error back at me but Dodgy’s works for me and I got 78
Now where’s that rope
I’m really sorry, Yojimbo but my first reaction on seeing your post was to be pleased that some poor fool beat my 77. So, I’m not only depressed, but evil with it. Oh, I feel bad about it now!
Don’t feel bad about feeling good
Maybe you went down to 76 there for a while.
I picked up a 51 on the OP’s test…
“The likelihood that you have major or clinical depression is high. You should see a trained health professional to confirm the diagnosis and discuss what treatment might be best for you.”
Heh… “see a trained health professional”… yeah, right.
I asked similar questions in this thread. Basically, it’s a huge arts festival in the middle of the desert. It’s allegedly really trippy and I, for one, would like to go there some day.
Simetra’s test =21
Born Dodgy’s test =29
But I don’t believe any of these tests.
You can read several of the questions different ways, and you can change your mind on what was meant after you’ve answered a few more questions.
The original test: 40
BornDodgy’s test: 65
The mania one: 5
I liked the second test better. The first one asks the wrong questions.
Many depression-type tests seem to think if you’re “depressed”, then you must have low self-esteem. Just because I want to die doesn’t mean I don’t think highly of myself.
The only problems with this statement are:
The word ‘allegedly’. That is, unless you don’t consider this to be ‘trippy’: You wake up in the early morning and crawl out of your tent just in time to see a little red pickup drive past at about 35 miles an hour trippy. Towing a wooden sled about 100 feet behind it. With a guy sitting on the sled reading the morning paper. Wearing a cowboy hat. And nothing else. Sitting on a toilet. Since this is day 3, you realize that this will be the most ‘normal’ thing you will witness today.
Trying to describe Burning Man as an ‘arts festival’ is akin to describing a hurricane as a minor meteorological event.
Seriously, though. I cannot recommend attending Burning Man high enough. Truly amazing.