Have you ever been treated for depression?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Poll To Follow

Just trying get an idea how depressed we are. Choose the answer that best describes your experience with treatment for depression.

Psychotherapy/talk therapy is treatment by a licensed mental health professional. Alternative treatment/medication includes spiritual/religious, acupuncture, homeopathic, naturopathic, chiropractic, herbal supplements and the like. For the purposes of this poll, a balanced diet and exercise are not alternative treatments, but you may include them in one of the “not covered by the above” answers.

I decided not to include options indicating the efficacy of treatment, as it is so subjective. Please explain the efficacy of your treatment in your post.

2

Maybe it’s just me, but I think there is something very ironic about the “Abillify” ad that pops up right after your OP.

I have been treated for depression - I’ve undergone sessions with a psychotherapist for a little over a year (though not currently), and have been on Remiron and Cymbalta. I’m not taking either one of them at the moment.

Personally, I have found that a healthy diet, routine daily exercise, limiting the amount of stimulants I receive (sugar, caffeine, television, internet) & planning out my day all have helped to relieve depression much more effectively than taking meds.

3

In my mid-20’s a new friend that I wanted nothing to do with showed up his name was depression/social anxiety disorder.

At the end of my rope, I started seeing a psychotherapist. I worked with her for two years. I followed her instructions. Quit drinking, quit smoking, excercised and talked, talked and talked.

I still felt like shit. I really wanted not to have to take meds mostly because of the stigma of being labeled “loony”. But after I did everything the right way and still felt the way I did, I finally decided to see a Psychiatrist and have been on meds ever since. I’ll take the stigma over hanging myself from a tree.

I think for some people medication is the only solution. I tried everything else.

4

Anxiety disorder with slight depression. I was told that the depression came as a result of me having to put up with the anxiety disorder for so long. I took Prozac for both. I’d currently be treated if my psychiatrist wasn’t an arsehole to the point that I told him that I was sick of his crap, and I’m usually a pushover when it comes to things like that. I am in the middle of looking for a new one.
Prozac helps me but again, I need to find a new doctor. I’ll finally get health insurance at the beginning of next year so I won’t have to keep paying out of my own pocket. I used to go to a therapist which was good for venting but again, it got too expensive. It felt good to vent for half an hour but as soon as I left I could feel everything begin to well back up. Exercise used to help temporarily, but I would have to do an hour straight of hardcore cardio just to get the endorphin rush. I don’t even get that anymore. :frowning:

5

I don’t understand depression. I just can’t identify with it at all. I know people with disorders including bi-polar. I have difficulty not holding them fully responsible for their own thoughts and actions. To me that’s the one thing we can or should be able to control is our thoughts. Everybody has ups and downs. Bad things can happen. That doesn’t mean I have to feel bad about it or not expect good times around the corner.

If they offered some medication or drug that was supposed to make me somehow feel better, I would turn it down. I’d need to be two of me to feel better.

So that’s how I roll anyway.

6

Clinical depression is not related to bad things that happen in your life, and good times will not lift clinical depression.

I agree, you don’t understand depression.

7

I have had depression once. It lasted for 6 months and was untreated.

I’ve been on anti-depressants twice, but it was for anxiety, not depression.

So… I don’t really know how to answer the poll! :smiley:

8

This.

To be fair, I used to think like Al. “Why don’t depressed people just get over it?” But then I realized that it’s a bit more complicated than that.
Al, it affects your brain chemistry. When you’re down all the time, that down feeling becomes your norm. It gets harder to feel good and takes more effort to get at the same level of wellbeing/happiness/content than a non-depressed person. It’s like digging a hole, being stuck in that hole, and having to use a lot of energy just to climb out of the hole just to get onto level ground again. Doing that day after day gets tiring, and eventually disheartening.
I hope that makes sense/clears it up a bit.

9

There have been many threads discussing various kinds of depression. It is really, really irritating when people say “just get over it.” Most of us with these disorders would really, really love to get over it. Depression drops a gray cloud over everything. Even when things are going very well, you can’t enjoy them. I recall looking at, say, a beautiful sunset, or flowers, or children, and thinking how those things were indead wonderful, but I couldn’t enjoy them. I know someone personally with bipolar disorder and it is extremely difficult to deal with. I’ve seen this person when the meds were a little off for one reason or another and the difference is very obvious. I am very fortunate that one of the more common medicines, Paxil, works perfectly for me.

Telling a person with diagnosed clinical depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder to just snap out of it is like telling a diabetic to just go and process their sugar more appropriately.

10

I’m the person – the only one at time of voting – being currently treated with psychotherapy.
I want to take that route first before the meds, though I am well aware that depression is as much a physiological as a psychological condition.

The most startling thing about my own depression is how much better I am at recalling negative memories when I’m in a down state. They can just flash through my mind in rapid succession, to the point where I just want to end it all.

Then, when I’m back “up”, I struggle to remember any significant bad memories.

11

I am struggling with Chronic Fatigue. My doc tried to treat it as depression, with a variety of depression meds.

It didn’t seem to help and I stopped them over the summer.

I’m not opposed to the idea - sometimes the fatigue certainly feels like depression - but the drugs we tried didn’t change that.

12

Al, thanks for your honesty. What’s the simplest explanation I can give?

Our thoughts and emotions are all governed by chemical/electrical reactions within the brain. In healthy people, it is as you say - individual exert an enormous amount of power over their state of mind. However, in some individuals there is a fundamental underlying problem with the chemical/electrical reactions. The chemicals known as neurotransmitters simply do not function as well as they should, and, as a result, that person has an altered mood.

Saying “altered mood” doesn’t really convey the intensity. Imagine being wrapped in a glass cocoon. It is tight enough that just breathing aches. You can see and hear other people around you getting on with their lives, but it is all filtered through the glass so that it’s like watching a very weak television signal - all the good emotion stripped out. Doing anything, participating in any activity becomes, not relaxation, but something that requires all your strength and leaves you so exhausted, you can’t press outward against the cocoon anymore, and it contracts, causing more pain.

Against all logic, all reassurance from friends, all evidence from past and current relationships, you feel worthless. The cocoon becomes a black hole, and you absorb everything good given to you without feeling any better or being able to give anything back. You are a parasite, a burden, a millstone to every person who cares about you.

Between that and the constant physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual anguish, it’s no surprise many people with depression begin to think about killing themselves. It’s not an act of selfishness. It’s a manifestation of the same chemical imbalance in the brain that causes the other symptoms. It’s a desperate attempt to escape pain and to relieve the ones we love of the burden we cause.

To those on the outside, it’s beyond frustrating. You begin to feel worthless, because nothing you do to help your friend makes a difference. You resent your friend, because they don’t even seem to be trying. What you’re missing is that they are trying. They’re just held down by thousand pound chains.

I’ve experienced bouts of depression since I was eleven years old. They have varied from a six-week long period of ennui and fatigue to nearly two years of talking, taking pills, sitting in sunlight, exercising, gardening, sleeping, reading, and calling friends late at night so I could hear another human voice and push away the impulse to carve chunks of flesh out of my body with a knife.

I’ve learned in the past few years that while medication can help, it is only a small part of answer. When depressed, I crave sunlight. If I eat anything containing wheat, within 48 hours, I will have suicidal impulses. I sleep 10+ hours a night and still crave a nap in the mid day. I want more than anything to feel human touch - a hug, holding hands, snuggling with someone, getting a backrub. Exercise helps enormously, but it is one of the most difficult things to do in the middle of a depressive episode. Talk therapy helps, but it’s expensive as hell, and much depends on the therapist you find.

Does that help, Al?

13

I’m not sure how to answer this. I went to a psychologist for a couple of years because I was depressed, but I’m pretty certain I didn’t have the condition called Depression.

(Psychologist didn’t help much at all. I finally “just got over it”, mostly with the help of the few decent self help books found in that section of the book store.)

14

Phouka pretty much hit the nail on the head.

For me, the depression makes me want to stay in bed all day. I know that won’t solve anything, but I just want to hide from the world and all of my obligations. I would want to sleep the day away just to get it over with. This entire time, I knew that it wasn’t logical but there was just this underlying dread that overruled that.

Having another condition can affect the others, too. My depression came about as a result of having this over-anxiety problem for a good 10+ years. They both play off one another. My knowing how my anxiety affects me can make me depressed, and the fact that I’m depressed and the things that I have to plan out and do to help curb it makes me anxious.

Anxiety used to be just a mental annoyance, like a twinge of guilt for not returning a call or getting a B+ instead of that A on the test, but over the last two years it actually evolved into a physical pain. A stabbing punch in the stomach that keeps me from falling asleep and makes me wake up early (if I don’t take any medication for it.) The thing is, that the pain is caused by just as mundane thoughts like thinking about going to the bank tomorrow or even a get-together with friends.

You go through life with a barrier that screens out a lot of the good experiences. Even in past pictures where I am with friends and smiling, there was always that urge in the back of my mind to flee. Flee from my own friends! Go home and hide and be by myself. I felt awkward, ugly, like everyone was watching me and waiting for me to mess up, like I didn’t belong. I know that these are illogical thoughts but they never left my mind. There was always that urge to flee. The medicine tones that down a lot, I’ve noticed.
You can look back on the pictures and go “Oh, I had a pretty good time actually/ I didn’t look ugly at all/ I seemed to know what I was doing.” but at the time, it can feel like a nightmare. It’s terrible. To know that it’s just a chemical problem has been a relief, but it’s frustrating that you just can’t go “Brain, you’re acting silly. This is going to change starting…now!” and make something click. If only it was that easy.

I’ll stop hijacking with the anxiety now, since this is a thread about depression.

15

I know academically what the supposed causes of depression are. Plenty of people exhibit the symptoms. Many fewer are changed by the medications in a favorable way in my opinion. But like I say I can’t identify with it myself because I can’t recall ever having been there. I’m not free of all mental conditions mind you. Many would say that I’m a compulsive exerciser and I would agree. I have not missed a hand full of days in forty plus years. Maybe it’s the serotonin level generated by all that exercise that keeps me on track. And don’t mistake my lack of understanding with lack of compassion for people with this problem.

16

Well, in that case, Al, I’m actually relieved that you don’t have a full understanding of what it’s like to be clinically depressed. I can’t think of a single person I’d wish it on. I’m also very glad and relieved to read that it doesn’t affect your lack of compassion. We need more people with your honesty and clarity.

17

I go to therapy once a week and take a mood stablizer. Without the medication I’d be dead by my own hand. I’ve trained myself well over the last many decades of suffering from depression how to get through the day and white-knuckle survive. I have been described as a very high functioning severely depressed person. Except for my current work, I’ve never been in therapy for more than a year at a time, although clearly that’s what’s called for (my bad luck to keep getting therapists who move out of town, for example). Physically, I’ve progressed strongly due to the recognition that I am on the bipolar spectrum, not unipolar, so a medication change has made a big difference. I’ve progressed in talk therapy, too, although not as rapidly. But I have four decades of really crap self-talk, coping strategies and survival techniques I have to undo, so I accept that it’s going to take awhile.

18

Took Lexapro and had therapy for a time in 2002-2003. I still have dark times and have occasionally considered returning to medication, but have not done so.

19

Ah, gotcha.

Do you ever feel stressed if you think you ever have to miss a day of exercising?

20

I was treated for depression once, but mine was more of the sort that I just needed to “get over it”. I don’t think I should ever have been prescribed medication, and I took myself off of them. The fact that people like me with that kind of passing sadness are diagnosed as depressed means that many people don’t realize what true depression is really liked. I have only learned this from reading the postings here on the Dope.