I’m generally an optimistic, upbeat person. I don’t get depressed very often, and when I do, I’m pretty good at finding something to distract me while I work it out.
Sometimes, though, I have days where I just don’t care about anything. By that I don’t mean indifference, I mean…it’s like nothing matters.
I’m not angry, I’m not sad, the house is a mess and Byron’s gone and the baby’s asleep and there isn’t one single thing in the world that MATTERS. I don’t have any meaningful thoughts about anything, my creativity level has flatlined, my motivation to brighten things up is hiding behind the refrigerator… I just don’t care. Things are great – who cares. Things are crappy – who cares. It’s as if everything is suddenly grey and I’m sitting here in my chair, and I don’t care if I never move.
I’m not sure I’m presenting this accurately, but what the heck…
Does anyone else ever “not care”?
These little bouts of mine are few and far between, and they last a few hours at least, a day at most.
I know what you mean. Somedays I wake up and it just hits me: for the rest of my life I will wake up, get dressed, go to school (and eventually work), and that’s it. I feel like half-a-speck of dust in a giant world and nothing matters cause I’ll die eventually and in about 50 - 100 years nobody will even know I existed. And it’s not like I think about this, it just hits me.
White Wolf
“Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defense.”
“Half the world is composed of idiots, the other half of people clever enough to take indecent advantage of them.”
Chris, what you’re describing are the classic symptoms of clinical depression. most people who don’t suffer from it think depressives are supposed to be sad. In reality, it’s more of an apathetic, joyless feeling. If you come back out of it after a few hours or days, good for you. If it lingers for weeks or months, seek counseling.
Before you start playing “Dear Abby” and recommending “professional help”, perhaps you should read “Toxic Psychiatry”, by Peter Breggin, M.D.:
[QUOTE]
In the late 1980’s the National Institute for Mental Health coordinated a large-scale study of the efficacy of various treatments on depression. They compared cognitive behavior therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, antidepressants, and placebo over a sixteen-week period. When the treatments, including placebo, were compared for the entire sample of 250 patients, no difference was found among them.[/QUOTE}
While mental health professional like to say that depression is very treatable, the same could be said for the common cold
The fact is that 50% of untreated depression disappears within six months; 75% disappears within 1 year, 80% within 2 years, and 20% are chronic. The statistics for depression treated with cognitive behavior therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy or antidepressants are the same
I don’t like to make anyone feel anymore depressed than the already are, but you can spend thousands of dollars and a lot of anguish searching for answers that are, for 80% people afflicted with depression, unecessary; and for the remaining 20%, beyond the capabilities of modern medicine.
Like you, it doesn’t happen often but once in a while–the battery goes dead, is the best way I can describe it. Not unhappy, not down about anything in particular; just BLAH.
Dunno the cause or the cure. For what it’s worth (and it’s not a lot), I usually figure that it’s nature’s way of trying to tell me something. So, if possible, I just check out of the mainstream for a bit. I putter, do things I usually enjoy doing, take a nap, read, or whatever.
As the not-so-old saying goes, “Don’t press, let it happen.” If the blahs hit and that means some downtime, well, it happens.
If you’re in that slump right now, I hope your batteries recharge quickly. As you stated, you strike me as a sane, optimistic sweetheart of a person. You’ll bounce back and life will have zest again.
I don’t really know that I’m seeking advice so much as just … blathering.
I’m having one of those days today. I spent some time on the board earlier, trying to distract myself, and when I signed off, I sat and stared at my monitor long after it switched to screensaver.
I’ve been having trouble getting tired lately. I think maybe I just need to con my mom into babysitting and get rid of the hubby for a weekend so I can just veg and sleep.
Don’t think I’m ready for psycho-analysis just yet…
I don’t really know that I’m seeking advice so much as just … blathering.
I’m having one of those days today. I spent some time on the board earlier, trying to distract myself, and when I signed off, I sat and stared at my monitor long after it switched to screensaver.
I’ve been having trouble getting tired lately. I think maybe I just need to con my mom into babysitting and get rid of the hubby for a weekend so I can just veg and sleep.
Don’t think I’m ready for psycho-analysis just yet…
I don’t really know that I’m seeking advice so much as just … blathering.
I’m having one of those days today. I spent some time on the board earlier, trying to distract myself, and when I signed off, I sat and stared at my monitor long after it switched to screensaver.
I’ve been having trouble getting tired lately. I think maybe I just need to con my mom into babysitting and get rid of the hubby for a weekend so I can just veg and sleep.
Don’t think I’m ready for psycho-analysis just yet…
Sounds like what happens to me sometimes, except for me it can last for weeks. It is part of my bipolar cycle, and if I don’t take my medication, it can get pretty bad. The really scary thing is that I can actually not even care if I live or die, and that can get dangerous. It is during these times that I have done the most damage to myself, physically. It is like I literally don’t care about pain or anything. I’d sit there and shove thumbtacks into my fingers, just watching them poke the skin down and then pop through, all the way in… watch my finger turn red… then I’d usually sit there and tap my fingers, hearing the clicking of the tacks… they didn’t even bleed much when I pulled them out… anyway, the whole thing stemmed from this deep apathy… looking back and doing the self-psychoanalysis thing I think I was probably just trying to FEEL SOMETHING. Didn’t work though. I’d feel the pain but not care. I have some scars here and there from times when I was in a rage (dysphoria) but most of my various scars, slashes, etc were born from depression/apathy.
If it happens regularly, I’d talk to your doctor about it.
How old is the baby? Maybe you need to buy some BabY Blues comic strip collections. The people that don’t have a baby just don’t get it.
You need to get out of the house, but nothing too wild, just get out.
Chris, how old is the baby? This sounds like postpartum depression. I am no shrink by any means, but if you sink into depression, its harder to get help than if it just comes and goes, because when it is not present, you can think clearly…(I hope this makes sense) Go see your doctor, get some blood work done, you could just have a low level of something that more broccoli or steak could fix up. Could be your thyroid too…
Maybe its all in your head, maybe its physical…we cant know. BUT comparing depression to the common cold is a sad error. If you have ever suffered from depression, for months at a time, you know it cant be compared to a cold. A cold will go away in a week or so, and the are thing you can take to mask symptoms. Depression can last years if untreated, and people drink or do drugs or stick pins in themselves, or screw around, or do nothing at all, all in an effort to feel something…it is a very serious condition that you cant just “snap out of”…
Good luck my dear, and take extra good care of yourself…
One of the important symptoms of clinical depression, as was mentioned earlier, is how long the depressed moods last. If it’s only for a day or two, or just part of a day, it’s considered a normal mood swing, even though it may seem extreme at the time. But when the days stretch into weeks and the weeks into months then its time to seek help.
I have to take exception to Thufferin’s statement that treatment is unnecessary. Two points:
Most diseases, including many cases of depression, are self-limiting. But that doesn’t mean treatment is futile. If treatment can shorten the duration or reduce the symptoms it should be considered. Your cold analogy was telling: we can’t cure a cold but we can reduce the symptoms to where you can lead a more or less normal life while it lasts. Most depressed people would welcome that, even if they knew they weren’t cured.
The fact that different treatments have the same success rates doesn’t necessarily indicate that the treatments have no effect. It may be, and in the case of depression I think it is true, that the treatments are all effective. Depression is based on a triad of interdependent factors – behavior, thinking, and “affect” (a technical term, roughly equivalent to “mood”). Each of the three treatments you mentioned operate on a different element of this triad. Improved behavior improves mood which improves thought patterns which improve behavior, etc. So treating only one element leads to improvement in the others. The goal is to reverse the destructive cycle of these elements to a constructive cycle of the same.
Finally, FWIW, as a sample size of one, antidepressant medication was a life saver for me. It didn’t change my circumstances but it did change my outlook on things and gave me the ability to face my life’s challenges and deal with them.
“If you had manifested fatigue upon noticing that you had been an ass, that would have been logical, that would have been rational; whereas it seems to me that to manifest surprise was to be again an ass.”
Mark Twain Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc
Well, if it’s postpartum depression, than its a seriously delayed reaction… Bowen is eighteen months old.
I don’t think its anything serious enough to take meds for, like I said it only happens every now and then and lasts a day at most.
Veb’s conclusion that it’s “the blahs” is probably the closest. I spent some time by myself last night, listening to lyric-free background music and writing awful poetry, and then I moved the “small” fridge out of the office downstairs to the laundry room.
Guess I just needed some time to be numb, and a few minutes of sweat to bring me back out of it.
I’m sure that everyone has these days – the only reason you do anything is because it has to be done for someone dependent on you.
Anyway, I’m out of it. Feel free to keep discussing, though. I’m interested in hearing about medical therapy vs. self-healing.
Chris - Sometimes we need to just shut down for a little while. Just as our bodies get tired, so do our minds.
If this is something that only happens once in a great while and only last for a few hours or a day, then all it means is that you are NORMAL! We all get the “blahs” and unless it is a deep feeling of dread or something that occurs on a regular or severe basis, then I wouldn’t worry. It’s just your mind telling you that it needs to re-group.
This may sound like a gum and thump-tack cure especially from someone who counsels the mentally disabled (including those with chronic severe depression), but something that works for me is a good, hard cry. It is amazing how it cleanses your emotions and gets you back on track.
Have someone take the baby and send Brian away for the day, rent a couple of really sad movies, and just sit there alone and bawl your eyes out. I can guarranty that this emotional release will make you feel great!
(Note: I am NOT implying that anyone suffering from depression should not seek treatment. I am only refering to the typical “blahs”.)
>^,^<
KITTEN
Coffee, chocolate, men . . . Some things are just better rich.
I get the "blah"s too, pretty much like you describe them, but I’ve noticed that I can feel angry and/or hopeless during those times. It would be scary, but you can’t feel fear.
Fortunately, it only happens about once a month for me, and lasts a couple of days on average. And I know what you are thinking, but I’m a guy.
