# I'm not sure, but I think I may be depressed.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-but-i-think-i-may-be-depressed/612486>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [February 11, 2012, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-but-i-think-i-may-be-depressed/612486 "2012-02-11T01:30:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-but-i-think-i-may-be-depressed/612486/21 "2012-02-15T22:03:33Z")

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Major depression episode last year. I’m still unhappy with the state of my life, but not depressed. I could _feel_ the depression. It was like an itchy blanket wrapped around me and somehow pressed up through my ears to wrap around my brain.

Therapy is the best advice. I couldn’t get any, so I self-applied some therapy techniques from books and it did, in fact, help. I also took a very low dose of St John’s Wort. I don’t think it made a real difference chemically, but I think it was a great placebo. Taking a caplet daily felt like doing something.

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**Author:** ![Normal\_Phase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Normal\_Phase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Normal_Phase)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-not-sure-but-i-think-i-may-be-depressed/612486/22 "2012-02-16T17:28:56Z")

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I forgot about the “how I deal” part of the question … to be brutally honest, sometimes I don’t. I took prescription anti-depressants for a few years but ultimately gave up on them due to side effects. I still do take an OTC thing, Sam-E, which despite being expensive works VERY well for me (and fast, too, within a week or so), but suffer from frequent bouts of “I’m feeling better, I don’t really need this, do I?” that ultimately lead to me being forced to realize that yes, I do. (But at that point it’s hard to be motivated to start again, so it all drags out for too long.)

Traditional talk therapy I think is utterly useless for my sort of organic depression. I didn’t have a bad childhood or any triggering traumas that I need to “work through”. What I do have is a personality that contributes to the depression and worsens it, once it gets going, and I’ve never found anything in particular to help me with that beyond not being alone – just being married (to someone who suffers when I do, but won’t leave because of it) keeps me to some extent away from the worst of it. I’m somewhat interested in cognitive behavioral therapy, but after I asked two therapists directly “do you do CBT?” some years back, was told that yes they did, and was subsequently treated to the same old same old once I handed over my money, I sort of gave up.

Really it is amazing how much depression does distort everything, though, and how different life looks when you pop out of it.

(Also like jjimm I find exercise to be immensely helpful as a prophylactic against depression.)

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