I’m just curious to hear anyone’s story about being treated for clinical depression. What meds have you taken? What therapies have you tried? What works for you?
So… There’s NO ONE in the world of the SDMB who’s ever been depressed. I really find that hard to believe. :rolleyes:
No, there have been many threads dealing with depression. Perhaps more people would be willing to talk if you offered your reasons for asking.
In your OP you ask about clinical depression. Later you seem surprised that nobody here has ever been depressed.
They are NOT the same thing! “Being depressed” is something that everyone goes through at one time or another. “Clinical Depression” is a defined medical condition.
Thankfully, I have never had this sort of problem. But my wife, her sister and their father all suffer from various sorts of “anxiety disorder”. They are all taking medication now, and are all doing much better. From my experiences with three close family members having similar conditions, I can tell you that no single drug or therapy work for everyone. They are all taking different medications to treat their conditions; in fact, the same drug that works wonders for my SIL causes severe panic attacks in my wife.
Perhaps a bit of background would help you get some more responses here. For starters, are you yourself having some difficullties; are you concerned for a friend or family member; or are you just asking out of curiosity?
Ok, thanks for the advice. I’m asking because I have been diagnosed as being clinically depressed. Right now I’m just starting on my third different medicine. The first one quit working as well after about 3 months. The second one gave me tremors and now I’m building up to the third one. My mother is also clinically depressed and I have inherited a form of ‘cyclical’ depression (sorry, don’t know the correct medical term) in which the depressed state comes and goes and everytime that it comes back it gets worse. This is the first time that the depression has hit me that I wasn’t able to ‘snap out of it’ without medical treatment. I’m sorry that I wasn’t more expressive previously. I have been to a therapist. Well, actually 2. It seemed that I could get the same kind of advice from listening to any motivational speaker. I guess what I’m looking for is some kind of light at the end of this tunnel.
Thanks
This is all toooooooo depressing!
Somewhere at one time someone started a Doper Depression Support Group. It may be in Live Journal somewhere. Someone will be along shortly to give you a link. I’ll try to look around a bit.
Haj
I have never been actually diagnosed with depression, but I have struggled with more than just “feeling blue”.
Depression can be brought on, or intenceified by a trumatic experence. Losing my daughter has put me there.
I have been taking St. John’s Wort for a few years now. I stopped taking it a few months ago and found myself feeling *very * bad. I’m back on it.
Now, somedays I’m the windsheild, somedays I’m the bug.
I have had “mild” depression since adolesscence – didn’t start taking anything for it until about age 25. (6 years ago) I tried a few different drugs, but I am now really happy with Paxil. I know that my brain doesn’t make enough seratonin or release it correctly or whatever it is, and the little pink pill seems to fix that. I know it gets a lot of bad press, but I’ve talked to a lot of people and several medical professionals who think it’s a great drug. As long as I get regular exercise and take that pill, I’m fine. (Usually happy, with the ups and downs of “normal” people.) It does have a few side effects – I have CRAZY dreams and it is hard to achieve orgasm. That’s not a big deal right now. I tried Wellbutrin for awhile because of the Paxil side effects, and there were no side effects that I noticed, but it didn’t really make me happy. So I went back to Paxil. Anyway, I’m sure your mileage will vary, but that’s some of my experience…
I mean “adolescence.”
Depression is a bitch. You have my sympathies. It runs in my family as well. My sister is on her second or third medication as well, and is doing noticeably better. I’m doing the counseling route after I get pretty depressed last year. I’ve gone to a half-dozen counselors over the years, but it wasn’t until I found this guy that it really clicked for me. I’ve been going for about 7 months and feel like a completely different person. My family and friends tell me how much change they see.
If you aren’t getting anything out of the therapist then try again with someone else. Here is a site which I think explains therapy pretty well. The therapist shouldn’t just be a motivational speaker. There’s more going on that just a lack of motivation. Hang in there.
In the mid 1970’s I was diagnosed with clinical depression. Before the term “bi-polar” was coined, I was diagosed as “manic depressive depressive” meaning that the highs weren’t very high, but he lows were very low. I had the world’s greatest shrink. He saw it as his job to get me to the place where I could cope without regular therapy. He succeded. It took a few trys to get me on meds that truly helped. I ended up on Parnate - this was in the pre-Prozac era. He was very careful about monitoring dosage, and about increasing the intervals between sessions. After a couple of years, I decided I could fend for myself and quit seeing him. I did go back to see him occasionally over the next 6 months.
I also went to the library and read all I could on depression. The books truly helped me understand that I wasn’t alone with this problem; and many of them gave me tools to deal with the lows.
After a while, I quit the meds because I felt I could deal with the lows and really missed the highs. That worked for about 3 years. I’ve been on Prozac for quite a while now, but on a minimum dosage.
There’s a lot of depression and bi-polar in my mother’s family. Unfortunately, in my mother’s generation, most of them just toughed it out - as did their spouses and children. Not the best of all worlds. Among those of my generation who’ve had to deal with this, most of us have gotten medical help.
Hang in there. Good luck to you.