never actually officially diagnosed… my mother is a GP, but of the sort who ignores her own kids… if a patient sneezes once, she writes out a prescription for antibiotics… I stay in bed for 3 years and attempt suicide then “its just a phase”…
but that was a long time ago now and I’ve been pretty happy since the beginning of last year (when I also quit dope, regular, not straight;)) I’ve also started volunteering for a telephone suicide prevention counselling service as well as studied Social Work as a way of helping others as well as learning about myself.
Chronic depression, paranoia, off-and-on alcoholic. I occasionally hear voices and was once locked up and listed as violent at the VA hospital. I’ve been told it’s Post Combat Stress Syndrome, but I think that’s a crock. I take no meds and have been pretty much ok for the last 20 years or so. I get good days and bad, but so don’t we all.
Another lunatic in the pack, with a nasty history of self-mutilation and depression. But all that was a long time ago and I feel much better now; just chronically mildly depressed, no biggie.
My current overriding problem is mild/moderate ADD, which is particularly difficult in my line of work. I’m looking to get back on drugs for it.
Cat, I’m starting to wonder if I have mild ADD, too. I absorb a tiny fraction of what I read, especially hard stuff I want to learn. When people talk to me they quickly start sounding like the adults in a Peanut cartoon. I try reading these long threads and everything starts twisting around and I can’t concentrate on it, thus my occasional repeat post.
For me. I might have ADD, never was diagnosed when I was a kid. But, I do have some mental problems that aren’t ADD that are related to my Manic-Depresiveness. A generally good quality is that I can never stay upset. However, not only that, but I can never stay anything. Anytime I try to grasp and hold onto a coherent thought or steady emotion, it’s twisted and pulled away from me, yanked from me. It gets replaced by meaningless garbage that’s culled from my current environment. Same goes with knowledge. Thoughts are constantly pulled and replaced. I would give so much, to be able to be angry or happy or sad or anything for a steady stretch, to not have everything constantly intterupeted.
I’ve got cyclothymia (sorta like bipolar but not as severe), post-traumatic stress disorder, and God alone knows what else. I’m also a recovering alcoholic and drug addict.
I’ve been sober for 7 and a half years, and have been taking Serzone since January. It’s really made a big difference for me. I’m not climbing-the-walls anxious anymore.
Clinical Depressive here. On Zoloft. Mostly I want to die, but God doesn’t seem to be obliging. I’m too Catholic to commit suicide, at least right now. I’ve lost the endurance that life requires. It’s too damned hard and I’d prefer death. A couple of nights ago, one of my friends told me my problem was I wasn’t living, I was waiting to die. I suppose that’s true.
I’ve suffered from off-and-on low-grade depression since puberty. I was in therapy when I was in high school and my mother’s insurance covered it. It’s triggered by stressful situations, so I try to live my life where I don’t put myself into situations that will unduly throw me off.
I eat quite a bit of plantains and pineapple… this explains why I feel better when I gorge myself on a pineapple.
Wow, just when I was going to start Ask the Recovering Alcoholic I find this thread…
Alcoholic w/ mild depression. I agree with Oldscratch - for me alcohol caused a lot of the depression - I once went for two weeks without a drink and felt a lot better, the problem is my nerves got the best of me and I went back to the bottle. I’ve only been sober for three weeks but this is the first time I’ve ever actually sought help. A.A. is helping me to understand myself and what triggers my drinking and the Celexa is doing wonders for my nerves. Its wierd for me to be able to “see how other ‘normal’ people feel” - its like a whole different world. Although I agree three weeks is way to early to say I’m on the wagon forever I’ve never felt I even had a chance before, now things are looking up for me.
Self diagnosed depressive. Not really suicidal as I don’t believe in an afterlife and so don’t want to die. I’d just like to fall asleep for about 20 years. Kind of like Rip Van Winkle. Plus, I don’t think I could bring myself to actually do it.
I went to a psychiatrist once. I took the psychological profile multiple choice test of weirdness. I didn’t stick around long enough for a diagnosis. I didn’t like the shrink at all.
I called and asked if I could have the results of the test. He said that I couldn’t unless I came in for a therapy session. I asked why and he said it would be like handing someone their own autopsy report.
I think he’s a quack.
I may need therapy or medication but frankly don’t feel like taking the time/trouble/money to find the right phsyciatrist. It seems like the luck of the draw. You’d think they’d all have some idea of what they were doing after all those years of school…
Howdy. I take medication for depression, currently a Prozac/Ativan combo but I have taken Paxil. I also have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. My grandfather killed himself, my dad’s a sociopath who’s currently in prison for embezzling $150,000 from an HMO in Missouri and my mom’s addicted to prescription drugs.
Other than that I’m just a-okay! Really.
I think I got a recessive “normal” gene.
Something tells me this thread is going to set a record for most replies.
I was diagnosed with dysthemia shortly after a failed suicide attempt around Easter, 1990. Was once in a psych ward with clinical depression for about a week and put on Prozac for a few months. Ended up reducing medication on my own, then stopping completely with approval from the psychiatrist. Judging from a near-attempted suicide circa 1986, I go through a bout of clinical depression about every 4.5 years.
Well, I finally decided to read this thread the second time around
TO begin with, I’ve always been ADD and ADHD. I’ve also got Spatial Dyslexia.
I am fine with those right now, but I do have a(self-diagnosed), GAD. Lately it has reared it’s ugly head. I was pretty much debilitated for a good 2 weeks recently.
I am not on meds, I don’t approve of them(personally) to handle emotional problems. Oh, I’m also an epileptic too, so the moron Dr. that prescribed Paxil to me will get my foot up his ass next time I see him. I looked at the side-effects online first, and automatically decided that I’d be better off without them.
I don’t knock those of you that do take them however. I will be starting CBT soon(hopefully), and other methods
such as nightly meditation and some therapy to try and get a reign on this illness. I come from a family of GAD people, so I think we can deal with this
Oh, I’m also free of panic attacks for about a week now
Well, I’m glad this thread has come around a second time…I’m currently suffering from anger-control problems and severe depression. It’s gotten to the point now that it’s causing serious problems with my future here in the UK. Because of my problems my wife and I are currently separated, and if we don’t get back together at some very soon stage, I will lose my right to stay in the country (I’m a US citizen). I wouldn’t even care about leaving the country, so long as I could stay with my wife.
Over the last year and a half I’ve been in a mental hospital (the worst experience of my life so far–thank God they let me out before I got worse), taken five different kinds of anti-depressant, completed courses of cognitive therapy and counselling, and am currently taking psychotherapy. So far, not much has changed. Since I’ve been depressed off and on for 11 years, I didn’t expect things to change overnight.
Unfortunately, my wife has…she has now essentially given me three months to “show signs of progress” in her words; otherwise she wants to end our marriage. In any event she wants me to have no anger-control problems in six months, and only mild depression problems in nine. It almost sounds like a joke when I type this, I wish it were. I’ve been trying everything I can to get better; my wife in turn has accused me of not trying hard enough to succeed. My current course of psychotherapy ends in two months; all I can do is try to remain positive about it and hope that it works for now.
ADD/ADHD person here. Tried the meds, but found other ways that (luckily) worked for me for the most part. It does tend to cut into my life from the standpoint of relationships (friendly and otherwise) because it’s hard to keep up with me (and me with them) as I have the attention span of a goldfish, but I think I have been very lucky to find the people that are currently in my life…They seem to understand, accept, and attempt to deal with, without “fixing”, me. And I am appreciative of that.
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