Find a new therapist. There are three different types of psycotherapy (http://www.counselor.org/types-of-psychotherapy.html ) and what works for one person won’t work for another. It took my wife three attempts before she found one that worked for her…and the realization that in her case her way out both CBT and Medication…and the realization that she might have to be on medication off and on, for the rest of her life as she tended to depression.
Yikes, that sounds like some therapists who should have their licenses taken away.
Then by all means, talk about it here, that’s what the thread is for. Don’t feel bad about crying, imho it’s better than being numb; I wish I could cry more.
Ironically, my depression makes it possible to treat my depression: I’m semi-employed (temp assignments alternating with unemployment insurance) so I’m eligible for my state’s public assistance health care. I like to say “I’m not at my wit’s end, but I can see it from here”.
Has anyone else had any luck with dietary changes? I can point at one thing that pulled me out of my last bout, back in January. I quit drinking sodas. Mind you, I was only drinking on 20 oz. bottle of regular Coke each day, and usually not drinking any on the weekend, but within a few days of stopping, I felt remarkably better. I’ve been reading mentions of a Type 3 diabetes, which is brain-based. There are a lot of articles speculating that Type 3 diabetes leads to or actually is Alzheimer’s, but that doesn’t make any sense to me. There are a lot of Alzheimer’s sufferers out there who don’t have any problem with their blood sugar.
Hey, y’all. I have struggled with depression and anxiety for the last ten years or so, and yes phouka, changing my diet has helped me before. In fact, I quit sodas and juice at New Year’s this year, jokingly calling it my "sodabriety, and I think it helped. For a couple of months it was water, unsweetened tea, and one cup of morning unsweetened coffee for me.
Right now, though… it’s my spring break and I’m alone in my apartment. I’ve been eating my fiance’s ice cream and drinking his diet sodas… and putting off cleaning and unpacking… and refusing to practice the piano. (I’m the show pianist for an ENTIRE MUSICAL! I have to learn the whole show for the first dress rehearsal in 8 DAYS! Hello, have I never met me?! I should’ve known signing up for this would start an anxiety loop… but I so desperately need the money…) I think the crummy diet and the worry and the procrastination and the cluttered surroundings all feed off each other.
I’ve been in treatment for depression for several years now, and my dr thinks that I’ve been depressed for much much longer than that. I’m currently taking Buproprion and Lamictal. They mostly work, I don’t have a lot of extreme lows, but I dont have much in the way of highs either. I still have bad times, days even, but for the most part I’m doing ok.
I’ve managed to mostly stop the drinking. I was born with club feet, had lots of surgery, and now my right ankle is immobile and I have severe nerve damage. My feet hurt all the time, every second, every day. Walking feels like walking on a foot you sprained last week. Nothing touched the pain. I got some Tramodol from my dr, something to help the pain that let me stay functional, but it only helps a little. I found that drinking actually numbed it, along with all the emotional pain too. It was the only thing that let me relax for a while, to not hurt. For someone who’s been in pain his whole life that’s a big thing. I used to do it a lot, and I haven’t in a while now. I dont feel a need to drink, I’m not addicted, it just helps. But then, I’m not supposed to drink while taking these particular meds, which makes me try harder to avoid it.
One of my biggest problems right now revolves around a group of people I used to game with, especially one in particular. She was an old friend from college, known her for a long time. It’s long and complicated, but basically they were treating me badly, it took a long time for me to realize it, and talking to them about it did nothing. I finally ended up just ZCPing all of them, and haven’t said a word to any of them since. This all happened during the worst part of my recent depression, it was pretty bad. I’m obsessing about what happened. I have the conversations in my head over and over, say things I should have said, knowing what I know now. I drives me to rage, sadness, frustration, all in a minute. It creeps into my thoughts and takes over almost reflexively. I try to stop it, to block it out, but no matter what I do it comes back. I don’t know how to get past this. I’ve been trying for more than a year, but it’s always there.
Part of me doesn’t want to make any effort. Being down feels right, like a well worn groove in a record. It feels like that’s the way it should be. It’s hard to make progress. Getting fired 6 months ago, having to move back in with my parents, and then moving back again for a job really hasn’t helped much. I don’t have insurance yet, so I can’t really do much except maintain the prescriptions my dr gave me. I’m trying. But I’m not seeing a lot of result for my effort.
I wish I could. But when you’re poor, you pretty much have to take what you can get. These are mostly trainee counselors that will move on once they get enough experience. Even the really experienced, knowledgeable psychiatrist I had at one of these places still spent most of the time telling me obvious things I could have (and did) read online about how to combat insomnia. I still credit her for being the first in 17 years to put me on Lamictal, which IMO should have been tried at least a decade ago, but her talk therapy was not helpful to me.
There are certainly some very good counselors, and no doubt there are some that would be good for me. But those ones are not available to me. My mom is even willing to help me pay for it, but if it’s all high stakes like that, it will just be too much pressure.
I was on Celexa(10 mg) for the last couple of weeks, and it never stopped hitting me like a brick about a half hour after taking it each morning. I actually got more depressed. Saw my shrink yesterday and got switched to Zoloft(50 mg). Took my first one this morning-no depression at all, not tired, but a little trouble keeping focused.
I haven’t changed my diet. However, I read something about diet and depression: apparently depressed people eat more chocolate. (I know I sure eat a hell of a lot of chocolate.)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2010/04/27/chocolate-depression.html
Every single SSRI I’ve ever taken (which is most of them) has been an absolute libido-killer for me. If I was some kind of religious nut who was sworn to celibacy I’d want to take them on that basis alone.
My young daughter takes an SSRI now and it seems to help and that’s fine for now but I’m not sure how or when to broach that whole topic 
Thank you all for providing a place to go. I’ll try to get my head together enough to contribute.
I started working with a fitness/nutrition coach a few months ago, and we just started in on the nutrition stuff this past week. One of the issues is I’ve been using junk food (particularly sugar) to manage my depression. For two weeks I’m supposed to eat nothing but whole foods. So I’ve been eating clean for about a week now, and the thing is, I don’t want to go back to eating like I did before. Twice I’ve been invited out this week, and I turned it down because I knew there would be tempting food there. I’m starting to think that the only way out of my junk food addiction is to permanently stop eating junk food. Which makes sense because when I restricted my calories and allowed myself a small amount every day, it probably did nothing to break the actual issue of dependency.
I hate to admit it but exercise and nutrition really do help.
I need to do that. I really need to do that.
For a few months, I tried going gluten free. Hellaciously difficult, but I really did feel better on it. Now, I do not have celiac disease. As far as I know, I’m not gluten intolerant. It’s just that a lot of my symptoms point to a kind of systemic inflammation that could be attributed to something like Leaky Gut Syndrome. I can’t say it really helped my depression, but I doubt I gave it long enough. At any rate, one of the advantages of a gluten free diet is that you really don’t have a choice - you’re going to be eating whole foods.
Another reason I need to go that route is because I spend a large chunk of my income on food other people prepare. It’s money that could be put towards much more constructive things. It’s just so hard when I get home, tired, discouraged, unable to focus, and the only thing in the world that gives me some comfort is a very nice person bringing me food that I didn’t have to make. I get socialization, I get the warm endorphin fuzzies of fatty foods, and it’s completely legal.
sigh
Yeah, I need to change that.
No kidding. What an unfair side-effect.
How young is young?
Contribute/share/vent at will. Welcome!
I’m going through something similar(well, the end of a friendship, anyway-long story). It’s the main reason I’m seeking therapy, actually. I definitely know how this feels, and I’m sorry.
I know I should give up sugar, but often it’s the only thing that gives me enough of a boost to do what I absolutely have to. I just finished three miserable days of going without and finally I gave in and raided my wife’s ice cream not because I wanted a treat but because I simply didn’t know how to function otherwise. To give up sugar I would have to spend three weeks in bed and my disabled wife is too dependent on me to make that an option.
I’ve been feeling really down today. I’m wondering whether I should eat a bunch of chocolate when I get home. I know it’s not a good idea, yet I’m so tempted.
I’ve quit drinking sodas for the most part except once a week I have a Cheerwine in a glass bottle. (The glass-bottle sodas have real sugar in them instead of HFCS and they taste so much better). Mostly I drink water, coffee, and tea and I have noticed a difference. When I drink a “regular” (HFCS–diet gives me a headache) soda I feel rotten for the rest of the day. Also since I stopped eating a lot of microwaveable food I feel better too. Makes me wonder if some of this low feeling came from not having enough real nutrients. Not all of it, but at least a portion.
This is pretty much exactly the problem I have, but my coach kind of laid it out for me: Either quit eating junk, or die young. I don’t know your situation and it may not be as dire as mine, but my body has been pretty much falling apart from misuse/lack of use and I am overweight with high cholesterol and it really comes down to life or death for me.
But he told me it would suck, for the same reasons and in the same way that it sucks for a drug addict to detox. Physical flu-like symptoms are not uncommon for people who just quit sugar cold-turkey. I’ve been eating a lot of fruit whenever I get those cravings.
But I dunno, once I realized it was probably going to suck, it got a lot easier, because I expected the discomfort and was able to talk myself through it. I think that was the thing for me - I’ve always given up in the past because I expected to feel better for making healthier choices, and usually just felt a different kind of crappy. Having it framed for me with an addiction metaphor really helped me to see that it wasn’t going to be all sunshine and rainbows, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t the best thing for my health.
And as for the idea of total abstinence, doesn’t it make sense? Do we tell alcoholics they can drink in small amounts or have cheat days when they can drink whatever they want? Why do we then never question the wisdom of standard weight-loss advice?
Honestly the first week hasn’t been too bad. I’m sure there will be great challenges down the road, but for right now I’m doing okay.