Have you ever battled on going depression, and if so how did you defeat it?

Check out these previous Q & A.

Depression

Well Randy, I think you are a great person. You are fun, caring, kind, conciderate, smart, and you have a lot going for you. I think you need to find someone to share your great personality with. I know it’s hard but you need to put yourself out there for people to find you. At this time in your life it feels like you’re stuck in a rut but you can get yourself out of it.

I know this isn’t a super snazzy response, but the best treatments for depression are therapy and antidepressants.

Thanks guys,
@ gailcalled, I search it before hand but I was a little overwhelmed by all that came up. I was hoping to get some experiences from others because I feel there is no quick fix to depression. I should have searched a little more. Sorry.

@ skg, I feel like your saying that because of a friendship obligation, no offense. Thanks for being sweet though.

haha i have no obligation. i could have not seen your post. but i felt the need to tell you about yourself because i guess you can’t see it.

from the ages of 14–17 I battled severe depression, and I know you said you weren’t into anti depressants, but I took them plus saw a therapist regularly and that helped me out the most. Just talking to people and not staying in your house all day Is a big help. I’m stopped with the abut depressants about three years ago (slowly, you can’t just quit cold turkey) and am soooo much better, more outgoing, etc. I think you are already on the right path from reading what you wrote about exercising, etc. You recognize you need help and that’s the first step to recovery. I’m proud of you for recognizing what you have, and believe in you.

anti* stupid iPhone won’t let me scroll up to edit stuff

I’m just afraid of the thought of anitdepressants. The process of take this and you’ll feel better just seems so fairy tale. Also the whole having to be dependent on something instead of yourself for happiness scares me. I guess it has to do something or people wouldnt be so attached to them. I guess it couldn’t hurt to give it a shot.

well, I thought the same as you did, but its also up to you, just taking a pill I dont think will truely help. I was also scared being dependent on them. But, never really was. Its different for everyone. When it came down to it, my therapist and family (mainly my mother) were the ones to really help me out. I also started out on a small dose and was told to not be afraid to speak up with my dr or therapist and let them know I wasnt comfortable taking them and wished to stop. Just talking to people really helps, what your doing is the right thing.

Randy; I wouldn’t waste your time w. us amateurs. Talk to your immediate family and find a trained therapist to talk to soonest. Antidepressants taken under the supervision of a psychiatrist are not like street drugs and won’t send you into la la land. Along with a lot of hard work, they take the edge off. And often you have to try several before you find one that is right for you.

Body chemistry is complicated; finding the right Rx and correct dosage is an art and not a science. Weaning oneself off them is very doable.

Randy; and please remember (please, please) that being depressed is not synonymous with being pathetic…If you broke your arm, you’d get it set, wouldn’t you? If you were diagnosed with diabetes, you’d surely not refuse to take insulin. Depression is real and has physical symptoms..

Mayo Clinic info on depression

I can understand your hesitation concerning medications. I was treated for depression and had both bad and good reactions from them myself. The first one I took made things so bad I was hospitalized 4 times. I thought it was because I was going crazy, but now looking back I know that the medicine wasn’t the right one for me. Once I did find the right one, it helped enormously, and I haven’t needed anything for the last 5 years.

Fighting depression seems like an uphill battle at times. It’s very hard work, and it can be exhausting. At the beginning of my struggle with it, I stayed in bed a lot. I was just too tired to do anything, and nothing had any purpose for me. One day I decided to get help, so I looked up the number for the closest facility and checked myself in for a couple of days to be evaluated. They did some blood work, and found I have a problem with my thyroid which can cause depression, so we started there with my treatment plan. I went for counseling for quite awhile, and learned some of the ways to feel better.

I think the best thing I learned from the whole battle is to alter my own mind set. By that I mean we make choices about how we feel about things. It’s kind of like the glass is half empty or half full thing. I had to teach myself to make a conscious effort to think on a more positive level.

For instance if it’s a gloomy rainy day, instead of getting bummed out because I couldn’t go to the park, I learned to think well, at least I won’t have to go out to wash the car today. Something valuable I learned in counselling is that we can change the way we feel if we pay attention to every negative thought that comes into our heads. It’s not easy to do, but with time and practice it gets easier, and sooner or later it becomes natural to us. When a negative thought hits, there are always two or more choices. You can dwell on the negative and feel worse, or turn it into a positive, and begin to feel better. So let’s go back to that glass of water. A depressed person may say it’s only half a glass, and I’m thirsty. As you learn to change your thinking, you may start to say.. at least I can wet my whistle!

I see that I have really rambled on quite a bit, so I will end this for now. Just try not to be impatient. It takes time and effort to feel better, but it can be done with the proper tools. So my advice is to find a good counselor, and give the meds a try. The two combined with what you have already been doing should help you a lot.

This is a different answer for you: Do you have a pet? It’s amazing what animals can do for a person. It’s a fact that animals can help lower blood pressure (I’m on my phone or I would link it) so there’s no doubt in my mind a little furball might help your situation too!

In college, I couldn’t motivate myself to do much of anything. I barely wanted to leave my couch. One day, sick of feeling—well, feeling nothing actually—I stopped into my college’s counseling office. I started talking weekly to one of the counselors, and she said she thought I was suffering from mild depression. She didn’t recommend drugs, just talking once a week. If nothing else, talking with her helped me to understand why I was feeling depressed. She helped me see that I’d been going through a lot of stressful events for several years, and made me see that my depression was a natural reaction to the things I’d been through. In a way, she gave me permission to feel the way I felt, and it was liberating. Perhaps simply talking with a professional for a while can help you at least get to the bottom of your feelings.

She also told me that depression tends to feed on itself, by causing your body to produce a certain chemical, which makes you more depressed. It can take a while to break that cycle.

Good luck, and remember—our feelings often not an accurate indication of reality. As my mother used to say, “This too, shall pass.”

Gail is right, get a real counselor. Call the help line or the crisis line or the county dep’t of health if you don’t feel you can share this at home. It’s okay, you can tell them when you’re ready – now, later, never – up to you.
If you don’t like the first counselor you meet, keep shopping. This is at least as important as shoes.
After you’ve found a counselor you feel you can trust and rely on is plenty of time for you to decide about antidepressants, ‘cause you need someone to prescribe them. You don’t have to figure this out on your own, and not right away.
You’re asking exactly the right questions.
If you’d like to read a very cool book at some point, try
The Talking Cure, by Susan Vaughn. It explains beautifully why
we need to talk things through with someone trained instead of just drugging ourselves, and how doing both together helps us to change the way our brain handles stuff – and depression IS a way our brain handles stuff.
Bless you.

My family history is riddled with depression and melancholy and the “nature” impacts the “nurture,” so there is also a long history of dysfunction, abuse and neglect. I was sexually, physically and emotionally abused as a child, and filled with self-loathing. I was pessimistic, cynical and jaded long before I reached adulthood. Over the years, I have tried various therapies and antidepressant treatments. Therapy was helpful, but none of the medications were particularly beneficial for me. Still, I chose to put my son on antidepressants when he was in middle school and threatening to harm himself. He was on them for almost 2 years and they were discontinued about 4 years ago. He is almost 17 and is more mature than most of his peers, but he has a bunch of friends and he’s been with his girlfriend for over a year. He is leading a fairly typical adolescence, and he and I have grown quite close.

I had eventually decided to stop fighting the nature of who I was and to accept the melancholy as status quo. It seemed that when I tried to change that about myself, I would slip into a more acute depression. Letting go of the expectations of others (family, friends, society, religion, culture) was a major step in self-acceptance. Another thing I had to let go of was the illusion of control. The only thing we can control are our thoughts and actions in this exact moment in time. We can not change the past, nor can we predict what will happen in the coming moments (working in healthcare has taught me this). We can not change what others think or feel or how they act. This is somewhat frightening, because of the unpredictability of life; yet at the same time, it was a huge weight off my shoulders and it relieved struggles with control issues I had in relationships.

I will soon turn 42, and I recently realized that I no longer feel lonely or melancholic, despite being single. One big help for me was to observe people whom I respected and try to incorporate the characteristics I admired in them into my own behaviors. One of those was gratitude… I take a moment to appreciate all that is good in my world. It can be something small, like a green light when I’m in a hurry; or bigger things, like being healthy and intelligent with a roof over our heads and the benefits of amazing technology at our fingertips. I also am very glad that I took the time to find a vocation that truly suits me. I had dropped out of college for a couple years, and easily could have stayed in a clerical job. But I made myself go back to school because I knew I was capable of more, even though I had no clue what to major in. So I took courses that interested me, which led me to other courses, and eventually to my profession. Also, working in healthcare allows me to help other people, which is very rewarding and built my self-esteem.

Keep exercising consistently, and also make sure you hydrate and nourish your body well. This gives your body the strongest foundation to work from, regardless of your choice to medicate or not. I agree with the recommendations that you want to attend therapy sessions. With therapy, as with most things in life, you get out of it what you put into it; so to make more progress, you really have to commit to the process and don’t hold anything back. Journals help or some other outlet… I see that you are a musician, so use that as a means to express the feelings you experience. Doing for others – whether as you job or voluntarily – really does help you feel better about yourself. For one thing, you see that there really are others worse off than you, but also that you have something to contribute.

If you do choose to try medication, don’t view it as a sign of weakness… it truly is only a tool to help your body balance itself while you do the work to overcome your personal issues. When they discuss how many people on medications become worse, I often wonder if it is because of a sense of shame that they have to resort to that – whether self-imposed or from family or other sources. If a person were to become pre-diabetic and had to take medication to regulate their glucose until dietary and lifestyle changes become effective, no one would judge them harshly for it… so why should it be any different for antidepressants? Just be very consistent in taking the recommended dosages, and with and following up with the physician that monitors you while taking antidepressants. Finding the right medication and dosage can take some time. Again, it is a commitment you are making to yourself to get well, and you deserve it!

Feel free to contact me if you want to talk further… and never give up!

Full disclosure: I work on a depression research project.

I hope that some of you who are suffering/have suffered from depression will consider helping other people with depression by participating in research projects that study it. There are a TON out there and finding participants is really difficult.

nikipedia, how would people find the studies and contacts to share info? Just start googling “depression study” or any other keywords you’d suggest?

I was very depressed for a long time, and turned it around and got a powerful understanding of how I and others work, by attending an awesome seminar series. I think it would work for many common depressions.

Google is great for this, or you could also try these websites:

http://clinicaltrials.gov (run by the NIH)
www.centerwatch.com

Also, major research universities are always running studies—you can check out some in your area and they probably have listings of ongoing studies!

Thanks for the links. I couldn’t find anything current in my area, but I will keep checking.

I have fought it my whole life. I have known life with and without medication. It is a fact that some depression is caused by a chemical issue in the body and medication helps to fix the issue. I hve built training programs on the process on a chemical level illustrating how this happens. the key is to temper it with talking with someone to and make sure that you have a well rounded approach. Often there are multiple sources that medication alone wont fix.

@Bri_L How does one determing if they have a chemical imbalance? I was told that was the reason I was given medication a number of years ago. When I mentioned that I was taking an antidepressant to my employer ( a physician) he asked why I was taking it. I told him I had a chemical imabalance. He asked me how they knew this, and asked if they took samples ot chemicals in my brain to determine my need for medication. After reading your answer above, I was hoping you could shed some light on this for me. Thanks in advance.

Well, first I should clarify that I am not a doctor. But, this is how it was explained to me by my doctor and by the doctors I worked with to build the training programs.
When a person goes to see a doctor they are supposed to discuss the things that surround the depression. Their moods, diet, how long it has been going on, alchol, famly history, recent life changing events, traumas etc. Basically establishing a background in order to determine why a person might be depressed. Then, after taking those factors into consideration, the doctor would recommend therapy and or medicaton. In terms of the chemical imbalance, it caused the unmanagable feelings of woe where others could pull out of them.

I don’t know if that help much. Probably not.

I wonder why, if your employer was a physician, he would ask that question. That confuses me.

I don’t know if that helps or not. I hope it does.

His question was how did they know what levels of what chemicals I had, and how did they know they were imbalanced? For instance a diabetic knows his or her blood sugar levels are out of range by doing blood work. His view was they were treating symptoms by giving me medications when they in fact did not know there was a chemical imbalance because the chemicals in my brain were not checked. Does that make more sense to you?

Another example would be: If they said I needed a serotonin re-uptake drug, how did they determine that without measuring my actual serotonin levels? He thinks too many doctors simply write prescriptions and send their patients on their way without knowing exactly why they are prescribing the drugs they do.

Ah, i see.

I checked with my doc and he said Serotonin levels in the body are usually measured indirectly, by obtaining levels of a serotonin metabolite in urine or cerebrospinal fluid samples. He said it is not standard clinical practice to measure serotonin level levels, except in research settings.

I understand and appreciate your doctors concern as I am sure you do. I believe his opinion,“His view was they were treating symptoms by giving me medications when they in fact did not know there was a chemical imbalance because the chemicals in my brain were not checked”, may have over simplified the problem. Depression and like issues are not apples to apples issues with other medical ailments.

That being said, I agree with his view that “too many doctors simply writed prescriptions and send their patients on their way” Quick. Easy. Efficient. On time.

I commend him and wish there were more out there like him who cared more about the patient.

Thank you! The way my employer put the question to me, it seemed like there was no way of knowing without actually sampling some of the fluid surrounding my brain. Of course that is what cerebrospinal fluid is, but now I know it could be found in a urine sample as well. If I am ever in doubt of a doctor’s recommendation, I can ask for a urine test to determine the need for it. I really appreciate your help with this.

I tried to help my employer understand that diagnosing mental health issues is not always an exact science, but I like the way he thinks. He has taught me to ask some very enlightening questions.

It is a good approach to try to understand what is going on before you medicate. With something like depression, where the causes can be so many different things or a combination of things it is tough.

I certainly wish you well!

I know this question is really old, but I have dealt with manic depression since I was 15. I know what caused it but there is no way I can reverse that. I did speak to a therapist for a year because I had literally no one to talk to who didn’t tell me it was all ‘in my head’. That helped a lot. I also took medication for a year but decided I didn’t want to take it anymore because I felt very lethargic and numb. I have been off the medication for four years now and I have found that what helps me the most is music and meditation. I meditate before I go to sleep and I don’t have nightmares. I listen to music that makes me feel happy, relaxed or mellow. I just save the hardcore music for the days I have excess adrenaline. I also cleaned up my diet. I drink a lot of different teas and fruits and try to stay away from sweets. I don’t know why this helps but it does. I hope some of these methods work for you, if you are still struggling with depression. It is a battle that can be won!