Depression Poll

[Plaid Adder]

To tie in with the other lounge thread about the 'depression epidemic,' here's a poll about your own experience of depression. Check whichever best applies:

[eyesroll]

1. I had a bout of situational depression

...brought on by events I won't go into.

I stopped eating -- I think at first it was just standard loss of appetite (which is what happens when I get depressed); after that, I think, it became one of the few things in life I knew I could control.

I did see a therapist -- she was useless. I stopped after a few sessions; by then the initial shock had worn off and I was coping OK anyway. (It took me a few months to get back to normal eating, though, and for my body to stabilize at an appropriate weight.)

[Plaid Adder]

3. I lost a lot of weight during my episode

I got lucky with my therapist; I learned a lot from her that's been handy later on. But for about 6 months I really was not eating normally. Looking back at the pictures from that year it's very obvious.

Glad you're OK now,

The Plaid Adder

[eyesroll]

8. See below for my therapist's response to the eating problem

I did learn a lot about fixing things on my own, though.

Hope you're doing better now, too.

[Plaid Adder]

10. Much better.

Mine was situational too, although it wasn't immediately obvious to me what the situation was. I had a lot of room to shrink, so the not eating thing wasn't medically dangerous, either.

Sorry your therapist was useless,

The Plaid Adder

[pagerbear]

4. "I did see a therapist -- she was useless. I stopped after a few sessions

Mind if I ask what sort of results you were hoping for in just a few sessions?

[eyesroll]

6. I would have switched therapists at that point if things didn't

calm down. External factors triggered the depression; resolving those factors mitigated the depression tremendously. (I don't think it was true clinical depression, but it was affecting me enough to interfere with my health and daily life, so I called the therapist.)

I didn't expect for things to magically get better after a few sessions, but she wasn't the right therapist for me. She was huggy and she utterly disagreed with my coping strategies (bury myself in my work all day, so I'd be able to, well, not break down crying and be able to keep my job -- I wasn't drinking or cutting myself; she did refuse to address the not-eating thing,which wasn't a good coping strategy; she just told me to see my primary-care physician if I ended up losing more than 15% of my body weight) and she wanted me to talk to everyone in sight -- parents, co-workers, friends (and I felt it was none of their business) and so forth.

[pagerbear]

15. Ah, now I understand.

It sounds like she wasn't the right one for you. At first I wasn't clear on that and wondered if you did expect a miracle cure in just a few sessions.

For the record, I've been in therapy for more years than I care to admit and I wonder if I'll ever be done! But those who know me have seen a huge difference in that time.

And I've had two terrific therapists who were completely appropriate for me at the times I've seen them. I sort of outgrew the first, but I needed his gentle style of working the first few years. And the second has been just terrific in the almost two years I've been with him.

[MnFats]

29. Paul Simon had a great definition for depression...

...at least I think it was Paul Simon:

"Your reaction is exactly the same whether someone tells you you've lost $5 million or won $5 million: (huge sigh); "So?"

my experience has shown that is precisely true (not that I've ever won or lost $5 million, however).

[flamingyouth]

2. I have post-traumatic stress disorder more than depression

But I've been depressed as a side-effect of that, if it makes any sense. Anxiety is my biggest issue, however.

[Maddy McCall]

12. Makes PERFECT sense.

I'm with ya, sister. :hugs:

[flamingyouth]

13. Thanks

:hug:

[Beware the Beast Man]

5. Used to have minor depression, but my big thing is panic and anxiety

Which I still deal with from day to day. The best method, I feel, is attacking it on all fronts: therapy (whether through self-help or a professional), medication, nutrition, spirituality, etc. I'm not always the best at following though, but it definitely helps.

[flamingyouth]

7. Sometimes I'm nearly paralyzed by panic

I went through a really rough time when I could barely even go get my mail... it was awful. I found a great therapist who helped me sort out the horrible things that had happened to me, and I found the book "Mastery of Your Anxiety and Panic" to be very helpful.

Most of all, I started practicing yoga and meditation, which has been my saving grace.

[Beware the Beast Man]

14. Nice to know I'm not the only one here.

Funny thing about panic is that you can convince yourself it's not fatal or damaging, but man does it suck when it happens. It seems as if all that reasoning goes out the window.

[flamingyouth]

17. After three visits to the ER convinced I was dying,

I determined that maybe I needed to get some help for it. The one big upside of getting good care years ago is that I was able to really use those skills after my husband's suicide and be a quasi-functioning human being. I am really grateful to that therapist who helped me so much.

:hug:

[Beware the Beast Man]

19. I seem to panic when I am NOT going through a time of crisis.

Which is completely ridiculous, if you think about it. When I realize that if I don't have something to worry about I'll come up with one, that snaps me out of it. :hi:

[flamingyouth]

21. LOL - I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing at myself!!

That is so me. LOL. :hi:

On edit - the worst is when things are going well, because then I think, "What can go wrong now that things are going so well?" :D

[Plaid Adder]

22. Have you considered becoming a Cubs fan?

Sorry about your husband's suicide. That's awful.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[flamingyouth]

24. I am a Cubs fan, actually

:D

And thanks for the kind words.

[Beware the Beast Man]

23. I'm guessing that's pretty common then!

I've had a couple trips to the ER myself. Imagine the embarrassment when they strap you to the EKG and find absolutely nothing wrong with you!

[AlienGirl]

9. I've been depressed for the last 27 years!

I was diagnosed with "endogenous depression" at age four.

I'm currently on Paxil, which helps. Prozac was good too, but Wellbutrin gave me tremors (which became a permanent feature of my nervous system, bah).

Tucker

[Plaid Adder]

16. Age 4? Lord have mercy.

Congratulations on living with it for this long! Sucks about the tremors, though.

I have a friend who's withdrawing from Welbutrin now. So far it looks like she's doing OK. Her main thing is she's now having much more interesting dreams.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[AlienGirl]

25. I'm not sure it's much of an accomplishment

It's just that, so far, I haven't died.

Depression ruined my life a few times, and I've often found myself wondering whether severe, chronic depression that's lasted most of a lifetime shouldn't be appropriate grounds for physician-assisted suicide.

Tucker

[Plaid Adder]

26. Well, I'm glad you're still alive, anyway

You write good poetry. Not that many people do that.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[Plaid Adder]

11. Wow, 39 votes and we FINALLY got someone to check #1

That's kind of sad.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[Bertha Venation]

18. I have chronic depression, which I have managed . . .

1) with two months of inpatient treatment almost 20 years ago (voluntary)

2) with thirteen years of therapy -- at first 3-4 hours per week, tapering to one hour per month

3) medication since diagnosis almost 20 years ago -- several medications tried and discarded -- including the one that worked best but shot my BP through the roof. Currently searching for Mr. Gooddrug.

4) will probably always need medication, and could use a good therapist again, right now, for a while

Sorry I couldn't just vote on one category. There are so many fun things to report!

[Plaid Adder]

20. Yeah, I should have included categories for combo therapy

but the poll thingy limits you to 10 choices.

I notice that medication/no therapy is kicking talk therapy's butt, statistically speaking, for both episodic and chronic sufferers.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[Bertha Venation]

27. Medication/No Therapy . . . .

If it works for ya, great. I would never have made it that way. Not that I'm applying this opinion to anyone here for whom meds alone works: to me that would've been treating the symptoms without getting at the root causes. Rather like having chemo after chemo after chemo, but never removing the tumors. JMHO and, as I said, "to me."

[jukes]

28. found no pertinent categories

is it clinical depression if you really have about a ton of shit to be deprest abowt?

[AntiCoup2K4]

30. When I was severely depressed, I was also severely unemployed

...and therefore severely broke, so therapy wasn't an option, nor were prescription drugs. Did some research on natural alternatives and tried St John's Wort, which helped a little, and later 5-HTP which helped a lot. I would recommend 5-HTP to anyone over prescription meds as it restores the seratonin levels in the brain without all the ugly side effects that some of the corporate pharmaceuticals have.

And no, I can't blame it on Bush, since it started long before then. In fact I was already pretty much recovered by the time the election was stolen. And it did cause a minor setback, but I told myself I had worked too hard to climb out of that pit of Hell to let the likes of that fucking idiot push me back in.

[LWolf]

31. I have cyclical depression.

If there is such a thing, lol.

I have used meds only once, during an actual situational crisis that threatened to send me further out than I could manage on my own. I took them (Paxil) for about 8 months, and never went back.

I saw a counselor one time for one session and never went back. It's a trust issue; I don't trust anyone enough to engage in "talk" therapy, no matter what their professional qualifications may be.

There are numerous things I do to manage it on my own, and it works most of the time. If you want to know how I'm doing, watch my weight. If I seem healthy, active, and engaged, I'm fine. If I seem lethargic, if I'm hibernating from the world, and if the pounds are packing on, I'm not.

[greatauntoftriplets]

32. Since there is no "other" option....

My mother is a lifelong depressive and I am now her caregiver -- although I work full-time and we have a woman who comes for a while during the day.

[4_Legs_Good]

33. I have 2 day periods of depression every couple of months...

It's kinda weird, you'd think I was PMSing. No reason (that I can pinpoint), no cure that I know of. Basically, I just feel shitty and couldn't care about anything for a day or two.

It always goes away, though.

I have family members, however, who suffer from chronic depression and it is bad, bad business.

david

[medeak]

34. high IQ means

ruminating and depression imo....it's the dumb happy ones that accept everything that are the lucky ones.