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RE: help with depression - 5/5/2011 8:21:34 AM

crazyml

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quote:

ORIGINAL: pahunkboy

I have been on SSRIs for 10 years... and tried to get off of them 5 times.

They are highly addicting. They would have been useful to me for 6 months... but at some point- they permanently altered the chemicals in my brain. They should not be eaten like candy.

Fair play, you make a really good point about effective management of medication.

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RE: help with depression - 5/5/2011 8:21:55 AM

LaTigresse

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Toppingfrmbottom

I just love how the anti therapy crowd tries to paint therapy / therapists as bad

Indeed.

For the record.......I have a personal hate for pill popping and whining to others about problems I can, with much self introspection and effort, fix myself.

However!...... as a mother who watched her child suffer horribly, I know for a fact that psychiatric medications and therapy have a VERY valid, and important, place in treating many ailments. The key to long term success is a very difficult balance.

My daughter would likely be dead, if not for exploring, and utilizing, all facets of treatment.

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Post #: 22

RE: help with depression - 5/5/2011 8:26:00 AM

crazyml

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Termyn8or

To be LOVED. To be WANTED. To be NEEDED. This is what a depressed person lacks.

I'm with GT here... when I had episodes of depression, I knew I was loved, wanted and needed. But in a sense that made it worse - since I felt unworthy of all of those things.

chiaroscuro1...

All I can advise is "what worked for me" - I don't know if this is the kind of support your love needs.

When I got depressed, it was like being in a hole - my friends and loved ones would reach down to try to pull me up out of it, but when I was at my worst their hands were always just out of reach - and all the encouragement, gesticulating and "active support" only served to make things feel more hopeless.

So my friends knew to stand by the hole, to be ready for when I'd climbed up enough for them to be able to reach me...

So... my suggestion is ... Offer quiet, but present support. Don't try too hard to help, but make sure that your love knows that you're there, ready to help.

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RE: help with depression - 5/5/2011 8:36:04 AM

samboct

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Termy

We're on the same page. Given the crappy state of the world, depression would seem to be a reasonable response.

In terms of meds- the brain is a very complex organ- the most complicated in the body and develops all sorts of ailments. Some respond to meds only (can't fix a lithium imbalance with talk therapy) while I wish more docs would stick to Hippocrates and first "Do no harm." Using meds with lots of known side effects as a first line of defense instead of talk therapy which has far fewer side effects is just bad medicine- but then there are illnesses where talk therapy doesn't work. In some cases, talk therapy and meds are the best answer. I advocate what works- but I'm pretty aggravated at the way the pharma industry has exploited the lack of unity in the mental health community about the effectiveness of talk therapy to push very expensive meds to be used in a chronic fashion.

Sam

< Message edited by samboct -- 5/5/2011 8:37:26 AM >

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RE: help with depression - 5/5/2011 8:56:47 AM

ricken

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If she is already on meds and therapy, ask if you can go with her to a session and talk with the therapist about specific things you can do to help, that IMO is the best thing you can do to help let her know she is loved, wanted & needed. And don't be upset offended if she says no, people tell shrinks alot of things they won't tell anyone else, it's a safe place for them.

I gotta agree with a lot of what Termy says here, but I will disagree on the meds part.

Drugs can be a usefull tool to lift someone up out of their depression enough that they can think a little more clearly and LEARN better ways to cope with depression. And as far as long term or lifetime needs of meds, people are born with fucked up brain chemistry, not everyone depressed is, but some are, and IF that is the issue then I think long term use of meds is needed. You wouldn't tell a diabetic they don't need insulin shots do you, just because a long time ago insulin wasn't available?

Chiaroscuro, you need to read about depression, it's a hard illness to understand if you don't really suffer from (long term forms of) it. EVERYONE is different, for me I need time alone, but not too much, there is a fine line for me between "my alone time" and withdrawing. When she is in a good mood, ask what she needs from you when she is depressed. Hopefully she knows and will answer truthfully. And let me add something here, when/if you ask something and she lashes out with "My life sucks, I hate everything and have nothing good in it" YOU have to be thick skined enough to understand that even if she knows better, this is how she is feeling at that moment, so if you are not secure enough to hear that you have to be REAL carefull what you ask/say to help.
This is why sometimes it's better to let the shrinks handle this stuff untill the depressed person is rational enough to communicate better.

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RE: help with depression - 5/5/2011 9:19:53 AM

Termyn8or

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You can take that clinical definition of sadness. And the pill.

I don't.

T^T

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Post #: 26

RE: help with depression - 5/5/2011 9:22:03 AM

pahunkboy

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OP,

it would not hurt for her to have a TSH test on her thyroid. It is a simple blood test. Make sure they use the newer narrower guidelines placed into effect in 2003.

Some years ago-- depression was a correct diagnosis for me. However- today a sputtering thyroid is trumping the depression.

Simple blood work can find alot.

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Post #: 27

RE: help with depression - 5/5/2011 9:45:45 AM

Termyn8or

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Let me use your medical card to get the thyroid test. I'll share the results.

T^T

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Post #: 28

RE: help with depression - 5/5/2011 9:50:34 AM

pahunkboy

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Term,

I have seen free screenings for TSH test. You live in a large city- they should have one there. Maybe not this minute- but in the next few months.

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Post #: 29

RE: help with depression - 5/5/2011 10:19:12 AM

kalikshama

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quote:

Physical activity (exercising) increases melatonin and can aide with depression--obviously not "cure" it--but it can help. A healthy diet (as opposed to high fat/junk foods) can also help with some of the "brain chemistry".

You may have meant seratonin rather than melatonin...

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1998021,00.html

In 1999, Duke University researchers demonstrated in a randomized controlled trial that depressed adults who participated in an aerobic-exercise plan improved as much as those treated with sertraline, the drug that, marketed as Zoloft, was earning Pfizer more than $3 billion annually before its patent expired in 2006.

Subsequent trials have repeated these results, showing again and again that patients who follow aerobic-exercise regimens see improvement in their depression comparable to that of those treated with medication, and that both groups do better than patients given only a placebo. But exercise trials on the whole have been small, and most have run for only a few weeks; some are plagued by methodological problems. Still, despite limited data, the trials all seem to point in the same direction: exercise boosts mood. It not only relieves depressive symptoms but also appears to prevent them from recurring.

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RE: help with depression - 5/5/2011 10:25:03 AM

gothikbutterfly

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I have been on every anti-depressant known to man since 3rd grade, and while some of it helped, most of them did not. Its all about body chemistry, and whether or not your body is tolerant of the medicine or not. I am not an expert, nor do I pretend to be one.

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RE: help with depression - 5/5/2011 10:52:31 AM

NocturnalStalker

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I think anybody that needs to take a pill to be happy deserves what they are afflicted with.

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RE: help with depression - 5/5/2011 12:28:54 PM

DesFIP

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Assuming she is getting treatment, and it can take up to six months to find the right antidepressant at the right dosage, you want to have her tell you, or make a list, of the things she used to enjoy. Right now she doesn't see any pleasure in doing them, however if she incorporates doing one a day, it will help. As will taking one 5000 IU Vitamin D III.

Exercise daily or at least four times a week, just go out for a long walk together. And yes, some people find a temporary endorphin release from spanking or flogging. You get the same endorphin release from heavy exercise.

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RE: help with depression - 5/5/2011 12:49:35 PM

MercTech

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Chronic depression, clinical depression, or situational depression?

Chronic depression can be an imbalance that is readily treated by medication.
Clinical depression can be from severe psychological problems, chemistry imbalance, or combination.
Situation depression often calls for a period of medication to aid healing.

Gad, after my mother died followed by my girl being murdered by her son I don't know if I would have kept things together for the year after without some medication to help.

Stefan

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Post #: 34

RE: help with depression - 5/5/2011 12:50:55 PM

Toppingfrmbottom

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I am glad to hear that. Therapy, and martial arts helped my Daddy have better self esteem and think better of himself.

Our therapist also helped heal some very old griefs that were still in there festering away, that with out therapy would probably be still festering away . She has also helped me a great deal.

quote:

ORIGINAL: LaTigresse

Indeed.

For the record.......I have a personal hate for pill popping and whining to others about problems I can, with much self introspection and effort, fix myself.

However!...... as a mother who watched her child suffer horribly, I know for a fact that psychiatric medications and therapy have a VERY valid, and important, place in treating many ailments. The key to long term success is a very difficult balance.

My daughter would likely be dead, if not for exploring, and utilizing, all facets of treatment.