Depression

AHarvey

AHarvey

AHarvey

Soldato
Joined
6 Mar 2008
Posts
10,084
Location
Stoke area
Hi,

Just wondering if anyone here has ever been diagnosed with depression?

If so, what was your life like before and after treatment and what was it that finally made you go see a doctor about it?

Not after medical advice here just interested in peoples personal experiences :)
 
Are you depressed?
One of my best mates about 5 years ago was diagnosed bi-polar. He was on some medication for a while that meant he couldnt drink and it kind of numbed him. He really missed out on so many late-teenage experiences because he felt that he couldn't do what all his friends were doing - party etc. Before his treatment he became quite reclusive and quiet, almost agoraphobic. During - numb. After - he seemed fine although still a little bit quiet. However, he has always been shy.
Turns out 5 years on that he isnt actually bi-polar and it was a mis-diagnosis.

\o/ woo NHS.
 
A very good friend who I grew up with suffered from severe depression and bi-polar disorder. So much so that eventually he took his own life at the age of 19. The cruel thing is that all through school the teachers were telling him to cheer up and it'll never happen. Back then we didn't have councillors and all the molly-coddling you get today, we had a nit-nurse who doubled as a first aider and that was it!
 
My GP tried to diagnose "depression" after I'd split with an ex, the same ex who had been unfaithful to me and built up around £9k of debt in my name!

He could not grasp that far from depressed about the situation, I was relieved & delighted to get the Bitch out of my life!

I told him to take his pills & shove them! :D
 
While not exactly depression.
It's very difficult to get diagnosed the health service is still very much lacking in that department, they have been trying to diagnose me for a while and they are 95% sure I have BPD but as it would mean they have to confirm something they keep saying we need to be sure and putting it off. Its lead to a feeling of confusion but also hope that you can be diagnosed and begin treatment.
 
I was diagnosed with depression over a year ago. I was fine uptill about 19.5 years old. Then I developed it.

Before the medication my moods were like a roller coster, I could be with my mates having the time of my life, then within the space of 15mins I would be in a bad state opening up my arms.
Depression runs in my family and it would have been useful to know that my dad suffered from bi-polar before I moved to uni.
With the medication my moods are more like speed bumps as opposed to a roller coster. While this stops the severity of the mood swings, it also seems to stop all extreme emotions (happy and sad).
I don't know what it's like 'after' treatment, as I don't feel ready to come off them yet and the doctor doesn't recommend it.



If you think you have a problem see your GP, if you let it get worse you'll regret it, trust me.
 
I was 20 when I went to University and that's when it all started. Everything just got to me, too much work, worrying, girlfriend, away from home etc. I started on a course of anti-depressants. The first few weeks was quite tough, but afterwards you start feeling numb.

About a year ago I started coming off them. Unfortunately I came off them too quickly and the strong panic attacks started coming back. I am now on a medium dose, hoping to come down in the next few months.

Being on the medication makes you tired and you get a tend to be quite apathetic, personally anyway. The last few years have been a bit of a rollercoaster.

Give me a shout if you got any questions. :)
 
(Cut & pasted from another thread)

My story -

In 1985 I decided to lose weight and very easily got into eating nothing. This developed into Bulemia and for 3 years I was either anorexic or bulemic.
During Apr 88 my body gave up and I collapsed at work and decided to 'come out' to our nurse at work. She arranged for help and I ended up being sectioned into a mental hospital. Up until that day I felt like the fittest bloke alive and not a worry in the world.
I had a great time in the mental hospital and met my best friend who was the head nurse who later played in bands with me. He also helped to save my life.
Things changed when I came out to reality in the real world and even though I had the greatest wife in the world with a 1 year old baby daughter and a fantastic family absolutely nothing could erase the thoughts from my head.
Over the next few months I grew into a deeper depression and nothing could pull me out and I planned a day in Sept 88 to end my pain.
I sat at my Atari ST and wrote 4 suicide notes to different family members and even listed how much all my music gear would fetch second hand.
I had my suicide all worked out and sat down to my last meal which consisted of toast and cornflakes and I was completely calm because in the next hour I would be cured.
Now this is where God/Allah/Tooth Fairy/Satan etc played a part and made me turn on the TV while I ate my last meal. On came a program which I'd never seen before and was presented by Robert Kilroy Silk and he had a studio full of children dying of cancer who wanted to do something special before they died.
That program changed my life forever and I tore up the suicide notes. When my wife came home I told her that she had no more worrys and I was cured. At 6pm I rang everybody up and told them not to worry anymore because Robert Kilroy Silk had cured me. I went to my weekly hospital session with a psychiatrist and other sufferers and told them I wouldn't see them again. It took months before my suffering family believed me but I'm still here after nearly 20 years.

Yes, I know what it like to be one second away from suicide and its the easiest thing in the world when you're there.
 
Woah... this is quite insightful, especially dmpoole's post.
That's one thing that's been an issue (I say issue, it's more of a lack of understanding on my part) in my relationship with my Girlfriend (soon to be 2nd year). She suffers from OCD and it was triggered on 04th July 2007. Just came out of the blue after a situation arisen from her little sister breaking her trust (long story).

Since her OCD, she's been depressed, because of it and her outlook on life is very negative. She has been on counselling sessions, been put on a low dose medication which she voluntarily took herself off it as after 3 months, she felt more depressed by taking meds.

Although she's claimed she never felt suicidal to her counsellor, she has confided to me that there were occasions where she feels like jumping in front of the bus that's travelling down whilst she is waiting at the crossing, but never took the step as she considers it an easy way out and it's unfair to her family, friends and I.

It is very weird seeing how she can swing her mood from an ecstasy high to a depressed low numb or angry, phobic mood. Anything that can trigger her OCD will mark the start of the rollercoaster ride, for her and anyone standing next to her.

I know it's very hard for her but it's also very painful to be the one next to her, knowing it's so hard and feeling helpless to her suffering.
 
Not an easy burden to carry at all: I empathise with anyone who suffers.

Meds didn't do anything, strong doses and that too, but it just didnt do a thing... It all comes from within whether as dmpoole said it takes Robert Kilroy Silk to get you off the mark or you simply deal with it yourself.

:(
 
Unfortunately, mental illness is something that cannot be seen unlike say a broken ankle so a lot of diagnosis is guesswork. Many cures are through counselling but again, there is not enough money spent on training people to help sufferers through this.

I spent 7 years taking Seroxat and although it stopped the anxiety and panic attacks, it made me emotionally detached with no feeling of hurt and pity for others. That had quite an impact on my relationship to my now wife but she was very understanding and supportive and when I think back, it was her that helped me through most of my anguish.

I remember the day clearly when I went to see the doctor about these panic attacks and straight away he wrote a prescription out and sent me on my way I presume hoping that this wonder medication would sort me out. It didnt. All it did was block out the pain and the rest was down to my self help and my wife. The list for counselling was long so I took it all on myself and beat it.

A sad 7 years of my life but now I can use some of that time I had fighting it and help others which is what I do.
 
I know that a good friend of mine turned into a lot better person when I got her off the little yellow pills.
 
Depression one of those things where you dont realise the extent of whats going on until you have had first hand experience of this terrible condition.

Personally i am not a very sympathetic person and in the past i have just attributed depression to people feeling sorry for themselves etc etc, however in the past couple of years i have seen my mother suffer with depression.

Sometimes i dont see her for weeks on end because i cannot bring myself to go and visit because of the way she is...i never know what mood she will be in, whether she will be up or down etc.

My dad is spending less and less time at their home because of how she can be with him, he even took her to the mental health hospital himself and asked them to detain her for her own safety and they wouldnt because she had not harmed herself.

I feel for anyone who suffers with or has loved ones who suffer with this terrible thing.
 
I was asked recently by the Doctor "do you think you're depressed", my reply was "if you're depressed do you actaully know!". Currently on tablets for hypertension and feeling like crud, not sure if it's the pills or the hypertension!

I don't think I'm depressed but I'm not particulary happy at the moment as I feel rubbish!
 
I got put on Citalopram but I never took the tablets. I suggest anyone who is given any medication to try all the alternatives you can before taking them and read up all the information there is on the medication.

After reading about them I personally decided not to take them because I read about it changing your mannerisms and becoming emotionally numb. Maybe it is just in my nature to be moody, maybe it's just the way I am. I'm trying to overcome the anxiety and depression by myself first before I resort to pills.

Just read up is my advice.
 
Johnnytoxic said:
I got put on Citalopram but I never took the tablets. I suggest anyone who is given any medication to try all the alternatives you can before taking them and read up all the information there is on the medication.

After reading about them I personally decided not to take them because I read about it changing your mannerisms and becoming emotionally numb. Maybe it is just in my nature to be moody, maybe it's just the way I am. I'm trying to overcome the anxiety and depression by myself first before I resort to pills.

Just read up is my advice.
Click to expand...

I was on that for some time and it is worth taking them. They dont fix the problem, theyre not a magic bullet, but they help you get to a state where you can tackle the symptoms; they will help you in your attempts to overcome the anxiety and depression, they wont do it for you.

All drugs affect people differently. Personally, I had no side effects and would use Citalopram again if I needed to.
 
My brother was depressed after being bullied (to the point that he tried to kill himself) during school. He was put on prozac for a short while, and then another medication (i'm not sure what), but if he didn't take them he'd become quite violent and agressive, like mood swings. However the bright side is that he's happy now, well as far as I can see.
In my opinion it's because all of that is behind him now, he's at uni in a different place and got out there on his own to meet new people. Plus he 'came out of the closet', which I think may have had an affect before.

Personally, I wasn't diagnosed with depression however my GP put me down for counselling with the NHS (though it would take 3 months and I was moving to uni in just under 2 months). I went for a try-out session with a private counsellor and whilst I didn't continue the sessions (by the time they got back to me it was 3/4 weeks until I was going to university, I didn't want to build a relationship with a counsellor only for it to last for a few weeks), I felt that counselling would help more that anything else.
 
Most people wouldn't know 'Health,...if it bit them on the arse'. Foundations of a structure or house are the roots. In humans what we eat / drink affects thought and behaviour. "The Optimum Nutrition Bible" by Patrick Holford and "The Genotype diet" by Dr.Peter D'adamo. Also by D'adamo is "Live right for your type".
Good health.
 
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