Jerseygirl

I think you are quite right...it's 9 yrs now since I was at my lowest point...but is still keeps coming back from time to time. The last time it happened I got up around 7 am and everything was fine...suddenly around 11 am I could feel myself being dragged down. It's the strangest of feelings...difficult to describe but it's as if something is dragging me under. Opened up the SJW and within a day or so I'm as right as rain again.

mandtooz

yes, so right, and im not sure anybody who hasnt had depression can quite understand that feeling............. i suppose its a good thing that we recognise "that feeling". The first time i had depression and the beginning of that slippery slope, i didnt know, or a should re-phrase that, i didnt want to know! even when i was sobbing in the drs surgery i still said i dont have depression! admitting it is a third of the battle

Jerseygirl

I didn't go to the doctors...I know I should have done...but I just couldn't. I felt failure enough with a) not being able to control my feelings, b) allowing myself to get into such a state, c) not being happy in a country that most people would give their right arm to live in. I couldn't allow myself to break down in front of my doctor...I just couldn't. Also I really didn't want to be on prescription meds.

My husband and daughter were the only people who knew...I told my sister 2 years ago...she was gobsmacked.

I truly hope talking openly about our feelings like this helps others that may read through these threads. It would have helped me I'm sure...just to know I wasn't off my trolley and that there are many others going through all the same emotions. In other words after moving to live in another country...it is a perfectly normal emotion to go through.

fishfinger

Me too there is no way I would be able to speak to any doctor, I would just die of embarrassment. Unfortunately, I have been brought up to believe that you just get on with it. I do think I am still suffering from some prolonged form of PND. When my son was born I took some test that the health visitor came round with and my scores were quite bad. She wanted me to see the doctor but I just couldn't deal with that so I just got on with it.

I think it has been a factor with my unhappiness in Canada but I have to try and push it away as I have a family to look after. I can so relate to what you are saying about the feelings coming on and you can't do anything about it. Horrible isn't it?

Mercedes

I was told that life is like a table with family, friends, home, work/finances were the legs. When you're missing one or more of the legs the table then wobbles. Moving to another country many of us don't have all those things intitially or only some of it, so it is not surprising we wobble at times. I think it can be less lonely if we are working, worse if we are not and don't have a network.

I've had my rollercoasters of ups and down and depressions and can get depressed and feel lonely in a room full of people if there is no connection or anything in common. A friend of mine had a nervous breakdown years ago, and when I was going through a rough patch, he told me that he was advised to have only positive people in his life and do things that made him feel good. It was good advice for me, and I had a bad patch a few years back and found I couldn't stand being around people who wanted something from me or negative. I kept alone for a while and just had as many positive things in my life and even having a massage with an alternative health person made me feel much better. Someone who had a good aura about them.

A good feel good was when I had a jetski and spent the whole day with dolphins, that was also a good pick me up. I won't take drugs and found councelling made me feel worst and I find just doing things I enjoy and finding people I like being around helps, especially laughter. It is something I really crave when I'm on a low.

I doubt many people go through life without experiencing some depression in it and some people won't be sympathetic, so its finding those that are and supportive at the time. They are a godsend. At the end of the day we are all human and life isn't always rosy and sometimes we can bounce through it and other times we can't. The main thing is finding what helps us through it whatever it is.

PLANTS

Over the past year I ahve done that Mercedes, cleansed my life of the people that were giving me negative thoughts or taking too much of my energy. I started selling Stampin Up products, doing workshops and creating cards, then a blog and managed to get with a group of lovely ladies who are around the same age as me too which helps. I don't get to see them all the time because of the bad days but I always know that one will ring me for a chat and get me out of the house for a cuppa. Through the work I am doing I am trying to create a more positive person in myself but I still have days where my confidence is just nowhere to be seen. I feel like that wobbly table of yours, as if theres a leg missing or too short and I need that family piece back again to make it stable.

Great Post, I could really relate to it.

Di

sel

Call the "causes" "Triggers" then, does that make it sound better ???

http://www.psychologyinfo.com/depression/causes.html

Anyway, the facts are if you feel depressed and you are seeking help thats great, it should not be ignored. All I am trying to get across is that AD's should be the LAST thing to reach for. If you do go onto AD's PLEASE be careful and research the tablets you have been given so you are aware of the VERY potential side effects ... dont rely on the little info insert in the pack !! And this is not an "uneducated" statement.

These pills can and do cause suicide ideations. It is a darkside that is very real and all to easily ignored.

Sorry if you think I am scaremongering ... but if I can help others avoid the world shattering pain I have experienced by being more aware then thats good !!!


http://www.breggin.com/

http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/infopag...historical.htm

Jerseygirl

That's what I've always thought...anti-depressants that make you feel even more depressed. That's one of the reasons I didn't go to the doctors and decided to take matters into my own hands by taking SJW.

sme

However they are also a very useful medication for the treatment of depression. You can experience side effects and withdrawal effects but not every one does so you need to weigh up the risks against the debilitation of the illness.

Jerseygirl

I know...but I wasn't prepared to take the risk. I have read time and time again about people taking AD's whose lives are ruined ie personality change, addiction, suicide.

sme

Fortunately the vast majority don't.

Tootsie Frickensprinkles

I refused point blank for over a year to take Seroxat for those very reasons. It lead to a very difficult situation with my GP and a complete breakdown in my healthcare amongst other things.

After referrals and changing my GP I conceded to a relatively short course of Sertraline. I found it completely different to my earlier experiences with ADs and do believe it lifted me to a point where I could begin to rebuild again.

The thing that has always bothered me most with longer term depressive disorders is that people do not understand how it makes absolutely everything, even the simplest of everyday tasks a mammoth battle.

sel

And I agree with what you say BUT only when its a "major" depression. When the "risks" involve death it kind of takes it to a whole new level doesnt it and I just cannot understand why anyone with a mild depression would want to take this risk .... so feel it can only be down to not knowing just how severe these side effects can be.

I just think that doctors are to quick to hand out these drugs and not follow up with a responsible level of after care.

sel

Oh really ....


QUOTE:

We have witnessed no decrease in suicide, but increases in murder/suicide, suicide, unwed pregnancies, domestic violence, manic-depression, MS, hypoglycemia, diabetes, bankruptcies, divorce, mothers (parents) killing children, road rage, school shootings, cancer, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and fibromyalgia since these serotonergic drugs have become so popular and I relate it directly to the effects of these drugs. The death toll has continued to climb drastically since I wrote PROZAC: PANACEA OR PANDORA? Some of the cases you may be familiar with are: Mr. and Mrs. Phil Hartman (Zoloft), Prozac was found in the van of Mark Barton, the Atlanta day trader, who recently killed his family and others in a shooting spree before taking his own life; Neal Furrow, in LA Jewish school shooting was reported to have been court ordered to be on Prozac along with several other medications; the Salt Lake Family History Library shooting, school shootings in Littleton, Colorado (Luvox), Atlanta, Georgia, Springfield, Oregon (Prozac), and Caldwell, Idaho; another boy in Pocatello, ID in 1998 who in seizure activity from Zoloft had a stand off at the school; 15 year old Chris Shanahan (Paxil) in Rigby, ID who out of the blue killed a woman; the shooting at the lottery in Connecticut last spring by Matthew Beck (Luvox) that left five dead in a murder/suicide; the New York City Subway bombing by Edward Leary (Prozac); little 10 year old Timmy (Prozac) in southern Florida; Nick Mansies (Paxil) in New Jersey who was convicted of killing a little boy who was selling cookies door to door; in Orange County, CA Dana Sue Gray (Paxil) who co-workers described as a very caring nurse killed several elderly people; Officer Stephen Christian (Prozac) one of the finest officers on the Dallas Police force, who ran into a police substation shooting at fellow officers and was killed; 13 year old Chris Fetters (Prozac) in Iowa who killed her favorite aunt; David Rothman (Prozac) killed two co-workers and himself at the Dept. of Agriculture in Ingelwood, CA; Williams Evans (Zoloft) shot one co-worker at the Ohio Bureau of Employment Services before shooting himself in Columbus, OH; Winatchee, WA where 43 people were wrongfully imprisoned in a false accusation of sexual abuse "witch hunt" fury started by a child under the influence of Prozac and Paxil; Christopher Vasquez (Zoloft) killed Michael McMorrow in Central Park; Megan Hogg (Prozac) duct taped the mouths and noses of her three little girls and took a handful of pills; Vera Espinoza (Prozac) in Randolph, VT shot her small son and daughter before shooting herself; an elderly man (Prozac) in Layton, UT axed his wife and daughter to death; Margaret Kastanis (Prozac) used a knife and hammer to kill her three children before stabbing herself to death; an elderly man (Paxil) in Dallas, TX strangled his wife before shooting himself twice in the chest; Larramie Huntzinger (Zoloft) blacked out and ran his car into three young girls killing two in Salt Lake City, UT; Mary Hinkelman (Prozac), a nurse in Baroda, MI shot her two small daughters and her sister before shooting herself; Lisa Fox (Prozac) shot her small son and her dog before shooting herself in Brighton, MI; Debi Louselle (Zoloft) shot daughter and then herself in Salt Lake City, UT; a father in Wyoming shot his wife, daughter and baby grand-daughter then himself after only days on Paxil; a mother (Prozac) in Pleasant Grove, UT killed her 17 year old son with a sledge hammer while he slept before she attempted suicide by drinking draino; Larry Butzz, a superintendent of schools in Ames, IA shot his wife, son and daughter before shooting himself - many cases pending in court are not mentioned. This is only a handful of MANY, MANY more cases - there would not be room for anything else if I continued listing the cases. A few additional famous victims: Princess Di (Prozac) and Dodi Fayed -via their driver Henri Paul (Prozac), Monica Lewinsky (Prozac, Zoloft, Effexor, Serzone and Phen-Fen), Chris Farley (Prozac), Pres. Clinton's ex-partner Jim Mc Dougal (Prozac), Abby Hoffman (Prozac), Del Shannon (Prozac), Danielle Steele's son (Prozac), INXS singer Michael Hutchence (Prozac), Sarah - Dutchess of York (Phen-Fen)

The latest figures show Prozac has about 44,000 adverse reports filed with the FDA. Out of those reports there are about 2500 deaths with the large majority of them linked to suicide or violence.

http://www.drugawareness.org/home.html

http://www.rense.com/general/pro.htm

sme

And yes I am talking about a major depressive illness when people do attempt to kill themselves or are functioning at a level where they are no longer caring for themselves or their dependants.

And drugs should never be prescribed as the first treatment option - plenty of alternative therapys and those that work well along side medication.
Any prescribed medication also needs to be monitored by a suitably qualified professional.