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Goodbye Jesus

Depression


Amethyst

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Okay, I need to vent. Zoe & others, please don't get too pissed off at me.

 

I know how damn serious depression is. I lost two friends and a cousin to it. I went through it in high school myself. Didn't really get the help I needed because my family was dealing with my mom having cancer, so I was invisible, as always.

 

But please, when someone is physically harming themselves, don't tell them not to get professional help. Because they really do need it. My former housemate hated doctors, didn't get help, and ended up setting the townhome on fire the weekend before Christmas in '03. If I hunt for a while, maybe I can find the old news article archived somewhere and post it.

 

People with depression need help, not just vitamins or exercise and crap like that. THEY NEED MEDICATION AND COUNSELING. If you tell people who are seriously considering suicide to just ignore it and it will go away, IT WILL NOT.

 

I have lost too many friends to depression. I really, really, really don't want to lose any more, even if I don't know them all that well.

 

That is all.

 

:screams:

 

Edit:

 

Sigh...

 

Please keep in mind this is just a rant, but I am really tired of this type of misunderstanding.

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That they do....

 

Been there, done that, still doing it.

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I'm sorry.

 

It's just, one of my biggest pet peeves is when people tell people who are depressed not to get medical help. If it's mild depression, fine. But when it's to the point where they're seriously considering suicide, I think they need to at the very least talk to someone first.

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I am probubly the last person who should be saying this but, meds arent all that great. I have been put on them before, and they work. But now I don't know if they worked or not because I read a study that the medication I was taking is only successful around 10% of the time.

 

I tried counseling, with three different councilors and a support group. The thing that helped most was the group! I felt bad for being there because so many people had worse lives than I do, but that is little comfort in my case.

 

Being active doesn't help a lot, it's hard to get active I guess. I don't know what I am trying to say here, but since I caused this thread to happen I needed to say something.

 

-Jake

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One must also be very, very aware of feeding the eminently destructive self-definition as "depressed", be it clinically, personally or otherwise. The moment one begins to define onesself as such, it becomes increasingly difficult to break the condition, since in a bizarre way it becomes an inimical component of the sufferer's personality. How many of us can say that we have never been in a situation where we prefer the comfort of familiar miseries rather than risking stepping outside the self-contained bubble of our experiences and risking new traumas? Not many, I'd gather.

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I don't either. I understand what you're saying, that there are other treatments in addition to medication available. But as one who also suffers from depression and is on medication, I must warn if you do try alternatives, even herbal remedies, make sure you have your doctor's approval first and please go for some form of counseling. Depression can be deceptive, looking like one thing such as stress over job issues or a feeling that you're a failure. It hit me so hard I didn't even recognize it until I had already taken the pills, trying to end it all and was in the hospital.

 

And yes, I think many people who aren't suffering a true chemical imbalance are being prescribed these drugs and they are made to only treat the imbalance, not to be uses as a form of "pep" pills. So they won't work on anyone, otherwise. And I especially don't like all the anti-depressant commercials because they give people the wrong idea that they will alone fix the problem and don't differentiate true depression from just feeling down.

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I tried counseling, with three different councilors and a support group. The thing that helped most was the group! I felt bad for being there because so many people had worse lives than I do, but that is little comfort in my case.

 

That is good. I know if it wasn't for Ex-C, I'd still be very sad thinking I was the only one who had deconverted, especially because I'm surrounded by Christians all the time.

 

And yes, I think many people who aren't suffering a true chemical imbalance are being prescribed these drugs and they are made to only treat the imbalance, not to be uses as a form of "pep" pills. So they won't work on anyone, otherwise. And I especially don't like all the anti-depressant commercials because they give people the wrong idea that they will alone fix the problem and don't differentiate true depression from just feeling down.

 

True. I hate those stupid drug ads, especially the ones that don't even say what the drugs treat but say "talk to your doctor." Talking to your doctor is well and good, but not pressuring him to give you something. Find out if you need it first.

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"

It's just, one of my biggest pet peeves is when people tell people who are depressed not to get medical help. If it's mild depression, fine. But when it's to the point where they're seriously considering suicide, I think they need to at the very least talk to someone first. "

 

 

I was actually diagnosed with low grade depression, and that means 'not suicidal'. Let me tell you, not being suicidal still hurt and felt like there was a train station complete with homeless crank fiends, narcisists, people putting on masks, toxicity, etc...

 

I know meds aren't the only option and I suspect more people are taking them than need them - but then again, I really am just guessing.

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I've had pretty severe depression the past couple of years - in fact just over a year ago I was 99.9% certain I was going to try my best to kill myself during the annual two-week layoff my company has every year at the beginning of July. It still plays in my mind, and I don't know if I see it as depression or just fatigue, weariness, a sort of 'I've seen enough, I'd like to move on now.' In any case a couple of years back I requested my doctor to recommend me to a psychologist, and almost the first thing on the first visit she wanted to put me on meds. I said 'No' immediately, and have never gone on them. I suppose I don't have depression as severely as some, I can usually tell when I'm on the brink and pull myself back. Of all things my doctor sent me to a Christian psychologist and she loaned me a 'positive attitude' book, and when I told her I would really love to just go away somewhere and never have to leave the house or deal with anyone ever again she just laughed and said 'Who doesn't?' Had no idea what I was really getting at, I so wanted to curse her and just walk out. But that whole experience just told me that, for me, neither meds nor psychologists are going to be any help, I know myself too well, way better than any detached 'professional' ever could. Ah, what was the topic of this thread again?

 

bdp

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Speaking for myself I can say that the meds do help. It is impossible to make healthy decisions if you are in the middle of a funk. The daily build-up of worries etc. just snowballs into an unmanageable ball that will eventually get out of control. The cycle needs to be broken, and eating properly and excercising comes after some progress has been made with counselling and medication.

Kevin:

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goddammit am I the "big bad wolf" around here?  Is everyone afraid I'm going to yell at them?  Just wondering.  I knew I came off as bitchy sometimes...but I didn't know I was coming off as that unapproachable.  You are the second person in just a couple of days who's been all "zoe don't go all rambo on me."

 

Maybe this is a sign I should tone it the fuck down.

 

Hmm...Maybe we should begin a seperate thread to discuss this? Cause I've experienced this same phenomenon. Where just being ASSERTIVE in my opinion, either verbal or written, is seen as somehow "belligerent", "aggressive", "mean", "cruel", etc., etc. To the extent that people walk on egg shells around me, fearing they'll awake the dragon from his lair!

 

It's been the source of MUCH consternation. Making me have to tone down my rhetoric, and craft careful responses, and preface words with pleasantries and "neutral" sounding terminology so as not to "spook or offend."

 

And even THEN, since I've "earned the reputation" as an Ogre, I'm STILL viewed as being The Grinch!

 

So, I KNOW what you mean Zoe. Think we should talk about it elsewhere, or just let it drop? :shrug:

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I suffer from depression... it comes and goes. Sometimes I am doing really well and sometimes I just want to sleep and let the world pass me by. I have taken medicine for it. I currently don't. The only one I could tolerate was Wellbutrin... which I suppose is good since it so many had such nasty side effects and people say they don't feel like a real person taking them and such because of things like the sexual side effects. Wellbutrin never made me feel that way. (I get panic attacks too but that's a different issue entirely.) I found the thing which helped me the most... was people who loved and cared about me. People who didn't tell me that I could just choose to be happy... because I couldn't just choose to be happy or to snap out of my depression. Now I can do a little better and catch it before I get into the deep depths of it. I can journal or talk to a friend. It doesn't completely prevent it, but it controls it better. But it annoys me to no end when people tell people to just snap out of it... to be not depressed it is a choice. It is something very real that needs to be dealt with one way or another. Learn more about yourself through the way that works for you and then use that way. If it is medicine fine (but KNOW about your medicine and if you react poorly to say an SSRI then find out what other drugs are in that family... because for example I reacted poorly to SSRIs and SSNRIs are pretty darn similar and I reacted very poorly to those also), if it is talking to a professional great, if it is starting a good consistant exercise program awesome... but know yourself and do what works. And if you are so depressed you would consider suicide then please reach out to someone and get help. There are many ways to help depression... medicine is not the only answer nor do I believe it should be. But it will likely take trial and error to find the right solution for any given person. =)

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