Depression

“Anyone know anything about it?”

“Yes, I have a family member that suffers from it. What do you want to know?”

“This is depressing”

“Dr Laura?”

“Paxil!”

“I liked Dennis Leary's take on depression/people seeing shrinks.

But seriously, I had an ex-girlfriend who suffered from it. It wasn't fun, and it was frustrating because I tried to find ways to help her, but nothing worked.”

“I really like this counter, Doc
It's so much more discrete
It's nice you made a place here
Where the customer is free
to talk about a problem with a bit more privacy
Better service

Reminds me of confession
When I used to go to church
I used to go to therapy
But who needs all that work
The one is too much grieving
The other too much pain
But now I'm happy

Hey Doc
How's about a refill
Hey Doc
The pretty little blue pill
Hey Doc
How's about a refill

Are you following the market, Doc
Everybody's flush
You should go down to the trading floor
It's such an awesome rush
But everyone's a predator
So I've got to keep my edge
Can you help me?

Hey Doc
How's about a refill
Hey Doc
The pretty little blue pill
Hey Doc
How's about a refill

Richard Shindell”

“good one, Limpy! it seems like the drugs that are legal and the drugs that are illegal in this country are pretty arbitrary.

what was Dennis Leary's take, Artex?”

“from the moovie, Striptease”

“Leary was saying how if he were a shrink, and people came into his office whining about how unhappy they were, he'd just yell "shut the f--- up! Next?!". It's one of those things you have to hear, it's absolutely hilarious. Pennsy Hiker and I quote from it quite often. :-)”

“HA! that does sound funny!”

“perhaps to someone who's not depressed...”

“I am 54 years old and have suffered from chronic depression since at least puberty. My son is manic-depressive and has been hospitalised twice during psychotic episodes. I have had three major breakdowns, the last in 1999 when my doctors wanted me to take at least two years off work.
I am generally a happy and optimistic person, but depression is an illness, not a mood.
I have had experience with most of the medications of (medical) choice.
If you want to talk about it, e-mail me at dougmurdoch@eudoramail.com.”

“BTW, I didn't mean to make light of anyone's situation with the Dennis Leary thing. It really is a serious illness and as I said, I've seen it in people very close to me first hand, and it was perhaps in bad taste that I brought it up. My sincere apologies if I offended anyone.”

“that's very considerate of you, gremlin.”

“My mother was a manic-depressive, it was a very hard upbringing. I didnt understand her until I was an adult, but by then it was to late to talk to her about it.”

“I have a pharmacy firend who I asked what the most popularly prescribed drug in our city was. He said, far and away, Prozac followed by paxil, I think. He said the whole city appeared to be on antidepressants.”

“i know, Aero...people do those things recreationally all the time. personally, i don't think you should ever be prescribed an antidepressant without also being in counselling.”

“Puberty.
Why didn't I think of that?


After many many years, I finally sought treatment.
I started with Effexor(sp?) 1.5 years ago, but it made me jittery. I switched to Zoloft, but results have been so-so.

I'm due for a refill, and have been considering Paxil or Prozac.

My Doc is open for experimentation seein's how the meds affect people differently.

Wow! Who'd ever thunk I'd actually get a doctors okey-dokey to experiment with drugs?!

God Bless America!”

“gojo, after my mom's experience with it, I'd stay away from Paxil, if I were you. But that's something to discuss with your doc.”

“My mother was on Lithium(sp) nasty drug.”

“Yeah, I've heard many a story about the ways of Prozac, but I'd be willing to give it a go.

Again, stuff affects people differently.

I'll run it by my doctor.”

“Hiking eases my depression. I can't really speak for anyone else, but too long away from the outdoors, and I start losing my grip.

The exercise is supposed to help build up the happy hormones in your brain. Maybe that's it...”

“Of course planning a backpacking trip is another thing altogether :)”

“I got into hiking to help with depression. It has worked pretty well.”

“oops,
Prozac = Paxil”

“As long as everyone’s coming out of the closet…

I struggled with depression from about the time I hit puberty too. I didn’t even know what it was. I took Prozac for a couple of months when it first came on the market and credit it with saving my life.

I slid back into depression a while later but knowing how to recognize it and that it was treatable, I went to the doctor and stayed on Prozac for the full six months that he recommended the first time.

I tried counseling but for me, I feel it was a waste of time and money. We like to think that we have something mystical in us that directs our thoughts but chemistry plays a major role – maybe the role. For others it may be all that’s needed.

I’m happy to report that it’s been many years since I felt the need for medication. I’ve got a great job, wonderful family, nice home… To think I could have taken my own life at one time and missed all this.


Learn the symptoms of depression. It is treatable in many cases. Don’t let stigma keep you from the life you deserve.”

“Try Celexa. It's in the same family as Zoloft (SSRI) was helpful to me and has, reportedly, fewer side effects than other SSRIs or MAOIs.

Also, have tests of your thyroid. (Blood tests.) Many docs, especially internists, don't know that an imbalance in your T3 or T4 levels in thyroid tests can cause depression. Adding micro-doses of T3 (T3 converts to T4) can stabilize moods.

Increasingly, evidence suggests that depression is a biologic/metabologic disorder, not a psychic deficiency.

Best,

Mark”

“Make sure they check your BP in your first week on that stuff, gojo. It can reduce yor blood pressure so much that it's hard to move (not to mention doing other things).”

“the reason i said i was for counselling, Violin, was because of the people who do antidepressants recreationally. also, counselling might benefit people who do other drugs besides the antidepressants, with which they might react badly. i was just thinking that someone would be more likely to tell a counsellor about their drug use, than a doctor they saw once.

i'm glad you're here for us to torment too, Violin. :-)”

“Wow! I knew this was common, but I had never thought of trying to figure out who, among my aquaintances might suffer the same symptoms.

Maybe that's why we all stuck here on this board!”

“I find that if im getting a little depressed i try to plan a hike. but here is the new problem, I cant hike for a couple of months. now what?”

“Hey Lyra, most anti-depressents aren't something that gets one high or makes one feel better or anything for weeks or moths... Where have you heard of someone using them recreationally?”

“I've suffered from what I would consider relatively mild depression since puberty. It's not constant, and severe episodes are rare. I find the episodes very closely associated with hormone levels. When my hormones went down after Laurel was born, well, I'd call it bad, HPM would call it extremely painful. I know how much he wants to help when I'm down, but "trying" makes things worse. Leave me alone and I come out of it. Exercise at the gym has helped immensely. The difference is remarkable. I have not considered meds, since I've only seen ONE person I'd consider successfully treated out of the hundreds I've encountered who are taking something or other.

I'll get myself out of this, thank-you very much.”

“what about Herbs?
taking them instead of Drugs?”

“I had a brother that suffered from depression. Operative word, had. This is nothing to fool around with. Seek assistance.”

“people in West Virginia, Phaedrus! my brother and people he knew did things like that all the time. he would crush up Paxils with Oxycontins and snort them, or do a lot at a time, in combination with other things. it's not that i doubt that he was depressed...it's just that ALL his friends couldn't also be depressed. antidepressants are way over-prescribed.”

“Most doctors and councellors will just give you a pill. That's bull#&%!$. No thank-you.”

“I came down with it after I was treated for toxic shock syndrome that nearly killed me. It is a common after-effect. They kept me on Paxil for a year and it worked well. The one bad side effect, not terribly troublesome given my single condition at the time, was a repressed sex drive. That came back when the Paxil course ended a year later.

Is it for everyone? Probably not. Consult your doctor, and like any other drug, if you begin to experience side effects call the doctor immediately and discuss it.

If one drug does not work, another one may. Most anti-depressant ads I've seen mention sexual dysfunction as a side effect. It goes away when you stop taking the drug.

The one other point is that these drugs are prescribed for a certain period of time. They are not meant to be maintenance drugs over long periods. Six months to a year would seem about right.

Counseling can help if there are emotional issues behind the depression. Clinical depression or depression following a life-threatening illness probably does not require much, if any counseling. I did that four about three months and we agreed that while helpful, it was no longer necessary.”

“CUSS”

“Lyra, I agree antidepression medications are overprescribed. I also agree that the medications may very well be masking some other psychological problems.

Depression has kind of become a saving myth among adults in the US, IMO. It's sort of like the ritalin prescription for children.

All that being said, though, a course of these drugs can save one's life long enough to learn to cope with things. It's just like Violin said. You never know what you could miss.”

“I'll get myself out of this, thank-you very much."
treebait
02:43:27 PM
02/06/03



That was my mantra for 30 years.


...but 30 years takes it's toll.”

“Anti-depressants are like shoes, you might have to try on more than one. If you take them, read up on the side effects, etc.
Counseling can help, with or without meds. Cognitive-behavioral therapy has been shown to be effective in many cases, as have others.”

“I would like to chant the mantra

Vitamins and minerals

Vitamins and minerals


Around Christmas time last year, my oldest daughter began to cry a lot, was withdrawn, claimed to hate school. After a couple of weeks I took her to a therapist that I took her to a couple of years before that when she would refuse to go to school. The therapist had several visits with her and decided that she needed antidepressents. She wanted me to take her to a child psychiatrist with the purpose of getting the drugs. I resisted. After a couple of months she said that my daughter exhibited signs of having been abused and should go to the psychiatrist. I had some bad experiences as a child and was pretty sure that I had avoided this type of thing with my own child, so I was sceptical but also desperate to find a way to make life happier for my child. The psychiatrist visited for an hour with my child and then prescribed Zoloft. I had been diagnosed with a chemical imbalance as a teen that caused depression and was astounded that the psychiatrist didn't want to do any blood tests on my kid. She told me that that was not considered mainstream.

So I researched all this stuff from when I was a teen, books written by Dr.Carl Pfeiffer and Dr. Abram Hoffer. I started giving my kid vitamins as recommended by these doctors and as was found in files that my parents kept from when I was a teen. Within a few weeks she was markedly improved. Now, a year later, she is a whole different child. She is probably going to have bad spells on occasion her whole life, just like Gojo and Violin have mentioned. But I believe it happens for biological reasons. Some people genetically are predisposed to be more affected by pollution and lack of nutrition (processed foods). Some people have undiagnosed food allergies that can cause brain poisoning or chemical imbalances.

Unfortunately, most of medical science is aimed at developing new drugs to treat illness rather than correcting the nutritional imbalances that our food culture creates. I don't feed my kids total junk food, but they are incredibly picky and difficult when it comes to food choices. A very wide variety of foods during a lifetime is supposed to decrease the chance of allergies. Like eating twelve grains throughout the week rather than just wheat. And a zillion different vegetables. And not just beef, but different birds and mammals and fish. There are very few doctors that treat mental illness through the vitamins and minerals, and allergy study. The Pfeiffer Institute in Naperville Illinois is one that still follows the original treatment protocols based on research done by Dr. Pfeiffer. Look them up on the internet, get the books written by Pfeiffer and see what you think. Pfeiffer called depression mild schitzophrenia, but don't let that put you off, it is just words. The research on niacin, vitamin B6, vitamin C and Zinc is very valid and helpful to anyone suffering from depression.”

“What is it about our society that there appears to be an increase in depression and other physical symptoms and an increase in substance abuse? What has society done that creates physical symptoms and leave people to choose, or find no other solutions than substances that alter their emotional state?”

“Seems to me that consciousness is to blame!

Read Julian Jaynes The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind
and imagine that depression and schitzophrenia are breakdowns of our evolutionary path.

Fascinating stuff.”

“dhutch has great advice; depression is very serious and potentially very dangerous.

i think many people are afraid to seek treatment because of pride. personally, i think getting help takes more guts than just letting it go.”

“my outlook is bleak and my life is a meaningless void, my days frought with perril.....


other than that, everythigs great”

“Counseling 3 times/week. I was offered drugs (vallium, ativan, whatever), but it interfered with my working out. Working out was another way to deal with depression, but you can only run for so long. I would drive for hours, even thought about driving off the cliffs of PV. I realized it wasn't safe to drive in the city (fear of causing an accident and hurting someone)when my mind was on other things, so I started driving north. Less traffic, and the beauty of the Sierra changed my attitude about everything. Getting ready during the week took my mind away from the bad and ugly things in my life at the time. The long drive gave me time to think about things, and the hiking was something I could do and looked forward to. It was the only time I had control of my life. No one to tell me what to do. I knew I could run back to the Sierra on Friday, and it gave me reason to keep going. The depression eventually went away. And going to the Sierra has been my way of life since. I've been a happy girl for the past 10 years, and try not to let much bother me. Life is good!!!”

“Gifts for depressed friends : Home of the Frownie


yeah I know I have a sick sense of humor”