General Chat

big((((((((((((((hugs))))))))))))

for you all

stray
xxx

hi all nice to see you all doing so well thank you to ann of green gables and yorkshire caz for making me see sence i am going to take your advice and get myself back on track
lots and lots of love to you all
carolina xx

Hi Carolina. Nice to see you. How have you been feeling? Are you still taking the tablets? What you been up to? Carole x

Well good for you Carolina - and may I say you sound so much better than a few days back, you also sound quite positive which is a good thing too!!

hi carole no i stopped taking my tablets but tomorrow im going to start to take them again my 2 year old granddaughter came to stay on tuesday she went home today so i have been busy looking after her

carolina xx

hi ann i feel positive thanks to you and caz

carolina xx

I bet you had a great time then Carolina. Did you do anything special while you had her?

Tomorrow is a new start then. Give it a few weeks and you will notice you are feeling better. (Not better altogether, but coping better)
Carole xx

yes we had fun or should i say she did dressing up in her play shoes and dripping ice cream all over me lol then going in my bag and using my lip gloss she is a hand full

carolina xx

Depression
No one escapes depression. A great many people get depressed, however briefly, at some time in their lives. You may never get depressed, but some of the people close to you will. One person in five will suffer clinical depression requiring medical or other intervention.
The experience of depression can be the very worst experience you have ever had. It can also be the source of acquiring wisdom. Nowadays people often talk about “getting depressed” when what they are talking about is not depression but unhappiness or disappointment or anger or guilt. Anyone who has been depressed will know that it is totally different from unhappiness. When you’re unhappy, people around you can comfort, sustain and warm you with their love and sympathy. When you are depressed, you can observe the people around you being sympathetic and supportive but somehow their sympathy and love never gets through the barrier that surrounds you, and you are powerless to fix it.
Those who say “pull yourself together” are as thick as a rhino and just as damaging. When you’re unhappy, even if no one else will comfort you can comfort yourself, give yourself little treats and cheer yourself up but when you’re depressed, not only will you not be able to comfort yourself but you will even make things worse. You become your own worst enemy and feel the world is against you. The colour has drained out of life and an invisible, impenetrable barrier isolates you from the rest of the word.
The experience of being depressed is being utterly alone. I have been there.
Quite often depression passes after about six months but may require medical intervention in the way of anti-depressants. Statistics show that patients treated with anti-depressants may relapse after a time and need further treatment but those who receive psychiatric care or counselling (or both) rarely succumb again. The old adage “strongest in the broken places” holds good.
Those who can make use of even the most unpleasant experiences and use them to their advantage are the most likely to lead a full and happy life. You can discover that your life story and the world as you see it are not fixed in stone but something you have constructed and, since you constructed them, you can change them – with a bit of help from someone who understands. .
Some people associate depression primarily with psychological symptoms such as low mood and lack of pleasure whereas, in reality, it can also cause a variety of physical symptoms such as poor sleep quality, general aches and pains, sexual dysfunction and appetite or weight change. Aches and pains are commonplace.
A recent survey showed that physical symptoms were considered to be a key factor in in opinion of 99% of the participants in the survey (Depression Alliance 2005b). These included fatigue (85%), insomnia/hypersomnia (78%), general aches and pains (49%) and sexual dysfunction (48%).
Despite this, many people with physical symptoms fail to discuss them with their doctor, partly due to the fact that patients do not associate depression with physical malaises.
Having said that, a high proportion of doctors apparently do not tell their patients of the connection. Quite a lot of doctors prescribe placebos (something prescribed for psychological effect which has no physiological effect). Patients are often satisfied and not only do they show a remarkable improvement but a relapse is almost immediate if the treatment is interrupted.
When doctors prescribe anti-depressants for mild depression that can be really harmful. Tests have shown that while severe depression responds well to anti-depressants, mild depression responds no better than to a placebo because the drugs can have unpleasant side-effects. Doctors continue to prescribe placebos because the ritual of prescription is such an integral part of the medical consultation.
A new drug for depression holds out hope. Ketamine was developed as an anaesthetic but became better known as a club drug due to its ability to produce feelings of detachment from reality. It seems somehow to jolt people out of depression. Used under medical supervision, though, it appears to reboot the brain without harmful side effects. Tests continue.
I know something about depression from the sharp end. Many years ago now I was fearful of redundancy and the effects it would have on my young family, and at an age when I was virtually unemployable if I lost my reasonably well-paid job. So to make myself indispensable (no one is indispensable) I gradually increased my load working 12 hours a day, 6 or 7 days a week.
The first sign was when I found my memory was going and I had to write down all that was said before I forgot it. Then other incidents: I could not remember the way back to the office after going for a short walk at lunch-time, something I had been doing for years. Numerous other things happened such as getting up from my desk, saying goodnight and finding out there were no trains home as it was only 3 pm. I felt quite sure in my own mind that I was OK but the rest of the world was being bloody-minded. My caring family had a hell of a time though I could not see it.
This was, of course, a mental breakdown following a long period of untreated depression,
Finally, I decided to go to the top of our office building and jump off as I could see no point whatsoever in continuing. Fortunately a senior colleague was watching, aware that I was cracking up and escorted me home and to my GP.
I burst into tears in front of the GP and the silly man said 'I expect you will feel better now' which unleashed a torrent of abuse for the humiliation I felt - which he took very well, better than I could have done.
One of my prescribed drugs was Halcyon, much later withdrawn because of several deaths linked to it. A few years later I had a series of heart attacks - although the consultant said I was not a typical cardiac patient, being lean and fit. I often wonder about that.
The rest is history and the past is a place I do not care to visit too often.
Depression is an illness more common than appendicitis. There is no more reason to be ashamed of it than of any other illness.
I have had acute depression and reached the point of being completely unable to function normally. It used to be called a nervous breakdown. Having completely recovered from it, I am glad to have had the experience as it has added to my store of accumulated experiences and knowledge which I use to my advantage . Like a healed bone fracture, the bit that was broken is stronger than before.

Blimey Len - that's the longest posting we've had on this thread to date!!!! You have been through the mill and back haven't you. I've got clinical depression and about eleven years ago decided to stop the world and get off - took a massive overdose of my antidepressants and never intended to wake up again. Fortunately I did two days later and was then diagnosed with clinical depression. A big suprprise to me and everyone around me, particularly as I was working in a psychiatric hospital at the time and my boss and colleagues were all qualified mental health nurses. No one knew cos I always kepts a happy smile on my face. I was very cold and calculated when I took my overdose, made my mind up about four hours before I did it, sorted out what I wanted to do first, made sure I had clean clothes on cos I didn't want to look scruffy when I was taken to hospital, which I knew I would be. Very strange behaviour and my lovely husband and son were absolutely moritifed by what I did, and my poor Mum. However, once diagnosed and put on the correct medication, which I have been on ever since, I'm fighting fit and am sure I will never go down that road again. I've tried to give up the medication with my GPs help, but failed and he just said don't worry, you can take it for ever, so I will and am quite happy now. If I feel myself "slipping" I just up the dosage for a few days and am back on an even keel. Important however to talk about it, even if it embarrasses people, just so it isn't swept under the carpet. Depression is not a dirty word, it's an illness like TB, or measles.

thought I'd have a look in but no-one here,

Len thank you for your very clear and thought-provoking posting.
Without graphic details, your experience of a breakdown dredges up memories for me, different technique of ending it all, but suffice it to say, mercifully it was not successful. But it woke me up, in a major way.
To be willing to share details will no doubt be truly helpful to someone reading this thread. You are passing on the help you received, to so many others.
Thank you again for your articulate, caring message,
MaxiMary

Here's wishing everyone a pain free and
contented Saturday.

(from one grumpy old geezer, deprived of her sleep).


Only kidding. xxxxx

You ok JP?

I'm fine Liz, thanks....

waiting for daylight so I can open curtains and windows.....I find darkness very depressing and boring....

changed days from when I was bringing up my family... did not have a chance to sleep in or be bored. lol.

How's you.


JoyceP xx

Sorry Joy, was busy elsewhere. Hope you found a way to keep occupied or managed to sleep again, dark evenings get me down, I like the longer days but they don't seem to last so long now, summers fly by, well all the seasons do!
Catch you later, take care, have a good Saturday.
Lizxx

Morning Len. Thank you for taking time to write all that. It must have taken you ages. You are right Len, no one should be anymore ashamed of depression than they would be to have a broken arm. It needs people who have it or had it to educate those who think you can pull your socks up! I've started getting head aches again because I feel so stressed at the moment after working 30 odd hours this week over four days, while trying to cope with anxiety over another symptom. Then I had this huge row at work which really has bothered me. Not much use to others this week, trying to cope with my own anxiety. I feel sick but I sure it's all part of the problem.

Len I hope you continue to cary on with life with no reoccurance of depression. Nice to read your post. Any encouraging words are a God send.
Carole x

Hi Marion, hope you look in again. Did you want to talk? xx

Hi Liz, Mary, Justice, and Ann gonna get some head ache tablets xxx

Hi all - lovely sunny day here in Cardiff and a sunny day forecast for the next two days as well - that surely will lift everyone's spirits and the day when we alter the clocks for summertime is moving ever closer - bring it on!!!!

n

tinkerbell try not to stress over your job I think you handled it well. I would of made them walk.with any luck they will take a look at them self's and make a few changes if not, maybe its time for you to look at moving on its hard to go to work if you hate it. that on it's own can be depressing chin up sending you a hugx