Anti-Depressants

[SailorShale]

So, it's been pretty obvious that I have chronic depression. It's been obvious for at least 4 years now and doctors have diagnosed it. It's been gradually getting worse over the years, but I'm at a point where I need to do something. I'm in college, I'm trying to start my life and get myself on track, but it's extremely difficult when I find it hard to even eat because I feel so bad.

The obvious answer is go ahead and with my doctor's advice and get on meds, but I've had a really hard time convincing myself. It just feels...crippling. Oh, so I can't be happy normally so now I have to take medicine the rest of my life to fix that? That sounds horrible. The thought just makes me feel even worse, and I just...I don't know.

Are any of you guys on anti-depressants? Have they helped? Do you feel handicapped having to take them? Any other advice? I'm just, unsure about this and I've been fighting to prevent going on them but it's starting to look like I'll have no choice.

Edit: Probably should've mentioned this, but I am transsexual. The doctor wants me to go on anti-depressants first though before doing anything that department. I don't know how related the two are, since both issues fired up around the same time.

 

[TheSaw]

I'm on them now and I generally know how you feel.
I can't say they have helped me at all, in fact they've probably made it worse.
I can't help but think that if I'm ever happy, is it me? Or the pills working?
But other than that, I'm just carrying on like a mindless drone.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

If you can't function then just take the damn pills.

I honestly don't understand why every-other person says they have depression. Surely things aren't that bad. Buck up.

Edit: Sorry for the rather curt response. I'm aware that depression is a real condition and is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. Stuff like this just reminds me of my ex and I dealt with her numerous emotional and psychological issues for over two years, so my quota for this kind of trouble is pretty much filled up permanently.

 

[The_Healer]

Before you take drugs, try taking up exercise.

Don't look at me like that. Exercise is very good for your mental health.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

I have bi-polar and I'm refusing treatment, heres why...

It's a part of who I am, whether I like it or not. It's been with me for so long that it's had a hand in most of the things I've done with my life. When I think about it, if I had never been suffering from the frequent bouts of self loathing and the general identity crisis I had when I was growing up, even before I knew what it meant, I would have never sought refuge in the characters I could create with my own imagination, so I would never have discovered and honed my talent for acting, which is the only path I can possibly conceive myself going down in the future. So as torturous as it's been at times, I owe most of who I am to it.

So if I accepted the pills and the therapy, I might become docile, and stable, but I wouldn't be me anymore, which would mean that all I have suffered in my life so far will have meant nothing. If I have to suffer for an art so be it, because surely that's better than not having an art at all. I'm going to do better than simply 'cure' myself. I'm going to life with my illness and make something great out of it.

(This is an entirely personal and subjective reasoning though, so unless you can relate to anything I've said I wouldn't follow my lead)

 

[ScoopMeister]

First off, I absolutely admire you for trying to get through this and fighting against it. Many in your place would have just given up.
To start with, the decision of whether to take the medication is yours and yours alone. If you don't want it, please don't feel pressured into taking it. However, you need to think long and hard about what you're going to do. The thing is, if this medication can help you through your depression, then it might be something to consider. You've got to ask yourself if whether or not it's your depression which is actually driving you to have these thoughts in the first place.
Unfortunately, I'm no expert, and despite what I've already stated, I'm in two minds about these kinds of drugs. What alternatives have you tried, or is this a last-ditch effort because nothing else will work? It may be wise to look into other cures for. Chronic depression before you make your mind up.

 

[Metal Brother]

If you can't function then just take the damn pills.

Good advice.

I honestly don't understand why every-other person says they have depression. Surely things aren't that bad. Buck up.

Not so good. Chronic clinical depression isn't the same thing as feeling bad.

I've fought with depression for most of my adult life. My father has been clinically depressed for as long as I have paid attention, and he has been medicated on and off for almost as long. I'm fortunate that my depression has never been so bad to make me want to medicate. Between my father and some friends I have seen the good side and the bad side of anti-depressants. If the depression is REALLY bad it helps to keep you human. But the human you are on the meds may not be the same human you are when you're not on the meds.

My advice: do what's right for you, and only you can say what that is.

 

[ScoopMeister]

If you can't function then just take the damn pills.

I honestly don't understand why every-other person says they have depression. Surely things aren't that bad. Buck up.

Mate, that's just ever-so-slightly insensitrive, don't you think? Chronic depression isn't just some people deciding they're unhappy, it's a real medical condition. You can't just 'buck up', as you so eloquently put it, and everything's suddenly all better. If you don't understand, then don't offer useless advice and insensitive comments.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Depression is a medical condition. Not taking them if you have the problem is like not getting a caste on your broken leg because you think castes make you look weak or not taking anti-biotic because you think not letting your body fight the disease makes you weak. If the doctor says you have clinical depression take the damn pills or sit in a corner and be depressed, your choice.

 

[Dyme]

Are depressive people sad because they are depressive or do they have specific reasons for being sad?

 

[Wadders]

Are depressive people sad because they are depressive or do they have specific reasons for being sad?

Yeah, I've always wondered this.

Excuse my ignorance, but is serious medical depression just an inability to cope with life, and thus you find things generally hard to deal with and get depressed, or is it triggered by a certain event that sends you spiraling into depression?

Again, sorry for my ignorance and apologies for any offense caused.

 

[Nocturnal Gentleman]

I would stick way more to counseling than drugs. I have natural instabiliy from being bi-polar but counseling helped me function despite it. I take the drugs only so they'll let me drive. Getting through the inner problems that feed the symptoms is what you need. Also, like already mentioned get some excercise. There are certain herbs that can also help when taken in tea or milk.

 

[AmayaOnnaOtaku]

Yes I have tried the gambit (zoloft, paxil, wellbutrin, and effexor XR)
The only one that seems to stablize me and help with the anxiety I also have is the Effexor XR. When I was younger I didn't like to take my meds due the "stigma" of mental illness. My grandmother said "what if I stopped taking my insulin" I told her that would be crazy. She said Mental illness like Depression is the same as Diabetes or Asthma. It's a chronic illness that requires mantainence with therapy and medication. And trust me I rather takes the meds than the other methods for drug resistant depression (ECT anyone?)


As others have said exercize and getting out in the sun can help as well as relaxation and meditation. You can try journaling or blogging how you feel to get it out.

 

[SailorShale]

If you can't function then just take the damn pills.

I honestly don't understand why every-other person says they have depression. Surely things aren't that bad. Buck up.

It's something I can't control. I will be going about my day like normal then it'll hit like *bam* and I'll just want to lay down and rot. Nothing at all will happen, or I'll just wake up feeling awful.

Before you take drugs, try taking up exercise.

Don't look at me like that. Exercise is very good for your mental health.

And I've tried that. It does make me feel better momentarily, but my body issues kick in then I get depressed and I just stop trying. Then I don't eat, so attempting to exercise anyway is meaningless because I have no energy.

But thanks for all the advice guys, I'll keep it all mind.

 

[pixiejedi]

Are depressive people sad because they are depressive or do they have specific reasons for being sad?

Yeah, I've always wondered this.

Excuse my ignorance, but is serious medical depression just an inability to cope with life, and thus you find things generally hard to deal with and get depressed, or is it triggered by a certain event that sends you spiraling into depression?

Again, sorry for my ignorance and apologies for any offense caused.

Personally it comes in bouts. I could see it coming but it was like a freight train, impossible to avoid. I would get out eventually. Then I moved 3 states away with my husband. The huge change of environment and the lack of friends and family that I would have turned to finally forced me to seek medical help for it. Been on meds now about a year and I can say they help me personally. So in answer to your curiosity, it works both ways. Events can help or hurt I think its mostly chemical with chronic depression.

My dad was on the same stuff as me and he quit them because they weren't working for him so it really depends but I don't think its harmful to try them out.

I have anxiety, insomnia migraines and seizures and they are all interconnected but no one knows why. The thought that my brains are so screwed up that I have to check my liver so I can stay on my meds is enough to make me depressed. Good thing my anti-depressants work then I suppose.

 

[emeraldrafael]

I feel like the "may cause suicidal death" as a side effect defeats the purpose.

And I've never met anyone who was suicidal that didnt benefit from a stiff kick in the ass and a does of reality.

 

[AmayaOnnaOtaku]

Are depressive people sad because they are depressive or do they have specific reasons for being sad?

Yeah, I've always wondered this.

Excuse my ignorance, but is serious medical depression just an inability to cope with life, and thus you find things generally hard to deal with and get depressed, or is it triggered by a certain event that sends you spiraling into depression?

Again, sorry for my ignorance and apologies for any offense caused.

For me my depressive episodes are usually triggered by events. The last one that sent me to the Psych ward for a week was the impending death of my stepfather combined with the ongoing BS of my son's father with a heaping dose of financial and work stress. My worse episode was my first one at age 16. After a tramatic incident, I spiraled into a depression so deep I attempted suicide and went to the mental hospital for a week then months of intensive outpatient treatment.


And it is a serious medical condition up to 15% of those with depression end up committing suicide. When I am in the deepest hole of it, it takes everything I have to get out of bed, I will not eat and my mind becomes my own worst enemy. The intrusive thoughts of hoplessness, helpnessness and self harm can become overwhelming. I will cry at anything and will isolate myself or intentionally push people out of my life.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

Are depressive people sad because they are depressive or do they have specific reasons for being sad?

Everyone has specific reasons to be sad, but when you have depression these things seem so much more crushing than normal. The little annoyances in life that most people can shrug off hang off you like a fucking dead weight. You wonder what the hells the point when wherever you look there's always something to make you lose a little bit more faith; and on the occasions where you can actually be happy, it's always slightly hollow because rather than just enjoy the moment you're paranoid about how long it's going to last and what fate's going to do to bring you down this time. On top of that there's always the poisonous little thought at the back of your mind telling you that no matter how hard you try and how many petty victories you win in your life, none of it will last, and we all lose the final battle to stay alive.

Well that's my experience anyway, I'm not sure how much this varies.