My view on depression

Sometimes, people experience extremely severe circumstances in their life. Lets say, abuse. Whether that's physical, mental, or emotional. In reality, the kind of abuse doesn't matter. It's the impact that all three of those can have on your mind that can cause a number of different kind of depressions. If you go through years of this, your once peaceful mind starts warping into this incredibly disturbed mind, and these deep seeded wounds start forming.

Eventually they form scars.

Yes, you can laugh and smile, but they won't be full of life. Like they used to be.

You can go to therapy to try and heal this warped mind of yours, but it really depends on the person, if the treatment will work. I don't believe in taking pills to heal your depression.

Pills only suppress the pain. They don't heal it.

As a victim of physical, emotional, and mental abuse, I have clinical depression. Deep seeded scars never truly heal, but you can try to make the best of what you have in front of you.

I find that Meditation really helps heal the mind. If a memory pops up, or if I am reminded of something bad that happened to me, I try and meditate on peaceful things. It does help.

Depression is a very real thing. One just has to realize that life is in a constant trek forward. We just have to remember to never look back.

Never look back, only move forward.

~Quyll

Originally posted by phantomjack
reply to post by Turq1

 

Klonopin is from a class we call Benzodiazepines. Very similar to Valium, but with less of a "high" effect.

It is used for seizures, as well as for anxiety. It helps do "deaden" the nerve endings.

I know. I'm in the medical field.

en.wikipedia.org...

I do not believe depression is a chemical balance in the brain but the result of a sensitivity to the western diet. I had sever depression and anxiety for years. I was placed on many different pills and nothing worked. Eventually I got into an organic processed food free diet. My depression went away. I felt wonderful, I had energy, everything about me changed. Over the holidays I fell off the wagon so to speak and indulged in junk food and processed foods because it was difficult to avoid. Within a week I had the first anxiety attack I had in a long time, and found my self feeling depressed again. I had forgotten how it felt. I knew it was related to my diet and quickly fixed it. Once again I started feeling better.
There is no doubt in my mind depression is due to all the crap they put in food.

reply to post by calstorm


It could most definitely be possible that the chemicals and such that they put in our food can be a major contributor to depression.

Even if you look on the back of almost any box of processed food, you can see the long list of chemicals that most of us don't even know how they can effect our bodies. We really shouldn't put them in our bodies, but we do anyways.

I'm sure that if we all went back to eating fruits and veggies, instead of ice cream and Twinkies, we would all notice a major change, not only in our weight, but also in our minds.

I can't wait for the day that we can all go back to eating what was meant to be put in our bodies, rather than what we can afford.

~Quyll

reply to post by Idonthaveabeard


I love hearing stories from people who think they can determine if other people are sick or not. What an ego.

reply to post by shutdownormeltdown


So someone has to resort to physical self harm for you to consider them depressed?

Originally posted by jakupairs
But why does someone stay depressed. I don't get it at all,

CHEMICALS. It's physiological many times. If I could .. I'd give you my Sjogrens for a day so you could feel the weight of it on the body and the mind. It will NEVER end. Anti-depressant drugs would just make the Sjogrens worse so they are avoided by me. Anyways .. the short of it ... with sjogrens (or autoimmine in general) it's body chemistry. You can't 'think yourself out of it'. Not possible.

Originally posted by jakupairs
But why does someone stay depressed. I don't get it at all, how can someone be depressed all of the time, enough of the time to have to take daily medicine for it. Does the reason for someone being depressed actually consume the persons thoughts, and mental feelings?

There's normal depression that most people experience at some time or another when things aren't going well in their lives, or something bad happens. You get "down in the dumps." But there's a big difference between that depression and ongoing clinical depression. When you're down in the dumps, it's because there are chemicals firing off in your head that make you feel a particular way in response to a specific stimulus.

With clinical depression, those same chemicals are firing off even when there's no reason for it. That's why it's an illness, and really not that much different than something like diabetes or high blood pressure. The difference is that it's your brain malfunctioning rather than your pancreas or vascular system. And all the pep talks and positive attitude in the world aren't going to make diabetes or high blood pressure go away, just like it isn't going to make clinical depression go away.

It would be nice if clinical depression had a better name. Something to separate it from the normal, everyday bummers that everybody occasionally feels. I used to tell people that if I had cancer, or a broken arm, you'd understand because you could see or get that I had a crippling illness. But since it's all in my head, it's too easy to think I'm just imagining it and that it isn't real. Such a shame.

reply to post by Blue Shift


Wonderfully written reply!

It's extremely difficult for people to understand depression because they can't see it. And if you try and explain the situations in which led to your clinical depression, they say things like, "It happened a while ago. Get over it, already."

You can't fully get over years of physical, mental, and emotional abuse. It just doesn't happen.

I wish people could have more compassion towards each other

Originally posted by Blue Shift

Originally posted by jakupairs
But why does someone stay depressed. I don't get it at all, how can someone be depressed all of the time, enough of the time to have to take daily medicine for it. Does the reason for someone being depressed actually consume the persons thoughts, and mental feelings?

There's normal depression that most people experience at some time or another when things aren't going well in their lives, or something bad happens. You get "down in the dumps." But there's a big difference between that depression and ongoing clinical depression. When you're down in the dumps, it's because there are chemicals firing off in your head that make you feel a particular way in response to a specific stimulus.

With clinical depression, those same chemicals are firing off even when there's no reason for it. That's why it's an illness, and really not that much different than something like diabetes or high blood pressure. The difference is that it's your brain malfunctioning rather than your pancreas or vascular system. And all the pep talks and positive attitude in the world aren't going to make diabetes or high blood pressure go away, just like it isn't going to make clinical depression go away.

It would be nice if clinical depression had a better name. Something to separate it from the normal, everyday bummers that everybody occasionally feels. I used to tell people that if I had cancer, or a broken arm, you'd understand because you could see or get that I had a crippling illness. But since it's all in my head, it's too easy to think I'm just imagining it and that it isn't real. Such a shame.

edit on 23-3-2012 by Blue Shift because: (no reason given)

I have a similar problem. I have severe PTSD, anxiety with depression (goes with the PTSD), fibromyalgia (also depression hand in hand) and a tumor on my brain that is inoperable. Yet my family loves to call me lazy because I don't have a job. I am on sooo many painkillers and according to doctors I need a morphine pump in my spine eventually to handle the pain. I used to have 3 jobs and go to college classes. I remember in between classes I'm work at the college bookstore, or the AV computer department, then every day at 3, I'd walk 15-20 miles to go to work and do an 8 hour shift, then another 15-20 mile walk back to the dorm. By the time homework was done it was close to 3 in the morning to be up again around 6 or 7 depending on if I planned on skipping breakfast. I loved working, I loved the human interaction I got from it. When it became too painful and I stopped, all of a sudden I was "lazy".

When your family is constantly down on you, and then you get down on you because everyone else is doing it, so you start to believe it, it can get depressing. Very much so. Zoloft didn't do much for me. Effexor helped, but if the pharmacy ran out and it would take days to refill, I would be bawling at the slightest thing, even commercials. And I don't mean a tear here or there, I mean wracking sobs.So I stopped taking that. Because of the tumor and fibro, I don't get level 4 R.E.M. sleep, so I've taken almost everything under the sun for that. As for pain, I've been on a ton of stuff for that as well.

Now I have to deal with a separation from a jerk who told me he wanted a divorce when we renewed our vows 6 years ago but he didn't say anything until a little over a year ago. 6 years he kept silent. To me it made me feel like our marriage was a sham, I was a failure. Plus I deal with a special needs child who is brain damaged. On some days, it all piles up and leaves me feeling severely depressed. I don't think depression can ever truly be cured, but I do think it can be managed. For now, I have to go back into therapy to "manage" it. At least for a little while.

Originally posted by Quyll
reply to post by Blue Shift

 

Wonderfully written reply!

It's extremely difficult for people to understand depression because they can't see it. And if you try and explain the situations in which led to your clinical depression, they say things like, "It happened a while ago. Get over it, already."

You can't fully get over years of physical, mental, and emotional abuse. It just doesn't happen.

I wish people could have more compassion towards each other

I hear that a lot too. "Get over it." "Life's rough, you have to toughen up.", etc... Just once I'd like someone in my family, or my soon to be ex, say "I'm so sorry, what can I do to help?" Compassion. It's a rare commodity these days.

Originally posted by Blue Shift

Originally posted by jakupairs
But why does someone stay depressed. I don't get it at all, how can someone be depressed all of the time, enough of the time to have to take daily medicine for it. Does the reason for someone being depressed actually consume the persons thoughts, and mental feelings?

There's normal depression that most people experience at some time or another when things aren't going well in their lives, or something bad happens. You get "down in the dumps." But there's a big difference between that depression and ongoing clinical depression. When you're down in the dumps, it's because there are chemicals firing off in your head that make you feel a particular way in response to a specific stimulus.

With clinical depression, those same chemicals are firing off even when there's no reason for it. That's why it's an illness, and really not that much different than something like diabetes or high blood pressure. The difference is that it's your brain malfunctioning rather than your pancreas or vascular system. And all the pep talks and positive attitude in the world aren't going to make diabetes or high blood pressure go away, just like it isn't going to make clinical depression go away.

It would be nice if clinical depression had a better name. Something to separate it from the normal, everyday bummers that everybody occasionally feels. I used to tell people that if I had cancer, or a broken arm, you'd understand because you could see or get that I had a crippling illness. But since it's all in my head, it's too easy to think I'm just imagining it and that it isn't real. Such a shame.

edit on 23-3-2012 by Blue Shift because: (no reason given)

Thank you!

For some reason a lot of people confuse sadness with depression. Some even go as far as using them interchangeably as if they were the same thing, but they are not.
Sadness is a state of mind led by emotion, and depression is usually a symptom of something physical, an illness. Remember that our brain is an organ and can get "injured" just like any other muscle or organ in the body.

Everyone experiences sadness. Like OP said, if your parents pass away, you loose a pet or a job, you get sad. That is a normal reaction to an action that has taken place. Everyone gets sad. Sadness is the result of circumstances, actions that have taken place in your life that were for the most part beyond your control- like being publicly humiliated, or getting stood up on a date. As an example, you may liken sadness to being a surface cut.

Depression on the other hand is like getting a limb severed.

Depression is a biospsychosocial disorder that can be caused by diverse psychological and physiological mechanisms. Environmental factors may include a deteriorating marriage, a threatening or abusive relationship, or the loss of a close friend or family member. Depression can also be triggered by the chronic abuse of alcohol or sedatives, or by the use of certain prescription medications. In addition, a medical condition such as thyroid disease, stroke or hormonal imbalance can directly lead to depression. A physical condition such as arthritis, cardiac impairment or cancer can also indirectly cause depression due to impaired functioning. There are instances in which a brain neurotransmitter deficiency is the culprit-a "chemical imbalance." Moreover, a combination of those or other factors may contribute to a depressed condition.
Source

People can "stay" depressed if the root cause hasn't been addressed. Another reason also could be that when people are clinically depressed, they often deny it and don't believe it, therefore they aren't seeking treatment, keeping them in their depression. Not only that, but there is a HUGE stigma, and it is so often minimized by others (such as yourself, OP), so the person will stay away from the belief they are depressed because of that.

Maybe your anxiety isn't real, OP? Your anxiety is all in your head, there is no reason at all for you to be anxious, yet, you feel this feeling, right?
You don't know why or where it comes from, but you KNOW it's there, you can even FEEL it. It affects aspects of your life, like how you interact with people.
Depression is very similar in that regards.

I really do believe that depression is caused or aggravated by lack of essential fatty acids in the diet.
If you google "omega 3 depression randomised double blind" you will find a wealth of scientific information on it.
(_high strength_ is the key I believe the lower stength oils are not as effective)
Limbo

Originally posted by happyhomemaker29

Originally posted by Quyll
reply to post by Blue Shift

 

Wonderfully written reply!

It's extremely difficult for people to understand depression because they can't see it. And if you try and explain the situations in which led to your clinical depression, they say things like, "It happened a while ago. Get over it, already."

You can't fully get over years of physical, mental, and emotional abuse. It just doesn't happen.

I wish people could have more compassion towards each other

I hear that a lot too. "Get over it." "Life's rough, you have to toughen up.", etc... Just once I'd like someone in my family, or my soon to be ex, say "I'm so sorry, what can I do to help?" Compassion. It's a rare commodity these days.

Though even the ability to feel compassion is at the root a biochemical process (seemingly much less active in some) I tend to think people that feel more 'pain' have more 'pain' receptors. And I believe by extension many of those who aren't able to feel pain as much, even though some claim it is because they are simply 'tougher', simply have less 'ability' to sense pain , be it physical, mental, emotional. Some people handle great 'physical' pain, but have no ability to handle 'emotional' pain, or vice versa or different combinations of these.

Ideally my thougths on severe chronic depression are that humans will be less depressed and happier and function better the closer they are to their 'ideal environment'. And that's the 'total' environment within them as well as around them. I know people in reality that will never be able to escape the destructive cycle of chronic depression because their 'total toxic environment' keeps them perpetually trapped in it. Sometimes though all that's needed as a *start* is for just ONE person too really care and be persistant and not give up, people can become 'well' if they can keep the balance tipped in favor of environments that help the body/mind/spirit rebuild and rebalance and away from those that don't.

Originally posted by Quyll
reply to post by calstorm

 

It could most definitely be possible that the chemicals and such that they put in our food can be a major contributor to depression.

Even if you look on the back of almost any box of processed food, you can see the long list of chemicals that most of us don't even know how they can effect our bodies. We really shouldn't put them in our bodies, but we do anyways.

I'm sure that if we all went back to eating fruits and veggies, instead of ice cream and Twinkies, we would all notice a major change, not only in our weight, but also in our minds.

I can't wait for the day that we can all go back to eating what was meant to be put in our bodies, rather than what we can afford.

~Quyll

edit on 23-3-2012 by Quyll because: (no reason given)

Well here is an interesting link to a study that MAY hold some insight. Don't know if it's the chicken or the egg, or how usefull this data is but but depression is said here to have a link (just ONE factor) to 'junk food'. My best guess is that depressed people seek out junk food because it often breaks down very fast raising the blood sugar and brain glucose levels acting like a DRUG, but doing this over and over throughout years strips the body of essenntial nutrients needed to build healthy brain neurotransmitters and makes it harder too to maintain adequate 'feel' good' brain chemicals and blood sugar in the long run.


Breaking: Junk Food, Fast Food Proven to Cause Depression


Read more: naturalsociety.com...

Originally posted by LittleBlackEagle

Originally posted by jakupairs
reply to post by RomeByFire

 

Wow. Sorry I don't think I came across very clear. I just do not understand why people like me, every day ordinary people would need depression medicene expecially when I only have anxiety.

Ofcourse, If I lose a limb I would go into deep depression too.

zoloft is anxiety medicine, i'm unsure of the other one. many of them are interrelated some may be for anxiety or depression, that doesn't mean your doctor thinks you have depression. depression and many anxiety disorders are more than likely tied to brain chemical imbalances and are very real.

Zoloft is also used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression. Many times it's prescribed with an anti-anxiety drug such as Klonopin to counteract the effects when said drug wears off. I believe this is a vicious cycle created by drug companies to keep a person completely dependent for the rest of their lives on their products= $$$. I know someone who went to a psychiatrist for anxiety, and the first visit consisted of 3 prescriptions. One was Klonopin for anxiety, Zoloft for the depression (after coming down from Klonopin), and Xanax as a quick fix for anxiety! This so-called doctor barely looked into this person's medical or personal history! just a quick fix...forget the talk therapy! Aithough they could not get refills unless they agreed to see a therapist in the same practice, the therapist did not probe deeply enough into this person's psyche, yet would okay the refills to the psychiatrist. This is common practice nowadays, as a trusting person becomes a slave to dangerous drugs! Once they begin this hellish journey, it becomes a Catch-22 situation. Very sad, very frightening. The worst part is that most people trust these doctors completely.

Originally posted by nixie_nox
reply to post by shutdownormeltdown

 

So someone has to resort to physical self harm for you to consider them depressed?

No, and I didn't say that either. What I said is that when someone says they are depressed, you should not trivialize what they are going through, because you most likely don't know what it is like, but I most likely do.

I'm kind of in the same boat was depressed to the point of suicide at least three times each seemingly getting closer and closer to the end. At the time I was also on ADHD medication which also basically makes these symptoms of depression manifest themselves before that I wasn't like a hyperactive kid but just one that kind of didn't pay attention all that much. Granted I was pretty much a teenager it was bound to happen yet I was slapped with those meds. Now later on down the line I see a psychiatrist about this depression which I easily attribute it to the ADHD medication and which it states on the medication can cause but psych doesn't seem to think it causes as much as I portray it to have.

Now that I'm on both a ADHD medication and antidepressant it's give or take what my mood will be like in the day sometimes I could fight it and be myself or I'll be in a bit of a slump trying to carry myself to the stairs. Speaking of which on the ADHD medication I'm on now I'm fine until I ingest the antidepressant which seems to make my mood swing quite a bit and depending on what I eat or even who I see can change it. Hell even at times drinking an energy drink helps out a lot. It's funny how I didn't use to believe it was something medically misaligned in a person and then come to get hit by it myself. Karma sure backhanded me a hard one...

Also I agree with another poster who said it may be attributed to diet perhaps. I need to look into it more but depending on what I ate or drink I would usually feel pretty good about myself and the world. Other times I'd want to destroy it or watch it burn. Even put me in a mood to try and start smoking ( thankfully I didn't have the power or money [ ] to start the process )

Originally posted by Tecumte

Well here is an interesting link to a study that MAY hold some insight. Don't know if it's the chicken or the egg, or how usefull this data is but but depression is said here to have a link (just ONE factor) to 'junk food'. My best guess is that depressed people seek out junk food because it often breaks down very fast raising the blood sugar and brain glucose levels acting like a DRUG, but doing this over and over throughout years strips the body of essenntial nutrients needed to build healthy brain neurotransmitters and makes it harder too to maintain adequate 'feel' good' brain chemicals and blood sugar in the long run.


Breaking: Junk Food, Fast Food Proven to Cause Depression


Read more: naturalsociety.com...

I think it's because people who are depressed seek "comfort food". I could see how having a diet consisting only of such things can contribute to depression though, as your body will be lacking in essential vitamins and nutrients. It will also contribute to obesity which is also attributed to depression.

Preface: when I use the term depression I mean diagnosed, currently being treated clinical depression with a touch of bipolar[13yr]. I am also being treated for a seizure disorder[5yr]

I am afflicted with depression and I do not believe it is possible to pigeon-hole all of us to one or two causes. In my case the onset was rather rapid following a stroke that had limited physical effects, but, very noticeable cognitive deficiencies. There were two medical processes ongoing after the stroke, playing a game of musical antidepressants and testing to determine why I had a stroke at 48. Turned out I was diabetic, so hardened vessels in the brain were the probable cause of the stroke, leaving behind some damage, which affected my ability to perform certain tasks and may have directly affected other chemical processing of my brain, hence the depression. I had to take an early medical retirement since a physicist who gets confused on what was once simple math is not much use on a test reactor.

It required several years for me to adapt to not being able to do what was once second nature and stop banging my desk at home and breaking things. Once I passed through the barrier of trying to do complicated tasks and realized that I could be just as, if not more, happy than I was before, life is a blast. What has helped me more than I can express is the help I have received at home. My girlfriend has been there for me all the time. We have been together 20 years and I had the stroke 13 years ago. She has been very understanding and at no time has she told me to get over it, cheer up, think happy thoughts or whatever. I do not know how I would have coped without her support, it has been that valuable.

For those of you who are not afflicted with depression please keep in mind, it is real. The best thing you can do for someone you know with depression is please do not offer advice. If it was just a matter of 'get over it' we would have done that a long time ago. Be patient and realize your friend/relative just can't make it go away.