Mental health

Everyone in my family has a mental illness, and in several cases they are very severe. I'm actually pretty lucky in that regard because when my parents had me checked out all I got diagnosed with was a mild case of OCD, which is much better than having depression, being bipolar, or having ADD or something.

@Clairabel: I hope you don't go off of medicine just because everyone is telling you to. Lots of people don't understand depression as an illness simply because they've never been close to it. If my mother weren't on medicine for her severe depression then she would surely be in a hospital. Some people are just better off on it than off, and there's no reason you should ever feel pressured to get off of it unless it's not working for you.

Yeah, I've been feeling down lately because I can't find a good way to make money, but even if it is depression I won't take any pills for it for the sole reason that I don't want to depend on pills for my happiness and positivity.

I been Clinically depressed since I was a young teenager now I'm a adult it just gets worst no matter what I do antidepressants don't do shit but made be feel worst. I just some how manage to deal with it through music games ect.. It's a burden I wish I didn't have sometimes I'll feel better but it always comes back with a vengeance but it is what it is.All I have to say was Marijuana did wonders for my depression at times but I don't smoke up anymore for now I think though it should be available for those who have tried everything else.

@Toxeia said:

Today's medication is yesterdays drill a hole in your head to get rid of the evil spirits. Being depressed isn't a medical condition that you need to shove pills into your gullet for. Depression is telling you that you need to make yourself happy - usually by doing something productive.

I'm sure I'd be declared clinically depressed, but kids today are diagnosed with ADD/ADHD because they can't focus in school (yet put in 6 hours at a time playing video games).

My mom developed depression with a $60,000 a year job, a husband, and two kids. She had plenty of things going for her, but you don't choose mental instability, it chooses you.

Thanks for being an insensitive prick though.

Was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome at age 15, had the diagnosis confirmed at age 21, and was also diagnosed with adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) at age 22. I'm on a cocktail of psychiatric medications that allow me to function to at least a competent standard for a reasonable amount of time, allowing me to deal with anxiety provoking situations such as being out in crowds, dealing with situations I've never been in before, meeting people, and being in groups of people my own age. I have mood swings, but I'm not bipolar. I have never ever had serious suicidal thoughts. Nevertheless, my illness has essentially kept me isolated from the outside world for six years, during which time I've achieved a few things - got involved in charitable organisations, passed my driving test etc. - but my life is absolutely nowhere near where it should be right now. With the loving and supportive family I have, and my quite good start in life, I am wasting a lot by sitting around here thinking too much and sleeping during the day and stressing about things I can't help, and the constant relentless self-criticism and inner turmoil that on many occasions feels like its threatening to tear me apart. Time is being wasted, my life is being wasted. But trust me on this one; if there was anything I could do to pull myself out of this hole, I'd have done it a long time ago.

Mental illness is a horrific thing to live with - for me, and for my family who love me so much and want to see me get on in life and get out in the world. If you have ever felt like you may have a mental illness, or if anything I've just described sounds like something you have been through in the past, then seek help. You won't find it easy to turn it around - trust me, I know - but I have seen it done. Depression has no prejudice of wealth or stature or fame - it's something that cannot be quantified in all this wrath and in all its machinations. Depression kills people; it changes lives forever. But it is not terminal.

And please, people, let's not belittle the experiences of people who have suffered bouts of depression, even if they don't necessarily qualify for a diagnosis of a psychiatric or mental disorder. The human brain and its interactions with the world, and with itself, is a very complex and fragile thing, one that is not always easily understood. Human labels for the different permutations of the emotional and mental suffering of people are limited in their power, and nothing is straightforward when it comes to the human mind. Depression is serious, no matter how frequent or intense, and there is, in theory, plenty that can be done about it. Let's not be quick to judge - let's just talk things through, and maybe get to where we all need to go.

There is no shame in asking for help and taking meds. Depression is a medical condition and medication helps to treat it. Just make sure you ask questions about dosage and side effects and do a little research on your own before you start any drug therapy.

I was given Ambien for insomnia and I had no clue that the fucking things were habit forming, or that they can make you do bizarre things with ZERO memory. Stopped taking that shit after a scare.

@Seppli: I'm not going to argue with you. Why? Because you clearly have no perception of mental illness. Do you think I'd be on medication if a daily run cured my crippling depression?

@MildMolasses: I had noticed the sweating, especially in the morning, but it's eased off somewhat now. As for the weight gain, I honestly wouldn't notice if I put on another couple of pounds because I'm a big girl anyway. I'm doing well on these depression-wise, so until I find myself being able to get out my seat I'll stick with them. Thanks for the advice though, it's worth mentioning next time I see my doctor.

@Hunter5024: It's very disheartening when people tell you that you don't need the medication, you just need to think/run yourself better (see @Seppli up there for example) but I have actually spent a good part of this illness without medication, it's just got to the point now where I need extra help other than my own will.

@jerseyscum: I've heard horror stories about Ambien, I didn't realise it was that bad - are you on anything else now?

@DFSVegas: Thanks for pointing that out - I doubt it'll get through that thick head of his though.

I do push ups to ward off the demons in my head.

No but seriously. Exercise, healthy eating, and meditation does wonders for one's well being.

@Atlas said:

Was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome at age 15, had the diagnosis confirmed at age 21, and was also diagnosed with adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) at age 22. I'm on a cocktail of psychiatric medications that allow me to function to at least a competent standard for a reasonable amount of time, allowing me to deal with anxiety provoking situations such as being out in crowds, dealing with situations I've never been in before, meeting people, and being in groups of people my own age. I have mood swings, but I'm not bipolar. I have never ever had serious suicidal thoughts. Nevertheless, my illness has essentially kept me isolated from the outside world for six years, during which time I've achieved a few things - got involved in charitable organisations, passed my driving test etc. - but my life is absolutely nowhere near where it should be right now. With the loving and supportive family I have, and my quite good start in life, I am wasting a lot by sitting around here thinking too much and sleeping during the day and stressing about things I can't help, and the constant relentless self-criticism and inner turmoil that on many occasions feels like its threatening to tear me apart. Time is being wasted, my life is being wasted. But trust me on this one; if there was anything I could do to pull myself out of this hole, I'd have done it a long time ago.

Mental illness is a horrific thing to live with - for me, and for my family who love me so much and want to see me get on in life and get out in the world. If you have ever felt like you may have a mental illness, or if anything I've just described sounds like something you have been through in the past, then seek help. You won't find it easy to turn it around - trust me, I know - but I have seen it done. Depression has no prejudice of wealth or stature or fame - it's something that cannot be quantified in all this wrath and in all its machinations. Depression kills people; it changes lives forever. But it is not terminal.

And please, people, let's not belittle the experiences of people who have suffered bouts of depression, even if they don't necessarily qualify for a diagnosis of a psychiatric or mental disorder. The human brain and its interactions with the world, and with itself, is a very complex and fragile thing, one that is not always easily understood. Human labels for the different permutations of the emotional and mental suffering of people are limited in their power, and nothing is straightforward when it comes to the human mind. Depression is serious, no matter how frequent or intense, and there is, in theory, plenty that can be done about it. Let's not be quick to judge - let's just talk things through, and maybe get to where we all need to go.

Maybe, just maybe, you are depressed because you lost your innocence - and you forgot how to ignore all the wrongness around you. Just because most manage to do right by themselves and live a good life, doesn't mean that it's the right thing to do with your life.

What's wrong with being an outcast, pariah, the omega? What's wrong with living a life in turmoil, anger, rage, war - hell? Maybe it's what's coming, and you're just facing the facts nobody else would.

So we're to assume every fit, productive person doesn't suffer from a mental, chemical imbalance? Not one?

Exercise, and eating healthy are key, don't get me wrong. But some people simply need medical attention. They have a chemical imbalance that nobody can explain.

By the way, general unhappiness isn't depression. I'm talking, suicide watch, crying when you have no idea why you're crying, sleeping 10 hours at a time depression. If you haven't seen those things, you haven't seen real depression.

But yeah, a simple jog is clearly all my mom needs...

@TaliciaDragonsong: Writing has helped me before, both during a period of depression and through my recovery as well. It's amazing what you can write when you're in a dark place.

@DFSVegas said:

So we're to assume every fit, productive person doesn't suffer from a mental, chemical imbalance? Not one?

Exercise, and eating healthy are key, don't get me wrong. But some people simply need medical attention. They have a chemical imbalance that nobody can explain.

By the way, general unhappiness isn't depression. I'm talking, suicide watch, crying when you have no idea why you're crying, sleeping 10 hours at a time depression. If you haven't seen those things, you haven't seen real depression.

But yeah, a simple jog is clearly all my mom needs...

Or you know, hanging around with her spirit animal. That'll solve everything.

@Clairabel said:

@Seppli: I'm not going to argue with you. Why? Because you clearly have no perception of mental illness. Do you think I'd be on medication if a daily run cured my crippling depression?

Do you go on a daily run? Just saying, you underestimate the biochemical effects of a decent daily workout.

My perception of mental illness I have from my 2 weeks involuntary stay in a loonie bin? What I mostly saw in the other occupants? Simpleminded stupidity. Additionally - after years of recreational drug abuse, I heard voices in my head for about a year or two. What did I do about it? Nothing. I did enough drugs to let a trip be a trip, and remain the man in control behind the curtain.

While I am not suicidal, I am a tad bit homicidal, and that burden I do not carry lightly - even though I believe homicidal rage to be a sign of sanity really. For I yearn for freedom, to live by my own order.

@Seppli said:

@Clairabel said:

@Seppli: I'm not going to argue with you. Why? Because you clearly have no perception of mental illness. Do you think I'd be on medication if a daily run cured my crippling depression?

Additionally - after years of recreational drug abuse,

Well, there's my answer.

@Clairabel said:

@Seppli: I'm not going to argue with you. Why? Because you clearly have no perception of mental illness. Do you think I'd be on medication if a daily run cured my crippling depression?

It's pretty common to be told to exercise if you have depression. It works, and it works for a reason. Maybe you should actually do some research into it, instead of being so negative towards it.

@Seppli said:

@Clairabel said:

@Seppli: I'm not going to argue with you. Why? Because you clearly have no perception of mental illness. Do you think I'd be on medication if a daily run cured my crippling depression?

Do you go on a daily run? Just saying, you underestimate the biochemical effects of a decent daily workout.

My perception of mental illness I have from my 2 weeks involuntary stay in a loonie bin. What I mostly saw in the other occupants? Simple minded stupidity. Additionally - after years of recreational drug abuse, I heard voices in my head for about a year or two. What did I do about it? Nothing. I did enough drugs to let a trip be a trip, and remain the man in control behind the curtain.

While I am not suicidal, I am a tad bit homicidal, and that burden I carry not lightly - even though I believe homicidal rage to be a sign of sanity really. It's a yearn for freedom.

Nobody is arguing that exercise doesn't create great positive energy. Some people are beyond that though. Some people are more severely depressed. This isn't binary, it's shades of grey.

If you are severely depressed, I'm telling you, a marathon wont help you. Besides, try to get a severely depressed person to do anything. That's the point. Being depressed makes you lose motivation even for things you are passionate about, let alone things you hated in the first place.

@Clairabel: Whatever feels right for you. As long as you're not caving to outside pressure than it's okay.

@believer258 said:

Yeah, I've been feeling down lately because I can't find a good way to make money, but even if it is depression I won't take any pills for it for the sole reason that I don't want to depend on pills for my happiness and positivity.

That's a good policy! Trust me though there's a big difference between feeling down and having depression so you don't have to worry. Good luck with the money though.

@haffy: I walk for an hour everyday whilst listening to my iPod, as well as doing exercises in the home (stretches, squats, lifting, etc) I don't run because I have sciatica in my hip. But I do exercise everyday, I eat well, I drink, and I don't smoke, drink alcohol or do drugs.

I'm not negative towards exercise, it does make me feel good - but I don't like being talked down to for needing medication for an illness I can't control.

@Clairabel said:

@Seppli said:

@Clairabel said:

@Seppli: I'm not going to argue with you. Why? Because you clearly have no perception of mental illness. Do you think I'd be on medication if a daily run cured my crippling depression?

Additionally - after years of recreational drug abuse,

Well, there's my answer.

While I am over weight too, I weigh about 400 Lbs, I beleve it is mostly caused by my meds. Currently we are working on getting me off Invega. While I don't see a difference when I exorcise or don't, ether in my atitude or in my sleep cycle. I do have to walk about a mile and a half to work every Mon - Thur. And sometimes, when I am feeling up to it, I exorcise my chest by lifting weights, when Im just sitting on the computer. Or when Im about to go to bed. I also do this with a resistance band that I have. Now I dont work up a sweat, but I will work for about 20 mins.

What Im trying to say is that you dont have to go to the Gym, or even have big sports equipment. Just a $10 weight. And you can work out anytime.

@Dagbiker: From what I've been told numerous times by the nurse, to exercise to lose weight, you need to build up a sweat - I think she said it's like your body's way of telling you that you're working hard! Is there anything that can help you lose the medication-related weight?

@Clairabel said:

@Dagbiker: From what I've been told numerous times by the nurse, to exercise to lose weight, you need to build up a sweat - I think she said it's like your body's way of telling you that you're working hard! Is there anything that can help you lose the medication-related weight?

Well right now we are just trying to get me off the meds that are causing the rapid weight gain. Other then that I think I will just have to work it off.

I have never ben diagnose with a mental illness but I suspect that I have a couple. Fact is seeking help is not an easy thing plus the only psychologist I know is kind of a manipulative whore and should probably be radiated from the profession; she is a lesbian who treated my uncle in federal prison (he’s bin in for somewhere around 18-20 years), when he got out she lived with him for one year, got pregnant than dumped him and went back to her girlfriend. She also writes self-help books...

@Clairabel said:

@Seppli said:

@Clairabel said:

@Seppli: I'm not going to argue with you. Why? Because you clearly have no perception of mental illness. Do you think I'd be on medication if a daily run cured my crippling depression?

Additionally - after years of recreational drug abuse,

Well, there's my answer.

Drugs are good for you... or why else would you medicate your depression? On that I agree of course. We should every now and then tamper with our biochemistry for extraordinary life experiences. Psycodelic drugs can offer invaluable trips away from what might seem set in stone without - lessons which will change your life to the better forever. To be constantly drugged however, masking the symptoms - that seems dreadfully wrong to me.

Ask yourself what a depressed Dr. Doom would do. Exactly! He'd say to himself: 'Doom is depressed. Doom feels like killing himself.' Then he would laugh, because he isn't just Doom - he transcends Doom - and gives fuck all about how Doom feels. Just another fucking tool Doom is. Just remove yourself a couple of degrees of your own self, if you are capable of such. It grants perspective and room to breathe and think.

I once crashed a car (under the influence of course) into a forest. Positively flipped it into a tree. Whilst I was unhurt (because the tree crushed the backseat area, and a hazelnut bush caught me and the car thereafter), I was trapped in an upside down and twisted and crumpled car, in winter, alone in the forest, away from civilization and traffic. Did I panic? Yes. How did I work past it? By removing myself from the situation. Took me all of about 15 seconds to gather myself. Another 10 seconds to come up with a plan. A minute later I was breathing a cold winter night's fresh air - feeling better than ever before.

Not saying you should chance crashing a car into the woods, just saying you aren't confined to being just yourself, helpless and alone. Somewhere beyond you, farther away and much removed, there's another you, and that you can be in control, even if you are not. God helps those who help themselves. Find your inner Commander Shepard (maybe a bad example, now that we know how that did end), and save your fucking galaxy.

@Clairabel: I suffer from a somewhat moderate anxiety disorder that results in me having panic attacks at least once every two days or so and a fairly constant sense of unease. Really annoying because up until a few months ago I used to be a really calm individual. it also makes everything seem like a test of whether or not I'm going to spin out (especially when I'm outside).

There are good days and bad days however. I'm not on any medication because, like a number of people have already said, personal and family experience has led me to believe that medication is far more harmful to our systems than any of us currently realise (just look at the side effects). I'm a Buddhist and meditation has been surprisingly helpful in combating a lot of the symptoms. CBT is a great way to go, but it's very difficult to find someone who actually knows their stuff.

I have a close friend with pretty serious anxiety issues. He experiences visceral fear for no explainable reason and is often very worried that he's going insane. He feels derealized. He also has a constant weird physical pain in his head. He's a fucking great guy and luckily he seems to be getting better.

@Moreau_MD: I've been looking into meditation as something to go with my medication, as a way of keeping calm when I feel anxious. Any tips?

Love that Album.

@Clairabel said:

@Moreau_MD: I've been looking into meditation as something to go with my medication, as a way of keeping calm when I feel anxious. Any tips?

Yeah, you need a mantra if you're serious about getting into meditation. I would recommend going to your local temple or centre. Arrange to meet with some of the monks or councillors there and they should be more than happy to teach you. Most places offer weekly courses. Even if you find it's not for you, at the very least it should be an interesting, novel, experience that grants you the freedom to step outside your own thoughts for a moment or two.

@laserbolts said:

I am depressed but I don't think pills are the answer. I need to get out more and find a lady. But here I am waiting for a halo reach map pack to download on a beautiful Saturday. Fuck.

while it's good to have goals you may be setting yourself up for a severe relapse if you rely on any one relationship to be your antidote.

@Dagbiker said:

I have Aspergers, Social Phobia, and am on meds for depression. Im not lying about that ether. I think the reason I have Social phobia is because I cant tell what people are emoting, so I dont know if they like what I am saying, Pissed about what I am saying, or even if they like me at all.

yep that sounds perfectly rational.

I've never really dealt with hardcore depression until very recently (past few months). I've also lately had a couple anxiety attacks, not fun. It's mainly due to my Summer situation. Not sure what to do for myself beyond counseling sessions, I don't want to turn to drugs cause I don't want an artificial solution.

Big kudos to you (or anybody) for struggling with it for so long. It's only been a few months for me and I WANT OUT!! :P

@Kenshin: Well, if drugs aren't for you (and for many years they weren't for me) then you should look at ways to help deal with your depression outside counselling. Here's a useful link on depression and dealing with it in different ways.

@Seppli: I'm trying to empathize with you here, but I can't get past the fact that you use uncontrolled recreational drugs and are completely fine with that, but are completely opposed to drugs that are designed to tackle the chemical imbalances in severely depressed peoples brains.

Also, what's your end goal here, do you actually think you're going to convince anyone that your lifestyle and choices with dealing with depression are superior to anyone else's? You keep going on about your time in the loony bin as if it gives you some sort of authority to speak on psychological disorders but it doesn't. Do you have a degree in the field? I'm assuming no, so everyone here is going to take your advice with a grain of salt.

Bottom line is, you don't know @Clairabel personally, even people who do know her personally don't know what she's going through, so stop talking as if you know the solution to all her problems, you don't.

*waits for stupid "white knighting" comments*

From David Foster Wallace's "The Depressed Person"

The depressed person was in terrible and unceasing emotional pain, and the impossibility of sharing or articulating this pain was itself a component of the pain and a contributing factor in its essential horror.

Despairing, then, of describing the emotional pain or expressing its utterness to those around her, the depressed person instead described circumstances, both past and ongoing, which were somehow related to the pain, to its etiology and cause, hoping at least to be able to express to others something of the pain's context, it's -- as it were -- shape and texture.

Wallace wrote a lot about mental illness, often drawing from personal experience, with a super saiyan lucidity the likes of which we probably won't see again for a long time--he hanged himself in 2008. If you're feeling genuinely miserable, to the point where even talking about it does nothing but provide temporary relief, more than going to a friend or looking up at the sky I recommend taking a long, brain-intensive look at some of Wallace's literature. It's not easy reading, but it'll help. Seriously. Look at me. [grabs you by the head] It won't cure you. Nothing will. But the bulk of what causes today's misery is Out There and external and beyond our control (GAHHHHHH). It can't even be directly confronted, much less beaten. DFW's insight can give you an edge. It can strengthen what parts of you are sane.

I'm pretty sure I'm depressed. It comes in waves, though. I mean, the apathy and loos of interest lingers, but I don't always want to go jump off a bridge. I recently read this article, and it gave me a lot of insight into how bipolar disorder affects one of my favorite artists. It made me feel... less alone.

@TaliciaDragonsong: This is a really good description of depression.

I have suffered from depression for over 8 years now. I have been in therapy for 5 years. I'm not taking any drugs at the moment and regular therapy has helped me to stabilize really well. At this point depression has really shaped my whole personality since it started when I was going through puberty. General indifference is my main characteristic. I don't really feel sad anymore like I used to and it's hard to tell if that's a good or a bad thing. It's easier at lest.

I'm a mental health therapist and what I find so unfortunate is how many people think they are broken when they are given a diagnosis. I try to explain to them how little I think of the diagnosis when I'm working with them. It's the honest to God truth. I give a diagnosis because a science has to have a common nomenclature and it gives the therapist the most basic of information regarding a client. But every treatment that I've used has been specifically designed for a particular client and not a type of diagnosis. I work with people and not disorders. So when I hear people describe themselves by their diagnosis or when I hear people make judgements about others based on a given diagnosis I get really irritated. People are far more complex then that. I work with people who are facing huge challenges and would like help overcoming them. That's it. Adding anything else to that is at minimum unnecessary and at worst damning.

Anxiety and depression here. I've been taking meds for a little over year now, and I've imprved. I still can't do certain things though, like taking longer trips and stuff like that. And that really sucks, because I'm very limited in what I feel comfortable doing, which makes me feel like a constant pain in the ass for everyone around me. This has resulted in me almost always turning things down.

@guiseppe: I know that feeling, I feel awful that I can't just go and hang out with people like I used to.

@RollingZeppelin: No white knighting, just a freakton of logic.
People tend to forget that depression is often personal, heck it probably always is.
Its your mind, your madness, your prison and your game. 
No one else can tell you how to win for sure.
Its the most random level you ever played, there's more variables than you ever knew was possible and the only thing I ever believe from people is that you can improve.
Not get better, but improve, you can learn to live and make your own madness that little bit more survivable.

I think I am suffering from mild depression, nothing to serious though, or maybe my life just sucks.

@Seppli said:

@Clairabel said:

@Seppli said:

@Clairabel said:

@Seppli: I'm not going to argue with you. Why? Because you clearly have no perception of mental illness. Do you think I'd be on medication if a daily run cured my crippling depression?

Additionally - after years of recreational drug abuse,

Well, there's my answer.

Drugs are good for you... or why else would you medicate your depression? On that I agree of course. We should every now and then tamper with our biochemistry for extraordinary life experiences. Psycodelic drugs can offer invaluable trips away from what might seem set in stone without - lessons which will change your life to the better forever. To be constantly drugged however, masking the symptoms - that seems dreadfully wrong to me.

Ask yourself what a depressed Dr. Doom would do. Exactly! He'd say to himself: 'Doom is depressed. Doom feels like killing himself.' Then he would laugh, because he isn't just Doom - he transcends Doom - and gives fuck all about how Doom feels. Just another fucking tool Doom is. Just remove yourself a couple of degrees of your own self, if you are capable of such. It grants perspective and room to breathe and think.

I once crashed a car (under the influence of course) into a forest. Positively flipped it into a tree. Whilst I was unhurt (because the tree crushed the backseat area, and a hazelnut bush caught me and the car thereafter), I was trapped in an upside down and twisted and crumpled car, in winter, alone in the forest, away from civilization and traffic. Did I panic? Yes. How did I work past it? By removing myself from the situation. Took me all of about 15 seconds to gather myself. Another 10 seconds to come up with a plan. A minute later I was breathing a cold winter night's fresh air - feeling better than ever before.

Not saying you should chance crashing a car into the woods, just saying you aren't confined to being just yourself, helpless and alone. Somewhere beyond you, farther away and much removed, there's another you, and that you can be in control. God helps those who help themselves. Find your inner Commander Sheperd (maybe a bad example, now that we know how that did end), and save your fucking galaxy.

This is pitiably narcissistic. Firstly, only a complete prick gets behind the wheel of a car when intoxicated. You acted like a cunt. I say that with no reservations.

Secondly, how do you know that whatever drug Clairabel is taking is merely "masking the symptoms"? You don't. You're clearly no medical professional, you sound like some sort of parody of Timothy Leary. It'd be funny if you weren't belittling peoples problems. Yeah, I realise that it's the internet & that's what people do, but it's fucking bullshit. And "ask what Dr Doom would do"? Jesus Christ on a bike, you must be some sort of absurd gimmick poster I'm just not familiar with.

There is plenty of things people can do to help deal with depression. The limited studies that governments have allowed to be done into the subject have shown that things like the psilocybin in magic mushrooms is of a benefit to people with severe depression. I believe similar has been found with LSD. There are things like CBT, & other forms of talking therapy. There are legal pharmaceuticals manufactured by huge corporations in the form of fluoxetine, citalopram, paroxetine & the like. There is things like exercise which undeniably leaves you feeling better about yourself, after a particularly dark moment last year I found myself quite literally in the middle of nowhere, on the southern tip of the Isle of Skye with no money & ended up walking the 15 miles from there to Kyle of Lochalsh before blagging my way onto a train as I clearly looked in some state. And despite having just experienced a real low, that 15 mile walk in the middle of the night through a stretch of land that can't have more than 100 people on it was wonderful, even if it was pitch black most of the time, & my feet had massive blisters on them. But despite that knowledge I would not just walk for 15 miles tomorrow, it came about because of the circumstances.

Ultimately some things work for some people, others don't. Medical opinion tends to suggest that SSRI drugs are really only much use in severe cases for example. But don't shit on things that work for other people. Even if it is just masking symptoms, even if it is merely psychosomatic, so fucking what? Whatever helps them get over a seriously debilitating condition.

@Clairabel: Huh. I'd say you just need a fresh start somewhere, other than that I've felt pangs of sadness and I think companionship is the best thing, people or even pets.

@Clairabel: Indeed! And you always feel like you're letting everyone down. At least I do.

@ItBeStefYo: I probably do, I've thought about it - I'm lucky to have my boyfriend though, he's been supportive and brilliant.

@guiseppe: Yep, and then you worry that people are talking about you behind your back because of it.

@guiseppe said:

@Clairabel: Indeed! And you always feel like you're letting everyone down. At least I do.

I also get this feeling, it lead to a panic attack in my final year of undergrad. I also get digestion problems when I anticipate a social outing which makes socialising with people I don't know very difficult.