Depression, addressing it and moving on / anti depressants

Indeed I used to come into contact with work with depressives quite alot and to be honest sitting looking at 4 walls like they did would drepess me.

Get out chill and enjoy life, don't sit there thinking life is shit or it will be.
Depression is an illness like any other and the snap out of it advice is bollocks,sorry
 
Depression is an illness like any other and the snap out of it advice is bollocks,sorry
I wasn't saying snap out of it Karen, if it came over that way it shouldn't have.

What I was trying to say and probably failing again was to try and keep busy, sitting looking at 4 walls won't help.

I've family members who struggle I know it's a proper issue and not a piss take.
 
I wasn't saying snap out of it Karen, if it came over that way it shouldn't have.

What I was trying to say and probably failing again was to try and keep busy, sitting looking at 4 walls won't help.

I've family members who struggle I know it's a proper issue and not a piss take.
Sorry i read you wrong,motivation is a key part to depression,it's usually a case of can't and not a case of not wanting to do sometning
 
Bit of a deep one this. I've been unhappy for years, and never addressed it. I've had an ex who was depressed, and I didn't know how to handle it and I tried to hide from it because I've felt bad myself.

Recently I've had problems with a relationship, and the sh!t hit the fan. It's like all my scars have come back and years of hiding problems has just exploded.

I had to leave work yesterday, and went to the Drs today and explained everything I feel. They've suggested counselling and anti depressants. I don't want to take them. Has anyone taken them and what do they do? I'm going to do research when I get home but think I've decided. I know my issues and what's wrong, and want to be happy, but I'm not sure numbing things out with pills is good.

I feel flat as a pancake today, but admitting to it does feel good, like a weight off my shoulders. If anyone else feels this way I suggest addressing it. I've grown up in a family where you're just told to cheer up and be happy. Think talking might be the other way to go.

You are a bio-chemical machine - you consume energy from the Sun either stored in plants or stored in things that eat plants and use that energy to power a biosphere that holds trillions of creatures in it of varying degrees of "life". Every cell in your body is it's own little city with its own forms of that life all working together to power what is ultimately "you".

What we talk about colloquially as happiness, sadness, and emotions in general are certain chemicals working on the brain in certain configurations. Sometimes that chemical balance is off, sometimes you build or are born with a tolerance to it, sometimes the "lock" of the "key/lock" isn't quite the right shape to receive the key, sometimes the messages get lost or re-routed. These are all very poor descriptions for the record.

There's two ways to fix this. One of them is by introducing a controlled amount of specific chemicals into your system in order to defeat the problems that it current has. Another one is to reshape parts of the brain through training to be more open to those chemicals. They both work and the choice between them is pretty much your own.

The pills don't "numb things out"; nobody knows exactly how depression works but they do know that if you block neurotransmitter reuptake then it helps an awful lot. Cells work not that hugely differently to the way that lightning works - different electrical charge of elements creates an action potential and then it is executed by a transfer of energy. Again theoretically the cells in your eyes, your brain and your arsehole are no different from each other and are instead just "specialised" versions of cells that develop to perform a certain task when you're in the womb as instructed by DNA sequences. Neurons are the "nerve specific" type of cells. Neurotransmitters are unsurprisingly the thing that transmits information between different neurons and have familiar names like serotonin, dopamine and glutamate. They travel to other neurons, pass on their message and then go back to their home station. Anti-depressants works by stopping certain neurotransmitters from being reabsorbed which in turn stops the neurons from getting excited and firing all over the place when it's not needed.

There's more detail on neurotransmitters in an accessible and pretty simple manner here. The presenter may make you want to punch your screen:



The point is that depression isn't some bullshit thing. The people who talk about mental health like this are the same people who believed in the ether, and told John Snow that his germ theory was obviously bollocks and people were dying because of bad air. They are not just on the wrong side of history but their lack of understanding is causing people to suffer. As the videos says everything psychological is biological. Your neurotransmitters are being reabsorbed into the neurons in an uneven manner which is causing your brain to malfunction.

You've got a broken leg. You're asking whether you should take the pills that rebuild your leg so it works properly. Yes, you should take the pills that will rebuild your leg.
 
Can only really reiterate what others have said, exercise is a great help, but of course can be hard to motivate yourself to do so when feeling down. If you can manage to do so it'd definitely be high on my recommendations. Alongside that there are other lifestyle changes; alcohol is the biggest depressant around so if one was a reasonable drinker cutting down on that can help have a big impact.

Talking therapies are also great options, of course it will depend on your personality and such as to how effective it may be, but the fact you've been willing to seek help & seem open to talking about the issues would make one thing that would be a good choice for yourself (there are also a number of options so you can likely find one that'd suit).

As for medication, there are side effects as with any medications, however they are proven to help. Depression is seen as a mental condition, and it of course is on the surface, but there is a physiological process behind it which the medications will target to try to amend. I'm sure your doctor will have talked to you about these sorts of things, but one of the main issues is that they take a while to become effective (can be weeks), and in that period of them kicking in you may well feel worse before feeling better.

If possible I'd advise speaking with the doctor to talk through the options further after you've had a while to do your own research to see what you think suits, and see if they have anything to add or recommend.
 
The drugs don't work they just make you worse
The side effects of the drugs can make you feel worse before you feel better and take 4-5 weeks to kick in,then they absolutely do work ,it's a case of finding the right one and dose for you.It is well worth it believe me,things become clear again and enable you to make sensible decisions again,in the meantime talking is the best thing and someone to hold your hand and understand is what you need
 
My girlfriend works in mental health as a well being practioner and has to deal with terrible things every day, which has lead to her being off work with a stress related illness up to when she wouldn't leave the house for a few days, she's very fit and a keen gym and spin class goer and after 3 or 4 weeks of being off the doctor has prescribed her anti depressnents as he thinks she is depressed.

She's been taking them for 2 weeks she suffered from side affects for the first week of cotton mouth upset belly etc but she says she feels a lot better this week.

Mental health and depression isn't something someone can snap out of and it's alway important to talk to someone but also to not be afraid to take the medication if the doctor prescribes it to you
 
I wouldn't be concerned about feeling unhappy in and of itself. Unhappy is completely normal. I'm not saying it's a good thing, it's just how we are. We go through short periods of happiness, happiness is a fleeting thing, and illusive. Aiming to be content and distracted might be a better way to view things. Keep talking about you feel, it can be cathartic. Until we have proper designer drugs hitting those neurotransmitters properly and targeting the opioid system then low mood and depression will remain part of what makes us human.

Exercise is good advice. It can keep your mind off things as well as the release of endorphins. Our physical, mental and emotional health are intimately linked.
 

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