Mental Health - Depression

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Have any of you ever been diagnosed with depression? I have PCOS (Polycistyc Ovarian Syndrome) and I have been dealing with some of the symptoms. I went to the doctor on Thursday and she asked me if I was depressed. I mean, how do you answer that question? I don't know if I am depressed or not. She asked me a few questions and the more we talked, the more I thought that maybe I do have some mild depression. I do know that lately I haven't been wanting to do anything with my friends or anyone in general. I feel so self concious and I guess that my self-esteem isn't really up there at the moment. She recommended that I get some blood work done (more for my PCOS than anything) and that after that, she and I would talk about Prozac and maybe giving me a tiny dose. I don't know how to feel about that especially because I don't feel depressed but how is one to know?

Any thoughts on this?

 
i'm sorry to hear you're going through whatever it is you're going through and hope you find out what it is soon.

i'm glad you've asked this question because i wanna know, too.

i've always wondered if i'm depressed. when i'm sad, i'm SAD and it physically hurts. from the day i was born until i was 15, i was the happiest person with a life someone would kill to have, but then my dad, who was basically my best friend, turned into an alcoholic, abused us, then left my family homeless. since then, nothing's been the same, i've lost all my friends (and i mean all), i've gained lots of weight because when i'm sad or lonely, i eat, my grades have slipped, i don't like talking to people all the time, etc.

maybe when you're depressed, you most likely are if you question it. do you know what i mean?

i hope everything goes well with you <3

 
Originally Posted by Jennifer i'm sorry to hear you're going through whatever it is you're going through and hope you find out what it is soon.
i'm glad you've asked this question because i wanna know, too.

i've always wondered if i'm depressed. when i'm sad, i'm SAD and it physically hurts. from the day i was born until i was 15, i was the happiest person with a life someone would kill to have, but then my dad, who was basically my best friend, turned into an alcoholic, abused us, then left my family homeless. since then, nothing's been the same, i've lost all my friends (and i mean all), i've gained lots of weight because when i'm sad or lonely, i eat, my grades have slipped, i don't like talking to people all the time, etc.

maybe when you're depressed, you most likely are if you question it. do you know what i mean?

i hope everything goes well with you <3

::hugs to you::
I know excatly what you mean. I don't have a lot of friends (due to the fact that I have a lot of trust issues and have been burned in the past) but the few that I do have, I seem to be pulling myself away from them. I sort of feel like I don't fit in with them because I am so different than they are. Mostof them are married or have a significant other and I dont. I would rather go on a drive or read a book at home. I don't consider myself a loner because I do like being around people but I just feel like I don't fit in with them. One of the things that PCOS has done to me is my hormones are so out of whack, I have gained a lot of weight and it also causes depression.

I am sorry about the situation with your dad. I used to be a total daddy's girl until he cheated on my mom and started treating us like crap. I no longer hae a realtionship with him. Its been 3 yrs since I have talked to him.

 
I hope you're doing ok. Sometimes I think I have social anxiety. When I watch the commercials for the drugs for social anxiety, I think I have most of the symptoms. I'm really shy, I feel like everyone is watching me, and I'm always worried about what people think about me or things I say.

 
I was diagnosed as manic-depressive a long time ago. The swing from up to down used to be extremely severe. They put me on all kinds of drugs to figure out what would help me. They all made me worse or really lethargic which I hated cuz I never felt like myself with the drugs. It took a long time to get a hold of it, but I decided to get off all the drugs and try to concur it mentally within myself. I've gotten it somewhat under control, way more than it was when I was younger. Now I tend to be more on the depressive side, but I still feel way better than I did before in my depressed states. I've also developed a slight OCD( which I think is getting worse as I get older) and for some reason it seems to be countering my depression at times. Even though I had it really early, I think it is something that can progress as you get older or sometimes it's environmental or even seasonal. Sometimes it can even be triggered by medication or alcohol or even food. Alot of women don't realize, birth control is a big cause of mild depression. The hormones can cause such an imbalance that it can literally drive you crazy. The best thing is if you can think back to what was happening when you first started feeling down. Did something change about your life or lifestyle? That's always a key to figure out the best way to fix it cuz the answer isn't always medication.

It's hard to really tell if it's true depression or just something temporary. But it will take a lot more than just some questions by the doc to determine that. I was once told that if you ever question your sanity, it's usually safe to assume your ok. The really crazy ones never think anything's wrong with them.

 
Originally Posted by lizzyb831 I hope you're doing ok. Sometimes I think I have social anxiety. When I watch the commercials for the drugs for social anxiety, I think I have most of the symptoms. I'm really shy, I feel like everyone is watching me, and I'm always worried about what people think about me or things I say. Unless you're getting panic attacks in certain social situations or you get really bad anxiety, you should be fine. I hate that they have so many commercials for meds now. It's like the govt's just trying to medicate the whole country. They try to make everyone pop a pill for things that are part of normal human behavior. Now I'm not saying that there aren't people who seriously need help, at one time I did need to be under doctor supervision for a problem I had. I just really and truly believe that there are better alternatives to all those damn pills!
 
I went through the so called *typical* teen depression. Parents made me go to a high school where I only knew 3 out of about 2,000. The school is very competative academically wise, and very clique-y. I would go home as soon as I could after school so I could eat (my comfort) and basically gained about 20 pounds in a year, which might not seem much, but I'm a very short person. Plus my skin was pretty horrible because of personal reasons, and I became very, very depressed. I knew I was, but I didn't want my family to know because they were dealing with something else so I tried to find ways to help. I started out with tiny, and I mean tiny baby steps. IE: Tried to go out more, sunshine works wonders for me. Get enough sleep. Buy more MU
icon_cheesygrin.gif
,

just worked my way up from very basic stuff. Right now I'm pretty okay, which is a big improvement.

 
yeah, i don't have anxiety attacks. i try not to take any pilss/medicine. the only thing i take are vitamins, amino balance pills, and advil.

 
Originally Posted by lizzyb831 I hope you're doing ok. Sometimes I think I have social anxiety. When I watch the commercials for the drugs for social anxiety, I think I have most of the symptoms. I'm really shy, I feel like everyone is watching me, and I'm always worried about what people think about me or things I say. Thanks Liz. I think that I am doing ok but I don't know for sure. When people first meet me, I am also shy just because I need to warm up to them. I guard my feelings a lot so that people can't hurt me and that way I don't seem weak. I don't like to rely on people because just with what I have gone through with different people, when you need them the most, they seem to not be there for you. I had a friend when I was 18 (she was 23) and I considered her my best friend. I met her when I lived in LA and we would party and experimented with a lot of drugs that were available through her. I ended up deciding to move back hom because I had moved to LA to go to school but I was doing a shitty job. I tried to keep in touch with her and I would drive to LA like once a month and visit her for the weekend. She never once visited me and would never try to call me. I mean, this is the one person who knew the real me and knew my insecurities and my shitty past and she just sort of dropped me as a friend. That honestly hurt me a lot and to this day, I am always careful of what information I tell people because I am afraid of getting hurt. I think that has affected me in the way that I was the type of person that never let anyone in and when I did, I got really hurt so I don't do it anymore.
I agree with Enymi about the commercials. If someone feels like they have a problem, they should definately contact a doctor first.

 
Originally Posted by envymi Alot of women don't realize, birth control is a big cause of mild depression. The hormones can cause such an imbalance that it can literally drive you crazy. That is part of my problem. Because of PCOS, my hormones are completely out of whack and I think that could be why I feel the way that I do. I have the worst mood swings of anyone and I don't know how to control them. I don't know if I can pinpoint when I started feeling this way. Someone once recommended that I talk to someone (a shrink) and see if they could help but I don't know if I could do it.
 
Originally Posted by shiso I started out with tiny, and I mean tiny baby steps. IE: Tried to go out more, sunshine works wonders for me. Get enough sleep. Buy more MU
icon_cheesygrin.gif
, just worked my way up from very basic stuff. Right now I'm pretty okay, which is a big improvement. Glad that you are doing ok and thanks for the suggestions.
icon_smile.gif
 
Originally Posted by Marisol ::hugs to you::
I know excatly what you mean. I don't have a lot of friends (due to the fact that I have a lot of trust issues and have been burned in the past) but the few that I do have, I seem to be pulling myself away from them. I sort of feel like I don't fit in with them because I am so different than they are. Mostof them are married or have a significant other and I dont. I would rather go on a drive or read a book at home. I don't consider myself a loner because I do like being around people but I just feel like I don't fit in with them. One of the things that PCOS has done to me is my hormones are so out of whack, I have gained a lot of weight and it also causes depression.

I am sorry about the situation with your dad. I used to be a total daddy's girl until he cheated on my mom and started treating us like crap. I no longer hae a realtionship with him. Its been 3 yrs since I have talked to him.

i totally know what you mean. my dad cheated on my mom, too, and i recently found out has another kid with another woman. there's no relationship with him, either.
i'm like you about the friends thing. 99%, and i'm not exaggerating, of my school drinks and do drugs very often. i've never done either, so of course i won't hang out. my "best friend" and i haven't been talking much because we're sorta different, too.

<3

 
Originally Posted by envymi The best thing is if you can think back to what was happening when you first started feeling down. Did something change about your life or lifestyle? That's always a key to figure out the best way to fix it cuz the answer isn't always medication. It's hard to really tell if it's true depression or just something temporary. But it will take a lot more than just some questions by the doc to determine that. I was once told that if you ever question your sanity, it's usually safe to assume your ok. The really crazy ones never think anything's wrong with them.

SO true. thanks for that!
i'm sorry you've gone/go through all of that.

 
I have not experienced any mental health problems myself, but I've had friends and family who have:

My brother was diagnosed with depression over a year ago and is still fighting it and only slowly improving. Since no one in my family had ever had any experience with depression before, we didn't recognize that that's what was wrong with him until it got really bad. He'd always been a straight-A student in high school, and his IQ is border-line genious. But when he got to college, he started struggling with some of his classes and started experiencing a lot of insomnia. At first we just thought he was playing too many video games and was just neglecting his sleep and studies. His first semester he did manage to get good grades, but he quickly declined after that. His second semester he got terrible grades, even failed some classes. He was hardly getting any sleep, and when he could sleep he'd sleep so heavy he's sleep through his alarm and miss classes, or when he did attend class he was so sleep-deprived he just couldn't concentrate. We also caught him lying about his grades and whether he had been attending classes (which is understandable; he was scared my parents would just yell at him). He did have a few friends, but whenever he was with them all they'd do was play video games. Fortunately my brother opened up to my parents one day over email, and said how he was just depressed and did not enjoy anything in his life anymore, and that really scared my parents. He was officially diagnosed with depression soon after that.

For the past year he's been to counselling and has tried various antidepressants and sleeping pills -- we still haven't found a combination of drugs that work well but he recently tried a sleeping pill that is allowing him to be on a more regular sleep schedule. He's slowly improving but it really is a slow process -- we still occasionally catch him lying about his grades and class attendance, even though my parents keep emphasizing that they will not be mad at him for his grades, they just want to know what's going on so they can help. I've also noticed that when he's at home, he's more animated when he's talking and he talks more -- when he was depressed you had to pry any information out of him, and he'd never show any emotion when he was talking, like he was trying to hide everything. There's also a few guys in his dorm that have been "taking care" of him once they heard of his diagnosis, making sure he is awake for classes, being there if he wants to talk... His grades are still not up to what they should be, and he's lost all of his scholarships (he did have a full ride), and it will take him at least an extra year to graduate -- but if he can get over his depression now, then we're hoping he'll be able to get and keep a job after graduation and work back into a normal life! But I guess his main symptoms were insomnia and losing interest in everything he had previously enjoyed (except video games).

Also, my husband is diagnosed with social anxiety disorder and has been taking medication for several years. He said he was always a "nervous" child, and would worry and stress over things that normal kids wouldn't. He was very shy in high school and only had a few close friends, and never went to school dances or things like that. In college he also developed a few close friendships, all roommates, but was otherwise pretty shy. He also started college as a Computer Science major but found the classes very hard, which only added to his anxiety. After 3 semesters he switched majors and started medication, and he said the difference was like "night and day". And I know that the medication did help and it wasn't just a change in majors -- after we were married, he decided to quit taking his medication since it was giving him some sexual side effects and he thought he didn't need it anymore. He works as a bank teller (so obviously he deals with the public all day long) and after he quit his medication he would get so stressed at work and couldn't even relax when he came home, and he just hated his job. I could really tell a difference in his anxiety and stress when he was off the medication. After a few weeks he decided to go back on the medication, but he switched to a lower dose so now he gets the benefit of the medication with only minimal side effects.
wink.gif
So I guess his symptoms were anxiety and stress while in public, which would even carry over into the rest of his life -- maybe he had some symptoms of a more generalized anxiety disorder as well, I don't know.

Another common symptom of many mental disorders is a feeling that you're the only one who feels that way and no one else will understand you -- my brother and husband both said they hid their feelings for a long time because they thought something was "wrong" with them and no one would understand them if they tried to explain.

As for medication, well, before these experiences I also always wondered whether medication was the right answer for everything. I still think there's instances where medication is not needed (for example, it sounds like shiso is doing pretty well right now!) but sometimes medication really is needed. As I learned in my psychology class, many disorders are caused by chemical imbalances in the brain. In particular, with depression you usually only take medication for 1-2 years. During that time the medicine produces the chemicals your brain needs, but at the same time you should be going to counselling so that your brian will learn how to produce those chemicals by itself when you quit the medication. (I'm not sure about anxiety disorders, because my husband said his doctors told him he could take medication for the rest of his life and it would be no problem, but you normally don't do that with depression.)

So if you are worried whether you may have depression or something, it would never hurt to talk to a doctor, or at least do some research online -- after my brother was diagnosed, my parents did some research and were amazed to see that he had practically all the symptoms of depression and they had never known it! (But then again, for a long time he never told them how he was feeling either!)

Sorry for the long post, but hopefully that will give someone some insight!

 
Originally Posted by shiso I went through the so called *typical* teen depression. Parents made me go to a high school where I only knew 3 out of about 2,000. The school is very competative academically wise, and very clique-y. I would go home as soon as I could after school so I could eat (my comfort) and basically gained about 20 pounds in a year, which might not seem much, but I'm a very short person. Plus my skin was pretty horrible because of personal reasons, and I became very, very depressed. I knew I was, but I didn't want my family to know because they were dealing with something else so I tried to find ways to help. I started out with tiny, and I mean tiny baby steps. IE: Tried to go out more, sunshine works wonders for me. Get enough sleep. Buy more MU
icon_cheesygrin.gif
,just worked my way up from very basic stuff. Right now I'm pretty okay, which is a big improvement.

i'm so glad you're doing well. it IS a big improvement
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted by Jennifer i'm like you about the friends thing. 99%, and i'm not exaggerating, of my school drinks and do drugs very often. i've never done either, so of course i won't hang out. my "best friend" and i haven't been talking much because we're sorta different, too. I can also emphasize with you -- I went to a very small high school (70 students in my graduating class; 300 in the whole high school) and everyone knew everyone and it was very clique-y. To be "cool" you had to drink every weekend and sleep with football players or cheerleaders. Since I didn't do those things, I was very shy, and I got very good grades, I was quickly stereotyped as a nerd! I had some friends in early high school, but by our junior year they had also joined the "party scene" and began ignoring me and even talking behind my back. I did find a few girls to hang out with my senior year from my church, but I never got to be close friends with them, and the fact that my old friends dissed me hurt me for a long time. Needless to say I was really looking forward to graduation and starting college -- I was thrilled to go to college where no one would know me and I wouldn't already be stereotyped as a nerd, and I could make some new friends! I was still a little shy when starting college, but I opened up pretty quickly. Well, being a Computer Science major I still ended up being stereotyped as slightly geeky (but fellow Computer Science majors didn't hate me, they wanted me to help them with their homework! lol), but I was able to develop some strong friendships and overall enjoyed my college experience -- it was so much better than high school!
biggrin.gif
biggrin.gif
biggrin.gif
 
Originally Posted by girl_geek I have not experienced any mental health problems myself, but I've had friends and family who have:
My brother was diagnosed with depression over a year ago and is still fighting it and only slowly improving. Since no one in my family had ever had any experience with depression before, we didn't recognize that that's what was wrong with him until it got really bad. He'd always been a straight-A student in high school, and his IQ is border-line genious. But when he got to college, he started struggling with some of his classes and started experiencing a lot of insomnia. At first we just thought he was playing too many video games and was just neglecting his sleep and studies. His first semester he did manage to get good grades, but he quickly declined after that. His second semester he got terrible grades, even failed some classes. He was hardly getting any sleep, and when he could sleep he'd sleep so heavy he's sleep through his alarm and miss classes, or when he did attend class he was so sleep-deprived he just couldn't concentrate. We also caught him lying about his grades and whether he had been attending classes (which is understandable; he was scared my parents would just yell at him). He did have a few friends, but whenever he was with them all they'd do was play video games. Fortunately my brother opened up to my parents one day over email, and said how he was just depressed and did not enjoy anything in his life anymore, and that really scared my parents. He was officially diagnosed with depression soon after that.

For the past year he's been to counselling and has tried various antidepressants and sleeping pills -- we still haven't found a combination of drugs that work well but he recently tried a sleeping pill that is allowing him to be on a more regular sleep schedule. He's slowly improving but it really is a slow process -- we still occasionally catch him lying about his grades and class attendance, even though my parents keep emphasizing that they will not be mad at him for his grades, they just want to know what's going on so they can help. I've also noticed that when he's at home, he's more animated when he's talking and he talks more -- when he was depressed you had to pry any information out of him, and he'd never show any emotion when he was talking, like he was trying to hide everything. There's also a few guys in his dorm that have been "taking care" of him once they heard of his diagnosis, making sure he is awake for classes, being there if he wants to talk... His grades are still not up to what they should be, and he's lost all of his scholarships (he did have a full ride), and it will take him at least an extra year to graduate -- but if he can get over his depression now, then we're hoping he'll be able to get and keep a job after graduation and work back into a normal life! But I guess his main symptoms were insomnia and losing interest in everything he had previously enjoyed (except video games).

Also, my husband is diagnosed with social anxiety disorder and has been taking medication for several years. He said he was always a "nervous" child, and would worry and stress over things that normal kids wouldn't. He was very shy in high school and only had a few close friends, and never went to school dances or things like that. In college he also developed a few close friendships, all roommates, but was otherwise pretty shy. He also started college as a Computer Science major but found the classes very hard, which only added to his anxiety. After 3 semesters he switched majors and started medication, and he said the difference was like "night and day". And I know that the medication did help and it wasn't just a change in majors -- after we were married, he decided to quit taking his medication since it was giving him some sexual side effects and he thought he didn't need it anymore. He works as a bank teller (so obviously he deals with the public all day long) and after he quit his medication he would get so stressed at work and couldn't even relax when he came home, and he just hated his job. I could really tell a difference in his anxiety and stress when he was off the medication. After a few weeks he decided to go back on the medication, but he switched to a lower dose so now he gets the benefit of the medication with only minimal side effects.
wink.gif
So I guess his symptoms were anxiety and stress while in public, which would even carry over into the rest of his life -- maybe he had some symptoms of a more generalized anxiety disorder as well, I don't know.

Another common symptom of many mental disorders is a feeling that you're the only one who feels that way and no one else will understand you -- my brother and husband both said they hid their feelings for a long time because they thought something was "wrong" with them and no one would understand them if they tried to explain.

As for medication, well, before these experiences I also always wondered whether medication was the right answer for everything. I still think there's instances where medication is not needed (for example, it sounds like shiso is doing pretty well right now!) but sometimes medication really is needed. As I learned in my psychology class, many disorders are caused by chemical imbalances in the brain. In particular, with depression you usually only take medication for 1-2 years. During that time the medicine produces the chemicals your brain needs, but at the same time you should be going to counselling so that your brian will learn how to produce those chemicals by itself when you quit the medication. (I'm not sure about anxiety disorders, because my husband said his doctors told him he could take medication for the rest of his life and it would be no problem, but you normally don't do that with depression.)

So if you are worried whether you may have depression or something, it would never hurt to talk to a doctor, or at least do some research online -- after my brother was diagnosed, my parents did some research and were amazed to see that he had practically all the symptoms of depression and they had never known it! (But then again, for a long time he never told them how he was feeling either!)

Sorry for the long post, but hopefully that will give someone some insight!

thanks for posting all that. i'm glad they're doing better.
 
Originally Posted by Jennifer i totally know what you mean. my dad cheated on my mom, too, and i recently found out has another kid with another woman. there's no relationship with him, either. Yeah, I found out last year that my dad got remarried and has a baby girl. For crying out loud, the man is 56 yrs old and he doesn't have a healthy relationship with either one of his daughters. Why bring another kid into the world and mess up their life? gggrrrr
 
Originally Posted by girl_geek I can also emphasize with you -- I went to a very small high school (70 students in my graduating class; 300 in the whole high school) and everyone knew everyone and it was very clique-y. To be "cool" you had to drink every weekend and sleep with football players or cheerleaders. Since I didn't do those things, I was very shy, and I got very good grades, I was quickly stereotyped as a nerd! I had some friends in early high school, but by our junior year they had also joined the "party scene" and began ignoring me and even talking behind my back. I did find a few girls to hang out with my senior year from my church, but I never got to be close friends with them, and the fact that my old friends dissed me hurt me for a long time. Needless to say I was really looking forward to graduation and starting college -- I was thrilled to go to college where no one would know me and I wouldn't already be stereotyped as a nerd, and I could make some new friends! I was still a little shy when starting college, but I opened up pretty quickly. Well, being a Computer Science major I still ended up being stereotyped as slightly geeky (but fellow Computer Science majors didn't hate me, they wanted me to help them with their homework! lol), but I was able to develop some strong friendships and overall enjoyed my college experience -- it was so much better than high school!
biggrin.gif
biggrin.gif
biggrin.gif
it's gross what some people do to be "popular". i felt really sad and alone when i started a new school, leaving a school where everyone loved and knew me as someone who wouldn't do what they did. when i came to this school i'm at now 2 years ago, a lot of the kids would talk to me and then we'd get into the drug/drinking topic, and when i told them i did neither, they never spoke to me again! i couldn't believe it.
i can't wait to start college for the reasons you mentioned
smile.gif


 
Originally Posted by girl_geek Another common symptom of many mental disorders is a feeling that you're the only one who feels that way and no one else will understand you -- my brother and husband both said they hid their feelings for a long time because they thought something was "wrong" with them and no one would understand them if they tried to explain. I think that a lot of people feel this way. I know that I do. When I try to talk to people about things, they either show indifference or they judge. My mom is the worst one of all. When I try to tell her something personal, she always starts telling me about her woes and things that she is going through and ignores the fact that I was the one that wanted to talk to her. Or, when she does listen to some of what I have to say, she starts judging me and lecturing me on all the things that I have done the wrong way. I think that she forgets that I am 25 yrs old and that I am not a kid anymore.
 

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