Posted by jay on September 26, 2001, at 22:11:29
In reply to When did you decide you were happy?, posted by Heather66 on September 26, 2001, at 18:51:25
> I'm asking anybody who wants to answer. How long did it take before you felt like you were happy again? And/or have you ever really been happy? What helped?
Ahhh...such an elusive question..heh. I don't know ifwe can really put happiness on a linear scale, but when it comes to mental health, I think you have to look at all the 'basics': how you feel about yourself (and nobody EVER feels 100 percent about themselves!..hehe); your sleep, and energy levels; sex drive...ability to communicate...temperment.I honestly think it's not just like a light that 'comes on', I think it's more like having a greater number of happy moments, and not letting the sad ones throw you for a loop. I also believe having some "hope" is SO vital, as I have realized when I first got into my major depression, and we didn't have half the meds we have today. Thanks to some of the newer ones, my life has improved in areas. If I didn't have some *hope* to hang in there until some other and better meds came around, I may have just ended everything.
But, as I said, I can't mark a moment when there was a complete change. At best, some of the most painful of symptoms eased off.
You are never the "same", but that is ok too! In fact, it may be a good thing. Much of the suffering we face makes us maybe a bit more humble, and also a bit more compassionate to others suffering. (In many ways..as I have become a very humanistic person over the past few years.)
Without writing a book on it, that's all I can really say. Focus on the symptoms, as depression is very *physical* often, and once you get rid of much of that physical pain, then your spirits seem to fall into place a bit better.
Anyhow, Dr. Bob may redirect this to the other board, but I think it is important to discuss the philisophical angle behind medications, and I honestly think this is a great place for it.
There may be more questions then answers, but for the answers we do find, I think we can make *some* good out of the crap and pain. Again, I think we gotta have the symptoms under control, though. As Andrew Sololomon wrote in 'Noonday Demon', "The unexamined life is unavailable to the depressed."
Jay
poster:jay
thread:79676
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010917/msgs/79689.html