Posted by LostBoyinNC1 on July 10, 2002, at 22:24:22
In reply to Re: Real Depression, posted by Gabbi on July 10, 2002, at 13:39:53
> Why do People insist on having this argument. If it interferes with your life, its DEPRESSION Its not a bloody competition. If you have these depressed feelings that have broken free of their external causes and taken on a life of their own ITS DEPRESSION.
> As for the drug detractors, well in a perfect world no one would have to take prescriptions for anything, or wear glasses.
>
> But, and here I thank Andrew Solomon for his book "The noonday Demon" READ IT it is the ultimate book on depression, and though its not a 'self help" book its the only thing thats ever helped me feel better during a breakdown.
I dont know if Id call it the "ultimate" book on depression. I havent yet seen a book that adequately described my severe depression symptoms. In fact, most of the books Ive read that covered this topic were rather poor.Probably the best book Ive read so far when it comes to the topic of severe depression is Max Fink's "Electroshock: Restoring the Mind." I felt that book did a pretty good job of explaining how Ive felt like at times in my severe depression. Most of the books written about depression tend to focus on the purely emotional or psychological aspects of it and the people tend to introspect a lot in the books. Most books Ive seen covering mood disorders the vegetative problems (severe deterioration in sleep) arent talked about enough.
One thing that always gets on my nerves is when I read stuff about depression where its intellectualized. Like the person tries to read poetry or make their illness into an "issues" kind of thing. Mental illness has been intellectualized too much, largely because of the way its thought of by lay people (its just a "psychological" problem).
> We don't know what the side effects of all these anti-depressent drugs... true, but we DO know the side effects of untreated depression and that is at the very least a 15% suicide rate.
> In addition if you have your first depression treated it can prevent further breakdowns, however if you cycle on and off medication (and I did, I hated taking all those pills) and have subsequent depressive episodes, eventually those episodes have a great chance of increasing to the point where a technically minor disappointment can launch you into a major depressive episode. I think when this happens it must be the time when people who have never had depression think its a character flaw a "wimpy" quality: because it really must look silly to other people, but it is absolutely real to the person suffering. Whether or not they fit into someones arbitrary decision about what "depression" is.Its very true that going on and off antidepressants too frequently, bouncing on and off them, can cause these meds to lose their "punch" and effectiveness. I personally think a fair amount of treatment resistant depressions develop that way.
poster:LostBoyinNC1
thread:91928
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020709/msgs/111986.html