Posted by Racer on June 12, 2004, at 11:47:32
In reply to Extremely Atypical depression,PLEASE HELP!!!, posted by scatterbrained on June 11, 2004, at 20:30:45
That sounds like something that happens to me with depression, and in my case it is psychological, not brain damage (I think -- I could be wrong about that, since I do have a history of head injuries including a fractured skull)
When it happens to me, it's a sort of emotional avoidance -- I'm avoiding thinking, because I won't be able to understand something and that will frustrate me too much; I avoid doing anything that allows me to fail so that I can't fail and beat myself up over it; I avoid feeling anything because I'll be overwhelmed by it and fall apart. It's just avoidance -- as far as I know -- because I'm too depressed to do or process anything successfully.
My guess? Your meds aren't quite there, they're not working for you as well as they could be. Are you in therapy? Therapy is great for that sort of thing, because it provides a safe and supportive environment for you to learn that those really scary things aren't really going to eat you up. But, of course, if you're in that deep a state of distress, you probably do need meds to take enough of an edge off of it to allow you to take those small bites in therapy.
Best luck, and I think it's probably NOT organic brain damage. And I think you probably don't have AIDS. And I think that there are some drugs out there that might help more, but you'd have to talk to your doctor about those.
Best luck.
poster:Racer
thread:355894
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040608/msgs/356063.html