Posted by Brody on September 7, 2007, at 16:32:17
In reply to To Brody, posted by deniseuk190466 on September 6, 2007, at 16:14:51
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> Do you think the therapy will help you to come off the medication then? I guess that would be the real test. >
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>I will be happy to give you my take on this, but I am an expert only with regard to my personal experience. There are many people at PB with a different perspective and experience. Perhaps they will jump in here.
Off meds? I don't know. I have been successfully off of AD's for periods of time in between major depressive episodes, however I know that I seem to follow the predicted model for relapsing: There is less time between each successive major depression, and each one lasts longer. And it seemed that there was the ever present dysthmyia, even when the severe episodes were abated.
It may be that I will always need medication. If I do, I hope I will be one of the fortunate ones that manages to find relief from it, even if it takes some trials. I am so grateful for the ones that are working for me right now.
My depression does seem to me to be situational in it's inception.... it is always waiting, ready to pounce and take me down whenever certain stressors are present in my life. And once it gets a grip, I know I have a battle on my hands. That's when the anti-depressants have saved my life.
However, I can look back at the various degrees of severity and duration of the worst depressive periods, and draw parallels to my life circumstances, and more importantly, my method of responding to them.
Since adulthood, (I am 52) I have gone through 4 or 5 different periods of psychoanalysis, and the sum total of my babbling away to psychologists over the course of 30 years didn't produce any significant change in insight that I could detect.... certainly nothing with any lasting consequence.
This does seem quite a bit different to me. CBT is very hands on, with lots of homework, and it is a process that I can logically follow. At the end of which I hope will be a more correct core belief system about myself. Theoretically, these core beliefs affect every thought I have about myself and others and the world I live in. If they are out of whack (do you use that phrase in the UK?), they are likely affecting my behavior, and over time, possibly my mental health.
Some (including the doctor that prescribes my medication) believe that CBT can reduce the incidence of relapse in major depression. That got my attention.
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> I also wonder about CBT, because I know that when medication is helping me I don't even have the same thoughts as I do as when it is not. So therefore there aren't the same thoughts to challenge, I'm like two different people. So I still can't see how CBT can work.>
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Yes! I hear what you are saying! In fact, when I first had to do some "scoring" of my core beliefs about myself, I found it difficult to answer the questions, because my answers today are significantly different than they would have been when I was majorly-depressed a couple of months ago. I could barely get out of a chair. The self loathing was palpable.But I haven't forgotten how that felt. I use my recall and answer questions the way I know I would in a severe depression. I think it doesn't really matter what the scores are.... the work is the same. You just do the work and see what develops.
I have only my own brief experience with it to go by. I know no one personally for whom it has been successful. Like everything else offered up for relieving the pain of depression.... it won't work for all.
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> I mean when I'm depressed, I feel sick, tired, anxious, empty, weak, that's a fact. I'm not thinking negatively about how I'm feeling, I'm thinking realistically. >
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I know. It's a dreadful, awful, nasty, vicious, debilitating illness. I did not imagine my physical symptoms... they are very real. I will try anything to feel better.
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> But thanks again and I will order the book and try and be open minded. >
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Denise.... I think you may have hit on it here.... if you do want to give it a go, and if you can, maybe to suspend doubt for the sake of the experiment could be one link to any successful outcome. I figure, what have I got to lose?
Janet
poster:Brody
thread:780829
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070831/msgs/781434.html