BF2S Forums How do you deal with depression?

PS If all else fails
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KiJIDQ6WX … mp;index=6
She must have sense of humour.

There are several types of depression. There is normal depression, which one might experience if things are going badly for you, and there is clinical depression, which is something that is inherent in you and that may not be related in any way to how your life is actually going. I'm going to give advice based on the premise that you are suffering from clinical depression. This is how my downward spiral played out, along with other facts:

1. I inherited a susceptibility to clinical depression from my mother (for which she never received any treatment and who is fine now after suffering it for perhaps as many as 10 years).

2. I suffer from a chemical imbalance of the brain. My brain consumes serotonin faster than it produces it. Serotonin is a chemical necessary for mood regulation and allowing one to feel confident. Pepole who take ecstasy get their buzz from the fact that exstasy rapidly depletes their stock of serotonin in a short space of time - the aftermanth being deep depression until their next hit.

3. Causal factors in my depression include, I personally believe, the fact that I was almost totally deaf until the age of about 6, which stunted my social development leaving me forever feeling like the outcast, desperate to 'belong'.

4. All my life up until I was in uni I always regarded my mindset as normal - incredibly pessimistic, defensive, mildly paranoid (this would get worse later on), lacking in confidence and self esteem. I never knew any different so I didn't anything of it - life was just one long trudge of suffering punctuated by a few 'happy' moments. I would pore over all social interaction I had and beat myself up inside over saying what I thought were stupid things. I was 100% overboard on analysis of everything I did and of how I perceived others viewed me. I was a nervous emotional wreck teetering on the brink of collapse. Most of my thoughts concentrated on punishing me and my weaknesses, I pretty much had an internal bully telling me how ugly/stupid/pointless/hopeless I was. After years of this, and of years thinking this is normal, it begins to take its toll.

5. After uni I took a job at a manufacturing plant that turned out to be terrible for me. The place was a complete hope vacuum - a real den of misery. Heading to work each day was dreaded - a trip into hell. I quit a year in after my production manager was made to resign under threats of looking up porn on his computer (just a plot to get rid of him by the CEO). I didn't know it then heading into a three month unemployment but leaving that shithole was the best thing I have ever done.

6. Unemployment and the search for new employment was absolutely soul destroying. Monotony. Hopelessness. Worthlessness. My depression worsened as did my paranoia and I even began to withdraw from friends. My chest even began to feel kind of hollow. The constant stress eroded every facet of normal behaviour I had. At this time I realised there was something seriously up. I read books on depression and the book that at the time was terrible for my mental health but that I now regard as one of the most important reads of my life: 'Introductory Lectures On Psychoanalysis' by Sigmund Freud. It gave me 100% total self awareness, which has more cons than pros for someone suffering from depression - cold, hard logic can be bad for you sometimes.

6. I finally got a job with my current employers but at that stage the damage was done - about a month in, finding it difficult in my state to integrate with my new colleagues, plagued by self-analysis and fault finding, I came home from work one day and phoned my mother and told her that I had to go to a doctor (I had always held the view that I could get out of a mental problem by resolving it myself - mentally, so this was a major departure) to deal with my depression and if that didn't work I would be at a dead end, no longer able to function as a normal human being, better off dead (although I never seriously entertained the idea of suicide, despite my suffering).

7. I went to the doctor and he prescribed my with 20mg of cipramil daily and organised a counsellor. I went to the counsellor for about 10 weeks at which point I dispensed with her services, I did not find any benefit in them. After a month of the medicine however I felt like I had never felt before - I felt like a normal human being for the first time. I could be me and everyone else could go fuck themselves. It didn't change my personality it simply allowed me to be myself and to be me unashamedly. Over the following months there were dips, as I was told to expect as my body got used to the medicine, but the medicine has given me my life back.

8. 5 years on I am currently in the process of ramping down to 10mg instead of 20mg. My life is now exciting, fulfilling and the best part: normal.

Advice: You need to be sure that you are not just going through a phase. The dopamine you get from exercise is a great way of boosting your mood, as is setting yourself goals and achieving them. Laying off alcohol a bit in the short term is wise. Keeping regular hours of sleep and engaging in new and interesting activities will divert your mind from your problems, expose you to new people and boost your mood also. Only go to a doctor if you are at the end of your tether and perhaps try counselling before medicine: different people and different depressions respond to different treatments.

A final point:

People who tell you to 'Snap out of it' deserve to be punched in the face.

Force yourself into the social scene again, even if you really really don't feel like it: take every opportutinity to get out and about. Your unconscious mind wants to keep you in a state of wallowing and self pity - you will try and convince yourself of great reasons why you 'shouldn't go out': ignore this. Force yourself back out there. Depression is like having another you inside you trying to destroy you and trying to convince you why you're worthless and it will do everything to preserve you in your state of misery.

Last edited by CameronPoe (2007-12-20 06:02:41)

Find a lot of different types of people to talk to. Sheltering yourself only makes it worse.

Well, I'd just like to say:
Thank you to everyone, and it seems like going to Switzerland has been like therapy to me. I was no longer in the room that contained so many memories,I cried it all out, I've been around family that loves me, I've realized I have friends who love me and I've gone out and had genuine fun. I'm doing good... I guess what kept me tied to her are the memories, and what could have been, as well as the fact that it was my first really big relationship, the first long distance relationship and the first person I ever had sex with.

Glad that's over now. I feel free. Cam, I'm enjoying the "club".

Thank you all!

-konfusion

-=CB=-krazykarl wrote:

hey kon how old r u bro?

18.

-konfusion

Exercise. It's sometime hard to notice when you're feeling normal but I definetly feel a lot better when I'm depressed.

Seriously, when I was 16, "fell in love" with this one girl and we did everything together, and then I found out that she'd been cheating with some older dudes when she went to her house in Spain. My god I was pissed off.
I got really depressed and everything, because my god I really loved her!

But then a couple of years later when you're working/studying for college/paying rent/car. blah blah blah you forget about it and actually can see the funny side of it!

Like when I found out that she'd been cheating on me I started to rub stab myself with a compass in Maths and I didn;t realise what I was doing until I must have hit a vein because dark red blood was really trickling out of my hand and soaked my maths book. Back then I was horrified that a girl like that had got to me! No adays I find the whole thing hilarious.

I'm sure you will too in a couple of years. Also who knows in a few years time when you leave school what's stopping you from hooking up again? When both of you have forgotten everything and your more mature and you know more ways to  make each other happy.

(For example the girl I was talking about grew MASSIVE tits.... We banged once and that was her out of my head!)



EDIT:

DAMN! I didn't read the rest of the thread all of that for nothing!

Last edited by ShowMeTheMonkey (2007-12-23 17:23:57)

konfusion wrote:

As soon as I don't have a distraction, I become so depressed that my mind switches to suicidal mode. I don't trust myself to take the tube anymore because of the thoughts that keep flashing through my brain.

Ignore those thoughts. I'm not sure if you've heard the quote "suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem" or whatever it is, but remember it.

You just don't know what will come up next. It's easy to get in a rut. I suggest you just try some new things and know that your attitude might change any day. Meet some new people, learn about a new topic, pick up a new hobby, etc. It's a pretty big world. That one girl might have taken up a lot of your attention, so you feel like you've lost a lot in the breakup, but it will only take another girl to fill your attention that much and you must realize there is a whole world of them.

I dont get depressed. Ive learnt to deal with this thing called life. I get sad then get over it.

My only words of advice (as harsh as they might seem) are "man up".

B.Schuss wrote:

be social. Be around people, go out, meet friends and make new ones. If you are sure that breaking up was the right thing to do, then you will get over it eventually, because you know in your heart it was the right decision.

Sports is a good way to relieve stress and get back into shape at the same time. That, and going out. Tits, ass and workout, that's my strategy.

Lol yes it helps )))

I would add: playing the guitar (in my case) or doing any art helps. Often you can create something impressive during depresion.