Posted on 08/15/2006 9:48:26 AM PDT by neverdem
Well that is the way the disorder is usually handled. But it begs the old "chicken vs. egg" question: Which came first, the physical disorder or the depression?
The classical way of understanding depression was that it is a disease of the spirit (e.g., Plato, Cicero, et al.). Modern psychotherapy/psychiatry rarely regards it in such terms. The modern approach is to assume you can successfully treat the body (hosepipe's "DonK" or donkey); and if you can do that, then anything else that ails you is fixed as well. Of course, this is to say that human psyche is an epiphenomenon of physico-chemical processes. There is very little actual rigorous foundation for such a view. But there it is anyway, a sort of modern-day superstition....
Back in the day, it was treated as a character flaw, a sign of personal weakness. Of course, back in the day, people were often treated with leeches for various minor complaints.
There are a number of medical treatments available, and they all work a little differently. Zoloft, for example, just kind of made me emotionally numb. Prozac worked fine for me, with not a single side effect.
And yes, these type of meds take several weeks before they start to work, because it takes that long to repair the nerve synapses that transmit information through your central nervous system so they can produce seratonin, so your brain can return to the same happy sense of balance you felt when you were a kid, before life descended on you with all it's problems. .
But believe me, if you have depression and somebody tells you "this can be better in 3 weeks", you'll go for it. Or maybe you won't, maybe you'll just hang with it and try to "tough it out", and stay depressed for years.
A faith in God makes a big difference, too. Just taking the time to reflect on how many ways your life is better than it could be, and praising God for your blessings can have an amazing difference on how you look at life.
That and even something like Vestibular Disorders can cause depression. I'm not diagnosed with Clinical Depression but rather G.A.D. and with that comes some depression. Origin of the G.A.D. was finally traced down to Sensory Processing Damage namely the Inner Ear. But even a UTI can make someone borderline Clinical Depression highly depressed. All too often such things get overlooked.
As for spirituality, well....it was the opposite with me. The more I prayed, the worse it got. Oh well, live and learn.
Our Spirit whether we are aware or not in our time of need prays for us. Even a moan or a groan can be such. My problem with prayer myself is concentration. I have none. Mid-way through a short prayer my mind is gone elsewhere. That's typical with Vestibular patients.
I would bet at least in 75% of the cases the physical disorder came first. My physical disorder went years undiagnosed actually most of my life. I found out what was wrong by luck. My physical disorder was a key factor in setting me up for PTSD, OCB, and G.A.D. I got rid of two of three over time after I finally discovered the primary cause of the G.A.D. The G.A.D. is permenant as is my Vestibular Disorder as they are cause and effect conditions.
Mine was ADD and a newbie thing called DESNOS; both have depression as components.
And yeah, I have the attention span of a gnat.
I used to be the person who told depressed people to "just get over it". Then I had a massive heart attack. I had a lot of trouble afterwards concentrating on anything and just don't enjoy things that I used to. I don't feel "sad" - I just don't feel anything.
I have friends that are psychologists, they tell me I need to go on medication. I'm afraid to since I have seen people on antidepressants walking around like zombies.
I'm also a bit wary of lying on a psychiatrist couch and reliving my bad experiences from childhood.
I keep waiting to get back to "normal" - but nothing has changed.
Someone told me it might not have been the heart attack that triggered the depression (though the experts say the younger you are when you have one - the worse the depression is - I was only 43 when I had mine), it might be the heart medication causing it.
I suppose sooner or later I'll have to go to a doctor, get medication and join the ranks of the living dead. I'll put it off as long as I can.
Well you did live and learn najida!!! Spiritual processes both, I'd say. The important thing is you pulled through that "dark night of the soul." (And perhaps the "pull" that did the trick was something beyond yourself....)
As cva66snipe pointed out earlier, Job experienced profound depression; but he with the help of God recovered. I have often wondered what the depression of St. John of the Cross was like, in his frightful descent into the profound darkness of his own "dark night of the soul," contemplatively induced yet utterly horrific for him, I can easily imagine. I have had experiences like that (rarely), yet I'm sure they were no way near to what John's (or Job's) sufferings were like. Yet the feeling of being surrounded and engulfed by limitless, shifting dark entities seeking your extinction can be a truly scary experience. For me, the answer was simply to hunker down, try not to be afraid, trust in the Lord and wait for Him to rescue me. And then He would. And then I'd be fine.
I don't have experiences like that anymore. However, were such to return, I would refuse pharmacological and/or ECT therapies for a certain fact.
Just curious I got some questions. Did you have any of the following as an adult or kid? Sinus allergies, Chronic Ear Infections, Feverol Seizures, or an adult Inner Ear infection?
For me it was the opposite,
because my history of depression came out of years of abuse in a 'spiritual' setting. There ain't a bible verse you can read to me that doesn't trigger a memory of physical, mental or sexual abuse. God/Father/Molestor are all one in the same...one day I may fix it, until then, I just stay away.
Walking away from trying to fit into the perfect religious mold was the first step in fixing what was broken. That and some really good Drs. and meds that work. Plus learning all I can...identifying what has physical components, what things are clearly genetic, what is fixable and what I have to learn to live with.
No,
I was raised by a pack of rabid wolves (in human form). :)
My first 'suicide' attempt was when I was 8, I took a half bottle of aspirin. I remember being on a crying jag for hours prior. It wasn't until this year that I managed to back track and remember what caused the crying jag.... :(
Being put under can do it. Do you experience anxiety also? In my life I've fired 5 shrinks. I had a LCSW who did wonders in dealing with the PTSS and OCB. The OCB was an over compensation for the loss of my concentration and inability to preform task. I was a maintenance man and Boiler Operator and I was screwing up. The OCB came form me rechecking my work multiple times. The PTSD was an accumulation of some traumatic events over a 10 year period the last of which was a minor car accident in which although I was not at fault I thought an infant in the car that hit me had died. Turns out the lad slept through the ordeal. All of that I had dealt with and kept in check until my sensory system went on vacation one night and never came back. The onset that night could have easily been mistaken for a nervous breakdown too. But an old woman who was a resident patient at the facility I worked at help the clue.
I had received a call to go to an apartment to {check out} fix a loud nose in the residents room. When I got there the poor woman was in tears. I asked what was wrong she said make the noise stop please. I said OK where is it coming from? She took me to her air conditioner. I turned it off and she was crying Oh thank you. Was she crazy?
I went to the nurse and told her what happened. The nurse said she came home that day from the hospital like that. What was the womans problem? An Inner Ear infection it seems.
I left the nurse and went back down to my shop to take a break. I was sitting down and leaning back against a door. My shop was next to the time clock and someone behind the door yelled down the hallway at someone else. I about went to the ceiling. My mind started shutting down and I was very aware of it. I knew I was in trouble. Within minutes I could barely speak. I called in a relief as by law someone had to be there for the boiler. That was the last night I worked 12 years ago.
I went the SSRI and antidepressant route. I about had a couple of Serotonin migrations from it. But I didn't know at that time I had sensory damage. I actually take a well known Benzo to control it as with this also comes Myloclonic Seizures triggered by audio and visual saturation. On bad days I stay home in a nice quiet enviroment.
I know someone who was absed as a kid and that person does have depression. Add to that some more things that happed along the way as well. In cases like this the abusers usally are sadist. They try to steal the innocence of kids for what ever perverse reason their warped mind drives them to. Unfortuaately some of them hide or rather use postitions of trust to do this calling themselves parents or even preachers. Make no mistake GOD will judge such as these. Now what you posted about praying makes perfect sense it's a reminder or a trigger.
When I said about 75% of depression comes from physical issues I wasn't trying to make light of ones that come from just plain horrible events either. I've seen both situations and know of a combined one as well.
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LOL! This thread is really starting to cheer me up.
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ROFLOL! I recommend everyone read this thread. There's a wealth of good advice here.
Well, at least that one was funny.
I missed most of first grade (6-7 years old) for chronic ear infections and tonsillitis. In fact, I still have predictable difficulty with my left ear (drain tube installed at same time as T&A)and I'll be 41 in a couple months. No vertigo though, not anything remarkable anyway. Tube was removed about 8 weeks post-op, so that's not there anymore either.
If there's a cause/effect with this, the impact could be staggering. Think of all those day-care kids that suffered ear infections, ultimately leading to tubes. It's almost a rite of passage (my own daughter included).
And finally for the record....slight GAD and OCD here!!!
That hasn't been my case with anti-depressants, but many people take tranquilizers when they are depressed, and they can "zombify" ya pretty good. That may be what you have seen.
Anti-depressants don't make you feel downed out, they just make you normal and rational again. Take your doctor's advice, you will thank yourself for it.
Not at all. In fact one of my problems is that I don't worry about things I really SHOULD be worrying about.
Many people I know who take anti-depressants say that they no longer worry about things - they just don't care about things that used to drive them crazy.
All the more reason for me not to take them. I don't worry enough now - God knows what shape I'd be in if I was worrying even LESS!
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