Am I dealing with depression?

Am I dealing with depression?

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User4567

Original Poster:

1 posts

127 months

Wednesday 7th August 2013
quotequote all
I'm posting under an anonymous profile for obvious reasons.

Lately I've been constantly feeling down. Like, I'm worthless... a failure... a disappointment to everyone. I don't get joy from anything lately and I'm barely sleeping. Getting a phone call from my dad earlier telling me that I never do anything properly in my life and that I shouldn't contact him really hasn't helped. In fact, it's made it 10x worse. I've been thinking that if I was to die, no one would miss/care about me.

It's half three in the morning and I'm trying to hold it together, but I'm failing. I don't want any sympathy, I just want to know if I'm dealing with depression or not.

Thanks.

forsure

2,117 posts

267 months

Wednesday 7th August 2013
quotequote all
You might be, but you need to seek expert advice.
See your Doc; or call Samaritans - they should be able to answer your question and give you some guidance.

Digger

14,588 posts

190 months

Wednesday 7th August 2013
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I'd suggest you might be depressed. Ring them (Samaritans) for a friendly chat 08457 90 90 90 , but you should seriously consider popping in to see your GP for a similar chat

You're dad didnt do you any favours earlier.

Keep using this thread as an outlet, if it helps of course.

Best of Luck. smile

hidetheelephants

23,731 posts

192 months

Wednesday 7th August 2013
quotequote all
Could be depression, but 3am in the morning is pretty much a low point for human beings. Speak to your GP.

Jazzer

1,665 posts

203 months

Wednesday 7th August 2013
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Many of our problems stem from deep-rooted family issues, especially from our relationships with parents, who can pull us down all too easily, just as your Dad did to you.

You're going through a low point and this is actually far more common than you might think.

Speak to your GP to air your feelings, but try to avoid tablets for now.

Things that will help....

Stop worrying if you can't sleep, get up and watch a film or read a book....your body will sleep when it's ready to!

Get up early and get out every day, don't mope around the house or watch daytime TV.

Cut out booze completely.

Exercise daily, preferably long walks....walking a neighbour's dog would be great.

Take a vitamin B supplement to boost your immune system.

Eat well, cutting out crap like fast food. Superfoods like blueberries and strawberries can really boost your mood.

Keep talking to others, especially those who have been there and bought the T-shirt, avoiding the "pull yourself together"-mob like the plague.

You will get through this, I promise that.

V8covin

7,212 posts

192 months

Wednesday 7th August 2013
quotequote all
I know it's easier said than done but if you focus on the negatives in your life it makes you feel worse so try to block out the negative thoughts and concentrate on the things in your life that could bring you happiness if you apply a more positive mindset.

There are always things in our lives we'd like to change but can't so best not to waste energy worrying about it.
Being around other more positive people might help too so try to put yourself in that kind of environment if possible.

good luck

Prof Prolapse

16,160 posts

189 months

Thursday 8th August 2013
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V8covin said:
I know it's easier said than done but if you focus on the negatives in your life it makes you feel worse so try to block out the negative thoughts and concentrate on the things in your life that could bring you happiness if you apply a more positive mindset.
If he's got endogenous depression, you've just told him to hold back the ocean.

Ultimately negative thoughts begat negative thoughts. Your brain has evolved to reinforce pathways that are used most often so becomes trained to think in a negative way. Eventually negativity is not only all you do, it's all you are physically capable of. It's not just an airy fairy thing, it's a physiological manifestation.

Don't piss around with B-vitamins. Go to your GP. Get medication. Get proper help. It's not an admission of failure on your part, lots of people more successful than you or I have suffered from endogenous depression (Winston Churchill for example). You get on the meds, you retrain your brain. You turn your life around, you get off the meds again.

Also, in case of not been clear, any man who says he hasn't needed help is a liar. There's no shame in it.

I've been there and back again. I'd tell you not to worry but I know you will anyway. You won't sleep, you can't relax and it won't get better unless you do something. Fortunately all you need to do is wander down to your GP. You don't even need a psychiatric referral if they decide you're depressed. It's an appointment followed by the first step towards a cure.

Best of luck in any instance.



dandarez

13,244 posts

282 months

Thursday 8th August 2013
quotequote all
Prof Prolapse said:
V8covin said:
I know it's easier said than done but if you focus on the negatives in your life it makes you feel worse so try to block out the negative thoughts and concentrate on the things in your life that could bring you happiness if you apply a more positive mindset.
If he's got endogenous depression, you've just told him to hold back the ocean.

Ultimately negative thoughts begat negative thoughts. Your brain has evolved to reinforce pathways that are used most often so becomes trained to think in a negative way. Eventually negativity is not only all you do, it's all you are physically capable of. It's not just an airy fairy thing, it's a physiological manifestation.

Don't piss around with B-vitamins. Go to your GP. Get medication. Get proper help. It's not an admission of failure on your part, lots of people more successful than you or I have suffered from endogenous depression (Winston Churchill for example). You get on the meds, you retrain your brain. You turn your life around, you get off the meds again.

Also, in case of not been clear, any man who says he hasn't needed help is a liar. There's no shame in it.

I've been there and back again. I'd tell you not to worry but I know you will anyway. You won't sleep, you can't relax and it won't get better unless you do something. Fortunately all you need to do is wander down to your GP. You don't even need a psychiatric referral if they decide you're depressed. It's an appointment followed by the first step towards a cure.

Best of luck in any instance.
Yeah, there's nothing to worry about. 47 million anti-depressant prescriptions were handed out in 2012. UK.
You'll be in good company!

Just pray the GP doesn't prescribe you the wrong AD.
Like my friend, who a few days in from taking them decided in their wisdom to halt their car on the way to work, get up on the parapet of a bridge and jump in. Luckily they could swim. Came into work, sobbing and clothes dripping on the floor and had no idea why it happened. GP immediately changed prescription and person is now very well and progressing. Apart from acute weight gain (apparently this is common).

Just imagine if instead of the bridge parapet, it had been a different mind altering decision? Like crossing the central reservation into oncoming traffic. Doesn't bear thinking about does it.

Unfortunately, as you say, you don't need referral help, you just wander down to your GP, and they'll virtually hand a pack of ADs to you. The millions handed out last year tell you that.



Prof Prolapse

16,160 posts

189 months

Thursday 8th August 2013
quotequote all
dandarez said:
Yeah, there's nothing to worry about. 47 million anti-depressant prescriptions were handed out in 2012. UK.
You'll be in good company!

Just pray the GP doesn't prescribe you the wrong AD.
Like my friend, who a few days in from taking them decided in their wisdom to halt their car on the way to work, get up on the parapet of a bridge and jump in. Luckily they could swim. Came into work, sobbing and clothes dripping on the floor and had no idea why it happened. GP immediately changed prescription and person is now very well and progressing. Apart from acute weight gain (apparently this is common).

Just imagine if instead of the bridge parapet, it had been a different mind altering decision? Like crossing the central reservation into oncoming traffic. Doesn't bear thinking about does it.

Unfortunately, as you say, you don't need referral help, you just wander down to your GP, and they'll virtually hand a pack of ADs to you. The millions handed out last year tell you that.
You see this is exactly the problem. People like you think they know best and they pressure people who would genuine benefit into not getting the help they need. Who is best placed to deal with the person's medical care? A GP trained to diagnose with decades of training, not you because your mate suffered.

I'm sorry about what happened to your friend but it proves nothing. It's not even n=1, there's a massive number of factors that could have caused the incident. I cannot believe you're being so irresponsible as to try and undermine a medical profession when a person needs help. They need to be encouraged to seek professional help not told horror stories. For every unfortunate instance there are millions that benefit.

There's no bloody problem with ADs. They're useful and work. If they were so dangerous they wouldn't be prescribed in the 10s of millions of instances.

Also, lets be clear about where that "47 million" figure comes from. Anti-depressants aren't just handed out for depression. They're given for other conditions like IBS and funnily enough I was only saying the other day that they use them tinnitus. Don't believe everything you read in the daily mail.

Your GP is trained to diagnose depression. A referral would do nothing but delay the same diagnosis. A psychiatrists time is better spent dealing with more complex mental illnesses. That's why they do it. Not because everyone is an idiot.

Also of course they'll hand you a packet if you ask. What exactly do you expect them to do? It's a disease of the mind, they can't exactly give you a fking blood test. Or deny you treatment after you ask for it.


Lord save us from the armchair expert.

Insanity Magnet

616 posts

152 months

Friday 9th August 2013
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As stated above, families are troublesome. The closer the relative, the longer lasting the wound.

OP, my approach, as a formally diagnosed recurrent depressive (but not a medic), would be to have a look at the list of GPs at your surgery and try to identify if any of them have a special interest in mental health (GPs tend to have 'interests' / specialities) and then make an appointment to see him/her/it. They are the most likely to have a good handle on diagnosis, whether or not you should be sent for triage (don't worry, normally just a chat, probably with a psychologist), whether you should embark on a course of drugs, if there is a particular type you might try, or whether talking therapies might be more appropriate.

Feel free to PM me if you need to talk to someone.






Petrolhead95

7,043 posts

153 months

Friday 9th August 2013
quotequote all
Thank you for the replies, I appreciate it a lot. I made a different username because I was ashamed and embarrassed about it, but after talking to a friend that has quite bad depression I don't feel as ashamed. Unfortunately I've got another abscess which is no doubtfully caused by stress, but hey ho.

I think I'll go and see my doctor and go from there as I've never been involved in something like this before. I got told earlier that I couldn't have depression because I'm young and there's nothing to be depressed about - great help.

Anyway, thanks again!

mug81

256 posts

143 months

Friday 9th August 2013
quotequote all
OP... I get you. I've been there. Tried to do it myself after losing my highly paid job, fiance, a spell in rehab andPoppa Mug passing on. And, I even managed to balls that up! Couldn't even get that right, hopeless. But, and I'm only just wriggling out the other side now, it DOES get better. Even when you convince yourself it's not going to happen, it really does. Stick tight to your oldest pals, and try to deflect what the 'nearest and dearest' throw at you. They don't get it, and never will. All about you buddy.

If you want to talk nonsense to someone who has almost certainly made more of a balls up than you, pm me dude- always up for life/car chat

Insanity Magnet

616 posts

152 months

Friday 9th August 2013
quotequote all
Prof Prolapse said:
You see this is exactly the problem. People like you think they know best and they pressure people who would genuine benefit into not getting the help they need. Who is best placed to deal with the person's medical care? A GP trained to diagnose with decades of training, not you because your mate suffered.

I'm sorry about what happened to your friend but it proves nothing. It's not even n=1, there's a massive number of factors that could have caused the incident. I cannot believe you're being so irresponsible as to try and undermine a medical profession when a person needs help. They need to be encouraged to seek professional help not told horror stories. For every unfortunate instance there are millions that benefit.

There's no bloody problem with ADs. They're useful and work. If they were so dangerous they wouldn't be prescribed in the 10s of millions of instances.

Also, lets be clear about where that "47 million" figure comes from. Anti-depressants aren't just handed out for depression. They're given for other conditions like IBS and funnily enough I was only saying the other day that they use them tinnitus. Don't believe everything you read in the daily mail.

Your GP is trained to diagnose depression. A referral would do nothing but delay the same diagnosis. A psychiatrists time is better spent dealing with more complex mental illnesses. That's why they do it. Not because everyone is an idiot.

Also of course they'll hand you a packet if you ask. What exactly do you expect them to do? It's a disease of the mind, they can't exactly give you a fking blood test. Or deny you treatment after you ask for it.


Lord save us from the armchair expert.
Works both ways though. Anti-depressants are not without fault (from my own experience).

NICE guideline CG90 is an interesting read. Short format is easiest, the full guideline for when you really can't sleep and your brain is trying to crawl out through your ears...

Centurion07

10,381 posts

246 months

Friday 9th August 2013
quotequote all
Prof Prolapse said:
...there's a massive number of factors that could have caused the incident.
Yes, there are. One of which is a possible side effect of being prescribed the wrong anti-depressant making the symptoms much much worse. Admittedly it's unlikely but it can and does happen and you need to be aware of that.

Edited by Centurion07 on Friday 9th August 22:13

NNH

1,515 posts

131 months

Friday 9th August 2013
quotequote all
OP - I hope you can get help and advice from your GP today. I found myself in a similar position early last year. My GP was brilliant: she talked me through the benefits and downsides of ADs versus other treatments, and we agreed on a course of Prozac and a series of sessions of talking therapy.

The ADs got me through the initial 6 months, while the therapy helped me build some long-term techniques for dealing with lows. Perhaps more importantly, it let me feel OK about telling three people who could support me through the bad patches, and led me to change my job to something I really enjoy.

It's 18 months on, and things are much better. I also have a greater sense of perspective, and I know when I need to use some of the self-help techniques I was taught.

Please, please, get help asap, and try to find at least one person to confide in. If it's any help at all to hear more about it, feel free to PM.

PS You'd be amazed how many people around you have been treated for depression at some point!

EV11NED

856 posts

152 months

Friday 9th August 2013
quotequote all
To give my own experience, I've been on Fluoxetine for over 2 years now and it really helps. Prior to that, I was prescribed Citalopram which really didn't, and made me worse.

OP, yes please do go and see your GP. They will ask lots of questions, they have a form of questions they go through to make a determination of your state of mind. If you are prescribed tablets, please take them as prescribed. I had one friend who would take them whenever she felt like it, going a couple of days without and then wondered why they didn't work.

Wrt tablets, be prepared to feel strange for the first couple of weeks - they have to build up in your system before they start to work properly. If after this time you don't feel like they are working, go back to your GP and discuss switching tablets. Given my experience, I wish I'd known this was an option sooner.

As said above, talking therapies also help. I've been seeing a counsellor every week for the past 3 years. Expensive, but worth every penny as at one time I never believed I could possibly feel like I do now.

Please feel free to PM me if you'd like any other info, or even a chat/rant/whatever. I have been to the darkest place I can imagine and I found a way back, you can too.

Prof Prolapse

16,160 posts

189 months

Friday 9th August 2013
quotequote all
Petrolhead95 said:
Thank you for the replies, I appreciate it a lot. I made a different username because I was ashamed and embarrassed about it, but after talking to a friend that has quite bad depression I don't feel as ashamed. Unfortunately I've got another abscess which is no doubtfully caused by stress, but hey ho.

I think I'll go and see my doctor and go from there as I've never been involved in something like this before. I got told earlier that I couldn't have depression because I'm young and there's nothing to be depressed about - great help.

Anyway, thanks again!
I'm pleased you've decided to use your real username mate. There's a real stigma about mental health and it's treatment and it's perpetuated by morons who like to tell horror stories.

There's always outliers. There's always risks and the solution is never a one step, but the first step should always be towards someone who knows what the fk they're doing.

Anyway, I'm rambling. Best of luck to you brother. I've been there and back again. Needless to say if you want advice from somebody who has actually rebuilt themselves, as opposed to reading about it, give me a shout.





Backseatdriver

170 posts

235 months

Saturday 10th August 2013
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Never feel ashamed about admitting mental illness. It can happen to ANYONE. Don't be afraid to take appropriate medication, you would take it for any other condition without any negative thoughts. The same applies to visits to a psychiatrist. If you've got something wrong with your heart you visit the heart specialist - if there is something wrong with your mind you visit the psychiatrist. Simple. Also if anyone is questioning this I speak from experience.

mph1977

12,467 posts

167 months

Saturday 10th August 2013
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OP yes you could be depressed. were you sober when feeling like this and when you posted ? ( as alcohol can make you feel depressed and things out of proportion - it;s very easy to get maudlin at 3am after a skinful of ale )

If you feel like doing something 'silly' or drastic get the ooH GP or get down to A+E otherwise take it easy and get a GP appointment ASAP after the weekend .

Red 4

10,744 posts

186 months

Saturday 10th August 2013
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Petrolhead95 said:
Thank you for the replies, I appreciate it a lot. I made a different username because I was ashamed and embarrassed about it, but after talking to a friend that has quite bad depression I don't feel as ashamed.

I think I'll go and see my doctor and go from there as I've never been involved in something like this before. I got told earlier that I couldn't have depression because I'm young and there's nothing to be depressed about - great help.
I know what you mean about feeling ashamed and embarrassed about it. I did/ do too. It is part of the illness. Guilt ...

I'm also glad you decided to use your real username. I'm using mine but hey, it's an anonymous forum, although I frequent these parts a fair bit.

Depression, anxiety and a whole host of other mental illnesses are much more common than you would think. There is usually a trigger for it - can you think what yours was ?

As others have said - seek advice and help. The worse thing you can do is try to hold back the river and continue as if everything is ok when it isn't. I did that and imploded and exploded simultaneously - I am quite a strong person with a strong personality and I tried to refuse to accept my condition and try and get on with it. When I could no longer do that it wasn't pretty. Diagnosed with depression, anxiety, PTSD.

You are not alone. Hope that helps.