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Thread: Bipolar or depression does it really matter?

  1. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by warbo View Post
    Without knowing exactly how bad you are, maybe think about reconsidering your stance. I take Effoxor XR daily for depression and anxiety. It just helps to balance the natural chemicals such as serotonin to a more "normal" level. The only thing I am pissed about is that it wasn't prescribed to me 20 years ago.
    Thanks for being so honest and sharing warbo ,

    Being totally against drugs and alcohol I didn't like anything that is mind altering in any way, I wouldn't even use pain killers , sleeping pills etc , so what "anyone" expressed is a common fear , unfortunately the effects of taking nothing when you have serious problems is much worse than any possible side effects of SSRI's .


    Quote Originally Posted by warbo
    Anxiety kicked in for me a long long time ago. Over time I didn't even realise it wasn't normal. Then one day a wave of depression hit me like a Mack truck. It was like the grim reaper or something snuck up behind me and that was that. No reason or anything. It was the most terrifying thing I've ever experienced.

    After numerous hospital emergency visits, finally I got prescribed medication. It can take a while to find the right type, but I was lucky. Some advice to anyone thinking about following up medication is, find out first if anyone in your family suffers similar symptoms. My brother has for years and my GP had the sense to phone him to find out what medication he was taking. It worked for me too and I have felt great for nearly a year now.
    Interesting you say this , my depression started with anxiety that I struggled with for a long time which developed into severe anxiety , the only way I coped with this for so long was to be in control of everything all the time.
    Like yourself depression hit me like a meteor , it's not something that I one day said I think I might have depression., It hit me in an explosive and defined moment out of no where ! Someone could have broken into my house and faced me with a shotgun and it wouldn't have hit as hard.
    I have faced death , witnessed death and suffered things I can't mention here but this was the most intense feeling and emotion I had ever experienced , making it worse was there was no definable trigger.

    It's been a very hard fight that I have seriously come close to ending several times , I don't like giving up and my condition has helped many come to terms with theirs so I plan to stick around for a while yet.

    My case is as severe as some doctors have ever seen , I have been on maximum dosage of Lexapro for a few years now after trying a lot of other medications.,unless I wrote or spoke about it most people would never know I ever suffered anything like this so there is hope no matter how bad you feel

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  • #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by mickstv View Post
    60 Minutes are going to run a story on Charmaine Drugun obviously on Sunday night. Which will be worth watching.




    Mickstv
    Thanks heaps Mick .

  • #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by Joey View Post
    Interesting you say this , my depression started with anxiety that I struggled with for a long time which developed into severe anxiety , the only way I coped with this for so long was to be in control of everything all the time.
    Like yourself depression hit me like a meteor , it's not something that I one day said I think I might have depression., It hit me in an explosive and defined moment out of no where ! Someone could have broken into my house and faced me with a shotgun and it wouldn't have hit as hard.
    I have faced death , witnessed death and suffered things I can't mention here but this was the most intense feeling and emotion I had ever experienced , making it worse was there was no definable trigger.

    My case is as severe as some doctors have ever seen , I have been on maximum dosage of Lexapro for a few years now after trying a lot of other medications.,unless I wrote or spoke about it most people would never know I ever suffered anything like this so there is hope no matter how bad you feel
    I feel for you Joey. Fortunately for me I only experienced the depression side of things briefly. The funny thing was that for years I wondered if I had depression. Then when it hit me I realised you don't "wonder" if you have depression, you bloody well know when you do. The scariest part is not being able to see any light at the end of the tunnel and thinking you are going to feel this way for ever.

    In regards to anxiety, it's hard to understand if you don't suffer from it. It's a real physiological thing. I don't know how many times in the end I was screaming in different emergency wards that I was dying lol. It would just escalate to the point where I felt detached from myself and that my brain was just going to stop working or something. As stupid as I felt emergency staff assured me they had seen it all before and is much more common than we think.

    I've done all the CBT stuff and to be honest I didn't really get much out of it. I have a strong family history of similar conditions and I just think I was dealt a card that I can't control with out medication. It's amazing what a difference a 150mg tablet taken in the morning can make.

    Like yourself, no one would of ever known that I suffered from anxiety. Even my best mates had no idea. At the time I had a job where I did demonstrations to boards of large companies and none of them would of picked it. You just get so damn good at hiding it.

    Anyways, thankfully I've got the right balance now and I don't suffer from either condition anymore. Fingers crossed it stays that way. I'm happy to stay on effexor for the rest of my life if it keeps it away.

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    Quote Originally Posted by cwispy View Post
    Its amazing what normal feels like once you find the correct diagnosis and medication that actually works, and the correct dosage, but like you mentioned in your post, it does not happen overnight. Hell, I thought I was dying only a few days after I started taking my medication and it was a good couple of weeks before I started to get over the side effects of the tablets and at least 10 weeks before I felt the real effects.

    That was exactly my experience.

    • The appetite went away and didn't eat anything for a over a week.
    • Lost a heap of weight
    • Suffered from terrible insomnia
    • Had to get up through the night and take a piss about every hour
    • Suffered from sweating
    • Depression got worse

    Sounds like fun hey

    You just have to hope that the medication is the right one and you do a full circle in a few weeks. If it's right then all of the above is worth it!

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    How many watched the story on Charmaine Drugun on 60 minutes last night ?

    Interesting that her parents didn't know but as I have mentioned sufferers are the best at hiding this from other people , we feel hopeless and worthless enough already without burdening others.
    Charmaine was like many of us in that she was hyper critical of herself , very few even give little things like making minor mistakes a second thought , to us it can devastating and only validates your worthlessness .

    Interested to hear what other got out of seeing this program and if anyone has taken the Depression and or Bipolar Self tests ?

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    I do not know about taking tests personally, but I was truly saddened by Charmaine's story.

    I never realised that people suffering from depression could actually hide it from their loved ones.

    How can you tell if someone is suffering from depression, if they can hide it so well?

    The programme certainly opened my eyes & I only watched 60 minutes last night for the first time in years because the wife wanted to watch Sherlock Holmes.
    Some people need to get their finger out of their arse so that the brain can get some oxygen"

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    Quote Originally Posted by xnavyman View Post
    I do not know about taking tests personally, but I was truly saddened by Charmaine's story.

    I never realised that people suffering from depression could actually hide it from their loved ones.

    How can you tell if someone is suffering from depression, if they can hide it so well?

    The programme certainly opened my eyes & I only watched 60 minutes last night for the first time in years because the wife wanted to watch Sherlock Holmes.
    You can't tell if someone is suffering depression or Bipolar unless they tell you or want to talk about , this is reason I wanted to highlight these conditions after Charmaine died , she was a perfect example of how most people can appear to the outside world , It takes an enormous amount of energy and mind games to keep up the facade and hide it because you want people to think you are perfect.
    Sadness is something easily recognizable in people who are depressed but very difficult to ever see in people suffering depression because part of the facade is to appear happier and more successful than normal , the sadness of the feelings of hopelessness and constant self fight is sickening and always there , any glimmer of hope is quickly squashed in seconds.
    Basically as Charmaine's diary revealed these feeling are there every waking moment , they relentlessly beat you down until in some cases it's too much to bare.

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    Gday,

    I have suffered with depression and anxiety for quite a few years now... I am 26. I had touble in high school with being bullied and became suicidal. I left high school and started home school but couldn't complete a full year due to anxiety problems. I did seek help during this but found I was worse when seeing the psychologist than when I wasnt.. The Depression did seem to fade then found the social Isolation of home school and no real outside interests was a bad thing and I became Social Phobic. I have not been back to see my psychiatrist for about 4-5 months as am getting no where - This is the 4th person I have been to see and she has tried me on in her words "just about every psychotropic drug available".. Added to this she said I have OCD then refered me to a person that specializes in OCD and he said I don't have it.... I have lost faith in the proffesionals that are suposed to help. I still have good days and bad days - ranging from being happy and being able to go to the shops to days where I can't do a thing and end up a blubbering mess... I do still have the occasional thought of selfharm, but have to try hard to fight thru it... It is hard living with, and I think (living @ home with the folks) hard for them to live with me - they say I get angry when I am deprsd... I did regulary drink but havnt since end of feb this yr and only had a dozen drinks since.. The best thing I have found is spending time with a great friend of mine who understands most of what I have gone thru.. allthough I don't see her too often we do talk most days via f/book etc.. I have found that when we are together I can push myself beyond what I could normally do... I still also have days when deprsd I will go on a spending spree then get deprsd due to the $$ I have spent - a bad cycle... I could NOT live alone due to the way I feel nor can I work due to the social phobia.. I am against hypnosis so havent tried that and also have been told about ERT (Emotional Regressioln Therapy) but havent tried that... If anyone that does have deprsn can get some exercise - it is a great way of increasing the feel good chemicals in the brain naturally.. I do try to walk most days but not where there are people around...

    thats my rambling over with..

    James.

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    For anyone suffering Depression or Bipolar, that site has some great resources.

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