Depression?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

art.chick

Contributor
Messages
823
Reaction score
4
Location
Hollywood, USA
# of dives
100 - 199
Have any of you known anyone who fought depression for an extended period of time? How was it treated? How effective was the treatment? Did the patient take a long time to seek out treatment?
 
I'm not sure what you mean by extended period, but yes, I did go through a very bad period a few years ago.

I went into therapy, spent huge amounts of money for close to nothing, got out of it almost by myself when I finally found a job.

The whole process lasted about a year.
 
Hi Art Chick,

The main question is, how severe / debilitaing is the depression?

Lydia's (my partner of 20+ years) father died, after a long battle with heart surgery complications, in January of 2001. Her mother, Jean, had been suffering minor depression for most of the 6 months of his hospitalization between the surgery and passing. Her GP had perscribed some mild anti-depressants. Jean seemed OK for a few months after her husband's death, but by spring of 2001 was exibiting signs of a manic / deprssive cycle, phychosis, and even suicidal thoughts.

Jean has had a long battle with this, that I don't need to go into here, but ulitmately, Electro Convulsive Therapy (ECT) has litterally been a life-saver for her. It was administered under a hospital requested court order at first, but so far she is continuing with the maintenance treatments at her own discretion.

ECT is not for everyone, but for those who do not respond to medications, or can not tollerate the side effects, it can be critical to their recovery. Please don't imagine scenes from "One Flew Over The Cookoo's Nest", it simply isn't like that anymore. If you were to witness someone receiving ECT, you might see their toes twitch, and that's about it. The worst side effect is a temporary short-term memory loss.

Feel free to PM me if you'd like more details.

Take Care,
Scuba-sass :)
 
Hmm. I went through a period of depression that lasted over a year. The cause was the death of my new born daughter. I have been an avid photographer from my teens. While in high school I was shooting upwards of 200 frames per day, and on weekends I would double that. There is just so much in Europe. I have continued shooting and now teach photography in high school. But the day my daughter died so did my 'Lust For Life' and I stopped shooting, (and didn't take a single frame for over a year) and quit my job a few weeks later.
I was never one to raise my voice or express anger. That proved to be a big problem. When my anger came out I was really frightened and scared my sweet wife more than I can say. I won't go into details, but after I regained my composure I know I had a big problem. My wife found a 'Grief Coping Center'. I went and found that I could talk with strangers about my feelings in a way that really helped. I have not recovered from the death of my daughter. It is not something that is recoverable, but I cope pretty good these days. I also raise my voice from time to time, and that helps. I stopped holding on to the pain.
The point is this: I found that I could open up to people I did not know and were having the same pain and my pain became livable.

I have a dear friend that has been depressed on and off from childhood. He tried therapy and medication, but what worked in the end was physical exercise. He controls his depression by strenuous activity.

Hope this helps...
Dave
 
I have seen severe depression that was ultimately diagnosed as a chemical imbalance (possibly precipitated by surgery and/or the drugs administered during/after surgery).

A few weeks of treatment (more drugs to correct the chemical imbalance) and the person fully recovered and has not required any further therapy.
 
Here's a link to a non-drug and non-invasive treatment that is under study (I haven't read this link, I just knew where to find it)Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

<Edit> I went back and read the link. It is a series of posts, but only the first two talk about the Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation.
 
Somethjing else just came to my mind, and it took a few hours for it to come to the surface.

I just lost a very good friend of mine to depression: 45, beautiful woman, she decided to put an end to her life by throwing herself out of a window of her flat on the 5th floor.

She had been depressed for a number of years, anorexic (rare case at this age), under constant medical treatment, and for the last few months totally unable to go back to work.

I always had a strong feeling that the only person who really understood her was her father, who died just before Christmas 2001 after long sufferings caused by cancer.

She couldn't cope without him.

I grieve deeply.

My only certainty is that Someone, somewhere, was waiting for her with wide open arms.
 
Hey Art.chick

I fit into the category you describe. I don't want to go into too much detail on the public board but I'd be happy to discuss it with you via private message.

In brief, in my case it kind of crept up over a period and then it kind of started to make me unable to function. Various medications were tried and didn't work. I kind of got better (or over the worst of it), was ok (ish) for a time and then it would become difficult again. This was over a period of years. Last time it became very difficult, I was started on new meds and they were a revelation. They totally worked and made me feel very different to how I'd ever felt before. So in that sense, treatment was extremely effective. In my own case, I didn;t really seek out treatment until it became impossible to function on a daily basis.

People differ though in their experiences.

Pm me by all means.
 
Art Chick,

I have been treated for depression twice in the last 10 years or so. In both cases, with antidepressive drugs for a treatment period of a year usually. Electroshock Therepy, and some of the other things are kind of extream in my opinion. In each case of my past depression, my wife saw it first, as when I'm beginning to suffer with the symptoms, I can't seem to see them.

The best thing to do is see your family doctor and tell him/her what you are experiencing. They may perscribe, or send you to a specialist (shrink) for some meetings. I took Prozac for about a year and took Zoloft too. Both work for me, but have various side effects and require you to 'taper' off the medication at the end of the treatment.

A lot of folks will tell you 'no drugs', but when working with a depressive problem, it may be caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, and the drugs work for that. What I have done to deal with the 'triggers' of depression is to get my life in order. Get fit, watch my diet, reduce my stress, reduce my weight and try to live healthy. This seems to keep the depressive problems at bay and keep me from requiring any more treatment.

Hope this is a help, drop me a PM if you want any specifics. Keep your chin up....

:) :) :)
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

Back
Top Bottom