Understanding Depression (Important Info Everyone Should Know)

reply to post by MCoG1980


thanks hun that put a smile on my face lol. Gotta love little brittan. My other anti depessant show is Scrubs. I spent 6 weeks in bed just watching scrubs lol.

Cherry

reply to post by mhinsey


I'm pretty sensitive to some types of meds too, but this goes back to different meds for different people. Most people I know that have taken Lexapro have had no side effects at all. I had horrible side effects with Zoloft and Paxil, but know people that swear by them and say they're the best thing that they ever took.

Over the years i have run into more than a few that had been DXed with depression that have later been found to be not suffering depression but sleep apnea.

All people that are being treated for depresion or have the signs of depression should be checked for sleep apnea.

Trouble sleeping or excessive sleeping
A dramatic change in appetite, often with weight gain or loss
Fatigue and lack of energy
Waking with an unrefreshed feeling after sleep, having problems with memory and concentration, feeling tired, and experiencing personality changes.
Loss of interest in enjoyable activities

www.healthyresources.com...
www.webmd.com...

Depression and sleep apnea

Approximately one in five people who suffer from depression also suffer from sleep apnea, and people with sleep apnea are five times more likely to become depressed. Existing depression may also be worsened by sleep apnea. While it is not clear whether the apnea causes the depression or vice-versa,

Both Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and central sleep apnea (CSA)can cause the symptoms of depression and if allowed to continue for long enough both can cause permanent changes to the Brain chemistry and cause permanent depression.

If you snore you may have OSA, if you don't snore you can still have CSA.

Few psychiatrist even check for apnea's before treating for depression and long term treatment for depression in people without depression may cause brain chemical changes that give these people depression.

If you don't have depression and take antidepressants the body will cut the amount of serotonin it produces to correct for the high levels.

If they then find that you have sleep apnea and not depression you may still have to take antidepressant because your body now is not producing enough serotonin because you took antidepressants.

anti depressant can cause there own symptoms that make it hard to tell what you have wrong.

reply to post by ANNED


Yes, thanks for your post! My Dr. had me tested for this. I had to go to a facility and be monitored while I slept. At first questioned it, but she explained the connection between apnea and depression.

The findings were inconclusive as to my having apnea or not, but I do appreciate her looking into other reasons for my depression.

She wanted me to go back for another sleep session, but I found it to be very uncomfortable, and had a hard time falling to sleep.

Growing up I definetly had bi-polar/depression. My parents never knew anything about mental illness and I did a good job of hiding it. Bad grades were the only notable thing and that was just "lazyness" as far as anyone saw it.

I entered the military and there, those things meant nothing. It was very routine and that gave me the stability that my illness never reflected on my life. Then I seperated in 2000 from the Navy. I spent about 6 months trying to go back to school and work fulltime. I couldn't stand it. It drove me nuts being away from the military so I reenlisted in the Army after a 38,000 reenlistment bonus. In 2005, after 2 deployments and alot of mental wear and tear, I met my wife. I knew my path in life was with her.

I left the military. I started working for the VA and I quickly noticed some scary symptoms. I started having alot of day and nightmares. Alot of paranoia. A friend offered me some weed, so I smoked away. My wife (girlfriend at the time) had no major issue with it because she knew it helped me and she participated a little too.

At one point I stopped going to work. I stopped classes. Money stopped coming in. Next thing I know, not enough money for power. Power gets shut off. Not enough money for rent. I just lost it. She left me for a few weeks. I lived out of my car for a while. One day I was doing 125 down the I-10 and almost crashed. I checked myself into the VA mental health clinic.

It gave me a week to clear my head. They perscribed me Lithium. They told me it would help with the PTSD and the BiPolar. I hated the way it made me feel. I always felt, for lack of a better word, toxic. It did not help my mood swings but the nightmares went away.

My girlfriend and I reconciled. I was doing ok. Working at the VA again and I got my CCNA certification. I got my current job and finally got some good insurance. I went to a REAL doctor and he quickly diagnosed me. He perscribed me Lamictil. I take 2 a day and I have not done this good in my life.

I work IT, I love my job. I am still a hermit but that's just me. My wife and I have been married 2 years in may and have no major issues. Weed is not even an option. Not working isn't even an option. The PTSD comes and goes a little still. I know it will always be there, every night, haunting me. I guess it's just par for the course.

I believe 100% that our water is tainted. Also most government based doctors are out there to water down the undesireables. They perscribe meds that either make someone so far worse that it leads to incarceration or suicide. Other cases, just a lifelong fog they walk through. But these conditions are real. Get help if you think you need it. Don't wait for someone else to save you.

Sorry to rant. Please don't bash me. Thanks.

Originally posted by CherryDuck
reply to post by MCoG1980

 

thanks hun that put a smile on my face lol. Gotta love little brittan. My other anti depessant show is Scrubs. I spent 6 weeks in bed just watching scrubs lol.

Cherry

No worries, glad you liked it Comedy is brilliant - my favourite is Porridge, I'm an old soul at heart Too many good ones, but a great mood lifter. The stand up comic Michael McIntyre, he is the only one who has literally ever had me crying with laughter so much it hurts




[edit on 21-4-2009 by MCoG1980]

reply to post by MegaCurious


you dont have it , then please be happy . it is not bogus , its very real and i have suffered from it since 1993 and never sought treatment until 2002 . its not like you may think . its not something you have any control over .
let me tell you how real it is . everyday i woke up i wanted to either die or lay in bed until i could fall back asleep . this was not because i felt sad or bummed out . there are many physical aspects of depression . once i woke up i would start having panic attacks . read up on them einstein . your heart races uncontrollably and its accompanied by massive chest pains . and the attacks cause a hard time breathing , shortness of breathe and your fingers and arms to go numb and or feel tingly . and guess what genius , ? its real , very real and you have no control over it whatsoever . there is no on /off switch . it takes every ounce of courage you can muster to get up and shower .
so once in the shower all you can do is start wondering if this will be the day your heart quits , or wonder who will be the unlucky one that finds your dead body . all these thoughts are eased when your mind switches gears to wonder what disease you are suffering from , and you dont even know your a hypocondriac . you physical actions involve feeling your pulse every 2 minutes of your life to see if you still have a heart beat . you have a constant headache due to grinding your teeth so tense that you dont know what its like to be calm .
depression is not always a downer . my adrenaline flowed constantly causing so many pains that a normal person couldnt even fathom .
sex was out of the question , i didnt even think about sex . all i thought about for these yrs was death and how and why this was happening to me . how could any human live through this day in and day out . i kept my job through all this somehow . i dont know how . i had 2 young kids then who i refused to see for months at a time . i lost my wife and i didnt even care . the only thing i cared about was when id be dead . i met a great woman through my ex and she tolld me me to go see a dr . i was so scared . i will never forget the fear i had sitting in the waiting room that day . after hiding all my syptoms for years it was so scary for mew to go see a dr .
he immediately told me that i was depressed and explained that depression has so many symptoms . he asked me to try taking effexor and told me it would take a few weeks before i felt the effects . a couple days later i thought , hey this is getting better .. a week or so later and he increased my dose . .
it is now 7 yrs later and guess what . i lead a great life and have not had anymore attacks for 7 yrs . if you truly dont believe its real then you truly are a moron . i said id never wish depression on anyone and i wont , but id sure like to see you suffer from it just for a week or so

reply to post by ANNED


I tried to get checked for it... I never got to sleep ( I sleep with earplugs in, since I sleep so light- and I didnt have them with me), Dr said eh- we got all we need, you're fine. To this day, I feel like I got one pulled over on me.

[edit on 22-4-2009 by wylekat]

I'm currently preparing a large doc on how I beat depression nutritionally. I have written extensively on depression and the liver earlier on, that's only one aspect of the whole deal.

Challenge

I have no formal training but I have beaten severe, suicidal depression and ill health by paying very close attention to my diet. I have a decent lay knowledge of nutrition from two years of reading on the subject.
I invite anyone to post a five day food diary, including drinks, to see if any of the qualified nutritionists here or myself could comment on it. It doesn't have to be pin point accurate, just to the best of your recollection.
I very much doubt I'll get more than two replies to this challenge, if not totally ignored. I'm posting it A as a genuine offer to help, but also B, a social experiement to see how many people think analysing food intake closely will help.

Remember that while I'm not qualified a lot of people on this thread are.

OMG have I killed this thread? I'm so sorry. Somebody say something. Hellllooooo? I take it back........ It was such a good discussion. Why did I have to open my mouth? Hello?

Hey guys... Sigh ended up at the hospital last night cause my fiance didn't want me at home around his headache meds and knives. Once again they tried to tell me that i needed to see a shrink and spend some time in a "retreat"( what i heard was loony bin).

I wanted them to give me a script for my medication as i have run out, but they wouldn't.... so i guess i'm in for another week of this crap till i can get to see a doctor.

Once again I'll say what i said b4, Don't go off your med's without close supervision, cause if my partner wasn't there the other night i dunno what would have happened.

Btw Hi Aliens, here is a recounting of what i've eaten the last 5 days :

Day one: wholemeal toast with tomato and avo, glass of milk // chicken and salad wrap for lunch with a power aid // Bangers and mash and a glass of coke zero as well as water throughout the day

Day two: porridge and glass of milk // same as day 1 // tacos and glass of oj and water thoughout the day

Day three : missed breaky, had an up and go at work // ceaser salad and a can of coke zero // went out to dinner had calamari and chips and a bourbon and coke (water through out the day)

Day Four: bacon and eggs and a glass of milk // sandwich (ham and salad) and a chocolate bar // Had a girlfriends 19th so had maccas on the way to her apartment, drank heavily that night (about 15 standard drinks) and had 2 nodoes.

Day Five : Macca's for breaky (hang over food) orange juice // missed lunch cause was hung over and slept most of the day // fiance made honey soy chiken wings and noodles and LOTS of water this day

There we go hiAliens. Tell me what you think hun,

Cherry

sorry forgot to mention that i take vitamins as well : omega three, multi vitamin, digestive enzymes, and a probiotic

Originally posted by CherryDuck
Btw Hi Aliens, here is a recounting of what i've eaten the last 5 days :

Day one: wholemeal toast with tomato and avo, glass of milk // chicken and salad wrap for lunch with a power aid // Bangers and mash and a glass of coke zero as well as water throughout the day

GOOD: Tomato and Avo great foods. I would double my intake of them and skip the bread.
BAD: Toast probably contains soy which can be bad for hormone levels.
Potato + Bread are carby and sugary and that may be bad for yeast levels, which can cause depression. Milk can cause depression in a lot of people, especially if it's factory farmed- full of hormones.

Day two: porridge and glass of milk // same as day 1 // tacos and glass of oj and water thoughout the day

GOOD: I love oats, they're a great grain as long as you don't have sugar problems.
BAD: Corn can contain a lot of toxins.

This seems like the sort of diet I used to eat. It's a healthy looking, intelligent diet with a thousand hidden toxins. If I went back to this I would be depressed within 2 days. No offence meant, the food sounds delicious. I'm going to stop at day two- I personally think that 70- per cent of the foods you eat may contribute towards depression, and there's a lot of evidence to back up what I say. I don't have time to go into why each of these foods might be bad- I'm working on my doc though and I'll try and get it up soon.

Main point, you are eating sugary carbs all day long...

Try these google searches:

Sugar and Depression

www.google.com.hk...

Milk and Depression

www.google.com.hk...

There's also a lot of evidence to suggest pork may conatin parasites which cause depression.

You may answer... well what the hell am I supposed to eat? Check out David Wolfe and Shazzie, two great raw food experts.
I've realised I can't do the diet topic justice in a few quick posts, but I'm still interested to see what people eat.

The following foods can cause depression:

Pork
Dairy Products
Eggs
Excess animal proteins
Soy
Potato
Wheat
Corn
Sugar
MSG
Fluoride
Magnesium Stearate and Silicon Dioxide in Vitamins

------
People say- "uhhh, well that's what everyone eats"
I say: - True, but look around, people in general are unhealthy and depressed to one degree or another. It's not natural to have a tired body wracked with minor complaints, fearful of heart disease and cancer by middle-age. It's normal but not natural.

* * *

I'll get into what I eat another time, but it's basically a modified mediterranean diet with bits and pieces of chinese and south american cuisine. Believe me I eat well....

This is what I'll eat today:

Breakfast: 2-3 Mangoes and Apple juice
Lunch: Burdock Salad, Greek Salad with high quality Olive Oil, 2 avocados
Dinner: Watermelon// Spinach, lemon, pine nut + Chili Stir-Fry// Vegetable soup.
Supplements: Ionic Minerals, Stabilised Oxygen, herbal teas throughout the day, lemon water.
Snacks: Carrots, Nuts, seeds.
I would also snack on raw chocolate, maca root and medicinal hemp seed (no THC, legal) if I had any.

Yup, it's a little expensive- but you save money on coffee, soft drinks and other stimulants. I'll write about a cheaper version of what I eat tomorrow.





[edit on 14f20095amFri, 24 Apr 2009 07:29:04 -050004 by HiAliens]

[edit on 14f20095amFri, 24 Apr 2009 07:52:52 -050052 by HiAliens]

reply to post by HiAliens


I've been thinking about contributing, but I'm not a nutritionist so I wasn't confident that any advice I gave would help.

Since you've now mentioned dairy products, I feel a bit happier about chiming in.

I was gradually giving up dairy products until I was down to just having skimmed milk in my tea. When I managed to give that up it was as if someone had turned the lights up. Colours looked so much brighter and I did feel a lot better in myself.

I gave up coffee a long time ago and drink tea (no sugar either) instead and find that the tea gives me a much gentler lift.

Cherry Duck - if you find it hard to give up milk because you still want to eat your cereals, try rice milk instead. I've been unable to taste the difference.

Also, you say you are drinking coke zero - I probably know that under a different name - would you check to see if it contains aspartame because that really is best avoided.

I hope things improve for you, I hope our support is making a difference.

reply to post by berenike


Don't worry berenike I'm not a nutritionist either. I mentioned that in case people got the wrong idea. All ideas and anecdotes are welcome here. We've been lied to so much we've all got to piece things together on our own.
EDIT: Rice milk is nice, it's so easy to make. Nut milks and hemp seed milks are good too. Most modern soy, IMO, is poison. The majority of it is GMO.

[edit on 14f20095amFri, 24 Apr 2009 09:20:34 -050034 by HiAliens]

reply to post by HiAliens


I don't eat any soy products since I found out what the growing of it is doing to the rainforests:

www.greenpeace.org.uk...

Another thing that people might want to consider is colon cleansing. I'll see if I can find an article about it rather than give a garbled explanation.

Well there's loads of info but I think this is quite informative:

www.home-bodydetox.com...

When I did a 'cleanse' I 'cheated' and took tablets. They just liquify the impacted matter and it passes through the system very easily. I felt a lot better for it, too.



[edit on 24-4-2009 by berenike]

reply to post by berenike

Misconceptions and Myths about Serotonin

I did a colon cleanse recently, that website you linked too has good advice. A lot of people don't know this, but 90 per cent of serotonin is in the intestinal tract, so gut health is directly linked to mood, here's a site that goes into it deeply: The Gut, Our Second Brain

SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) are believed to ease depression by enhancing levels of Serotonin to the brain. But 95% of the Serotonin in the body lies in the digestive system, and diverting the supplies of Serotonin can increase anxiety, alter sleep patterns and cause sexual dysfunction as well as adversely affect the cardiovascular region. Balancing the hotbed of Serotonin production in the gut is critical to restoring the balance.
---------------------------
Nearly every chemical that controls the brain is also located in the stomach region, including hormones and neurotransmitters such as Serotonin, Dopamine, Glutamate, GABA and Norepinephrine. The gut contains 100 million neurons – more than the spinal cord. But there are also two-dozen small brain proteins; major cells of the immune system; one class of the body’s natural opiates; and native benzodiazepines. The gut, known as the enteric nervous system, is located in sheaths of tissue lining the esophagus, stomach, small intestine and colon, and plays a key role in human emotions. But few know the enteric nervous system exists, and therefore gut health is often overlooked. Symptoms from the two brains can get confused, and just as the brain can upset the gut, the gut can also upset the brain.

Depression is not just a brain disease, it's a symptom of a breakdown
of the entire system. There's so much false information flying around.
For now I'll say that if you treat your gut and liver well it will help your mood a bit.

Next I'll get into fat deficiency and depression, "good fats" deficiency was a major cause of my ill health for years.

yes what is depression? If you have ever been sad you suffer from depression and someone has a pill for you.

Last few weeks have been the lowest of my life.

I posted about my problems a few pages back; that I'd been depressed for years even though I talked to people, tried different anti-depressants and ate like a health freak, plus exercised.

Anyway, spent the last nearly three weeks in bed, wrote a suicide letter ready and got obsessed with finding out about what happens after death (morgue, autopsy, funeral all that). Anyone with proper clinical depression knows that you can't try to feel happy, or go out and get some fresh air etc because you are just thinking about death, and you don't give a damn about anything when you're at the point I'm at.

I don't think it's plain old depression though. I think it's a combination of possibly body dismorphic disorder and the way my brain works by over analyzing everything more than your average brain (this is not a gloat, it has caused me more problems than good). There could be some other depressive disorder in there, because there are so many.

Whatever it is, it has severly f***ed up my life, and I've lost the will to try anymore...

reply to post by dmorgan


Hi, I've just re-read your previous post and note that you hate people giving you sympathy, so I'll try and avoid doing that.

I read your latest post a few hours ago and have thought about you a lot, but I realise that there is very little I can say given where you are at the moment.

I was in a room once with someone who felt about as bad as you do - I could see the black aura surrounding him - and I couldn't help. Just communicating with you in a forum doesn't give me much of a chance to help you, either.

But I would, if I could, walk into the pit and pull you out.

In some ways your current life situation is very enviable. You are a young man living in what must be just about the most civilized country in the world. Besides that, you are one of the good guys. Animals mean a lot to you and need more people like you to be in the world.

That link to the petition I got from you - do you remember the picture of that poor cat with the caption 'I'm next' ? Please don't make me picture your old avatar with that caption underneath it.

Please, find something good to focus on. Remind yourself what a caring person you are. Try to fully grasp what it is that others value you for. What is it about you that makes you a worthwhile person?

What could you do, if you left your bed, to make the world a better place? Even if you only throw a few crumbs into the garden for the birds, do that. And then find something else to do that would improve someone else's lot.

You think about death. Ask yourself this question; if you could drop down dead now, on the spot, would you do it? If not, why not? There's your reason to live - even if it's only that you forgot to turn off the gas but I imagine there will be more than that.

I'm not doing very well with this post, but I can't not respond. Please keep letting us know how you are doing.

There will be a way to help you, it's just a matter of finding it.