Depression and Anxiety from an Insider's Perspective - Part 3

Depression is not just a frame of mind. It is an illness but one that can be treated. I have been working on my weekly with my therapist. I am happy to announce that the visits will now start being every other week and will soon be even further apart. This does not mean there are not still issues to deal with or problems to work though.

Cross posted @ My Left Wing,refinish69
It simply means that I have reached a point where I am learning ways to cope with the depression and anxiety attacks that work for me. Each person is different and how he or she reacts to therapy and medication is different.

I started back to work this past Wednesday. Even though this means lots of explaining or not explaining why I was out 2.5 months, I am enjoying being back in the work place and trying to catch up on all I have missed while I was gone. I reached a point where if I stayed at home longer it would have been near impossible to get back “out” in the “real” world and knew it. I actually told my therapist please clear me for work before I go nuts. LOL

Different things work for different people when it comes to anxiety and depression. I am learning ways to recognize an anxiety attack as it starts and work my way through or out of it before it takes control. Some of the methods are as simple as deep breathing or visualizing the emotions and reactions as colors. As I have practiced these, they have become more effective and easier to do. The depression issues take a little bit more but are also getting easier as every day goes by.

I journal about my feelings but instead of just writing about being depressed or upset I try and delve into the reasons I am upset about a situation and what I can or can not do to change it. As corny as it sounds, sometimes just saying, “Oh, hell, this is out of my hands and I cannot do a damn thing about It.” will help left that dark veil that descends. I have opened up and started talking to my friends about what is going on in my life instead of trying to be the caregiver for everyone else. Sometimes even the strong need to admit they are not able to be strong and need help from others. It is not a weakness to admit the need for help. It is actually strength. This way a person can attain the help they so desperately need and recover a normal life again.

Depression

by Rich Maloof for MSN Health & Fitness

Depression is on the rise among the U.S. population, yet we’re only beginning to understand its weighty affect on our mental health–and how we might keep it at bay.

Sadness is not depression.

Sad is when you miss someone; depressed is when you lose 20 pounds from malnutrition and don’t get out of bed for two weeks.
Periodically feeling disappointment or sorrow, even to the point of missing work or losing a night’s sleep, is normal and natural. But depression is distinctly different and clearly defined.
The primary criteria include disturbance in sleep patterns; loss of appetite; difficulty concentrating and making decisions; loss of energy; poor self-image; and dwelling on suicidal thoughts. Depressive people exhibit several of the symptoms persistently for prolonged periods (two weeks and longer), to the point where routine functioning is impaired.

Depressed people have more vulnerable immune systems.

Depression is a form of stress, and stress has been demonstrated to compromise the body’s ability to ward off disease. This is one of the most overt examples of the mind’s impact on the body’s health. It may also explain why so many elderly people, despondent at the loss of a spouse, pass away within months of their wife.

Changing diet and lifestyle can accomplish the same ends as antidepressants.

As far as it is currently understood, depression results from a disturbance in neurotransmitters, the chemicals that carry messages between nerve cells in the brain. Some people are able to correct the imbalance with high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets, stress reduction and exercise. Sunlight is also a proven mood enhancer. Antidepressant drugs correct the same problem synthetically.

More in this article available at MSN Health

Many good resources out there go into a lot more detail. If you are having a problem with depression or anxiety, please seek out help. There are free clinics and therapist who work on sliding scales for those who do not have insurance that will cover the treatment. I don’t want anyone to reach the edge of the pit I had dug for myself. If I had not finally gotten help, I would not be here today. Life is too valuable to throw away for any reason.