Depression Talk

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is often mistaken for a type of depression. Granted, when I do research on OCD and how it differs from depression, my eyes tend to glaze over. People who have OCD often have depression, too. Depression never likes to be alone and often brings a few other diseases and illnesses, too. But depression and OCD are two different mental illnesses, although they are often treated with the same medications.

That Hand-Washing Thing

People with OCD often can hold down a job, but only after going through certain rituals. (Just ask Howie Mandel). The most famous (or infamous) of these rituals is washing your hands more time than you breathe. Rituals can be anything from handwashing to repeating a certain word a certain number of times to making sure that all of the fringes on rugs lay in acertain way.

We all do rituals. Many people say a blessing of some sort over dinner. Others make a wish berfore blowing out birthday candles. These are rituals. But most people tend to not feel as if the sky will fall if they don’t perform these rituals. People with OCD take well over an hour a day just to perform these rituals.

With depression (or at least clinical depression) you don’t want to do much of anything, let alone rituals. There isn’t much of a point doing rituals to stop the sky from falling because it’s already crashed and burned long ago.

Treatments

Treatments for OCD and depression tend to merge. Both can be put on tricyclic or SSRI antidepressants and then urged to seek cognitive-behavior therapy in order to help adjust their thoughts and habits. It’s still controversial as to whether shock therapy gives any long term help for either the worst types of depression or OCD. It is used only if drugs and talk therapy are completely useless.

Another similarity is that people with depression and/or OCD can eventually mange it.

Everyone has voices in their head from time to time.  Even our own thoughts often has a voice that differs from our speaking voice.  (”No, Rena — that’s just you.”) Many of the times, the thoughts in our heads don’t surprise us, but sometimes they do. You often can hear these voices from seemingly nowhere when you have any type of depression, whether it’s post partum depression or bipolar disprder.

Imaginary Friends

Voices in your head can turn into imaginary friends, as long as what they’re saying to you is helpful. When you have a depressive illness, it’s hard to see your own self-worth. You are postitive that you are the worst person who has ever been born. We run ourselves down with thoughts and bizzarre conclusions, like, “I can’t work on my blog every day. That must be because I’m so stupid.”

I picked that one off of the top of my head because it’s Friday and this is the first Depression Talk post of the week that I’ve been able to do. (Whoops). What can I say? I’ve been sick, my Mom’s been sick — all average stuff that happens to bloogers. But when you have depression, you never quite see yourself in an average light. You are either the best person in the world or the worst.

During those times, if you listen closely enough, there is a little alien voice that says, “You’re just having a bad day. It’s no big deal. You’ve gotten through bad patches before and that proves you are going to do it again.”

That’s a friend. Cherish this friend.

The Enemies

Then, there are those voices that tell you that the world would be a lot better off without you in it to mess everything up for everybody else. Or, perhaps you hear a voice telling you that you are invincible and can fly, so jump of the bridge and get those arms flapping.

Any voice that tells you to harm yourself, harm others (especailly animals and other innocents) or tries to convince you that you are the Devil is a voice you need to immediately call someone about. This is your illness talking — not you, not God and not anyone else. You need to talk to someone in order to get this voice to shut up.

Hope this helps.

When I lived in England, one of my favorite actors that I’d hear on the radio or watch on TV was Stephen Fry, known best in America as the quinessential butler Jeeves to Hugh Laurie’s bumbling Wooster. I thought him one of the most elegant of actors with classic English self-control, never at a loss for razor sharp sarcasm. Little did I and just about everyone else knew that he had manic depression (bipolar disorder). He even tried to commit suicide when he starred in a successful play in London’s West End.

He and the BBC made a documentary about manic depression in 2006 which everyone else in the world seems to have heard of but me. Keep in mind that “bipolar disorder” is not a common term in England. They prefer to use the older name, “manic depression.” Some people in America find that name derrogatory, but there is nothing mean implied in the use.

Even if you don’t know who Stephen Fry is, you can still trust him as a host into what it’s like to be a manic depressive. He turns a lot of complicated concepts into basic English (British English, as oppossed to American English, but you’ll soon get the drift, Yanks.)

Joining Stephen Fry in this clip is British pop star Robbie Williams, who is one of the most recognized celebrities in the UK. He has major depression and makes a vivid contrast to Fry’s manic depression. Kudos to whoever nabbed this documentary and put it up on YouTube.

There’s no shame in taking medication. However, many people suffering from any type of depression feel resentful at having to take medication in order to feel better. Part of this reason is the cost of the antidepressants. Another is fear of becoming addicted to a certain prescription drug. So, when you are diagnosed as having a type of depression, how long can you expect to be taking antidepressants?

Different For Everyone

Unfortunately, because everyone’s depression effects them in a unique way, the antidepressants also hit in a unique way. Some people may only need them for six months. Some people may need them for the rest of their lives. I happen to fall into the latter category. I have been able to reduce the amount of Prozac I need in a day, but I will most likely need at least 10 milligraims of it every day until I croak. I might even need it in the afterlife.

Medication Is Medication

Would you deny yourself taking an over the counter painkiller for a headache? Or taking antibiotics for an infection? Probably not. Major depression and othe types of depression do have physical causes, such as getting an infection is a physical cause. You’re not going to win any points anywhere by denying yourself the medication.

Of course, you shouldn’t pop pills when you don’t need to take them. That can not only lead to drug addiction, but also to a lot more physical problems that you really don’t need. Also, more isn’t better in the case of any medication.

What About Natural Remedies?

Treat any herbal remedy or any alternative remedy with the same respect and caution that you would with a man-made medicine. Herbs, foods and nutritional supplements are powerful things. Just ask anyone who’s eaten too much bran. Be sure you let your doctor know about all of the natural remedies you are taking or would like to take. Sometimes herbs and antidepressants can clash.

Do we need any more proof that we are in a recession?  After 15 years, the teen sucide rate has risen in America instead of dropped, according to a new study published in the September 3 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.  It took a while to crunch the numbers, so the study cuts off in 2005, meaning that the teen suicide rate rose during 2004 and 2005. It is still unknown how high the rate is for 2006 and 2007.

Study Specifics

The study was performed by Jeff Bridge of the Nationwide Children’s Hospital of Columbus, Ohio. He looked at teen suicide rates from 1996 - 2003, which were steradily dropping. He found a sudden 18% increase for 2004 - 5. Bridge has a more liberal definition of “teen”, meaning kids from the ages of 10 - 19.

Why the Increase?

In October of 2003, there was alot of quibbling in Congress over black box warning labels to be put on antidepressants. This happened as a result of many teens with clinical depression being put on Paxil and then, instead of getting better, they offed themselves. Please note that any antidepressant can make you feel suddenly suicidal, no matter what your age. If you are taking a new antidepressant and feel worse than ever before, please call your doctor or therapist.

There is a theory that pressure on doctors as a result of Paxil suicides are making doctors too leery about perscribing them to teenagers. Should all of the warnings be taken off antidepressants?

No

The president of the National Research Center for Women & Families, Diana Zuckerman, claims that there are many reasons why teens commit suicide. I think we all can see that the economy sucks. There’s injustice everywhere, catastrophic climate change and many news sources saying that the next generation will be worse off than previous American generations. Add to that the hormonal tidal wave teens go through, schools, peer pressure and no wonder they think of committing suicide.

Teens are more likely to think of suicide because they haven’t learned the coping skills that adults have, even adults with clinical depression. There usually isn’t just one cause that sets a teen planning to commit suicide — it’s usually a cyclone of factors.

When you live with depression, you can be tootling along for months and then all of a sudden you feel miserable, cranky and often suicidal. This can happen even when you are regularly taking your medication, eating a balanced diet and exercising regularly. A lot of people call these “setbacks”. I call them “inevitable.”

No One Time Cure

If you have depression and suddenly, for no reason, you’re just as depressed as you were before you went to get help, this does not mean that you have done anything wrong. The nature of depression is that some days it’s worse than others, despite all that you do. The good news is that these setbacks often go away after days or weeks, often as suddenly and as mysteriously as they came.

Despite what some drug manufactureres might have you believe, there is no once and for all cure for depression. Personally, I don’t even think death cures it because you wind up becoming just as miserable as a ghost or in the next life.

Anyway

Setbacks are annoying, but they don’t mean that you are doomed. They’re kind of like migraines. Eventually, they go away (if only for a few hours). Okay, perhaps that was a bad similie. Let’s try arthritis pains. Setbacks are like arthrits pains. They make you want to stay still. But one of the best ways to ease arthritis pain is to warm up the area and get moving.

Alright, perhaps there really isn’t anything comparable to depression setbacks. But they do go away. You have to keep dragging yourself through the day, but eventually you do feel better. Even being able to get out of bed and feed yourself is a great accomplishment when you’re going through one of these setbacks. And if you manage to go to work or school during a setback, that’s incredible. But it can be done. Pat yourself on the back for being able to fulfill your obligations even when you feel like poo.

If you feel like you can’t take it anymore, please talk to someone. Even talking to a stranger or a pet can help shake you from your misery enough to catch your breath and see that you can survive this and that things will inevitably get better.