Depression Talk

Although antidepressants are generally known for their tranquilizing effect, occassionally this effect backfires and the person becomes manic instead. This also can happen to people on heavy tranqilizers like Valium. I’ve even known someone who got manic smoking marijuana for the first time. Just because antidepressants happen a certain way for some people doesn’t mean it will happen that way for you.

What Is Mania

A bipolar depressive on YouTube nicknamed “Guy Interrupted” described mania as “Bugs Bunny on speed.” That’s a fairy accurrate description. Althugh I’ve never experienced mania, I have been stuck inside of rooms with someone going through a manic phase. At least the experience wasn’t boring.

The many syptoms of antidepressant induced mania include:

• Talkingreallyfast
• Racing thoughts
• Not needing to sleep
• Giving away money or posessions
• Overspending
• Full of grandiose plans
• Hearing voices
• Constantly beginning projects but not finishing them

There was this one woman I briefly knew who went book shoppping while manic. She intended to go buy one book, which happened to be published by Penguin. It had a little penguin on the spine. Instead of buying one book, she bought about thirty, because she didn’t want the one penguin to be lonely.

So, you can see there’s sort of a logic system going on but it’s not necessarily a good thing (except for Penguin publishers and booksellers).

Should You Stop the Meds Abruptly?

If your loved one taking a new antidepressant gets manic — or if you realize ou are getting manic — then you need to contact your doctor or therapist right away. In some instances, stopping the meds all of a sudden may bring on painful withdrawal symptoms. Or your doctor might suggest just reducing the dose.

Hope this helps.

I had easier access to prescription drugs when I was homeless in England than now, when I’m homed and self-employed in America. Part of this ease was because of the NHS, but mostly it was because I was in the right place to get drugs (the street), if I so wanted them. In order to get money (for whatever reasons), some homeless were desperate enough to sell their prescriptions.

Funny thing is, I never asked anyone for Valium (diazepam). Some trauma would happen to me (such as when my home was burnt down) and a couple of days later, someone would slip a pill into my hands and say, “Christ’s sakes, get some sleep, will ya?” (which is a compliment.)

Nasty Stuff

I do not get along with Valium. If you’ve ever taken an overdose of Nyquil, then you know what being on Valium is like. You have an absolutely miserable 24 hours because you are so drowsy — and yet you can’t get to sleep. You’re constantly just about to fall asleep and then some noise wakes you right up again. You may also suddenly loose control of your bowels.

It was only a couple of days after takng the Valium that I could get eventually any sleep. I’m not sure if it was due to the Valium or my body giving out.

Valium and Antidepressants

In April of 2003, I started Prozac. I was still homeless in England at this time. Every now and then, someone would slip me a Valium. Mostly, I’d slip it back, but did get curious enough abut it to ask the day care centre’s doctor about any possible interactions between Prozac and Valium.

“Wow. Don’t take Valium. It can make you even more depressed than you already are. Smoke a joint if you have to to get some sleep but don’t take Valium.”

And so I haven’t and I am sharing the news with you. Hope this helps.

The fun thing about depression is that it rarely comes to you without bringing along a few uninvited guests. Many depressives also have chronic pains (like migraines) or neurological disorders (like epliepsy). But more and more depressives also have Type 2 diabetes — although you can get diabetes before getting depression. Diabetes also increases the risk for getting dementia, but we’ll save that for another blogpost.

About Medications and Weight Gain

In developing Type 2 diabetes, most people are overweight or even obese. The too rich diet throws off the blood sugar (and not necessarily too much sugar). Now, if you have depression or anxiety and are taking certain medications, you have to be aware they can increase you appetite and make you sleepy, thus leading to weight gain. These medications include Xanax, Wellbutrin and Lexapro, which may be linked to causing Type 2 diabetes in some people. (Oddly enough, these same medications can cause weight loss in some other people. The fun of prescription medication!)

If you already have diabetes, then you know that controlling your wieght and exercising regularly is essential. Some medications can make you drowsy, give short-term memory loss and increase your appetite. Be sure your doctor or therapist know that you are diabetic.

Things You Can Do

If you have to take medications which may cause sleepiness and weight gain, you need to plan in advance to eat less calories, more fiber, more fruits and vegatbles and drink more water. If you can make double or triple the servings for healthy meals and freeze the leftovers, then you will be less tempted to call for a pizza because you are too tired to cook.

If you can also cut out smoking and alcoholic beverages, then you will help the drugs help your body do it’s job without the extra weight-gain.

Also, try your best to keep to a schedule. In this way, you can keep yourself busy and try not to think about taking a nap.

Hope this helps.

This is a dreadfully named type of chronic depression. Please, someone in the medical community rename this thing. When you’re depressed, you’re always convinced that you cannot be cured or helped. With a name like “treatment resistant depression”, that sort of kills off all desire to continue getting help.

Anyway, when you have this type of depression, the usual antidepressants do not work. According to the Mayo Clinic, a patient needs to have tried at least three different medications before they can be diagnosed with treatment resistant depression.

Things To Keep In Mind

A person’s circumstances could give them treatment resistant depression. For example, you will find a lot of treatment resistant depression in the homeless. The stress of trying to survive pretty much cancels out a lot of antidepressant effects. Other circumstances that could lead to this type of depression include grief, war and physical or mental abuse.

Unless these underlying issues are addressed, then all of the drugs won’t help the depression, although they may help the person get a few hours of sleep.

Other Therapies to Try

If you continue on trying to get help for treatment resistant depression, that’s a good sign that you will find some help. You can have this treated by a doctor or psychiatrist. They may recommend some or a combination of the following:

• New types of medications like anti-seizure meds
• Combining antidepressants with other drugs
• Talk therapy or cognitive behavior therapy
• Getting a new therapist, doctor or psychiatrist
• Shock therpay (usually reserved for sucidal cases)
• Deep brian stimulation
• Transcranial magnetic stimulation

Don’t give up.

Sometimes, these studies make me scratch my head. We know that high cholesterol can kill you, whether you have depression or not. Now, new research published in the Journal of Psychiatric Reasearchhas come out stating that in men diagnosed with drepression, low cholesterol can kill you, too.

According to this, the way the combination of low cholesterol and depression kills men is by making them commit suicide or taking a drug overdose or engaging in more risky behaviors that may lead to a premature death.

Damned if you pig out and damned if you don’t, huh?

What Is Low Cholesterol?

The article defined low cholesterol in men as “165 milligrams of cholesterol per deciliter or less”. The normal number is 200 milligrams of cholesterol per decileter.

When it comes to cholesterol, there is such a thing as getting the level too low. Low cholesterol is thought to perhaps play a role in making a person more predisposed to cancer. In pregnant women, it can lead to misscarriage or low birth weight.

For most people in North America or the UK, the dangers of getting low cholesterol are a moot point because of the high calorie, high-cholesterol diet. Because of the high price of food, people are choosing to get fatty calorie-laden food to help them get through the day. But, somehow, some folks still have low cholesterol.

Study Specs

The article was researched and written by the Geisinger Health System in Danville, PA. It looked at about 4500 veterans from Vietnam and followed up on what happened to them since 1985, with 2000 as a cut off date to begin coallating data. Veterans with both depression and low cholesterol were found to be seven times more likely to die a premature death than other veterans.

Of course, being a veteran may have had something to do with the high suicide rate, too, but for some reason, that point was glossed over.

There are different flavors to bipolar disorder or manic depression, although there is a lot of quibbling over just how many types there are. This is because every bipolar patient has their own unique version of the illness. This is true of anyone suffering from any type of depression, but there are some generalities common to each category.

Types of bipolar depression are divided based on how often a patient cycles. A cycle means a period of time when they go through their manic phase, followed by the depressive phase. Manic phases and depressive phases can last weeks or months, depending on the person. There can be long gaps of time between each cycle.

Cyclothymic Disorder

This is considered the mildest type of bipolar disorder, complete with the manic-depressive cycles. It still should be treated, because the risk of suicide is just as bad as in more severe types.

Type I Bipolar Disorder

Also known as “classic bipolar disorder”, this is the kind we usually read about. The cycles are more severe than in Type II.

Type II Bipolar Disorder

The cycles are not as severe as Type I but stronger than in cyclothymia. The person will never become as severely manic as Carrie Fisher or Spike Milligan.

Rapid Cycling

No, not what Lance Armstrong does, but manic depressives who have their cycles practically on top of each other, without the weeks, months or years break in between that many other types exhibit. You have four or more cycles per year.

Mixed Bipolar Disorder

This was a new one for me. In this type of bipolar disorder, you experience mania and depression at the same time. That’s gotta suck.

Yet another in the “did they really need to do a study on that” department:

According to the UK’s National Health Services (NHS), the group of people in the UK with a spike in depression are middle-aged women. The study stops in 2007 and mostly compared numbers from 1993. It id d not give a total number count or take into account the total rise in the UK’s population from 1993 - 2007:

• For UK women aged 45 - 54, one in four will have a diagnoseable depressive illness. That’s up 21% since 1993.
• For UK women aged 55- 64, there was a 4% increase from 1993.
• 20% of all UK women, any age, had a diagnoseable depressive illness.

The study also notes that middle-aged people were most likely to commit suicide.

It’s A Man’s World

UK men also had a rise in depression numbers, but not very much. Of course, men may not seek treatment as much as women. The only group of men who had a rise in numbers were those who had just gone through a divorce. Those who had a divorce years ago, however, were peachy keen. (Very small joke there).

However, it is far easier to get prescription medications like antideprssants in England than it is in America. Also, getting to see your primary doctor is less expensive than in the America. A British man is not so proud or so daft as to ignore getting available help as an American man would.

Is It Just In the UK?

The numbers coming from the NHS reflect a global trend. Of course, in some countries, a woman can’t say she is depressed. She says she has a stomach ache or some other physical symptom. But in America, according to a CBS news report, more middle aged women are depressed than ever, or at least, are willing to admit it.

At middle age, you feel the pressure to make something of your life before it’s too late. By the time you become a senior, you realize making something of your life really doesn’t matter and you set about making the best of the time you have left. Well, that’s my opinion anyway.

Continuing where we picked off from yesterday, why would Gentiles get the assumption that Jews are the most depressed people in the world? And how have Jews handled depression when they do get depressed? Remember, I’m not Jewish (at least, not that I know of), so I’m not exactly an expert on Jewish culture, although I am a big fan of many Jewish comedians.

Cultural References

Depression used to be called melancholia. Figures in Jewish folk history such as King Saul and King Solomon were described as having melancholia. Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, cigar afficianado and who treated depressives, was Jewish. In literature and plays such as Fiddler on the Roof, and movies by Woody Allen, Jews are depicted as being gloomy and pessimistic. Even the Yiddish word “kvetch” is used in American slang for “complaining”.

More Specifics

In Jewish culture, men and women are encouraged to express their true feelings to friends and family members, whether those feelings are happy or depressed. Jewish sons are expected not to keep any secrets from their parents, especially their mothers. Jewish men also have the responsibility of sitting shiva (a time of mourning) for one week after a close relative has passed. Part of the holiday Yom Kippur is observing ten days of atonement for one’s sins. In Jewish culture, (not just those who practicve Judaism) individuals are urged to remember the history of the Jewish people and their oppression from genocide to pogroms.

Turning Depression Into Laughter

Many popular comedy writers and comedians have been Jewish, including George Burns, Sid Ceasar, Woody Allen, Carl Reiner, the Marx Brothers, Jerry Seinfeld, Richard Lewis and Mel Brooks. Comedy has been a part of Jewish culture for centuries as a way of dealing with depressing events and times. Much of what is called “Jewish humor” is self-deprecating storytelling, with lots of physical humor that can make the comedian look ridiculous. Absurd and humorous situations can be found in the Torah as a teaching method.

Melancholia — now called depression — is a disease and not a cultural affliction. Clinical depression is thought to be caused by chemical imbalances in the brain. Stressful situations can intensify the symptoms of depression. Please don’t use this article in the place of a doctor’s diagnosis.

Off to collapse now. (Thud).

In doing research for another client, I discovered that some people — even educated people — believe that Jews are more depressed than people from other cultural backgrounds. I’m not Jewish (at least, not that I’m aware of) but I had a feeling that the belief that Jews are the most depressed people in the world was not a correct one. Personally, I vote for Native Americans being the most depressed people in the world, but that’s just an opinion.

With the extreme persecution that the Jewish people have gone through over the centuries, it is no wonder that they are thought of as being naturally depressed. Symptoms of depression are more allowed to be shown in public than in some other cultures, which may give the appearance that most Jews are depressed.

Any Studies Done?

According to a 1999 study published in The Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine (”Vulnerability of Jews to Affective Disorders,”), there is no difference between the amount of depression in Jewish women and in any other religion looked at (including Christianity). But the rate for depression among Jewish men was twice as high as in any other religion. The study’s authors concluded that drinking alcohol was the reason for the high incidence of depression among this group, not their Jewish heritage or religion.

Influence of Alcohol

However, Jewish men have a low rate of alcoholism, 2.8% compared to non-Jewish men’s rate of 14%. The study inferred that many non-Jewish alcoholics were depressed but didn’t go to the doctor for help and thus chose alcohol for self-medication. Perhaps Milton Berle put it best when he said, “Jewish men don’t drink much because it interferes with their suffering.”

There are such things as natural antidepressants, but they only work for only the mildest type of depression, which is triggered by a traumatic event and goes away after some time. St. John’s Wort is the best known natural anti-depressant, although it’s effectiveness has been rather over-hyped in recent years. If you do take St. John’s Wort, be sure to not take manufactured antidepressants, because they will clash.

Another chemical getting hyped in the last twenty years or so is called SAM-e (S-adenosyl-L-methionine). The cost of this stuff is ridiculous and the results are questionable, at best. Although I have not taken SAM-e, I do know family members who have and to say they were disappointed with the results is putting it mildly.

WARNING

Just because somethign is natural or herbal doesn’t mean it’s safe. It can play very badly with all of the other medications in the playground of your body. This is why you have to talk to your doctor BEFORE taking any natural antidepressants or any other natural supplement.

What About Major Depression?

For more serious types of depression like bipolar disorder or endogenous recurring depression (major depression), you are basically stuck with the drugs. For some people, they will be on medication for the rest of their lives. For others, they really only need to be on for a couple of years. It’s different for everyone.

You can use very natural means in order to help make the medications more effective or to make lowered doses of those medications effective. These natural things include getting enough sleep, getting regular exercise and learning how to manage your stress. I also like to munch on some chocolate to get help, albeit temporary help.

Hope this helps.

It’s common for people with Parkinson’s Disease to also have another disease — depression. About half of all people with Parkinson’s Disease also have diagnoseable depression. In fact, some researchers think that the first sign of Parkinson’s Disease is depression, which occurs about a year before Parkinson’s sets in. A study published in the May 28, 2008 issue of Neurology posits that people with depression are three times more likely to get Parkinson’s than people without depression.

Yes — I know. That’s a lot of information to digest all at once. Heaven knows that depressives already have enough to worry about. Trust me — the news isn’t all bad. If you have already been diagnosed with any type of depression, the chances are you won’t get Parkinson’s, too.

Is It The Drugs Or The Depression?

There has been some serious speculation that the reason depression and Parkinson’s Disease go together so often is because of the antidepressants taken for depression predispose a person to Parkinson’s. I haven’t seen anything concrete to back this information up — but if you know of any studies, feel free to comment (and cross your fingers that WordPress comment feature is working.)

Everyone on both sides of my family has clinical depression. They even married some people with depression. I probably have more cousins than I have chin hairs. And not one of those family members ever got Parkinson’s. I know that doesn’t prove anything; it’s just food for thought.

Serotonin And Dopamine

The exact cause of Parkinson’s Disease is still mysterious, but it is thought that lowered levels of dopamine have some part to play in it. Low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin can affect the level of dopamine in your brian. Low levels of serotonin can mean low levels of dopamine. Serotonin, remember, is also thought to be the culprit behind migraines and epilepsy.

I Want An Old Drug

In yet another article of yet another study published in yet another issue of Neurology, it is ssuggested that the SSRI class of antidepressants (Prozac, Paxil and the like) be skipped in favor of older tricyclics. Tricyclics came out int eh 1950’s and SSRIs came out in the 1980’s.

Chances are, if you are placed on an antidepressant or a medication to stabilize your moods, you will gain weight. This is because many antidepressants do two things — raise your appetite and make you dopey. Zyprexa in particular is noted for this. If you know that you can gain weight from anitdepressants, then you know that you need to try and stay active.

Remember, like it says on the sidebar, I’m not a doctor, so please talk to your doctor or therapist about the possibility of weight gain with any antidepressant. Don’t just suddenly stop taking any antidepressant, mood stabilizer or anti-seizure medication becauise the withdrawal effects can be painful and just a bit frightening.

Temporary Dopiness

When I started on Prozac, I was more or less knocked out for two weeks, and then my body got used to it and I was up to my usual energy levels. I can also get dopey if my dosage was raised — or reduced. The grogginess would go away in a few days, though. The grogginess can interfere with your driving ability.

Thankfully, I’m too blind to drive and I telecommute, so I didn’t have to worry about driving while groggy. I really recommend getting a ride or taking public transportation if you are changing or going onto a new medication because you may fell spacey. If you can, start the medication at a time when you have two or more days off in a row and don;t have to go anywhere.

Also, for God’s sake, don’t go anywhere near a contract in this condition.

Drink Plenty Of Water

One tip for helping battle the bulge and to help give you some more energy when on new medications is to make sure you are drinking at least five glasses of water a day. Okay — four glasses of water. You need to take a glass of water for your pills, anyway, so that’s one glass right there. Water can help give you a full feeling in the tummy. It also helps your circulation system and also cleans out your bladder.

If you don’t like the taste of water or other low-fat foods that are good for you, keep in mind that the taste buds can be trained to like a new food. You just have to give it two weeks.

Colon cleansing, colonic irrigation, colonic therapy, high colonics — whatever you call it, it sure won’t work for depression, bipolar disorder or anxiety. The makers of these products and programs make very radical claims that toxins in the colon are responsible for just about every health problem known to makind (including migraines). Soon, they’ll be saying that we could win the Iraq war through colon cleansing. But the vast majority of people alive and walking around do not need any of this crap (pardon the pun).

Show Me The Toxins

And what are these mysterious toxins that are supposed to inflict such misery on innocent bodies? These are never specifically described. They are only called by vague terms like “pollutants”, “parasites” and “impacted fecal matter.” These are just terms used to scare you into buying their expensive products.

You ever get a colonoscopy? (Now THERE’s a Christmas gift from Hell!) I’ve talked to people who’ve been awak during their colonoscopies and got to peek at the screen showing the insides of their colons. No pollutants, parasites or impacted fecal matter there. Just an empty, pink colon.

Most colon cleansing products and fiber nutritional supplements are made with psyllium husk powder from a plant native to India called “Plantato ovata”. This stuff, when wet, turns to goop. It also stimulates the bowels into pooping in really dramatic fashions. So, you take it and poop for ages and wonder if you really do have impacted fecal matter. So, you take more.

And, having a really big poo can actually feel good. This pleasureable experience also makes you want to take the colon cleansing products again.

Over long periods of time, your colon muscles atrophy because the great amounts of fiber are doing the work it usually does. So, your body becomes dependent on the colon cleanising products.

Antidepressants Can Be Constipating

Chronic constipation is painful. (That’s when you gan’t go for days at a time.) This can be a side effect from taking medications like antidepressants, mood stabilizers or heavy-duty painkillers. However, if you are really depressed, you don’t feel like getting the regular exercise you need to help keep you regular. You don’t have the energy to exercise and also have physical pains that make you want to curl up ion bed for the rest of your life.

Eating foods high in fiber and drinking water instead of dehydrating drinks like sodas or fizzy drinks can help your constipation problem much more than colon cleansing products or programs.

A multi-country study of babies pubished in Psychiatry Research suggests that babies who spent some time in an incubator after popping out of the womb were 2 to 3 times less likely to develop depression when they become adults. The theory is that the incubator acts like a surrogate womb and help eases the newborn’s transition to the real world. Who the heck was funding this study? The makers of baby incubators?

Study Specifics

The study took place from 1986 to 2007 on 1212 kindergarteners in the Quebec area. The study didn’t go into why Quebec kindergarteners were spotlighted. Is Quebec a particularly depressing place to live? Oh, Canada. Anyway, the kindergartener’s birth records were looked at and then they were updated every once in a while until they turned 21 to see if they were depressed or not.

Things factored into the study were “family adversity”, gender, birth weight and maternal depression. I have been trying to discover what they study means by “maternal depression” (does it mean the mother was depressed before she got pregnant or post-partum depression?) Whether or not both parents had depression does not seem to have been a factor and for that reason, I really can’t take this study seriously.

All Teenagers Are Depressed

Ok, I don’t mean that with 100% seriousness, but have you ever met a teenager or college kid who wasn’t depressed? And if they weren’t depressed then narcotics were usually involved somehow. The human race is, what 4 or 5 million years old and the reason most of us get depressed is because we didn’t have an incubator after birth? If that were true, then how did our species survive for so long?

Can’t Ignore Genetics

Studies on identical twins (with identical genetic makeup) raised has shown that both twins wind up with depression a whopping 76% of the time. One starts manifesting symptoms and then the other one does, too. If both parents have bipolar disorder, then all of their children have a 50 - 75% chance of also going through the hell that is bipolar disorder.

And, in a very informal study done on my part, everyone I know who has depression has had at least one parent that’s been diagnosed with depression (if they knew who their parents were, that is).

Although it’s usually the voters who wind up feeling blue, there have been many politicians who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder or major depression. Until the 1990’s, no politician who actually wanted to stay in office could admit to being depressed. The stigma of metal illness and insanity would doom that politician to a career change. Depression or melancholia was something kept very private.

It seems we insitictively look to the physcially perfect in order to be our leaders - and depression also falls into the “imperfect” category. In some ancient cultures, if a sitting king or chief was discovered to have a physical flaw — even due to age — he was not only removed from power but often executed.

Abraham Lincoln

He didn’t wear black all the time as a fashion statement. We only have his letters, writings and doctor’s notes to go on, but many experts agree that Abraham Lincoln, generally considered America’s greatest President, had major depression. Going through the Civil War and the death of a beloved son intensified his already strong depression. How he managed to get out of bed every day and eventually run the country is nothing short of a miracle.

Winston Churchill

It is thought that England’s most famous Prime Minister suffered from bipolar disorder (called manic depression in England). Churchill wrote a lot about … well, just about everything, and so scholars got more than just a peek into Churchill’s moods and thoughts. He apparantly called his down states “the Black Dog”.

Senator Thomas Eagleton

I hear you saying “Who?” His biggest claim to fame was, in 1972, being the Vice Presidential Canidate to George McGovern — for a mere 18 days. Then, it was discovered that he had clinical depression so severe that in the past he needed shock therapy. What happened to Eagleton happened to any politician discovered to have depression — he was dropped like a hot potato.

Lawton Chiles

Although admitting he had depression and was on Prozac, he was still elected a two-term govenor of Florida. He died while in office in 1998 and is remembered fondly by many Floridians to this day. In many obituaries about him, there is only a passing reference to his depression, if that. He was known for championing health care reform.