Setbacks Are Inevitable
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.
September 1st, 2008 at 3:05 pm
[...] Original post by Rena Sherwood [...]
October 6th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
[...] is a setback. Setbacks are inevitable with any kind of mental illness. I call these setbacks “jags”. I have no idea where I [...]
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[...] and not feel any worse, they usually feel any better, either. If you are experincing one of those setbacks where one more thing is going to push you over the edge, then avoid watching depressing [...]
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[...] The Mormons Are Out To Get Me by Rena Sherwood When you have major depression, the slightest thing can get blown out of proportion. It can be exhausting jumping to conclusions all of the time. One event can set off a chain reaction of illogic in your head which can lead to panic, anxiety or crippling fear. This happens no matter how long you have been taking medication and therapy, because setbacks are inevitable. [...]