Depression Poll

[MeSci]

Whow, I didn't know that one! Thanks! But I still prefer lemonade to la soupe à l'oignon.

I don't! I like onion soup. Commercial lemonade is a no-no for me due to the sugar or yucky artificial sweeteners. Too sweet for me anyway. Home-made lemonade with a little xylitol might be OK though.

I like the sayings. They are maxims I have lived by for a long time, and they can be a necessity when one is poor. But I get a lot of satisfaction from my 'Heath Robinson' contraptions, knowing that I have made or mended something without spending much - or any - money or used non-renewable resources. Just some builders' waste wood and a few (often salvaged) nails or screws and I have a garden seat, a stool, a garden gate, a cat shelter, have mended a hole in a door, etc. It's got harder with illness, but I can still do stuff if I take it a bit at a time.

 

[Snow Leopard]

I changed my vote.

Depression is one of those things... Depression sucks, it's pretty damn obvious when you have it...

I just don't understand those who don't trust whether others know themselves enough to say whether they are suffering from depression or not.

 

[Cheshire]

I changed my vote.

Depression is one of those things... Depression sucks, it's pretty damn obvious when you have it...

Sorry.
I hope better days are coming.

 

[MeSci]

Sorry.
I hope better days are coming.

Seconded. It's a horrible place to be.

 

[Roseblossom]

I recall reading somewhere how one doctor distinguished ME/cfs from major depression:
With major depression, patients are generally unable to tell you what they would do if only they were not depressed. With ME/cfs, patients have no trouble describing the many things they would do if only they didn't have ME/cfs.

Another key distinguishing symptom is the patient's response to exercise.

Patients with depression are improved by exercise. Conversely, patients with (SEID) Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disease are worsened by exercise.
.

 

[GracieJ]

Two huge points to use to educate others. I like it. SEID can get us somewhere with a framework like that repeated over and over.

@Snow Leopard Hugs. We really need a hugs pic. Take care of yourself.

 

[Gingergrrl]

@Snow Leopard Hugs. We really need a hugs pic. Take care of yourself.

We do have a hugs pic, it is this one:

 

[GracieJ]

Ah, that does work! Just blind.

@Snow Leopard

 

[MeSci]

Another key distinguishing symptom is the patient's response to exercise.

Patients with depression are improved by exercise. Conversely, patients with (SEID) Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disease are worsened by exercise.
.

Exercise sometimes helps with depression, but not always.

 

[amaru7]

Exercise sometimes helps with depression, but not always.

True, a study said it does help with low to moderate depression only.

 

[Snowdrop]

I just don't understand those who don't trust whether others know themselves enough to say whether they are suffering from depression or not.

Because different people have different definitions of what constitutes depression. I have witnessed some people who when they feel temporarily down with a low mood define themselves as depressed. Compare that to serious depression which my husband has had for decades so I am well familiar with and it's not at all the same thing. Yet those who are unfamiliar with depression can often define themselves that way when they are not feeling bright and happy like they are taught they should feel by the 'happiness' psych lobby. I'm taking a swipe at the creepy Martin Seligman authentic happiness movement here.

So @Snow Leopard It's not mutually exclusive. Those who experience real depression know it. But those who do not can be mistaken in what they think is depression because they have not experienced the real thing to know better.

 

[perchance dreamer]

I don't remember if I've chimed in on this thread, but a couple of things that brighten my mood are DHA and a supplement called Balance D from NeuroScience:

https://www.naturalhealthyconcepts.com/balanced.html

 

[SOC]

I have witnessed some people who when they feel temporarily down with a low mood define themselves as depressed. Compare that to serious depression which my husband has had for decades so I am well familiar with and it's not at all the same thing.

Kinda like people thinking they have CFS because they are occasionally fatigued.

I suspect people with MDD have a similar (if less severe) problem to ours -- people thinking they know how to cure MDD because they know how they cheered themselves up during a temporary blue mood. "All you need to do is go for a nice walk in the sunshine" or "Just keep yourself busy and you won't have time to mope."

MDD is a serious disorder that shouldn't be trivialized by people thinking it's equivalent to a sad mood, or a bad week. I believe that the neurochemical disorder that is currently called "depression" needs a new name indicative of it's physiological characteristics. Because one of the symptoms can be low mood, it got the name "depression" which is also used for normal low mood in otherwise healthy people. All too similar to us getting stuck with "fatigue" which trivializes our illness.

My personal belief is that there are multiple conditions under the heading "depression", including straight-up neurochemical disorders, and psychological situations involving poor self-talk, and probably combinations of the two. I suspect this is why talk therapy cures depression in some people and does nothing for others, while medications can work wonders for some and not work at all for a different group.

 

[Izola]

@Valentijn

I happened upon your poll at an odd time. Over the long dreadful years, decades of ME, what w/ its family and social losses, eventual, if not immediate poverty, and pain, sometimes agony, I have, at times, wondered, why am I not depressed.

I should not have asked. Right now, I need to find another place to live, w/ occasional assistance offered. I am too weak to look, I'll be charged for benefits that could kill me and I cannot afford assisted care facilities. All, but one, prospective representative, keep trying to convince me to have another disease. If only.

When they start describing all the social and other activities, I shrink.

One lady told me they have a central dining room. I said I have to eat in bed to save my strength for Dr's appts. She said, "well. then, we will put you in the room next to the dining room." That was sweet, but I was already preparing for a relapse, just from the thought of mingling voices and kitchen noises.

That happens, I am sure to all, w/ enough time in this disease. Someone suggests, or you think of, doing something, and your ME brain brings up the scenario, and, in a split second, says sweetly "o.k." or says "Hell no." while simultaneously knocking you violently into a monster demonstration of what would be in store.

I am now depressed for a few days, now. Does that count?. iz

 

[Izola]

@Antares in NYC

You are so-o-o Right!

 

[Izola]

@Misfit Toy
Sleep well. iz