What do you tell people?

I'm really in a major depression and fear mode and been faking it and it's exhausting and doesn't feel right. It's like I want to shout to the world "I'm depressed and Can't function right now". Life is really starting to stop. Can't get my mind to stop looping. Some Good friends know but acquaintances I feel shame and blame. Any advise?

I fake it most everyday. But it becomes habit. I don't feel any reason to tell people I am depressed. I find I fake it till I make it. Eventually things seem better. And I am in a better mood.

Hugs, Karen...

Thank you all. This is probably my 5 or 6 spiral down in the last 20 years. I have been to a few of psychiatristsand they put me in meds I usually can't handle them. I react worse. Even my friend who is a psychologist said to be careful with meds. I'm very sensitive to them. The last psychiatrist I saw was about a year and a half agoi. I see an integrative doctor who prescribes Cymbalta which the psychiatrist originally prescribed. To be honest the integrative doctor helped me more and the psych are all good. I do have chronic Lyme disease which she says make my nervous system react more to stress. I'm worse when and I think traumatized by so many times going through this. I don't know how but I come around. It's just horrible when I'm in it.

I am in therapy now with my husband for my adult son with many life issues including addiction. Not sure I can take another I have a spiritual counselor who I think I need to start with again. We increased my Cymbalta. Im trying to work a little to help others and a coach energy worker which makes this even worse as this is another growth experience for knowing compassion and understanding and sensitivity. Which is probably my problem! I think faking it til I make it makes me feel better although I feel like lying on the couch all day. Your comments are so helpful it's just my brain not working right I feel like I have a case of the "I can't and I don't know ". It's hard to motivate make decisions and follow through.

I also think my son who lives here now is depressed too but I may be projecting my stuff. At least he is not as down as I am. He is very difficult and we gave him a date when he has to move out. Tomorrow I have to meet a lawyer for my elderly mother and will do it and and have a client and. try for a better day and week. . I am in the process of increasing the Cymbalta and have found I get worse before I get better most times. . I'm trying to avoid the constant medication switches that I have been through. My blood work shows I have no detectable seritonin. Not sleeping well but Dr gave me something and don't want to get hooked on it and take it once in a while. I sound like a really terrible patient. Thank you for letting me vent and your support.

Post Edited By Moderator (getting by) : 8/20/2017 5:55:43 PM (GMT-6)

You say you have trouble with sleep.

I don't like to take doctor pills for sleep, either, so I looked at some of these health food suppliments, and found Melatonin which works good for me.

I take 1 mg. and it puts me to sleep, but only because I'm also taking Lithium for my mania and Mirtazapine for my depression..

So, without that I might have to go 3 or 4 mg, and they sell it in 5 and 10 mg, so it must be OK. But I wouldn't go that high.

So person on the anxiety website said he was taking Melatonin and Varlarian Root combined for sleep and that it worked very well.

I looked it up on Walgreen's Drug store and the two together in one pill is called Knockout. I know, I don't know about that one, knockout drops for sleep? I don't know about that.

Then they had a calm pill health food supplement, also sold at Walgreen's on the net, and he said it helped calm him down.

The Melatonin, you're supposed to check with your doctor or druggist in case it doesn't go good with the meds you are taking. My psychiatrist said it's OK, because it's been round a long time.

What's helped me is that I read about being positive when trying to solve a problem. I didn't know it but I was negative going into a problem that I wasn't going to solve it. And it was my negative, not the problem, that was hurting my chances of solving it.

So now I try to think positive when first realizing there is a problem I want to solve. And then I don't have to be positive after I've worked on the problem. I like that part, too.

Working with drug addicts is really a lot of fun. If you don't try to help them they get worse. If you do try to help them they get worse. There's nothing you can do.

If you kick your son out, he'll get worse. If you don't kick him out, he won't improve. There's nothing you can do.

It sounds like you're trying so that's good.

Why do you feel shame? Having an illness is not shameful.

Why do you feel the need to say anything to an acquaintance?

What DO I say to people? "I'm not fit for human consumption today." Which usually gets me a giggle.

I love those commercials that portray people actually speaking honestly. No hidden agendas. No beating around the bush.

Honesty does not mean tactless. "I'm not at my best today." "I'm feeling a bit unwell." "I'm taking a mental health day." I've used all of these at one time or another.

As for sleep, I had a chiropractor that was offering 'Brain Core Therapy'. He asked if I'd like to try it and I did. I don't know how it works, I just know that after a few treatments I was not only sleeping, I was dreaming again and waking up feeling rested!

P.S. I've been 'maintaining' without meds for about 9 years now.

hi, i am jamie, i live with mental illness. that was my opening line to the med students the other day. i said stigma started with me......and my role is to advocate change and demistify mental illness and to educate that is a medical condition like any other and that labels come from the uneducated.

I soooo hear what you're saying!

I had 13 years of sobriety when I 'suffered' my 5th work related injury and slid down the rabbit hole to the point that I needed professional help and medication. I was blessed with a counselor that had a similar experience.

I had been berating myself..."You should know how to do this." "You help others, why can't you help yourself?" These types of thoughts would come unceasingly every day and make my depressed state worse.

Today, I look at it like I look at getting a cold or flu. Look around. Some people seem to never get sick. Some get over a cold quickly, while some suffer for weeks. Everyone is exposed to viruses (life). Some have incredible immune systems. Some have other habits that make them more susceptible or prolong the symptoms. Some take vitamins and get exercise to strengthen the immune system. Some run to the doctor right away, some wait until they need hospitalization. Some, no matter what they do, seem to come down with everything that is making the rounds, no matter what they do!

Just because I get a cold doesn't mean I don't ever get another. Just because I get over the symptoms the first time doesn't mean I won't have the same symptoms the next time. I just might recognize the symptoms earlier and take the necessary steps to wellness a little earlier.

I don't know a single person that doesn't hope they don't get sick. I don't know a single person with depression that doesn't hope they don't take another slide down the rabbit hole.

When I feel a cold coming on, I go get the 'cold and flu' meds (love the Zicam nasal swabs, by the way), load up on tissues and 'comfort food', know that I'm going to have to cancel some plans, tell people to stay away so I don't get them sick, too. I don't 'beat myself up' for having a cold.

When I feel the depression coming on, I let someone know and keep the crisis numbers handy. I load up on tissues and 'comfort food', know that I'm going to have to cancel some plans, tell people to stay away so I don't do irreparable damage to relationships. I don't 'beat myself up' for having a depression episode.

No one is born knowing 'how to do life'. Be gentle with yourself.

kellyincali- I would tell my clients to honor your feelings and self care.There is an trues essence of beauty beneath all the self talk. I have now cancelled apps since I am very shakey and not doing well at all.

Pitmom-it's interesting you talk about the flu, my PCP told me that I tested positive in my urine for Lyme bacteria, Chronic Ebpstien Barr the Mono virus and feels some this is from Neuro infectious Lyme disease in the brain. Just called another Psychiatrist who specializes in that, too. I am now on a antibiotic where she said there literature on it for antidepressant effects.I am also on the lYme forum which is supportive . too. First time in all these years I surrendered today and not doing anything. I drove to visit a friend and her husband this past weekend to get away and just be. Coming back to the reentry I think made things worse!

Hope you guys are all doing well.

What do you mean by "unsafe" posts?

I know that, I am a depressed person too, but what makes them "unsafe"? Like as if it is detrimental. I have not seen that here. I worry as a moderator about "unsafe" posts...

Remember everybody here suffers from depression, we are all a work in progress. Sometimes when we are depressed we can't see the positive and focus on the negative. Sometimes all it needs is to try to see the positive and be happy. Sometimes there are larger issues there. I think everybody here means well...

I don't think I should have used the term "unsafe." I apologize for that, as nobody did or said something wrong. I think when we are in remission and we are stable and even though still depressed, more focused on the positive, it is tempting to give platitudes as a response to someone who is obviously thinking very negatively. Like I said, when I am depressed it is as if someone snatched my body and took over. I honestly feel "tormented" by the chemicals in my brain. Out of the blue, I start crying and panicking. My rational mind knows all of the right "self talk" but the darn "depression" has a mind of its own. It literally makes my brain SICK to the point where many self help techniques can't rescue me. At those times, I might be extra vulnerable to any post suggesting that its within my control at that moment. Depression is such a monster. Like I've said before, I feel so much empathy for those of us who struggle with it.