How do you know what is depression and what is life just being crap?

[Gabby]

Any ideas?

I seem to have been more depressed over the past 6-9 months than I have been for a while - how do you know what is 'depression the illness' and what is just life being crap enough that any normal person would be feeling rubbish too? is there a difference?

g

[PUGLETMUM]

:) yes gabby there is a massive difference, unfortunately. but knowing you are depressed is not the end - its the start of recovery:yesyes:

im not quoting this out of my book, so dont take this as gospel, but roughly speaking you would have symptoms of lowered mood for more than 2 weeks, these can be any of the following, an dyou would need to be feeling 3 or more (i think?):

sleeping more
sleeping less, or waking in the early hours and not being able to get back to sleep
eating more
loss of appetite
agitation
waking feeling really bad, but feeling better as the day wears on
or the reverse, feeling worse later in the day
ruminating - constantly 'thinking' about your situation/life
innapropriate guilt - guilty when you actually havent done anything
crying all the time
restlessness
lack of concentration
loss of interest in formally pleasurable activities

ppl think of depression as just being an inability to function - we imagine it being someone who just cant get out of bed or get motivated? some ppl do experience depression like this, but personally i go the other way, i feel so wound up as to be uncomfortable all the time, and i rumintate constantly
so i would say that if you are feeling very bad in yourself, not just anxious actually feeling very very negative, like you cant see a reason for life, or you cant see it ever getting better? then this is depression. and it can be treated, plus the good news is does go on its own in time and there is now plently you can do yourself to help it go:yesyes: hope this helps, emma

[Gabby]

Thanks emma

I guess I was asking the question (perhaps not very well!) because I was thinking that a lot of people can meet the criteria for a depression diagnosis because something rubbish is going on in their life but are never actually diagnosed as such and they just recover and dont think of themselves as a depressed person.

I suppose I feel like because there is a diagnosis, am I having a negative reaction to a situation because I know I have been depressed in the past or is it the same reaction that anyone would have? I suppose I am worrying a little that as soon as I see the 'signs' of it coming back, I just resign myself to being ill and that makes it worse and maybe I look for treatment when actually if I just leftit alone, I would get through it anyway.

Im already on anti-depressants and beta blockers and have had CBT and counselling, which have all helped to a greater or lesser extent.

g

[Karen]

Hi Gabby

I think there are clinical signs and symptoms that professionals use to diagnose clinical depression. However, there are also degrees of depression too and reactions to life's stresses.

As you say, sometimes we have a lot of distressing or stressful events going on in our lives that anyone would find difficult dealing with but if feeling low anyway perhaps it makes it harder to deal with than for someone who has never suffered with depression at all.

I also think there is a significant difference in someone that is severely clinically depressed, rather than perhaps someone reacting to stress in life.

Severe clinical depression completely knocks the person off their feet so to speak so that they are unable to function and find it almost impossible to even get out of bed in the morning or do anything at all. I've been suffering with depression this year, slowly worsening to a stage where I've now been diagnosed with clinical depression and it is an effort to do anything at all.

It seems like you are aware of the signs and I hope with the therapy you are having and the medication you can prevent the low mood progressing to worsening depression. Awareness of the warning signs is half the battle.

Sounds like you are winning the battle :hugs:

Karen xx

[PUGLETMUM]

:) hiya gabby, yesh like youve both said everyone goes through difficult periods in their life, but they dont get depressed - from what ive just learnt from my books ive bought (best money spent!) is that depression occurs in ppl who are ' experientially aversive' - that is to say they dont like to feel any bad emotions and will try to puch them away or 'do' other things to make the emotions go away. ppl like this also tend to critizise themselves, judge and compare themselves making things even worse. also once you have had depression your brain is susceptible because of associations and memories to feel like that again, and if like me you first suffered in adolescence then you are at even greater risk of having depression and you are actually quite likely to commit suicide which is why i am desperate not to be depressed again.

thats not the same though as saying i dont want to be sad/angry/scared/lonely/disgusted/confused etc etc. what this new mindfulness based cognitive therapy for depression is doing is teaching ppl like me and karen that we CAN feel these emotions and survive - we dont have to become swamped by them, we can watch them and investigate them, we can look at our thoughts as just 'events' in our mind without 'seeing' them as some sort of 'truth' about who we really are?and we can be kind to ourselves in a way that we never have before.

do you know that i have been 'mean' to myself since i was the age of 14, so much so that when i finally got the help i needed in 2006, i had to be told that 'everything' that has happened to me n the last 16 years since my mum died wasnt only my fault - everything that happened i thought was a result of my 'defective' personality - so im sure you can imagine how much clamer and happier ive been since ive been treating myself like the child i once was when i didnt beat myself up and blame myself for everything in my life on the fact that i was a crap person?

it is amazing, to be with yourself in this new way, and this is why ppl dont get depressed - they dont hate themselves! and they 'feel' their emotions without worrying that they will be taken over by them and never feel happy again - thye know that the unhappiness will subside eventually or tha tit will ebb and flow - they know that they will be distracted from their sorrow and will feel happy even for a short while. ppl who get depressed dont wan tto feel unhappy, they want to get back to being happy at all costs.

this is what i beleive and this is what my books say and i have direct experience, because in 2005 i had a miscarriage after waiting 7 years to try for another child (my husband didnt think i could cope being a mum again and being depressed/anxious, and i didnt have the confidence to just do it anyway earlier) and i was devastated, but i very soon became so concerned with my sadness that all of my anxiety and depression kicked in again - i started to question my responses and to critizise myself for my responses and more than anything i didnt waant to 'feel' so sad - i was obsesssed with getting 'back' to the mental state id been in before i got pregnant.

so move forward to this year and after year of seeing this therapist who helped me to see myself differently, i have had another miscarriage, and found out the day after my evacuation to remove the embryo that my oldest friend is expecting her first child - she turned up on my doorstep the day after! and i have been upset by this more than anything because me and her fell out 15 years ago and we only used to bump into each other in town, but now it seemed like she wanted a proper friendship again based on us being pregnant together and here was i not pregnant anymore!!! so i have felt sad and confused for weeks now but im doing okay:yesyes: because im not judging/comparing myself and im not desperately trying to rid myself of any of my fears and feelings - i know that they will wax and wane. so on i go with my life unburdened by depression despite having stress - may i also add that i have a very strained relationship with my husband ( you may well ask why i wanted a baby then? - thats another long story! like this has turned into:blush: )which is currently causing me stress everyday:lac:

anyway, i just want to show ppl that this mindfullness practice for depression can work if you are ready for it? hope this can help anyone who is or ever has been depressed? emma:hugs: