Don't read this unless you get depressed

Does anyone else get depressed? I have been clinically depressed all my life. I take medicine for it and it really helps, but to me the world is still not a good place.

When I read Crossing the Bridge and some of the other threads that didn't turn out happy, I just start thinking a lot. Don't mean I'm sitting here crying all the time, but it bums me out that there are people in the world that are mean to cats.

The reason I like this site is because there are so many people here that are great and wonderful and really care about cats.

I'm not even remotely religious, so I don't get any comfort from that. I just want to know the truth about things, and to make a positive difference when I can.

Im going to be 16 in a week and have been diagnosed with clinical depression and bipolar disorder for about 5 years or so now. I also take medicine and it helps a lot lol, I dont know where I'd be without it. It does upset me that people can be cruel to animals possibly why I'd like to become an animal cop or work for animals somehow when I get older. Just thought I'd reply

I was diagnosed with ultra rapid cycling hypomanic depression (Like manic, without the highs. Just the middles and lows) several years back. When I was still in my twenties I had some pretty severe bouts with it and went into treatment. I was on meds for about four years before I didn't need them anymore.

I tend to whipsaw on whether the world is good or evil, sometimes resting peacefully in the middle. There are a lot of both wonderful and horrible people in the world. Very little surprises me anymore but I still feel strongly about most of what I read/see/hear. I will likely always be a bit thin skinned about stuff. Cruelty to children and animals always gets me the worst.

As for religion. I have studied it and philosophy exhaustively. The best answer that I could come up with is that no one knows the truth. Parts of it maybe, but never all of it. I've hung onto the ideas I liked. Those that resonated with me, and shrug off the intolerance and dogma. There is a heavy thread of agnosticism running through my beliefs though. So I know what you mean about not having the kind of comfort the faithful of all stripes seem to have.

When you're sensitive to things it's important to know when to step back and take a break. To focus on something warm and good for a little while. I'm kinda new here but the RB threads get to me too. But even tears can be cathartic.

I don't suffer from any problems like what you are speaking from. I do have a niece who has been diagnosed bipolar. She really struggles with it too. My husband is a minister and over the years we have seen several people who battle depression or some type of problems like it. Of course we have the kind of faith in Jesus that you spoke remotely of in your post. I wouldn't want to live the next five minutes if I didn't have that. I pray that you will find the truth and what you are searching for. I wish you the best.

I to have been diagnosed as being depressed and have been prescribed medication for it. It helps a lot but I just need to get past any thought of getting secondary cancers and I know I will be o.k. Its just seems to get harder and harder to switch of the worry and I end up crying then being angry about it all. I try to do some thing positive each day, a walk or make time to read a book. Then their are always my beautiful cats that make me feel better. As my dad says chin up, tomorrow will be a new day. All the best to you.

Originally Posted by Kathylou

Does anyone else get depressed? I have been clinically depressed all my life. I take medicine for it and it really helps, but to me the world is still not a good place.

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\\\\\\I am with you...I have also been clinically depressed for most of my life, and my meds help me have a more typical life. And I have my doubts about the world too.

You know, I don't know if any us know the true nature of the world, because it's so big and there are so many points of view and ways to live, for all living things. Humans are still animals - we are blessed with the ability to choose, but we are still cruel and ugly at times, and consumptive of our planet. The one thing that gives me comfort is that I know about the good choices, and make them whenever I can, and there are others like that too. There are a lot of us here on the site!

Giving and recieving love, in this world where there seems to be so little of it sometimes, is IMO the greatest thing we can do. If you can consiously do that, your life is making a difference for the better. A lot of us depressives in treatment are very good at this since we have to work so hard to do it, and we need it so badly to be healthy.

Just think - your struggles make you special! I certainly hope my struggles have counted for something!!!

I've dealt with depression and anxiety since I was 16. I've been on and off medication ever since... Right now, I'm off... I don't know if that's a good thing, but does anyone else ever just get tired of dealing with the pills??

I suffer chronic moderate depression (it occasionally can slip into severe if I don't watch it) and do not take medicine for it. Yes, I grew tired of the pills. They don't cure anything. They just take your problem and stuff it under layers and layers of other things, and you get this feeling of being suffocated under the influence of the medicine. So while you're outwardly smiling and drugged into pleasantness, on the inside you're screaming and screaming because you know something's not right. I chose to learn to just deal with this myself rather than support the pharmaceuticals business in a way I didn't like.

I studied different kinds of already well-established religions (christianity/catholicism, buddhism, mormonism, so forth and so on) and found that found that none of them really worked for me. So I'm putting together my own eccentric system of beliefs and actions and they help me deal with things better than anything previously.

I, too, believe that the world is not a very nice place and sometimes it's all I can do not to go out and pick up a hundred strays and shelters to care for. But I know that within the next year I'll finally have one of the things in life that makes me happiest and I make myself live through each day so I can get to that time.

Depression has been such a major influence on my life that it went undiagnosed for a very long time. After a particularly horrible divorce, my will to fight it finally broke and I received treatment through medication. Medication alone will not sufficiently treat depression. Someone here said that antidepressants only disguise the depression, hiding it away beneath layers of chemicals. This can be true if psychotherapy is not an avid part of your treatment.

I've done both, taken the medicine with counseling and without it. The opportunity to have an objective person listen and understand is beyond measure, but you must trust the psychologist or psychiatrist and be open and honest. It doesn't always work. I had one terrible experience with a psychiatrist who always sat with his back towards me and eventually tried to have me committed against my will. (Tried. Didn't happen.) At two points now, I have stopped taking the medication, only to find myself face to face once again with the depression.

Currently, I have been referred to a new psychiatrist for a visit this month. I will probably be placed on a new medication at that time. People who suffer from depression need to constantly remind themselves that it is not the world that is terrible, but the depression that colors it for us. I have seen examples of darkness, but can honestly say that the light has always outshined it.

Nor am I a religious person. After 13 years in Catholic schools, and 20 years of participating in the religion itself, I discovered too many flaws to allow myself the beliefs with which I was raised. This does not mean I have no faith. My faith is a personal, private thing that cannot be defined by organized religion.

There is help out there. It differs in many ways for many people. I hope that everyone who suffers this disease finds their own successful method of dealing with it.