mikeyarmo
Co-Founder
I am quite confident that all of us have felt moments of deep sadness before. There are moments of despair, of lost hope, helplessness, uncertainty, fear and just plain old tired of everything that has and is happening. What I want to know (or discuss) is when do these feelings begin to be considered depression that needs treatment with drugs, therapy or an alternative way?
Many of the drugs we need to take can cause depression, or at the very least mood swings (like prednisone). It is quite common to feel like a different person when on these drugs, but does that mean that special attention needs to be paid to control the feelings of sadness?
I think that one is considered "depressed" or in depression if:
-Constant state of sadness and lethargic
-No desire to eat
-No desire to go through daily activities (especially ones that are usually enjoyed)
-A feeling of despair that results in a wanting to "stop fighting" the disease
These are based on what I have read and heard of the medical definition of depression. My problem is that these symptoms seem to be things that all of us can feel and go through during our combat with our diseases. There are times (when we are not on prednisone of course) where the last thing we want to think about is food. We are dead tired (from a recent flair, malabsorption/anemia or any other reason) and we have no willingness to carry on normal, daily activity. Lying in bed is all we want to do, and we may want to also do it alone.
What I feel then is that being depressed is more of a personal decision than a clinical diagnosal. I do not mean to say that being depressed is your choice and you are weak or wrong for being so, but rather you need to decide for yourself whether your state of sadness is in need of further attention or medication. I know that I went through some pretty low periods, but I would not have wanted to be medicated for depression. I think that I had all the symptoms that would classify myself as being depressed though, but I was just waiting for my surgery date to come, and was still doing my best to keep up with school and my normal activities at the time (made sure to watch my favourite television shows everyday
).
Maybe as someone who has perhaps never been to what is the lowest of low points, I may not be able to correctly discuss this matter. I may be totally wrong in my feelings, so I would really like to hear others perspectives on this.
I hope that you all will feel comfortable discussing this matter. If not, I encourage you to post about your dealings with depression in the support forum under the anonymous account (instructions to do so are in that forum) as I really want other perspectives on this.
Many of the drugs we need to take can cause depression, or at the very least mood swings (like prednisone). It is quite common to feel like a different person when on these drugs, but does that mean that special attention needs to be paid to control the feelings of sadness?
I think that one is considered "depressed" or in depression if:
-Constant state of sadness and lethargic
-No desire to eat
-No desire to go through daily activities (especially ones that are usually enjoyed)
-A feeling of despair that results in a wanting to "stop fighting" the disease
These are based on what I have read and heard of the medical definition of depression. My problem is that these symptoms seem to be things that all of us can feel and go through during our combat with our diseases. There are times (when we are not on prednisone of course) where the last thing we want to think about is food. We are dead tired (from a recent flair, malabsorption/anemia or any other reason) and we have no willingness to carry on normal, daily activity. Lying in bed is all we want to do, and we may want to also do it alone.
What I feel then is that being depressed is more of a personal decision than a clinical diagnosal. I do not mean to say that being depressed is your choice and you are weak or wrong for being so, but rather you need to decide for yourself whether your state of sadness is in need of further attention or medication. I know that I went through some pretty low periods, but I would not have wanted to be medicated for depression. I think that I had all the symptoms that would classify myself as being depressed though, but I was just waiting for my surgery date to come, and was still doing my best to keep up with school and my normal activities at the time (made sure to watch my favourite television shows everyday
).Maybe as someone who has perhaps never been to what is the lowest of low points, I may not be able to correctly discuss this matter. I may be totally wrong in my feelings, so I would really like to hear others perspectives on this.
I hope that you all will feel comfortable discussing this matter. If not, I encourage you to post about your dealings with depression in the support forum under the anonymous account (instructions to do so are in that forum) as I really want other perspectives on this.
