Anxiety/depression

[Tomshardware]

"Been through bad time lately with suffering with this. Dark thoughts as well. I know some posters on here suffer with this. Anyone come through the other side of this shit?

"A number of posters have been yellow carded and told to stay off this thread unless they have anything constructive to add.This is a thread that has been very useful to so many, for any other posters with scores to settle, argue on another thread. This thread is sacrosant.Thank you"

[simon.s]

"Lab - replace the booze with exercise, if poss. Booze is a depressant. Need to break the cycle of drinking."

[Tomshardware]

"Lab, any reason you are drinking? Do you feel you need it to get through the day?"

[lab]

"I’m struggling with drink , averaging five pints a day , not sure what to do."

[normannomates]

Hope everyone is doing okay. Norm

[zebthecat]

"Willtell 3:47 Wed Oct 7 Bloody hell that is awful. Had a similar one - my partner's daughter died and it is horrible as it lurks in the background waiting to get you. My CBT is going well so far, never realised how many thought traps I fell into. The allergic reaction was full on anaphylaxis - A&E bad. Have had it before with other antibiotics so knew what it was as soon my throat started constricting - Luckily I had antihistemines and a salbutamol inhaler on hand. Still scary mind."

[Mike Oxsaw]

"Taking back control of your life is, I believe, a big step towards being better placed to manage this condition. It's why I bang on about stepping away from your mobile phone (do you own it, or does it own you?) and working from home - or at least in an environment into which you've had some considerable input. Not everybody has the option of working from home, even in the Covid age, but your phone? For 12, maybe 24 hours? Won't cause Brexit to be cancelled or re-elect Trump. Give it a try."

[Lee Trundle]

Whoever would have thought passing your scooter exam was the key to getting rid of depression! (only joking)

[Darlo Debs]

"Sorry to hear about your wife Will but depression can come from.various sources and sometimes its that feeling of being overwhelmed that really makes it hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel, at least that was true for me ."

[Willtell]

"The only time in my life that I found myself in a deep depression was when my 30 year old wife died many years ago now. I just lost all motivation but had 3 employees in a new marketing venture. Three weeks off and it showed that it was going to fail unless I got back to work. I just had to get over it or be bankrupt, homeless and 3 angry employees so I did but it wasn't easy at first... I suspect though that in most cases it is modern life, low value work, shortage of money and futures without hope that makes people give in too easily to depression..."

[Darlo Debs]

I didn't find it overly helpful but i actually think that uts because it only addressed part of what i needed counselling for. Glad it worked for you though A8

[After8]

CBT is great. Thoroughly recommend.

[Boycie]

I've been back on the AD's for just over a month now and my mood is completely different. I don't have a feeling of numbness described. In fact i'm quite cheerful now. Not bad for someone who's default expression is fucking miserable

[Bungo]

"Sniper 2:15 Tue Sep 22 I agree with all of that. Overall I believe that most people working in the NHS want to do the best job they can, but I can easily understand how frustrating it must be trying to negioiate your way through as a patient. I am sure that the majority of GPs would like to spend longer with their patients, especially when it comes to mental health consultations, but if a doctor does this regularly, their surgeries will over run, patients waiting will get testy, the reception staff dealing with the patients will get testy too, and then the practice manager and partners will almost certainly start putting pressure on that individual to speed up, to keep the whole practice working smoothly. You more often get the 'mavericks' in smaller practices where flexibility in timing is likely to be more tolerated. I still think there is a big gap in expectation management. I'm sure more people would do a lot better if they knew the pills were just a first step to 'take the edge off' the worst symptoms before the longer term treatment begins."

[Sniper]

"Bungo It’s really interesting to see comments about the pressure on gps and how hard the issues are for them to deal with. I actually think a lot of British gps simply aren’t equipped to cope with it. I was very lucky in that the Gp I saw when I went the first time was originally from Scandinavia, where mental health issues are well researched and understood, and even though she’s lived in England for 30+ years she still had a sort of engrained innate understanding of the problems. She explained everything amazingly well and there was never any pressure to move on despite the obvious time restraints gps work under I think my whole journey would have been very different if I had spoken to someone else the first time - and that initial moment of explaining and opening up is so important, if it isn’t handled correctly or if you are just prescribed pills and ushered out the door, I can completely see why you would feel helpless either at that point or a few months later when the pills hadn’t done anything/magically solved everything And, of course, if you go to someone for help and think they’ve done what they can and what they’ve done hasn’t helped/cured you, you’re going to feel frustrated and downbeat and, inevitably, feel that you were right all along and that those concerns and issues and negative thought you had about yourself were right and you can’t be helped. Bad support is no better than no support, with the added issue that a person handled poorly who doesn’t get better is far less likely to open up again or ask for even more help"

[Tomshardware]

Good luck Zeb.

[Tomshardware]

Good luck Zeb.

[arsegrapes]

zebthecat 10:39 Fri Sep 18 Was that an allergic reaction to penicillin ?

[Sniper]

"Zeb All the best with the CBT fella. It’s a strange but rewarding process, and you do take out what you put in It’s actually quite fascinating to have your own thought processes mapped out as well - it’s something I think a lot of people could find very useful, not just people suffering from mental health problems"

[Bungo]

zebthecat 10:39 Fri Sep 18 I've heard lots of good things about successful long-term treatment with CBT. All the best with that.

[zebthecat]

"Finally made it to the top the CBT waiting list and therapy starts next week - Hooray! One thing I have found is that having a near death experience helps (not that I would recommend this as an intentional treatment option). Had an anaphylactic reaction to antibiotics three months ago and, quite apart from the adrenalin rush, it crystalized that I definitely do not want to die and the small stuff bothers me a hell of a lot less than it did."

[Bungo]

"Jasnik 11:41 Thu Sep 17 That's a bit of an over-simplification. They do the best they can based on short consultations and the expectation that many patients have that they can be given a pill which will be a one stop cure-all. The prescribing of ADs short-term can be a massive help to many suffering severe symptoms of depression so that is usually a good thing. Many doctors are under a lot of time pressure, so unless the patient comes back at the right time, there isn't always a system in place to chase up each patient at the right time. If you don't initiate coming back yourself, then 'the system' will often assume you don't need further treatment. This is starting to change with diseases such as asthma and diabetes, where GP practices are obliged to offer regular follow up clinics with patients to check progress and modify treatments as necessary. As far as I'm aware, this is not as developed in mental health services yet where treatment is longer-term and people intensive. So most doctors are doing the best they can, but they don't always have the time or resources to follow each patient through a full treatment regime as they would in a perfect world."

[Jasnik]

Bungo 10:54 Thu Sep 17 So your saying the issue is Doctors giving these pills out like they are smarties. With no real plan on how to treat the patients.

[Bungo]

"Just want to clarify how and when anti-depressants should be used, speaking as an employee of ‘Big Pharma’ who has been involved with the development and distribution of several ADs in the last 25+ years, and having spoken to countless doctors about how they use them. Firstly, they should not be viewed as a ‘solution’ to depression. They are really the equivalent of putting a sticking plaster on a cut, but this is not always made clear to the patient. If a doctor has a depressed patient in front of them, they will often prescribe an AD, as this is what the doctor is able to do there and then that is most likely to have the most immediate impact on reducing the worst symptoms (hopefully within a couple of weeks). Many patients also feel that to leave a consultation without a prescription is to somehow be short changed which leads many doctors to feel more pressure to prescribe. The doctor should then be seeking out other ways to help the patient over the medium/long term with non-pharmacological therapies. Unfortunately, these tend to be less available and often have long waits. Patient adherence to these can be quite variable too as many expect a quick fix which these are not. For years pharma gave doctors advice about helping patients get off ADs, but as with many medications, many patients stay on them for too long either because they have developed a reliance on them, a lack of timely follow up with the doctor or a lack of availability of alternative therapies. Many have talked of the ‘deadening’ of all other emotions which is one of the reasons they should only be used for a fairly short time, and the underlying issues addressed. Hope that’s useful."

[whu4eva]

Sniper 12:20 Tue Sep 15 Re: Anxiety/depression Could not have said it better... It's important to 'feel' emotions and know when you are happy / sad / angry... Dealing / processing / reflecting alone is the hardest time where ultimately it can be hard

[Sniper]

"I found ADs just made me feel like my head was ‘humming’ and foggy all the time, I couldn’t focus on anything but at the same time would sort of zone out constantly. I really struggled with them, and I have no idea whether they actually made the difference they were meant to My main frustration with mental health at the moment is that, once people know you’ve suffered, if you’re upset or angry or downbeat, it’s immediately attributed to that - when in fact you can suffer from depression but still be legitimately annoyed or affected by something in exactly the same way as someone who doesn’t suffer is. But it gets attributed to a ‘down day’ or a ‘are you struggling’ comment, and I found that, on ADs, I would sometimes find it hard to reconcile whether I was genuinely feeling that way or if it was me just being a bit mental. Since coming off them, I feel much more in tune with when I am struggling and what I need to do and when I am just pissed off because our owners are cunts, or because work is being shit or because a shovel fell down in the garage and landed on my foot or because in dropped my phone and smashed the screen - and that it’s actually fine to be irritated by any of those things and that has nothing to do with you not being able to handle things"