Psycho-Babble Medication Thread 7466

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please explain depression!!

Posted by sandy on June 16, 1999, at 21:01:09

I posted earlier about my brother who says he has been depressed since he was nine ( now 48). He is on all kinds of drugs right now and pretty much out of it. I wanted to hear from antone on what being depressed is all about. I really cannot relate but need to to help my brother. It is very easy for me to say , geez get on with it man we all have our problems, but if this is indeed a condition I would like to understand the feelings behind it and what it feels like. He has not expressed this to me and I think part of that may be because his unlieing problem is alcoholism. He has been in a hospital for that and remained sober for 6 years in which none of this depression stuff surfaced but since he has fallen on bad times he seems to fall back on depression and drug therapy. Please all your inputs to what it is like would be appreciated as I just want the best for my brohter anf want the right proble treated...i.e. alcoholism vs depression.
sandy

 

Re: please explain depression!!

Posted by JohnL on June 17, 1999, at 2:25:13

In reply to please explain depression!!, posted by sandy on June 16, 1999, at 21:01:09

> I posted earlier about my brother who says he has been depressed since he was nine ( now 48). He is on all kinds of drugs right now and pretty much out of it. I wanted to hear from antone on what being depressed is all about. I really cannot relate but need to to help my brother. It is very easy for me to say , geez get on with it man we all have our problems, but if this is indeed a condition I would like to understand the feelings behind it and what it feels like. He has not expressed this to me and I think part of that may be because his unlieing problem is alcoholism. He has been in a hospital for that and remained sober for 6 years in which none of this depression stuff surfaced but since he has fallen on bad times he seems to fall back on depression and drug therapy. Please all your inputs to what it is like would be appreciated as I just want the best for my brohter anf want the right proble treated...i.e. alcoholism vs depression.
> sandy

Sandy, it breaks my heart to hear of anyone suffering from depression. My best wishes to your brother.

There is one kind of depression caused by a very disturbing life event. For example, someone very close to you dies. The crying seems to go on and on, insomnia, not eating, or overeating, can't think about anything else, can't go to work. Your entire life is disrupted. But with a little time, that mourning of your loved-one's death is dealt with and the event-related depression fades away.

Or how about someone who has worked at a job for years or decades, they love it, but suddenly find themselves laid-off or fired. Weeks or months have gone by and dozens of interviews and resumes have failed. It seems no one wants you, you are worthless, you have been discarded, there is no hope, you've tried everything, depair, panic. That too is a life-event related depression, which will likely fade away the day a good job is landed.

There is another kind of depression which is caused by physical abnormalities in the brain, either in its chemical composition, its structure, or its ability to adjust the chemical balance. It can be triggered by a life-event, but often it comes out of nowhere without any apparent cause or warning. Diabetes is a condition resulting from an organ not functioning properly. If you consider it for a moment, the brain is an organ just like any other. What exempts it from having a malfunction? Nothing. The symptoms of malfunction are varied...depression, mania, psychosis, etc. etc.

So what's it like? I have found it totally confounding to describe to someone who hasn't experienced it. You really can't fully understand it unless you've been there. If you've ever experienced the grief, despair and hopelessness of someone very close being lowered into their grave, to be covered with dirt and never seen again, that is similar. Except it goes on and on and on. It's the despair of a one-way ticket to hell, with no idea if or when you may ever get a return-ticket home. Total despair, hopeless, not even a speck of light at the end of the tunnel, imprisoned in a kind of insanity. There is no "pulling oneself up from the bootstraps", any more than a diabetic can overcome an organic malfunction by just "getting it together". All ability to experience joy, pleasure, interest is wiped off the face of the earth. The brain no longer has the organic ability to process information correctly.

Drug therapy helps and sometimes cures the problem. Counseling helps. The two together are more effective than either alone. Counseling can at least give the sufferer coping techniques.

It is extremely important that relatives and friends learn about their loved-one's depression, and for that I praise you very highly. If only my own family would do the same. It is so helpful just to know someone cares, even if they can't understand. Those around a depressed person will find there is so little they can do right, and so much they can do wrong, unintentionally. That is why learning all you can is crucial. It is like gathering ammunition to help the sufferer go to war against the enemy.

You might want to skip all the regular drug therapies and go straight to this one...an SSRI (Prozac, Zoloft, or Paxil) with Naltrexone. Naltrexone is not only used for alcoholism problems, but is proving very effective in combination with an SSRI for depression, especially in people with drug or alcohol histories, and especially where all other standard approaches fail. The combo would be well-suited to deal with both the depression and the alcoholism simultaneously and synergistically. A mood stabilizer like small-dose lithium or lamactil can turbocharge the other drugs as well. Two, three, or four drugs is not uncommon ammunition to win the war. No price is too much to get the person back into a life again, to bring them back from the dead. For further info on SSRI/Naltrexone, check the posts at this site by Wayne. This is just a suggestion from a layperson, not a pro. But as I've been to this war, and continue a long battle, like so many others at this site, I and we know about this war, inside-out and upside-down and every which way. Wayne gives web links for SSRI/Naltrexone info, print them out, bring them to the doctor for consideration. You will likely surprise him/her with your cutting-edge knowledge. And you stand a good chance of rescuing your brother from hell.

Hope this helps some. May many other responders come forth to better describe what it's like to be depressed, and what to do about it. Compassionate Regards, JohnL.

 

Re: please explain depression!!

Posted by JohnL on June 17, 1999, at 3:03:52

In reply to please explain depression!!, posted by sandy on June 16, 1999, at 21:01:09

> I posted earlier about my brother who says he has been depressed since he was nine ( now 48). He is on all kinds of drugs right now and pretty much out of it. I wanted to hear from antone on what being depressed is all about. I really cannot relate but need to to help my brother. It is very easy for me to say , geez get on with it man we all have our problems, but if this is indeed a condition I would like to understand the feelings behind it and what it feels like. He has not expressed this to me and I think part of that may be because his unlieing problem is alcoholism. He has been in a hospital for that and remained sober for 6 years in which none of this depression stuff surfaced but since he has fallen on bad times he seems to fall back on depression and drug therapy. Please all your inputs to what it is like would be appreciated as I just want the best for my brohter anf want the right proble treated...i.e. alcoholism vs depression.
> sandy

Sandy, forgive me. I forgot the most important thing. God. If you even remotely believe in God, a prayer a day can't hurt. Nothing to lose. I personally believe there is a Grand Purpose in all this, from which comes Goodness. Like a rose comes out of an ugly thorny branch. A rainbow from a storm. How did you find this site anyway? It seems clear to me that God has already played a Loving Hand, by bringing you here through whatever coincidences. He can and will provide strength and direction. In my belief, God's purpose is to have us all love each other and help each other as we would ourselves. And thus there are doctors and inventors of medicines and sites like this one, all ways of God working through us for each other. Having said that, and having said a prayer for you and your brother, print out that info on SSRI/Naltrexone and see the doc. Use the tools God has provided. I'm sure God is pleased, as you have alredy displayed incredible love and care for someone in need. A day will come when the gesture is returned to you when you need it the most. JohnL.

 

Re: please explain depression!!

Posted by JD on June 17, 1999, at 16:36:28

In reply to please explain depression!!, posted by sandy on June 16, 1999, at 21:01:09

Hi Sandy,

I think I responded to your earlier posting, if your brother's the one who was also taking the oversedating four-drug combo.

Though I'd hardly want to deny the illness's psychological aspects, depression is indeed a biological and physiological syndrome too--as you realize, one that unfortunately usually needs more than a simple directive to "pull it together". The fact that your brother claims to have had mood problems from an early age, in addition to his substance-abuse problem, leads me to suspect that he has some kind of real predisposition for such difficulties (either inborn or due to early experiences), and that his depression is probably complex and difficult to treat. There has been some interesting work done lately concerning people with such mixed mood and substance-abuse problems--you may want to make sure that he's seeing a psychiatrist who's really familiar with such terrain. More specifically, you may note that there's been a lot of discussion on this board lately about naltrexone (brand name Revia in the U.S.), an opiate-blocker medication currently being used in alcoholism treatment that shows great promise as an add-on for refractory depression as well. You may even want to bring this up with your brother or his doctors, as it seems that naltrexone has really helped some people deal with alcohol/drug cravings and with depressions that don't seem to be responding well to other treatments. In some patients, the two problems likely have everything to do with one another, both on the physical and psychological levels.

I hope things go well for your brother.

Best regards,
JD

> I posted earlier about my brother who says he has been depressed since he was nine ( now 48). He is on all kinds of drugs right now and pretty much out of it. I wanted to hear from antone on what being depressed is all about. I really cannot relate but need to to help my brother. It is very easy for me to say , geez get on with it man we all have our problems, but if this is indeed a condition I would like to understand the feelings behind it and what it feels like. He has not expressed this to me and I think part of that may be because his unlieing problem is alcoholism. He has been in a hospital for that and remained sober for 6 years in which none of this depression stuff surfaced but since he has fallen on bad times he seems to fall back on depression and drug therapy. Please all your inputs to what it is like would be appreciated as I just want the best for my brohter anf want the right proble treated...i.e. alcoholism vs depression.
> sandy


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