We so loosely use the phrase; “I’m depressed”. We feel down or a temporary case of the blues-something we all experience- has nothing to do with real depression.
True depression is not the blues, sadness or even grief. The pain associated with depression is overwhelming despair like none other you will ever experience in your lifetime. Depression is a treatable mental illness, where the person who receives treatment responds well. But there is no cure, the best the medical field can promise is to get you back to a functioning level. It’s like living with diabetes; you get under control but never cured.
Many of the most overwhelming symptoms of depression are thoughts of worthlessness, hopelessness, fatigue and suicide. The pain is so great, people can view death as a relief. It’s a fact that 15% of people with chronic depression commit suicide.
The most common treatment for depression involves medication designed to increase the levels of neurotransmitters in the brain and thus improve your depression. Medication for depression is a complex topic. There are so many drugs and cocktails of drugs that it’s very difficult to establish which drug/combination of drugs best work for you; it’s trial and error, everyone is different.
Personally speaking I was diagnosed as treatment resistant and didn’t respond to medication very well. It took about 2-3 years of trial and error. I am now doing “fairly” well using three different drugs; Bromazepan 6mg 3x daily, Venlafaxine 187.5mg once daily, and Mirtazapine 30mg at bedtime. They seem to be keeping my depression under control and help with some of the symptoms. Finding the right medication for you can take a trial and error period but stick with it, there is something out there that will help.
Other treatments include; Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), Psychotherapy, Family support and educate yourself; knowledge is power.
Depression is often described as a “chemical imbalance” in the brain. Your brain chemicals, neurotransmitters are not at the levels they should be to maintain a positive mood. The neurotransmitters that affect mood are serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine. So with medication it is the hope that these chemical imbalances can be stabilized to a point where you can live a fairly “normal” life. So there is hope, don’t give up, it’s finding the right medication suited for you.
My personal definition of depression is a little taste of hell on earth! But with ‘HOPE’ you will always see a glimpse of Heaven!