Depression keeps coming back

Chris00SS · Post by **Chris00SS** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 2:54 pm

Do any of you have recurring depression? If so, how do you deal with it? I take Effexor for my anxiety, panic attacks, and depression but it keeps coming back every few weeks for about a week or so.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 4:37 am

Hi Chris, it is my own opinion, and has been shown in many research studies, that if a person tends toward depression, it is more of a habit with how we think, behave, cope, and it affects us biologically over the long run. If we can change our thinking, we can reduce this reoccurring condition. That is my experience and it is what I believe. I wish you the best in your recovery from depression. It hurts us, and everyone we are around. As to how I deal with it? This program, particularly Session Three, is helping me more than anything in the past.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 12:22 pm

Hello Chris,
I have to agree with what pecos said. If we can change our thinking we can reduce this reoccurring condition. It's not just about taking medication even though it helps. I take medication but I also do the program and I really work with the program and my skills. You have to change your way of thinking. I know what you're thinking, easier said than done, right? Wrong. I'm doing it and there's nothing easy about it but I'm doing it and you can too.

If you really want to change you can, you know that,
Inside Man

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 11:56 pm

I agree with what others have said to some extent. However, I also believe that depression has a chemical basis. Some folks are just predisposed. There is a big difference between situational depression and reoccuring depression (the one we seem to suffer from). I have battled depression on and off consciously for more than 15 years.

Genie

hopehound · Post by **hopehound** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 8:04 am

I too have recurring depression and its the worst!! I do think it is my thinking that makes it worse. I hate feeling this down. Depression is worse than anxiety to me. I'd rather have anxiety any day. So basically if you change the way you think, it wont last as long or keep recurring??

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 8:11 am

Don't take my word for it, there are research projects which go back more than a half century which do show most (not all, but most) depression can improve if we change the way we think. It goes right back to the formula: You cannot have a feeling without first having a thought.
My take on this is that if I can reduce my depression, maybe even leave it behind forever, by changing my thoughts, that is something I believe well worth doing.

MommaSan · Post by **MommaSan** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 12:16 pm

I'd like to start by saying that I have struggled with depression for most of my life, and I'm sure coupling anxiety as well. Although what I remember most from my childhood and adolescence was the depression...this perpetual sadness with bursts of happiness/less grief (always from some external source).

I think that pecos is quite right on this stream of thought. It does first start with our thoughts, our coping, etc. and then it does have an impact on our chemical levels...I mean just think about how inactivity changes something as simple as our metabolism. But we can boost our metabolism again, without rx.

Psychosomatic illness is a very possible thing...and I think that depression falls into that same type of viscious cycle. If we can make ourleves physically ill due to our emotional/mental state, I do believe that we can heal ourselves too.

I think that the thought of predisposition or it "running in the family" comes from the way in which the family has been raised over generations. The negative outlook, coping skills (or lack of), perfectionism, etc. is taught to us. Not intentionally of course. But from the time we are infants, we learn by what is modeled for us. I think often our families have passed down this kind of faulty or negative thinking.
I am not suggesting that we "blame" others or our family. But it is quite factual that children learn what they see, long before they understand verbal language...in fact that is how they begin to piece together language and form understanding.
I just think that feeling like it is something we are destined for, and our children will be plagued with, is in itself a bit negative and may lead to making a person feel like they don't have control. And I know that one part of this program that I have LOVED so far, is not just hearing that I have control, but really starting to feel it and know it.
As I think Lucinda may remind us.....we are not victims.
It is time we take the power back, and stop the cycle....for ourselves and all those in our lives!
I do hope that this hasn't come off as abrassive. It was all with love and good intentions

that every word was typed.
I have felt so very empowered by the sessions I have participated in so far...and I just think that knowing that we are in control of our emotions and responses is key to everything.

Stay strong, and know that each of us is stronger than our negative thoughts....we most likely created them or fed/feed them, and we CAN put an end to them.

Believe in yourself!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 12:42 pm

Great reply Rachel. made me feel a lot better!!!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 12:58 pm

Rachel,
I really like the way you are so positive, and I don't think it was abrasive at all. thanks for the boost. I too believe are negative thoughts are what start the depression. Linda P.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 1:05 pm

I have a question. If negative thoughts are what consist of of ones depression, will anti-depressants help them? I find this so confusing. I feel like dr's think depression is purely chemical so they prescribe you anti-depressants. So does ones negative thinking which leads to depression affect their chemicals in their brain? Or is it not chemical all the time. I know mine isn't really situational. I think mine is the way i interpret my feelings. I scare the crap out of myself and i tend to always think: I am hopeless! I can never be helped. I am a lost cause. What id i get so depressed. . . and i know my negative thoughts make it worse. i am in some sort of cycle because Im like is this chemical(which makes me feel i cant control it)? Or is this my thinking? And i know chemical can affect your thinking but does it work the other way???