> No. I never really had depression until 50. It was horrible for about 4-5 years. But in the last couple of years, it's just been episodic. The episodes are awful, but don't last forever like they used to. I also have found that, when depression gets really bad, I can take ability for a week or two and stop and it seems to kick the depression out of my system for a while. I can't use abilify on a regular basis, because it makes me gain huge amounts of weight. But I feel like parnate and lamictial (and therapy) control the depression for the most part. When a bad episode breaks through, ability will generally pull me out in a week or two. I have not been hospitalized in 4 years and, before, I was hospitalized over and over again.
I'm glad you found methods to help keep the beast at bay.
:-)
Do you cycle more than 4 times a year?
If you should ever want to investigate other drug treatments, perhaps Lamictal or low dosage lithium (300 mg/day) would prevent relapses. Also, dosages of lithium as low as 100 mg/day are supposed to help prevent Alzheimer's Dementia. That is one reason why I plan to take lithium indefinitely. My risk of contracting Alzheimer's is elevated substantially due to the severity and length of depression. I would try Lamictal first, though. It has shown itself to have antidepressant properties in both unipolar and bipolar disorders, and is known to prevent rapid cycling in bipolar disorder. Perhaps it would help with rapid cyclicity in unipolar depression, too. I know of no investigations that studied this question specifically.
Do you exercise? I don't think it would help much once an episode of depression is triggered, but it might help prevent it.
> So I'm sorry, Scott, if you feel life has been stolen from you. Chronic, unremitting depression is a horrible disease.
I was born in 1960. I was moderately depressed by 1970. I became severely depressed abruptly in 1976 with social anxiety. Between June, 1987 and February, 1988, I experienced a true remission achieved through treatment with antidepressants. I experienced a few drug-induced acute manic reactions. That's about it.
- Scott
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