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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
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Posted by babbler20 on March 25, 2015, at 23:01:13
In reply to Re: Has Your Depression Gotten Worse With Age? » babbler20, posted by stan_the_man70 on March 24, 2015, at 4:09:47
> I have read these kinds of questions earlier on this forum. I thought I would post a message to this. Have you tried these activities:
>
> physical: yoga, martial arts, weight training, aerobics, massage - they all have different effects
>
> sports: group sports, white water sports, extreme sports, adventure sports
>
> diet: have you tried juicing, smoothies, sprouts, fermented foods - all different effects
>
> brain: try these websites lumosity, cognifit, brainHQ, happy neuron
>
> mental: try learning a new language, read international literature, try appreciation courses, try introductory courses
>
> community: try going to an arts festival, music dance festival, community fair, outdoors hike/trek in the wilderness or sanctuary, fishing/boating/cruise ship activities
>
> friends: do you have friends to laugh with, to discuss and analyze and get into details with, to plan and organize and overview and design, to troubleshoot an issue, to debate and argue
>
> work: get a job which helps you forget your troubles, earns you money and improves your mood
>
> some of this may work - some of it may not - it may work in a combination
Hi, thank you for commenting on this. Those are all great suggestions and I have tried all of those things. A few things make me less depressed than I already am, including a few things on your list. However, over time my depression and insomnia has just gotten worse and I just really don't care about anything anymore. Things that I once found mildly entertaining or exciting just don't do it for me anymore. It seems the older I get the more numb and emotionless I become.
Posted by babbler20 on March 25, 2015, at 23:04:54
In reply to Re: Has Your Depression Gotten Worse With Age? » babbler20, posted by SLS on March 24, 2015, at 10:24:58
> > Hi, I first became depressed when I was ten years old. It resulted in irritability, anger, and conduct problems in grade school. I'm now 32 and I'm not angry, but I have been a really low-functioning depressive for about 7 years. I have horrible insomnia, I experience no happiness at all, and I can't even laugh at anything any more. I can literally watch a funny tv show for hours and not feel like laughing once. It seems pretty obvious that my depression has gotten worse with age. How has your depression progressed as you've gotten older. Has it gotten better or worse?
>
> My depression has become significantly worse over time. Mine started no later than age 10. Irritability, anxiety, and anergia emerged first, followed by depressed mood an dysphoria.Still later, cognitive and memory impairments became evident. Interestingly, depressed mood and dysphoria have mitigated, although a lack of interest and motivation persist.
>
> I don't know if this is a function of age rather than a function of the time spent in the ill state.
>
>
> - Scott
Hi, the progression of your illness is very interesting. Mine has really gotten worse over time. The thing that alarms me the most is that the longer this goes on the less I care about everything and the more I detach from life.
Posted by babbler20 on March 25, 2015, at 23:06:39
In reply to Re: Has Your Depression Gotten Worse With Age?, posted by b2chica on March 24, 2015, at 15:50:55
> i remember first real depressive episode when i was about 9, but really showed bipolar mixed/aggitated depression when i was 30 (first hospitalization).
> over the years it seems that when it hits, it hits harder and faster (spiral down) than previous.
> but i also have trouble finding meds that work and often have breakthrough symptoms, so it could just be that its not worse than typical just that the meds that Im on at the time dont cover as well. ..
>
> b2Hi, that's a really interesting viewpoint on it. I'm starting to wonder if meds really do anything at all. Hopefully one day, something will work.
Posted by babbler20 on March 25, 2015, at 23:08:16
In reply to Re: Has Your Depression Gotten Worse With Age?, posted by Christ_empowered on March 24, 2015, at 20:40:37
Hi, yours seems to get worse with age as well. Mine actually started with a lot of OCD and now I have none and I don't care enough about anything to obsess over it at all. Did your OCD completeley disappear the more depressed you have become and the longer you have been depressed
Posted by SLS on March 26, 2015, at 1:29:35
In reply to Have you read this article? » babbler20, posted by stan_the_man70 on March 24, 2015, at 22:53:47
> If pills have not worked all this while what makes you think pills will work now?
Because many people respond to untried drug treatments, including drug combinations.
I failed to respond to more than a dozen drug treatments before I found one that brought me into complete remission. Unfortunately, the doctor opted to discontinue treatment after 9 months, and I subsequently relapsed.
It is my personal observation as a layman that, for severe cases of chronic, recurrent, or bipolar depression, exercise will not bring the majority of suffers to complete remission.
Keyords: severe; chronic; recurrent; bipolar; remission
- Scott
Posted by SLS on March 26, 2015, at 1:41:31
In reply to Re: Has Your Depression Gotten Worse With Age?, posted by babbler20 on March 25, 2015, at 23:04:54
> The thing that alarms me the most is that the longer this goes on the less I care about everything and the more I detach from life.
It is reasonable for anyone who has suffered so long a series of failed treatments for any illness to become depressed, hopeless, helpless, and detached. When this is compounded with a biological mood illness, these normal reactions are exaggerated or distorted. When anxiety and anhedonia enter the equation, derealization becomes a possibililty.
I don't know what to suggest to you for you to renew your positive energy. For me, I have always liked to have a list of untried treatments to look forward to. It is very proactive and can be empowering.
Please don't give up.
- Scott
Posted by Lamdage22 on March 26, 2015, at 15:55:41
In reply to Re: Have you read this article? » stan_the_man70, posted by SLS on March 26, 2015, at 1:29:35
Scott which one has brought you complete remission and why cant you get back on it?
> > If pills have not worked all this while what makes you think pills will work now?
>
> Because many people respond to untried drug treatments, including drug combinations.
>
> I failed to respond to more than a dozen drug treatments before I found one that brought me into complete remission. Unfortunately, the doctor opted to discontinue treatment after 9 months, and I subsequently relapsed.
>
> It is my personal observation as a layman that, for severe cases of chronic, recurrent, or bipolar depression, exercise will not bring the majority of suffers to complete remission.
>
> Keyords: severe; chronic; recurrent; bipolar; remission
>
>
> - Scott
Posted by kendoka on March 26, 2015, at 18:06:34
In reply to Re: Has Your Depression Gotten Worse With Age?, posted by babbler20 on March 25, 2015, at 23:08:16
That's very interesting, I was much the same way. I experienced severe ocd with compulsions and tics from 5th grade to highschool, after that finally cleared up depression and anxiety set in. I suspect a faulty brain circuit that malfunctions during development is the cause.
Posted by babbler20 on March 26, 2015, at 22:37:09
In reply to Re: Has Your Depression Gotten Worse With Age? » babbler20, posted by SLS on March 26, 2015, at 1:41:31
Thanks Scott. I wish I had untried options left.
Posted by babbler20 on March 26, 2015, at 22:38:49
In reply to Re: Has Your Depression Gotten Worse With Age? » babbler20, posted by kendoka on March 26, 2015, at 18:06:34
> That's very interesting, I was much the same way. I experienced severe ocd with compulsions and tics from 5th grade to highschool, after that finally cleared up depression and anxiety set in. I suspect a faulty brain circuit that malfunctions during development is the cause.
I'm wondering if we have a defect in our limbic systems. That would basically explain all cases of treatment-resistant depression
Posted by stan_the_man70 on March 27, 2015, at 2:10:47
In reply to Re: Has Your Depression Gotten Worse With Age?, posted by babbler20 on March 25, 2015, at 23:01:13
Would it help staying in a hostel setting ?
With group interaction
Would that help? Or is isolation betterWould it help if someone was there to manage activities and draw up a schedule
Someone to divide the day into physical sports mental social and work durations
Someone to take you through the steps of activities - to provide trainers
Someone who would see what works and does not
Someone to manage the diet
Someone to manage social activities
Someone to manage group outings
Some place to work like a warehouse packing orders
Have a group psychiatrist visit daily/regularly
Someone to check on emergencies/panic attacks
Someone to provide a mood chart over a time periodAre there places like this
Are they expensive
Do they work
How long would people stayAnyone else have an understanding?
> > I have read these kinds of questions earlier on this forum. I thought I would post a message to this. Have you tried these activities:
> >
> > physical: yoga, martial arts, weight training, aerobics, massage - they all have different effects
> >
> > sports: group sports, white water sports, extreme sports, adventure sports
> >
> > diet: have you tried juicing, smoothies, sprouts, fermented foods - all different effects
> >
> > brain: try these websites lumosity, cognifit, brainHQ, happy neuron
> >
> > mental: try learning a new language, read international literature, try appreciation courses, try introductory courses
> >
> > community: try going to an arts festival, music dance festival, community fair, outdoors hike/trek in the wilderness or sanctuary, fishing/boating/cruise ship activities
> >
> > friends: do you have friends to laugh with, to discuss and analyze and get into details with, to plan and organize and overview and design, to troubleshoot an issue, to debate and argue
> >
> > work: get a job which helps you forget your troubles, earns you money and improves your mood
> >
> > some of this may work - some of it may not - it may work in a combination
>
>
> Hi, thank you for commenting on this. Those are all great suggestions and I have tried all of those things. A few things make me less depressed than I already am, including a few things on your list. However, over time my depression and insomnia has just gotten worse and I just really don't care about anything anymore. Things that I once found mildly entertaining or exciting just don't do it for me anymore. It seems the older I get the more numb and emotionless I become.
>
>
>
Posted by stan_the_man70 on March 27, 2015, at 2:21:56
In reply to Re: Has Your Depression Gotten Worse With Age?, posted by babbler20 on March 25, 2015, at 23:01:13
PS
When people see others in a group setting and see suffering, it really shifts the focus so people try to break out, rather than feeling helpless/hopeless
Posted by SLS on March 27, 2015, at 11:40:16
In reply to Re: Have you read this article? Scott, posted by Lamdage22 on March 26, 2015, at 15:55:41
> > I failed to respond to more than a dozen drug treatments before I found one that brought me into complete remission. Unfortunately, the doctor opted to discontinue treatment after 9 months, and I subsequently relapsed.
> Scott which one has brought you complete remission and why cant you get back on it?
After the doctor screwed around with Prozac and Parnate monotherapy, going back to Parnate + desipramine never worked again.
- Scott
Posted by SLS on March 27, 2015, at 11:48:17
In reply to Re: Has Your Depression Gotten Worse With Age?, posted by babbler20 on March 26, 2015, at 22:37:09
> Thanks Scott. I wish I had untried options left.
I'm so sorry that you find yourself in such a position.
I am partially improved on:
Parnate 120 mg/day
nortriptyline 100 mg/day
Lamictal 300 mg/day
lithium 450 mg/day
Abilify 10 mg/day
prazosin 30 mg/dayI am currently gradually titrating memantine (Namenda). I increased to 14 mg/day today.
I recently tried to discontinue prazosin. I relapsed pretty hard.
- Scott
Posted by Chris O on March 27, 2015, at 15:15:34
In reply to Has Your Depression Gotten Worse With Age?, posted by babbler20 on March 23, 2015, at 23:27:47
My anxiety disorder and depression with age ... I don't know if they have gotten worse or not. It's hard to say. What is not hard to say is that I have a better understanding of them now than I did when I was five, fifteen, twenty-five or even thirty-five. (I'm forty nine.) I feel like I can "do battle" with them better than I could as a younger man.
Chris
Posted by Chris O on March 27, 2015, at 15:17:25
In reply to Re: Has Your Depression Gotten Worse With Age? » babbler20, posted by SLS on March 24, 2015, at 10:24:58
"I don't know if this is a function of age rather than a function of the time spent in the ill state."
I will wholeheartedly second that as the main "cause" of it being "worse" for me. It's like, "Enough already!"
Chris
Posted by Zyprexa on April 10, 2015, at 21:37:37
In reply to Has Your Depression Gotten Worse With Age?, posted by babbler20 on March 23, 2015, at 23:27:47
GOD IM PISSED NOW. I just lost my whole post. I will try to rewrite it.
I first got depressed when I was 8. When I moved for the first time. I lost contact with all my old friends and self medicated with food. Then I moved again and slowly got less depressed when I made new friends. Then I moved back to the first again and was not realy depressed even though I did not really conect up with old friends. I made lots of new friends and was not realy depressed untill the oil tank blew up. I was not really depressed then just really scared. I started to lose frends then and moved again with out my parents this time and got really depressed. Within a few months to a year I ended up in the mental hospital. They locked me in a room where I would just lie in bed and they gave me ECTs. That in it self is depressing enough. 3 months later I got out and felt so great to be free I stoped taking my meds. Big mistake, I ended up in anouther mental hospital. When I got out this I was more psychotic than anything and did not take ADs untill a few years later, when I found out my friend who had been in a coma for 6 years finaly died. I also quit self medicating with alcohol and pot and got so depressed. Doc put me on a high dose of AD which I've been taking ever since at that dose for 13 years. I'm not really depressed on the ADs, but deep down inside I'm really sad. I've also been taking APs ever since the hospital so that may have been helping too.
Posted by phidippus on April 12, 2015, at 7:37:59
In reply to Has Your Depression Gotten Worse With Age?, posted by babbler20 on March 23, 2015, at 23:27:47
My depression has worsened.
Eric
Posted by stargazer2 on April 21, 2015, at 13:05:24
In reply to Re: Has Your Depression Gotten Worse With Age? » babbler20, posted by SLS on March 24, 2015, at 10:24:58
It seems worse but I think that is because I had it so long (40+ years) with no real periods of reprieve therefore when you never get better the overall impression is that it is worse and not treatable especially when you have literally done everything humanly possible to get better...meds, ECT, TMS, therapy. Im thinking that I have borderline personality disorder now which is very resistent to treatment. I am suicidal more than I am not and find no reason for living. My mantra is " I don;t know what my purpose is in life" and "Why bother".
Does anyone else feel this way? And what has helped?
Posted by Chris O on April 21, 2015, at 13:12:44
In reply to Re: Has Your Depression Gotten Worse With Age?, posted by stargazer2 on April 21, 2015, at 13:05:24
My mantra is " I don;t know what my purpose is in life" and "Why bother".
At 48, and struggling with my GAD/depression/whatever I have/ most of my life without reprieve, I definitely empathize with what you are saying here. The inability to take care of myself (and to find relief) is humiliating in a way that most people do not understand. Worse, they cannot really do anything to help me, even though in my desperation I want them to.
I struggle with suicidal alternating with vengeful ideation fairly constantly. On the one hand, I don't want "burden" anyone with my unfulfillable neediness; on the other hand, I want to punish/destroy those who I feel are most responsible (my family, mostly). I really think my life would have been better if my mother had died after I was born and I was raised by a more stable family/person, despite whatever brain biological dysfunction she obviously gave me.
Chris
Posted by phidippus on April 21, 2015, at 15:04:10
In reply to Re: Has Your Depression Gotten Worse With Age?, posted by stargazer2 on April 21, 2015, at 13:05:24
Why do you find no reason for living?
I sometimes feel hopeless. Then I distract and eventually feel better.
Eric
Posted by Horse on April 22, 2015, at 0:01:54
In reply to Re: Has Your Depression Gotten Worse With Age?, posted by stargazer2 on April 21, 2015, at 13:05:24
Definitely worse. My latest thoughts are this wicked illness is, in part, an inflammatory one. I feel ill from the inside out, like it's in my bones.
Posted by stargazer2 on April 22, 2015, at 15:11:03
In reply to Re: Has Your Depression Gotten Worse With Age? » stargazer2, posted by Chris O on April 21, 2015, at 13:12:44
Chris, I definately know how you feel. I asked my mother the other day if she abused me as a child and she was vague about it but I know that there definately was lack of nuturing and affection. I think we were just treated as objects not humans requiring love and caring. Do you know anything about the borderline personality disorder? Ive never been diagnosed with this but it makes more sense than depression and it is not something that is readily treatable.
Posted by Chris O on April 22, 2015, at 15:37:44
In reply to Re: Has Your Depression Gotten Worse With Age?, posted by stargazer2 on April 22, 2015, at 15:11:03
Stargazer:
I have wondered if I am on that spectrum, especially since (looking back on it) I believe that my mother may have had many of the characteristics of BPD. She did portray herself as the suffering martyr (which in some ways, she was), and me as the ungrateful child. Myself, I definitely have the fear of abandonment, emotional instability, underlying anger, and paranoid thoughts. However, I am not impulsive at all; in fact, I wish I were more impulsive. My life has been lived in a box due to my fears of abandonment. My psychiatrist has never brought BPD up (I have been seeing him for a good five years now), but then, in many ways, he seems to take my description/perception of my symptoms as legitimate--placing me on the GAD/PTSD scale. Frankly, I don't know anymore.
A big part of my disability is that I cannot manage anything in my life. My wife is essentially managing everything (with me playing the embittered role of "helpmate") because once faced with the prospect of caring for myself on my own--the bills, working a job where I have to extrovert myself on a daily basis, the tasks of daily living--I just have a panic attack. Basically, I feel like my mother trained me to be dependent on her in an unhealthy way (shaped my brain, in fact), and I am unable to break this pattern without changing something crucial about my biology. And yes, in many ways, my wife is playing the role of my mother, but I don't have any other options at the moment, as none of the medications I have taken have made me feel much better.
Chris
Posted by Elanor Roosevelt on April 22, 2015, at 21:28:44
In reply to Has Your Depression Gotten Worse With Age?, posted by babbler20 on March 23, 2015, at 23:27:47
I agree that length of illness might have the stronger effect. You are still quite young. And sound very stuck. I'm glad that you can write about it.
Try getting out and walking early in the day (this said by someone who rarely manages to). Are you able to get on some sort of schedule?
Make simple simple to-do lists
take warm baths
go online and read the Get Fuzzy comic strip
read easy books written for young adults: "we free men" by terry pratchett or "year of the griffin" by diana wynne jones or zusek's "i am the messenger". i read young adult fiction to get me through.
take warm baths
it's hard to try and take care of yourself but try to do something kind for you everydaygood luck
hang in there
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