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Sci-2

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Nest, everyone is different. I can't tell you to go to family first or any which way. I personally wen to friends first because I'm closer to them. That made it easier to go to family that helped fund counseling for me.



Try telling who ever you are closest with first. After while it should kind of spread around. But that's just from my one person experience.



ETA: That is just to that your family and close ones know about it. If you need help there are free mostly anonymous way of getting help like hotlines.


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Vitamin D and hugs to all of you!!




Kat, you're her only friend right now. You said it yourself. She's been your best friend since fifth grade?



How lucky you are. Most of us only get to speak empty platitudes about being true friends through thick and thin. You prove it every day. That's the person you are. The doubts and fears and resentment are all genuine and natural, but what you do is who you are. Just do the best you can, and whether you actually help her or not is immaterial, because it lies outside your control.


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  • 1 month later...

I haven't posted here but I probably should have. I just want to say that treating my ADD has totally changed my life. No more depression, no Coke/Caffeine/Sugar dependency and I am still functional. I never thought it would be possible to feel "normal" without having a ton of Coke every day. (even my 11 yr old didn't want me to quit drinking Coke because I was "grumpy and didn't do anything any more")



I can't thank Raidne enough for sharing her story since it put me on the right track to talk with my doctor about my problems. I certainly prefer treating ADD to being treated for bi-polar (II). And what would have happened when the bi-polar meds didn't work? I owe her more than I can ever say.

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I haven't posted here but I probably should have. I just want to say that treating my ADD has totally changed my life. No more depression, no Coke/Caffeine/Sugar dependency and I am still functional. I never thought it would be possible to feel "normal" without having a ton of Coke every day. (even my 11 yr old didn't want me to quit drinking Coke because I was "grumpy and didn't do anything any more")

I can't thank Raidne enough for sharing her story since it put me on the right track to talk with my doctor about my problems. I certainly prefer treating ADD to being treated for bi-polar (II). And what would have happened when the bi-polar meds didn't work? I owe her more than I can ever say.

Congrats to you!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Laci Green, who has science and sex positive blogs/youtubes, also has a list of contacts for a variety of issues:

Sometimes things get pretty tough. Here are my recommendations for immediate advice, crisis counseling, and other forms of help. All of these are national & available 24/7. You may also use these helplines if the situation applies to someone else (friend, family member, etc).

• Suicide • Relationship/Dating Abuse • Pregnancy • Abortion • LGBT
• Eating Disorders & Body Image • Discrimination • HIV/AIDS • Rape & Assault • Running Away
• Alcohol & Drug Abuse • Death & Grief • Self Injury • Teen Health • Bullying

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New therapies offer bright hope against the darkness of depression

The numbers are staggering: Almost 7% of the U.S. adult population — about 17.6 million people — is diagnosed with depression, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that depression costs 200 million lost workdays each year at a cost to employers of $17 billion to $44 billion.

There are effective treatments for depression, including, researchers said recently, meditation. But neither talk therapy nor the existing medications work for everyone. And it can take up to six agonizing weeks for the most common antidepressants — Prozac, Zoloft and Lexapro — to work fully.

Additionally, estimates are that only about half of people with depression seek treatment.

The good news is that there is much work in progress, says Dr. Jeffrey Borenstein, head of the New York-based Brain & Behavior Research Foundation.

Here's some of what's ahead or under study:

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  • 3 weeks later...

With the approval of the psychiatrist, I was tapering off and then quitting Lexapro. (Recap: I don't have a history of ongoing clinical depression/anxiety, but had some serious situational issues that started last winter - being laid off at the same time as dealing with about $20,000 of theft, destruction and non-payment from a renter. The house recently went under contract with approval to short sell, which was a big positive trigger in deciding that my stressors were no longer unreasonably much to deal with). Quitting the Lexapro was unpleasant, about two weeks of nausea, dizziness and panic.



I was just leveling off when the flooding happened. Half of me believes that I'm out of the habit of dealing with unmedicated stress and need to get used to it again. Half of me is having a really terrible time with panic, anxiety, and the goddamn awful fucking smell from the water damage and has had trouble having enough motivation to get out of bed the floor because the mattress is wet. And half of me refuses to go through another two weeks of medication withdrawal. These halves are overlapping.


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With the approval of the psychiatrist, I was tapering off and then quitting Lexapro. (Recap: I don't have a history of ongoing clinical depression/anxiety, but had some serious situational issues that started last winter - being laid off at the same time as dealing with about $20,000 of theft, destruction and non-payment from a renter. The house recently went under contract with approval to short sell, which was a big positive trigger in deciding that my stressors were no longer unreasonably much to deal with). Quitting the Lexapro was unpleasant, about two weeks of nausea, dizziness and panic.

I was just leveling off when the flooding happened. Half of me believes that I'm out of the habit of dealing with unmedicated stress and need to get used to it again. Half of me is having a really terrible time with panic, anxiety, and the goddamn awful fucking smell from the water damage and has had trouble having enough motivation to get out of bed the floor because the mattress is wet. And half of me refuses to go through another two weeks of medication withdrawal. These halves are overlapping.

Hope some of this stuff improves for you - I can't recall where you live but one of the hotlines in my sig does deal with anxiety.

Are you doing some stuff like meditation and breathing exercises? Not that meditation necessarily helps when you're stressed. A friend of mine is going through a sort of sudden divorce and has a crazy 13 hour day job so she has taken up hiking and is starting meditation. She uses some YouTube video where she focuses on the dude's voice as that way she isn't just letting her thoughts run wild.

eta: Here's the link to that anxiety site & hotline

eta 2:

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I'm of the opinion that dealing with something like adjusting to being off meds at the same time as a major source of stress is a pretty tough way to do it, but at the same time if you are halfway through the withdrawal I'd also be loathe to waste that. Overall I think if you feel you can't deal with it at the moment you shouldn't feel any shame in deferring doing it until you have a quieter patch.


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Are you doing some stuff like meditation and breathing exercises? Not that meditation necessarily helps when you're stressed.

Breathing exercises can help when something is bothering me, I'm emotionally flat, and I know it's irrational. Because of the swelling from the water, the bathroom door has trouble shutting and opening, and that's really bothering me right now. You can probably tell from how I'm talking about it that I'm not emotional and I don't have trouble articulating. BUT, breathing exercises now don't help when I'm having an anxiety attack, and there's no build up, the moment when I could slow down and start breathing is already over by the time it's started.

I also have the possibly irrational thought that the meds are a contributor to having anxiety attacks now. Before last year, I had two anxiety attacks in 30 years - once right before the divorce when I was 25, once... maybe I only had the one. I had several times of high stress in those 30 years, but wasn't prone to being paralyzed by anxiety. Since I started tapering off the meds, I've been panicked multiple times, sometimes over seemingly nothing. And I'm trying not to think that maybe I broke myself by going on meds to begin with.

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Any improvements on the house and flooding and/or the anxiety?

You can probably tell from how I'm talking about it that I'm not emotional and I don't have trouble articulating. BUT, breathing exercises now don't help when I'm having an anxiety attack, and there's no build up, the moment when I could slow down and start breathing is already over by the time it's started.

I was talking my aforementioned friend about her anxiety, and I think part of the way to deal with it is to adjust the mind in the periods of calm. That this might leave the path open to retaining calm when the actual panic comes.

Not sure how much it'll help but she has two meditation chants she uses:

One

Two

I also have the possibly irrational thought that the meds are a contributor to having anxiety attacks now.

No idea if this could be true. Since I'm not a doctor I wouldn't even try to guess. Just hope things improve. Instead I just hope things improve for you.

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OK, Nursie nosey here, but I want everybody who has been diagnosed as ADD or anxiety with depression and/or concurrent sleep disorders to PLEASE do me a huge favor, and go see your doctor and ask them if you might be mildly bipolar (AKA hypomanic). I have had insomnia, depression, suicidal blah blah since I was 15, and I was never properly diagnosed- I'ved spent over 25 years on the wrong drugs, and on one's that exacerbate my illness, and let me tell you, for the past 4 yrs I have been on the right drugs and it's like I'm a different person. I sleep, without taking something every night. I don't cry at the drop of a hat. No more weeks of debilitating depression where I can't eat or read or anything, I'm just too sad to get my mail or answer the phone. And no more bouts of spaz-oleum, where I was just the most talkative person in the room. I never hallucinated, or spent thousands of dollars on like zippo lighters on ebay, or had any psychotic symptoms, so I was misdiagnosed FOR YEARS. If I had been dx properly and been on meds since the age of 20, I'd probably be a doctor instead of a nurse now. A lot of things in my life would be different. So, please, ask your doc... get a second opinion if he poo poos you right away. They don't always like to be told they might be wrong.


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another thing, Sci-2, do you know of any groups that deliver groceries to the homebound? we're talking people who don't use the internet and maybe get social security but not full benefits, so they're not eligible for the state or county assistance that I hook them up with through their city's social workers? Doing home health, my patients are legally homebound, and often completely alone- no friends/family. They can't even walk some of the time, let alone drive. I have a few I've kept on after I'm not their nurse anymore and pick up groceries once or twice a month for them free of charge, but was wondering if you knew of any association I could refer them to. I tried meals on wheels, local foodbanks, even paratransit, but all I can find is personal shoppers who charge an arm and a leg and my patients often have to choose between new dentures or new glasses. Need a free/cheap resource.


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  • 5 weeks later...

Shit. My father-in-law is in the hospital after internal bleeding from his liver. The immediate surgery saved his life, for now, but more and more organs stop working properly and the situation in extremely difficult. Some doctors start to suggest we should prepare for the inevitable and "cherish every moment we spend with him". My wife is devastated.



He has a liver cirrhosis as a result of chemotherapy (lung cancer, non-operational) that destroyed his immune system 8 years ago. But he still fights. Keep the fingers crossed.


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Shit. My father-in-law is in the hospital after internal bleeding from his liver. The immediate surgery saved his life, for now, but more and more organs stop working properly and the situation in extremely difficult. Some doctors start to suggest we should prepare for the inevitable and "cherish every moment we spend with him". My wife is devastated.

He has a liver cirrhosis as a result of chemotherapy (lung cancer, non-operational) that destroyed his immune system 8 years ago. But he still fights. Keep the fingers crossed.

Sorry to hear this.

If he's going to be let out of the hospital, there's some stuff in my sig about being well prepared if you call EMS.

There's some stuff about mental health that may be useful to your wife.

Wish I had more comfort to offer.

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  • 6 months later...

I just read this blog post by a woman who realised that 'it doesn't have to be this way' and started taking anti-depressants, after which she realised that she had taken for granted that it was normal to feel how she had felt. She has bravely posted in case somebody recognises that this might be true of them too.


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Thabks so much for ppsting that im crying i relate so much. I was prescribed anti-depressants the other week but am waiting on blood test results before i start them. I just want to be a competent human being i really hope that after 6 weeks on the meds i will feel even slightly better o god the idea of a fog lifting and to be able to so basic things and not be EXHAUSTED all the time is a dream to me. Sorry didnt mean to go funny just thamks for ppsting....

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Thabks so much for ppsting that im crying i relate so much. I was prescribed anti-depressants the other week but am waiting on blood test results before i start them. I just want to be a competent human being i really hope that after 6 weeks on the meds i will feel even slightly better o god the idea of a fog lifting and to be able to so basic things and not be EXHAUSTED all the time is a dream to me. Sorry didnt mean to go funny just thamks for ppsting....

:grouphug:

You deserve a break! Hope those blood test results come through quickly. It sounds like you have recognised so much what you need and that determination is really good to have, as it can sometimes take some persistence until you get the drug/dose which works for you (though most people I know who have taken anti-depressants have had positive results quite quickly, so I hope this is your experience too - I'm rooting for you!).

Sophie

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