Anyone here dealing with depression

[Mysfyt]

It could be your body isn't producing enough serotonin. There was a story in the local paper years ago about a guy suffering from depression. His doctor, a psychiatrist, said he treats a lot of people of Scandinavian descent, which this guy was. His claim was it wasn't a matter of if, it was a matter of how much your body didn't produce this chemical if you were Scandinavian, which has a direct effect on your mood.
Well, this caught my attention because I'm 100% Norwegian. I'm also diabetic, which doesn't help. About 10 years ago, I just seemed to not have any energy anymore. I had to force myself to do everything, even my hobbies which I just love to do. Talked to my family doctor and decided to give medication a trial run. All I can say is WOW! In two weeks my energy was back, my enthusiasm returned and basically, life was fun again.
You can do a search on this subject and cull a lot of info. Some say just changing your diet can raise the serotonin levels enough to bring you back into the fold.
I leave you with this thought. It just might be something physical, not mental that may be your issue. Wishing you the all the best on your pursuit!

 

[Bird]

The doctors and nurses had lots of questions about depression AFTER I had triple bypass surgery. It seems that depression is a common side effect of that surgery, but they don't tell you about it until you're ready to go home from the hospital. And yep, I can understand that. If you knew in advance what it was going to be like, you just might decline the surgery.

 

[CreekyB]

Mine has been on and off my entire life. I tried meds and counseling and those do work to a certain extent. I think the med route was not right for me, seems after a while it stops working leaving me worse of than before and needing a new med. I pretty much fight mine by simply doing something everyday. It does not matter what it is as long as I can get a sense of satisfaction in accomplishing something from doing it. I might still be depressed but I am doing something and have a sense of self worth. Some of those days "doing something" is limited to sitting in front of the PC or game console and playing video games but they can be therapeutic as well.
Today it will be stretching 150 foot of fence and replacing the rear diff pinion seal on my F150. Then probably games, there are teenagers somewhere that need their butt kicked (digitally) by a grampa.

 

[dmccarty]

It could be your body isn't producing enough serotonin....

Lack of vitamin D might also be linked to depression. How much vitamin D we need seems to be debated but a majority of Americans are supposed to be short of the amount of what is recommended. My check up earlier in the year showed I was deficient in D so started taking better vitamins and more of them. Before I was taking a multi vitamin when I remembered too. Now I have a routine to take vitamins. It will be interesting to see if my extra exercise, loss of weight, slightly improved diet and vitamin intake positively impacts my next checkup.

I am not saying that taking D is going to make the OP happy but it might help and it certainly is cheap an easy to do.

The other thing that has not been pointed out is that Taylor has had deaths of family and friends as well as relationship breakups. These are major stress events and he has had them really close together. These events would knock most people back on their heels.

Later,
Dan

 

[Taylortractornut]

I try to stay busy but sometimes when I get home it hits me. I've been logging some 70 plus hrs since the first of the year. When I get home it hits. It's not every day though. I my best friend she texts and keeps me in line. The house has kept me busy getting it back in shape and goin to church has helped.

I lost mom in May of 2013 then my wife left in in August while I was in McAllen Texas picking up a tack wagon my brother broke the news to me then 15 minutes later called back telling me this girl emailed him telling us she was our sister we didn't know we had. And the deaths of my friends over the last year or so does stack up. The one that was a suicide I've known since I was a kid and talked to him about 6 hours before he did it. I really appreciate all the advice.

 

[bdog]

I lost my dad in 2014. He was relatively young and lived a mile down the road from me and we were very close. It hit me hard and I was depressed for quite a while but things got better. I still miss him every day but I try to stay busy and positive. I don't really set big goals but I make lots of little small ones of things I want to get done. Things that are easily doable in a day or even less than a hour. I write them down and then as I do them I cross them off the list. It is really satisfying to me to see the progress on the list and see the changes around my property as I get things accomplished.

Being around other people helps a lot. The other time I think I was depressed was when I was divorced in 2002. I had been with my ex since high school and was suddenly single and alone for the first time in my life. It was difficult at first but as I made new friends and started doing things with them it became some of the best times of my life. I went from sitting at home by myself for days on end to having dozens of friends that I did things with daily.

The worst thing you can do I think is being alone doing nothing. That in itself is depressing and even more so if you have depressing things to think about. I am not a big believer in all these meds for depression but I guess they help some people. My concern with them is I think they just mask the underlying cause and trap you in a never ending cycle of using them.

 

[Paddy]

Tayler,

Metal art work is a good way to "switch gears". I have not experienced depression but I do have a job with some stress. I'd find myself "thinking" about issues and problems at work when home. So I started carving stone. When I carve stone, I'm so entirely engrossed in the work, I do not think about ANYTHING but not making one chip or cut in the wrong place! My wife soon started silver jewerly and after an hour or two we show our progress.

So my advice is to do more with your metal art. Don't have the idea you can make money selling it, do it for the release. Attached is a carving I did recently...

 

[dmccarty]

I try to stay busy but sometimes when I get home it hits me. I've been logging some 70 plus hrs since the first of the year. When I get home it hits. ...

Could you also be burned out from too much work?

Between long work hours and family issues I know I am burned out. I am not depressed but mentally exhausted. I need to work on the tractor but I am so burned out I have no desire or energy to do the work. I am just burned out mentally. We did just have a two week vacation overseas and that did help me to recharge a bit but I am now back at work putting in long hours. It sucks but it beats being unemployed like so many of the people I know.

Later,
Dan

 

[EddieWalker]

You have already done the most important thing by admitting you have it. My Mom has it and is usually fine, but when things start going wrong for her, like dealing with a holes in the family, she shuts down and will not do anything for several days. Recently, thanks to my wife who is a RN, she told her doctor about it and he was able to prescribe her some medicine that has totally improved her outlook on life. Another family member has it even worse, but refuses to admit to it and self medicates with beer and pain pills. Over the years, he has gone from a weekend drinker to a nightly drinker to waking up every morning with a beer. There is no way to understand what it's like for him, but by gauging his degree of anger at everyone in the world, and the lies he makes up to support that anger, it's gotten really bad for him.

I sometimes feel overwhelmed and not wanting to do anything. I've been fortunate in being able to push through those feelings and learned that if I keep pushing, it goes away and I get done what I wanted to. I've never shut down like they have, but wonder if that's in the future for me. My wife pays attention to my moods, so I rely on her judgement on what to do.

All I know for sure is that it's treatable. Either by making yourself do what you need to do, like work, chores, projects and fulfilling commitments, or through counseling and medication.

Good luck, I think by opening up about it, you will be fine.

 

[crash325]

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