How do you know??????

[leann357]

How does one know if one is depressed or just feeling sorry themself?  I am financially having a hard time right now. I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders. What is worse is I see no light at the end of the tunnel. I think I have felt this way before but there was always the light. I cry everday. I feel so unhappy and stressed out. Is it just stress or should I worry?

[jurplesman]

It is always difficult to distinguish between environmental depression and endogenous depression. With environmental depression people usually know what causes the depression. This is usually not the case in endogenous depression. AND on top of that it could be a combination of both. In environmental depression we are usually exposed to some identifiable stress  - such as your financial problems - which interferes with he production of feel good neurotransmitters such as serotonin.

The best strategy is to go on a anti-stress diet such as the hypoglycemic diet, supplemented with a good B-complex vitamins, such as zinc and picolinic acid, vitamin C etc.

If you feel that stress has been caused by a low self-esteem, when people can manipulate you and take advantage of you, it may pay to study a good self-help psychotherapy course, which includes a Assertiveness Training Program as well.

See:

Self-help PSYCHOTHERAPY course at;
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/i-psychotherapy.html

Jurriaan Plesman

[Hensley258]

There are different levels of severity regarding depression. From your description it sounds as if you may be suffering a mild to moderate form of depression and anxiety.

I really wouldn't reccomend medication unless you simply can not function without it.
I had no choice about starting medication because according to my Psychiatrist, my depression and anxiety were of a very severe nature.

I think you at least owe it to yourself to first try therapy before falling back on medication.
If in the end you find that you just can't snap out of it then maybe consider meds.

I just want people to first understand the advantages and disadvantages of taking Psycotropic medications before concluding that it is 100% nessasary.

Mild forms of depression are better treated by natural means and therapy.

[el_dave]

Yes, the economy is sure in great shape, isn't it? Just ask the administration, they'll tell you all about it. There are an awful lot of people in the same boat, and it's sure possible it'll get worse before it gets better. The people will, as usual, make the wrong decisions at the polls, or will get cheated out of it if they do make a right decision.. depending on an improvement in the economy is, in my opinion, worse than buying lottery tickets. Besides, the politicians are all working for the same "masters" anyway, and it sure isn't "we, the people". It's all very depressing for we who are on the "working" end of the money flow. However, it makes a lot more sense to be stressed out and unhappy than not, under such conditions. I have a friend right there in TN who makes venison jerky and distributes it on the internet to compensate for the great state our economy is in. If there's any product you can make and distribute, online is great, as long as it's not something others can reproduce and sell (in which case definitely stay off eBay.. "marketers" will steal and resell any reproducable product you invested in creation of, and you can prove to eBay that's what's going on.. their response is "have your attorneys contact our attorneys").  My eldest daughter made and sold dolls.. a lady I know in Georgia preaccepts orders for pecans, overnights them to ladies (gents too, I presume) up North the day they come off the tree with recipes for "the freshest pecan pies imagineable". Her customers are paying a lot for a derned pecan pie they have to make themselves, but I guess there's something they like about the whole concept, because she does fairly well. She's going to go into peaches also. No chance of anything like that?

[leann357]

Yes, my husband has a job. He is a brick layer. When he works, he makes good money. Lately, there has not been much work. We have been struggling for the last 4 months and I think it is just getting to me. We have had hard times before but NEVER this long. I'm scared. We own our home and our vehicle, but it is a chore to pay the other bills. I have had to chose what bill to pay, what bill to put off. When I put bills off until the next week, I never know what next week will bring. I feel like it is just snowballing, getting bigger and badder. I applied for state assistance and was turned down. We didn't meet the "criteria". I just do'nt know if I am "down" or depressed.

[leann357]

I do feel anxious, I feel utter hopelessness sometimes. I don't want to die. I feel sometimes it would be better not to be here but that is a fleeting thought. I have people who love me and people I love. I am just so tired of struggling. The hardest part is not being able to see the end of my financial woes. I don't know if I have "the blues or if I need some medication to help me deal or what. I just don'tknow!!!
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[Hensley258]

I can't exactly explain how I knew something was wrong with me, but I just simply felt so out of wack that I seriously thought I was going insane. My brain felt like a swurling tempist with racing thoughts, massive anxiety, trembling, utter hoplessness, confusion that was so bad that I could hardly even read or hold a thought. I had extreem exaustion and fatuge, yet I couldn't sleep and when I did sleep I couldn't wake up. I also had a deep strange sence of unknown fear for no reason. I couldn't eat, My level of basic consentration was completly gone and my mind and body felt paralized and lifeless.
Eventually these symptoms manifested into planning my suicide. The pain gets so bad that it can actually feel as if the inside of your head is being smashed like a soft boiled egg.

In a nut shell that's pretty much what it feels like if you have severe depression.
There are also many physical symptoms that go along with that.

If it's bad then you pretty much can not even function as a normal human being.

When or if you get to that point then trust me you will have no doubt about it. It's like taking a never ending trip thru Hell itself.

I guess that's about the best I can explain it.

[tinyrufus]

I don't know what is going on with me. I just want to get better. I feel like I have kind of fallen in between the cracks. They have me on Lexapro (3 weeks now). I have thyroid disorder(and they keep saying that is fine, but it doesn't feel fine-=actually I don't have a thyroid), I have these really really really really irrational thoughts and "delusions", and when all this started they started giving me hormones, and my dog had just died. I have really felt crazy.

[catmagnet]

Hey, I feel exactly the same way! I was told I had situational depression, but I'm still taking prozac anyway...hopefully I'll get the cofidence to pull myself out of this trap!

[el_dave]

See if there are any hospitals in your area with a non-profit charter. My wife runs a department that is specifically for folks like you, and here in N FL you wouldn't have a problem health care wise as long as you go to the right hospital. Most of the providers also write it off when the hospital writes it off. I know it's hard to believe, but her biggest problem for years was finding enough accounts to write off, because most folks with financial problems are afraid to fill out the financial assistance forms, because they're afraid the info will get to credit bureaus and etceteras (here, at least, it doesn't). I'm not sure when unhappiness becomes depression, but financial woes are surely some of the worst there are, because of the way you're constantly hounded and pursued by creditors. Plus, the moment they think you're down, financially, they start kicking you as hard as they can to make it worse. Have you and/or your ol' man got a job?