OK, I think this is definitely a topic that I can confidently speak about. I am clinicially depressed and have been depressed since I was a young child. However, it was only about 10 years ago that I was officially diagnosed. Coming from an N family with a self-absorbed Nmom, Nsis and co-dependent dad, no one in my family ever cared enough to notice my depression or get me help.
In the course of my efforts to get help, I have undergone therapy and tried more than a dozen drugs, including Wellbutrin. I am currently on another drug (Emsam), a new type of drug that is taken as a patch. None of the drugs have really helped. At one point I was hospitalized as well.
This I know. For many people who are really and truly clinically depressed, drugs and cognitive behavioral therapy can work. For these individuals, depression goes in and out of their lives, never entirely disappearing but controllable through treament. Mine does not fit in this category. I fall in that 20 percent of depressives whose depression is resistant to treatment.
However, I will say there is a huge diffierence between situational depression and clinicial depression. Clinicial depression is made worse by stressors in life, one's upbringing and family problems. However, if you remove those other factors, it would still be there. With situational depression, once you deal with the negative situation or stressor, you can heal from your depression. Clinicial depression is something you deal with every day for the rest of your life in most cases. Situational depression is not so all pervasive, although it is equally painful and life damaging as clinicial depression.
Needless to say, I think I've read just about every self-help book, psychological study and report on the subject. There have been new drugs but drugs by themselves don't always work. However, without question, growing up in an N family only exacerbates depression, as does a genetic predisposition to the disease. That's why the level of depression people experience lies on a continuum. The more of these stressors and other factors you have, the worse the depression is. Lack of self-esteem and positive self-image are inherent symptoms of depressives. Therefore, growing up in an N household where the focus is never on you only makes the depression worse.
All the doctors I've ever been to have told me the same thing....that it is almost impossible to define what percentage of your depression is caused by genetic factors and which are caused by your environment or life circumstances. Most often than not, it's a combinaton of the two. For me, that factor is extremely, extremely frustrating. It's like the chicken and the egg scenario. Which came first? Did I become depressed because of my family upbringing, environment and other stressors? Or, did I encounter these stressors and negative life experiences because I was depressed. No one can give me that answer.
At any rate, I know this. When someone is clinically depressed, it becomes very challenging jsut doing the simple things that others take for granted. The physical and mental fatigue, sense of hopelessness and failure, sadness and pain is truly, truly overwhelming. No one in my family has ever been willing to acknowledge this or understand this. They believe it is a personality trait, a sign of weakness. It is not. But it is perceived as such. The really hard thing is that when you are clinically depressed, as opposed to situationally depressed, there is never any relief. It never goes away.
Anyway, I thought the linked article was very good. I've always said if I can't find a treatment that would cure me of my depression, my second wish would be for a pill I could give my family and others around me to take so that they could truly understand my condition, how it feels, how it manifests itself, and how difficult it is to get through life. Being suicidal at times, being so hopeless and sad you can't function, is not easy and we depressives would be so helped by a little bit of empathy and understanding.
Just my little two cents speech.
