Forums › Life › Health & Medicine › Depression › Mid Winter Blues or Depression
I have recently lost a beloved friend to depression [he committed suicide] and it was a huge shock to me and all his other friends.
The not knowing if there was something more we could have done for him has been very hard though especially as not everyone even realised he had a problem and the people in whom he had confided are struggling with the guilt of the ‘what if I had done……?’ scenarios.
➡ Depression seems to me to be a subject which could use much more open discussion about it and I am writing this thread in case you or someone you know is depressed and dont know what to do about it.
What is depression?
The symptoms include:
* Disturbed sleep, usually waking early and being unable to get back to sleep
* A general slowing down of thought, speech and movement
* Feelings of anxiety
* Tearfulness for no reason
* Short temper
* Lack of energy and constant exhaustion
* Inability to enjoy things
* Lack of concentration
* Difficulty making decisions
* Feeling that you’re forgetful
* Negative thoughts about the future
* Feelings of guilt
* Loss of identity
* Blaming self and low self-esteem
* Feelings of hopelessness and despair
* Unrealistic sense of failure
* Loneliness, even when around others
* Becoming preoccupied with illness
* Loss of appetite and resulting loss of weight
* Reduced desire for sex
* Variation of mood during the day. It’s often worse in the morning, improving as the day goes on – but the pattern can be the other way around.
[Depending on the severity of the depression more or less symptoms may be affecting you.]
Depression can be triggered by a wide variety of things: the SAD [seasonal affective depression] is brought on by the lack of light in winter, a relationship breakdown [any family member not just a partner], a change in circumstances [loss of a job, moving], some medical treatments or illnesses, having a baby [post natal depression] and many other things.
The important thing to realise is that if you are depressed you are not the only one and that there is help available out there.
i got electrocuted by the end of my hair straighters plug thing.. some how.. and it’s like woah.
@General Lighting 413397 wrote:
ECT is basically literally shocking people with various currents of electricity. It has been around since electricity was invented (when giving people strong electric shocks was once viewed as a cure-all) and is a very old (and controversial) technique. As an engineer I have been shocked a few times by various pieces of equipment (second worse to mains is ISDN aux power from British Telecom, 120V DC on bare (and unmarked) terminals :rant: and the ECT current is about the same as this, so it can hardly be pleasant..
I think its improved a lot (although thats not hard) but still. I would have ripped out his still beating heart than let him do that to me.
they’ve changed the type of electricity, but rather than AC its mostly a large pulse of DC current which is still most unpleasant to be zapped by…
the depression is back again. don’t really feel like i wanna do anything anymore, feel like throwing the towel in
): .. chin up! only YOU can give meaning to your life. maybe read some poems, i have a friend who sends me poetry when i’m down and it makes me happier.
also, i think, don’t let it just envelope everything. when you’re sad, it’s tempting to just feel like you can’t get out and that you’re sinking and won’t ever stop. but it helps to accept that it’s just a phase and life will look up soon. 🙂
@Gazatronium-Ethane 416075 wrote:
the depression is back again. don’t really feel like i wanna do anything anymore, feel like throwing the towel in
I think its normal to feel this way around winter and/or when good things come to an end… your early to mid 20s for a young man is a bad time as a lot of dreams you had turned out to be unattainable and you find you have to drop back into the rat race or be thrown on the scrapheap..
I wouldn’t say I suffer from depression as such (as I can stil work and function well) and I am lucky that I enjoy most of my job and it isn’t as bad as others I’ve had… however I am really finding it hard to do anything fun/creative since calming down on the party lifestyle and leading a more solitary life – (although I’ve started trying to take more photos for work) – and my newer friends don’t socialise as much (I think transport is an issue as unlike SE England this place is big), they don’t do drugs and stay up late, and we even don’t have a common space to gather and create stuff like the squats I used to help crack in the 2000s, and raves here are locked off big time. I am working on the creative space thing with some others but it takes time as property still holds its value and squatting isn’t feasible here (you get arrested and the building locked off).
Also winter doesn’t help as you are often boxed in due to weather/transport problems.. and a lot of my human friends have drifted away recently, my non-human ones (I befriend random cats I meet in the street or in the courtyard at work) are also staying at home due to weather…
We are lucky though we’ve actually got stuff like Internet to talk to each other. I was thinking just yesterday if there was stuff like PV in my late teens / early 20s (it only took off when I was in my late 20s). Things do get better in the spring but its sometimes worth reassessing your “dreams and ambitions” as well..
Every time I get in the ‘rat race’, I get unpolitely kicked out and back to another 2 years of misery, because just like life….I’m no good.
must be nice to have a job you can enjoy, can’t say the same for all the jobs I’ve had (8 of them). Doesn’t help the fact that know one has ever given me any kind of incentive or sumin, Always being told I cant do this, I’m too blah to do that, normally getting the piss taken outta me for near enough everything I do.
Really makes my feel like there is no point bothering anymore.
it took several crap jobs before I got to that stage, one near dream job (TV industry) actually turned into a fucking nightmare, then I got laid off, was unemployed for a year then curiously after that got a job for the Government in the Civil Service for 4 years which was actually far less crap than it seemed and I did really well, (learned a lot of stuff about nature/environment as well) only to get downsized again as the war took away my Department’s budget!
I do agree though that much of British management is shit which is why our businesses are often shit, and there is a lot of ruthless competition and bullying in some fields, ironically it gets worse with desirable jobs..
During the 1990s I put nearly 5 years of my life into moving into media production, which resulted in fuck all.
Not that I “couldn’t do it” but the industry was (and still is) imploding – I can do anything from making films to building whole studios but no one wants to pay for this sort of work any more so its never gonna be a career path, but I managed to at least use my tech skills for other stuff… OK building accounts databases and telephone systems isn’t as “fun” but it pays the bills.
BTW what were you working as? you come across as fairly intelligent (if a bit strange sometimes :laugh_at:) and must have some useful skills….
@General Lighting 416086 wrote:
it took several crap jobs before I got to that stage, one near dream job (TV industry) actually turned into a fucking nightmare, then I got laid off, was unemployed for a year then curiously after that got a job for the Government in the Civil Service for 4 years which was actually far less crap than it seemed and I did really well, (learned a lot of stuff about nature/environment as well) only to get downsized again as the war took away my Department’s budget!
I do agree though that much of British management is shit which is why our businesses are often shit, and there is a lot of ruthless competition and bullying in some fields, ironically it gets worse with desirable jobs..
During the 1990s I put nearly 5 years of my life into moving into media production, which resulted in fuck all.
Not that I “couldn’t do it” but the industry was (and still is) imploding – I can do anything from making films to building whole studios but no one wants to pay for this sort of work any more so its never gonna be a career path, but I managed to at least use my tech skills for other stuff… OK building accounts databases and telephone systems isn’t as “fun” but it pays the bills.
BTW what were you working as? you come across as fairly intelligent (if a bit strange sometimes :laugh_at:) and must have some useful skills….
strange…..oh yeah…you don’t know the half of it, more like an odd-bod.
got knowledge in: ecology, conservation, mechanics (4 and 2 wheeled) and, skateboarding.
But all of these have got me nothing and nowhere in 6 years, yeah i have a nice tele, PS3 and some other material shite. But it seems every time I get a job, the first 3 weeks are decent, but after that I end up back on the dole again. Just feels like my life is a constant state of nothingness.
keep fooling myself that things will turn around, that was when i was 18, I’m 24 this year, and i really can’t see things looking any better frankly.
yeah p0ly, I do. But just can’t get the motivation to go out, I mean is it really worth it anymore? 11 years I been skating, but never have I had a day where I felt accomplished in it. sucks
One word gaz- Ye old fact master- TERRENCE
stop being so negative dude!! We like it when you’re happy. You need to go job hunting so you have munis again and then you can do lots of fun things.
Or what max says- skate= free fun!
It could be worse, you could be TK
There are loads of free help availiable for you to do – if you are actually motivated to do some work to help yourself – such as :
and some are on prescription from your GP
What is Beating the Blues Connect – Beating the Blues®
:group_hug
@Gazatronium-Ethane 416105 wrote:
strange…..oh yeah…you don’t know the half of it, more like an odd-bod.
got knowledge in: ecology, conservation, mechanics (4 and 2 wheeled) and, skateboarding.
But all of these have got me nothing and nowhere in 6 years, yeah i have a nice tele, PS3 and some other material shite. But it seems every time I get a job, the first 3 weeks are decent, but after that I end up back on the dole again. Just feels like my life is a constant state of nothingness.
keep fooling myself that things will turn around, that was when i was 18, I’m 24 this year, and i really can’t see things looking any better frankly.
yeah p0ly, I do. But just can’t get the motivation to go out, I mean is it really worth it anymore? 11 years I been skating, but never have I had a day where I felt accomplished in it. sucks
But gary, im not trying to sound harsh here. You say you have fooled yourself into thinking things will turn around well it’s not going to just happen is it? and it certainly wont when you just quit your job without even finding another one. Unfortunately we have to put up with a few shit jobs until we find one we’re happy with you just need to get on with it. Only you can make things change you cant just expect it to happen, unless of course you are very lucky. Life is about oppurtunity aswell but you need to make things happen yourself!
0
Voices
102
Replies
Tags
This topic has no tags
Forums › Life › Health & Medicine › Depression › Mid Winter Blues or Depression