Is this depression?

[sensitive_woman]

I'm not sure if it will sound rather stupid but I had a question.

Every morning when I wake up I literally have to drag myself out of bed.

Honestly I dont feel like getting out of bed at all and can probably sleep all morning straight till noon but I know I cant do that. So I have to wake up and get moving. But its a big task for me.

I discussed this with a friend and she says this is depression. I went to a psychotherapist few months ago when I used to feel this way and she gave me some anti-depressants which hit me so hard that I used to sleep all day and felt dizzy when I would get up. So I quit taking them altogether. I made myself strong by hitting the gym (regular exercise and stuff), got busy with work and so on and then broke out of this cycle of lousy feeling of "I dont want to get up every morning" but now after mom's illness I think I'm getting back into the same mode. Is this depression? How can I come out of it now? I honestly dont feel like gymming at all. I notice when I eat chocolates I feel much much better! What do I do?

[mscat]

Well I do know that having a extremely hard time getting out of bed and wanting to sleep all day long is a symtom of depression. My Psych. Dr told me I had clinical depression and i was not even aware of it. I even had to go home on the internet and look it up. Aperantly that is the same thing as major depression. Since then i have tried many different anti depressants. Not all of them work the same way. It may have been too high of a dose for you, so next time talk to your treating Dr. about the side effects before stopping. It can take a few weeks for them to fully work.

I am glad that you were able to pull yourself out of it the last time. however, it can be impossible to do that sometimes. If your condition last two or more weeks then your suppose to seek treatment. Depression symtoms can vary. So their are other ways that it can manifest itself . watch for other signs like not eating, isolating yourself, not wanting to do anything, crying spells. a feeling of doom, negative thoughts, and even thoughts of suicide.

[sensitive_woman]

mscat, thank you for your reply. Yes, I am losing appetite, in fact dont feel like eating at all but since I'm a nutritionist myself I do know the repercussions of 'not eating' and I force myself to eat. Plus with mom's illness, I dont want to add to the troubles so I eat though my appetite has gone down.. Yes, I feel all the things you said... from keeping myself isolated, not wanting to socialize at all, crying spells, just feel like doing nothing at all but thats not possible as I have to help mom feel better so I force myself to appear happy and that things are under control. Yes I have a feeling of doom and that my life is not worth living esp after my divorce and yes, suicide too but I cant coz who will take care of mom if I commit suicide. Both my parents will die if there is any more adversity in our life.

The antidepressant dose was the minimum dose ever so the doc says even if I feel wiped out (as in sleeping all day), I should continue with it. At this stage of life I cant afford to be sleeping all day as I need to take mom to the hospital every fortnight for her chemos, regular blood tests in between and so on. So I have discontinued the antidepressants a long time ago. Earlier exercise and meditation helped me, so maybe I should restart the same.

[JaneE]

It might help to try a support group for elder carers... it would be a very limited and structured context for social contact so you'd be able to talk about your troubles but not feel like you're extending yourself too far or without some kind of external structure for topic, etc. This way you could unload with those who understand and no doubt a few or many persons in any such group would also be going through depression and have advice for you.

Good luck with everything, I can't imagine how hard it must be, all I can say is 'hang in there' ^^;;

Jane