What level of Depression is normal?

I share a similar view to yours so I can't help.

 

Well personally I have what is usually called General Anxiety Disorder which is in a lot of ways like depression but is more of a stress related thing. So if you are stressed more than always just unhappy you may look into that (but its a really thin line and if you have GAD its not a lot different than depression but I am stating the difference for diagnosis purposes). For me I voted 50% of the time as I fluctuate a lot.

Hope that helps some.

 

I voted happy 75% of the time but I think I'm more happy than that. Before, I wasn't always too happy. Not depressed but just wasn't happy in general. I've basically cut out all the things (such as people) that don't make me too happy and now I'm happy quite often. I only get stressed when I have a boatload of work to do for my parents but other than that, I'm happy because I do things that I like. And when I am stressed, I usually go shoot around some hoops and that goes away in about an hour.

 

All you happy people make me sad.

 

Don't get sad, get glad.

 

Sounds like a garbage bag commercial.

 

"You know what? I hate people. People are bastards. They're bastard coated bastards with bastard flavored fillings. But that doesn't piss me off nearly as much as those *******s who walk around vomiting sunshine".

I don't know who said that but I love it.

 

Good. I was aiming for that.

 

Wow. I've never even seen that.

 

That is the power of Scrubs.

 

Normal is relative.

I think most would agree that the ability to function - that is, to live a life - is the dividing line.

I suffer from debilitating depression and anxiety; I'm unable to function at all most days, much less work. I lost my girlfriend, and I've lost all my friends because I can't even bring myself to return a phone call 99% of the time.

If you had told me five years ago that I would be like this today I would have laughed in your face.

I'm not laughing today.

 

That sucks nabo.

 

Interesting to note you depressed mopy ****ers who are never happy are lying and putting yourself up higher than you should be.....

 

what he said

 

Get

Or

Or

Wait.

I don't think they have that one..

 

so here is my .2 on the subject..

i am a real happy person, personality is funny and making people laugh and im always told "god thanks chris i would be sobbing all day if you didnt cheer me up" which is cool...but i have my inner demons, and i seem to squash them and turn them into laughter....cause like tracy morgan said after 9/11.....if you dont laugh you'll cry....

but i get so INTO my comedy, just being a prankster, and joking that i literally trick myself into believing everything is golden and good....but if i sit down alone, throw back a cold one...i get depressed sometimes...because i worked my *** off in highschool...and could have been a D1 football player...had the scouts, the offers, and the skills....but it didnt come to fruition because of my ridiculous ******* of a coach....(those who dont know, he was fired and we found scholarship offers for me and some other players....we never got them from him...i had offers from troy, FAU, northern illinois, army, easter carolina, and illinois) by time i found them i had commited to wingate (division 2) and was on my way there in a few weeks.....and the offers had been takin off the table (believe me i tried contacting them).....it was depressing....and IS still depressing...because i went played D2....tore my knee up....lost my scholarship and now i am 21 working 9-5 M-F......but then....when i get depressed i think about....my son would not be here right now if i went to one of those schools....and i sit here as i type this and my son is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me....i am in love with the kid....and would die for him....so the way things turned out is 10 fold better than any other way my life could have gone.....it just sucks how some things turned out....but you have to move on and smile....because if you dont laugh you'll cry

 

meh!? I voted 25% - I'm neither happy or sad I just coast along the day. I've seen depression first hand and its a nasty thing thats misunderstood.

 

Normal is a relative term, what is normal for some, is depression for others. If you have concerns, the best thing you can do is talk to someone. It doesn't have to be a therapist or a psychiatrist. It can be your doctor, pastor, even a supports hotline.
Good luck.

 

I went through some depression in high school in a major way and then on and off over the past 20 years or so.

I've come to the realization that I can't stress about every little thing as it just makes me realize how imperfect the world and I am. Thus, my key to sanity is to "not think too much."

Someone's always going to rain on your parade. For me, I have to take it with a grain of salt. If I can learn from it, great. If not, screw 'em and keep on going. It's not easy as everyone looks for approval from everyone else to some degree and you don't always get it.

It helps to have a group of folks around you to lay some positives on you now and then. We humans really are social beings. We can curl up like a hermit in a cave for a while and be happy, but you do have to come out occassionally to get that pat on the back or you will find yourself spiralling into despair.

That said, I'm truly appreciative of all the folks who post and brighten my day with their sarcastic humor on this site. It helps keep me sane.

Lastly, there are definitely "cycles" of happiness and depression. I think it has something to do with the weather, hormones, etc, etc. When you feel a down cycle coming on, look for that support group and try not to overthink things. That's my only solution and it's worked for me. Ultimately, it's up to you, the individual as to whether you want to try to be happy or be miserable. It takes a little work ands a little not thinking too much.

And yes, I recognize there are folks with true imbalances that require therapy or meds. If you feel yourself headed into a deep drepression, talk to someone. Seek help. There are folks out there for you.

 

Sorry to hear about this Nabo. My wife suffers from depression and has some symptoms associated with borderline personality so I know firsthand the debilitating nature that those conditions can bring. Luckily after a few years of constant struggle that almost led to divorce, she decided to seek help and has improved tremendously with the right combination of intense therapy and attitude adjustments... YOU CONTROL your life Nabo, not the other way around. Please seek professional help, life is a long journey and sometimes you need a helping hand to make you realize that there is a big picture and hope... PM me if you need any additional advice.

 

Thanks, bro, I appreciate the kind words.

I've taken meds and been in therapy off and on for 25+ years. Up until my knee replacement surgery in '05 my depression and anxiety was 100% under control. But I've been headed south steadily since.

The aftereffects of the surgery were difficult, many times more than I even imagined it could be; from the utter helplessness after, to the fogginess brought on by the pain meds, to the physical addiction I developed to them and the subsequent, nightmarish withdrawal, it was a trial that lasted for months.

All this when I had expected the surgery to change my life in a positive way.

It's self-perpetuating; my work suffered, plus the company where I had excelled for years was being absorbed into another and I was finding myself more and more cast adrift by the changes. My girlfriend of six years left because she felt helpless watching me deteriorate; then, finally, I was "surplused" at work.

It's been a rough three years.

 

I've had an awfully rough year, so I went with 25%.

 

I really want you to think about the response I am about to give....

I understand that you have been through 25+ years of therapy, but have you thought about the possibility that therapy has failed to make a big impact because you either haven't opened up to the therapist or haven't gotten the proper diagnosis from them? From my experience with my wife, she spent so many years looking for a "fix" from therapy which inhibited the information she revealed and led to same cycle you speak of. It was when she decided to be honest about her feelings that the right care came to her, and got the ball rolling in the right direction after the same cycle kept repeating itself. So... I urge you take personal inventory, let it all out on the table and seek help with the attitude that it will take hard work and effort on your part to live a meaningful life again... It is not easy, but necessary. Sometimes I have to remind my wife that she carried 25 years of shame about certain things that happened to her, and that 6 months of therapy or 1 year was nothing in comparison to that.. So patience and dedication is the only way to pull through this... Then again I am the eternal optimist

 

x2

I sure hope this year is much better for us both.

 

Ditto on what like2god and calphin said, except I chose 50%. I just started my second semester of grad school and it hasn't been easy. I carry kind of a prickly demeanor. Some people take it as me being angry or depressed. But I don't think that is the case. I just don't walk around with a huge grin on my face all the time. And I usually take the view that things could be a lot worse.

 

To me it boils down to a very simple question:
Is the glass half empty or half full?
Some people see the glass as empty even if it is 95% full, while others see it half full regardless of how much liquid is in the glass.. The key to a happy life, IMHO, is accepting that not everything in life goes the way you plan it, and looking at the bright side of things, even during difficult situations. Easier said then done, I guess....

 

Some people ask that I just ask "Are you gonna drink that?"

 

A lifetime in management makes me say, "Whose ****ing job was it to keep the glass full, and why isn't it done?!"

 

Worked my way through something similar to what you're facing, although without the anxiety component. Sucks big time, and people don't realise just how debilitating it can be.

I think I was close to comitting murder if another person told me to "snap out of it". One of the things that worked for me was realising that your emotional energy is like a car battery, and when you have depression he battery has gone flat. You have to charge it up and run it out in small doses.

 

Sounds a little similar to my experience. Firstly I realise now that I've suffered depression all my life, just at a sub clinical level. I then had about 4 years where work mainly, plus some family matters, ground me down into the dust. Good ol' testosterone made me think I was juggling all 7 balls, but the reality was they were all on the ground.

If you've had it under control for 20+ years then you do know what the beast is and how to fight it, so it's obviously taken a lot to get you where you are now. In some ways this is good because it shows that you are strong and resilient, in other ways its bad because you have to get stomped on completely before you realise you need help.

I know its much easier said than done, but if you don't get some sort of circuit breaker happening then the natural tendency is for the downward spiral to continue. I was very fortunate in that I had good friends who hosted me for a week's holiday. After talking to them I realised I needed to make wholesale changes and gave up a very lucrative career which I had been very good at for a completely different career change.

 

"The sky is the limit and you know that you keep on just keep on pressin on
The sky is the limit and you know that you can have what you want, be what you want".

What I have found with a lot of life at my young age and experience is that a lot of it is mentality. Now naturally you can only control so many things internally and there are external circumstances that you have no way of changing them.

The ability to see these things for what they are and not what your brain makes them can be the difference between a great moment and a good moment.

You have to be able to put your internal struggles down for a little bit. At best they shouldn't be running your every moment of every day. To function with yourself and the world at large you need to have a corner in your mind and body where you can set these down safely without causing physical or emotional injury to yourself.

Pick it up when it's not holding the same mental weight. See if you can't mull it over with a more focused attitude and not one that's clouded by the moment, or alcohol, or drugs.

A little bit of my own history. And this is going deep. If you don't wanna go down this rabbit hole you had better stop now.

I was raped when I was younger.

My parents divorced when I was in third grade. Fourth grade was horrible.

Fast forward. I'm in high school. I'm in a relationship. I think the girl I'm with is pregnant. She stops talking to me right before graduation. We graduate and I don't talk to her. I drink though. Oh, I drink. A lot.

I have a strained relationship with my mother at this point. We're arguing all the time because she's on medications for the 10ish back surgerys she's had. I find out all the reasons why she divorced my dad.

Fast foward. My dad and his girlfriend get addicted to coke and basically lose the house they're in.

Fast forward. The girl I'm with for 5 years.. who I believe I'm practically married to all but legally. I was cheated on at the very beginning. Afterwards I was physically and emotionally abusive for 2 years and emotionally distant and non responsive for the other three. This is recent and I hate myself for the way I treated her. I'm still somewhat heartbroken though it's getting easier but if that's how I treat the women I'm with I deserve to be single. I realize that everything in relationships isn't one persons fault but this is just me admitting my faults.

Now I'm alone for the first time since I was 16. I haven't had a steady job for 2 years. I live at home. I owe 800 for an electric bill that goes to the woman I used to date. Ah god.

And I don't know what to do or how I feel from day to day. It's more a moment to moment thing.

Not very happy.

But I know that this is all attitude and perspective and moments. At least I hope so.

 

Woody Allen's analogy of life: There's two old women in a restaurant and one says to the other, "The food in this restaurant is really horrible" and the other replies, "Yeah and the portions are so small". Point being, life is filled with lots of misery, sadness and depression and it all ends way too fast. =D. ....I actually think it's originally a Groucho Marx line. I know this isn't a helpful post, just a little levity for ya'.

 

And to add more of the positive.

If you continue to focus on the negative things in life you probably aren't allowing any positive things in.

 

I've been through quite a few levels of depression and anxiety, and even suffered from panic attacks for nearly 2 years. I still have depression issues sometimes, but not nearly at the level I was at for about 3 1/2 years. It is tough to get over because there seems to be no answer for it. Each individuals issues and problems come from diverse sources. There are chemical imbalances, stress, etc. that have been attributed to depression and anxiety. I can tell you, I know what all of you guys have gone through and are still going through. I've taken medications for it. I was given Lexipro once for it, but I took it once and had a terrible panic attack as result of ONE pill and dumped it down the toilet. Most recently I was taking Clonepam (I think that's how it's spelled) and it seemed to help more than anything because it relaxes you without messing with your brain.

Anyway, my heart goes out to anyone suffering through it. It is a very tough thing to live with.

 

Brother what is normal? I am upbeat, positive, outgoing personality. 08 was a tough year for me losing my mom, and father in law got Alzheimer's, lost my job, and 09 will be even tougher as I am still unemployed, could lose my house, and more family issues. What I have realized is that I have my health, family, friends, and my dogs, and that is all that matters to me in life. My mom was very negative, and depressing at times, and I took after my father. I am keeping the faith with my chin up, because things will get better! Life is very short my brother, and there are no do overs. Perhaps ask yourself what do you enjoy in life? Do you do them enough? Maybe have more friends that are uplifting for you? Just a few ideas bro. Have a great day!

 

John, I love you. Like an brother that is.

 

Like wise Brother Alen.