Depression

I'm still going through a rough spot in my life right now and depression is a major part of it. Even with gaming, I feel like I don't want to do it, or much of anything I used to enjoy. Things I do enjoy are fleeting. I'm being treated for it with medication, will be seeing a therapist soon, but right now I'm digging out of a pretty deep hole. Also not sure why I'm sharing this here but I needed to vent a bit. Depression sucks and I feel for anybody else here going through or who has in the past.

I know this exact feeling man :( To some extent I am still going through this but I am better than I was 6 months ago. I have no solutions but I think focusing on something really really hard helped me get out of it but not completely because I still have same feelings.
 
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Depression sucks.. I've used St. John's Wort since my late 20's (i'm 46). Works really well with few (if any) side effects, i use it on/off, it works fast (within hours) for me. Like all drugs it's not something you should use daily, you'll need more and more and side effects will be stronger.

I've also tried the way stronger common SSRI's. These also works good on me but i tend to get more tired and less creative or driven. There's a tendency for me to just want to lay down. It's actually a bit similar to the drug MDMA, but not as overwhelmingly strong.

The main difference seems to be that with something more light, like St. John's Wort it works best if you're not SUPER depressed, you should have SOMETHING you enjoy or look forward to, then StJW will really boost this feeling and you will feel really pleased with everything, this feeling will "drive you".

With the way stronger synthetic ones, you can be on the verge of collapse, feeling suicidal with nothing in your life and you will still feel happy/pleased on them. But it's a somewhat dull feeling that won't really drive me. Still, way better than feeling like shit.

If you can you should probably avoid it though. There's been a few occurrences in the recent years where i've thought the feelings that should occur, hasn't been there. Where i have expected something (like getting absolutely devastated, but instead there's nothing). It could be age or other reasons, but it could also be that this this usage have dulled me in ways that are probably not too healthy.
 
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Do be careful with St John's Wort. It is still a drug, like any other, but its strength and quality are not regulated, and it can have serious interactions with other medications. Definitely don't combine it with prescription antidepressants.

Personally, I would avoid it. My stance is that drugs have their place in treating depression, because untreated depression can do a lot more harm than drug side effects. But, for me, if the case of depression warrants drug treatment, I would stick to the properly controlled and tested prescription stuff.
 
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yeah like all plant material the strength can differ. I don't find it a problem since i start low and i up the dosage if i need to. One SSRI should rarely be combined with another, goes without saying. I have combined it with low doses of 5-HTP and it does seem to work fine (googled it first to see what other people's reactions were). Like always never start a full dosage with anything, always go slowly and always stop slowly.

St. John's Wort has been used for 2,000 years by humans unlike new SSRI's which can have effects we are yet unaware of. This is why i usually try to avoid things which has not been properly evaluated, preferably for thousands of years. But again, that does not mean it might be harmless.
 
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Yes, it's a personal choice, of course, and you must assess it as you see fit. Just to be clear on where I'm coming from - firstly, I'm just putting out the warnings that people might need to be aware of before giving it a go, but you are already aware of those. But secondly, though there is some research that suggest SJW(!) can help with mild depression, there's no evidence that it helps with severe depression. And, my preference would be to treat mild depression with non-drug-based therapies, and if the depression is serious enough to justify drugs, SJW probably won't cut it.

But, as I say, I'm not trying you tell you what to do, at all. You do what works for you.
 
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yeah, like i wrote too, it's best to use when it's not a serious (e.g suicidal) depression, at least for me. In Germany St John's Wort is the main SSRI though, scoring just as high as synthetic brands. If a certain drug scores good or bad really depends on the country, in many countries plant based drugs are not seen as serious alternatives and this both has to do with tradition and also influence from billion dollar SSRI companies who want to push their drugs.

If something is considered good or not is very much on a personal level too, for obvious reasons. If you're gonna go this route, don't try just one SSRI and be done with it, "it wasn't for me". There are so many brands, each are quite different. I have evaluated these drugs over many years (3 years with various SSRI's). St John's Wort is something i can use on and off, there's hardly any withdrawal effects. Synthetic SSRI's you can't just stop, you might get very suicidal if you stop them too quick.. For most people they are also not a "quick fix" but something that must be used for weeks before they kick in, this is not something i can relate to though, for me they work within 2-5h.
 
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Yes, and the situation in Germany is very interesting. Of all the research done, the results in Germany on SJW are outliers compared to the research done elsewhere, and, AFAIK, it's not yet understood why that should be the case.
 
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Could be a number of reasons, they might have mastered when to harvest and how to grow SJW under the best conditions for it to work its best.

What we also know is that the giant manufacturers of SSRI's have less of an influence there since Germany has chosen to go the natural route, it will be much much harder for them to try to make natural products look bad, to try to influence the market.

We know from earlier that for example natural sweeteners like Stevia has had a really tough time due to big corporations trying to make it look bad or harmful, trying to get it banned etc. At least this was true for US, and somewhat true for Sweden too. Haven't read up on other countries.

There's a LOT of money involved in these businesses. For natural products there's no company who paid billions to develop it, who can under no circumstances afford to just remove the product if it shows to be harmful etc. With natural products there's no one that can claim copyright to it etc. Synthetic stuff can be seen as way more shady due to this, all that money involved will surely impact "research".
 
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Well, it's not hard to sell me on an argument about the scumbaggery of big pharma, but at the same time, it's a complex situation. Since money and medicine are so interwoven, there is always the possibility that science is thwarted by profit. But, despite the influence of big money, it would be mad not to acknowledge the efficacy of modern medicine. So, it's a question of how to assess the situation critically. I think it's a good idea to have one eye on the money (the DSM itself has been controversial in that regard), but the suspicion musn't be taken so far that we regard research as dubious, selectively.

One must also bear in mind that, although they are much smaller and less involved in the whole pharmaceutical research pipeline, there is also an industry promoting alternative medicines and natural remedies, often through the use of bad science.
 
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One must also bear in mind that, although they are much smaller and less involved in the whole pharmaceutical research pipeline, there is also an industry promoting alternative medicines and natural remedies, often through the use of bad science.

Yes, for sure. It's an ugly business trying to trick naive people. Natural remedies does have a culture of myths and scams, this is hurting the market as a whole.
 
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I know this exact feeling man :( To some extent I am still going through this but I am better than I was 6 months ago. I have no solutions but I think focusing on something really really hard helped me get out of it but not completely because I still have same feelings.

Glad to hear you're doing better but sorry to hear you're still struggling at the same time. I was actually schizophrenic/delusional a month ago, triggered an onset of it that I also had years ago when I was younger (24 years old or so.) It was my second episode after stopping my medication about a year or so ago. I felt fine at the time but slowly devolved, not even realizing it. So I am also doing a lot better now than I was a month ago, but the depression and anxiety to some extent are the real problems again. But the solution for me is to be patient and hope that these medicines work like they are supposed to. I wish you the best too, man, hope that you feel even better. It's weird how so many people struggle with this but it's not talked about much in society. That's why I try to be open with mine even at the risk of my personal privacy.

And thanks again for the responses. The St. John's Wort discussion was interesting. I may have to look into it for when I have a milder depression but I will be very careful with my research. I'll probably avoid it for now since I'm already on medication and want to give it a chance to work. But thank you for the discussion, I appreciate it.
 
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RealFluent, I don't know depression so I have nothing to say about it, all I can do is give you a list a good shows to binge watch while you're waiting for better days.
Here we go:

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The best show the USA ever produced, it's a real treasure and there's 13 seasons already, so it will help you killing time :)

Seinfeld of course, I'm sure you already know it.

Dan Harmon works (Community, Rick and Morty, HarmonQuest…), it's all good fun.

Archer, stupid, sexy and hilarious.

Bojack Horseman, that show is fun but it's also a show about depression. It's very clever but I don't know if it will help.

Black Books, or any other Graham Linehan works (Father Ted, The IT Crowd…).

Legit, only two seasons but really good if you don't already know Jim Jefferies stand-up.

A lot of good british shows: Brass Eyes, Garth Marenghi's Dark Places, A Touch of Cloth, or Peep-Show.

And if you speak French, watch Kaamelott or Au Service de la France, both shows are very fun.

There's also comedians like Jim Jefferies, Louis CK, Bill Burr (he's a idiot but he's also the funniest man on earth), Mitch Hedberg, Brendan Burns, Franky Boyle, Steven Wright, George Carlin and the best of all: the magnificiant Doug Stanhope (that dude is a real shaman, he's like Tyler Durden with no peck and a bad breath).

Voilà, that's all I can think of.
 
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I'm probably lucky, never had to deal with this ( grief yes, but long term depression: no), but a good friend of mine goes through it, at least every six months or so. Some people are more genetically predisposed to it, than others.
But you have to snap out of it, or you'll just end up caught in a loop that feeds on itself.
Physical activity, pets, obviously socialization helps a lot ( Internet would be last resort). And healthy food and of course waching some Seinfeld or Delboy.
Also plenty of 80's movies had a kind of uplifting vibe, Streets of Fire my favorite.
As they say: A cup of creatine a day, makes all your worries go away. ;)
 
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I'm still going through a rough spot in my life right now and depression is a major part of it. Even with gaming, I feel like I don't want to do it, or much of anything I used to enjoy. Things I do enjoy are fleeting. I'm being treated for it with medication, will be seeing a therapist soon, but right now I'm digging out of a pretty deep hole. Also not sure why I'm sharing this here but I needed to vent a bit. Depression sucks and I feel for anybody else here going through or who has in the past.

Hey Fluent!

I'm glad you decided to join us again. As much as I don't understand anything about depression, I know you should not keep yourself away from your family and friends (including us, the virtual ones). And from your pet too, if you happen to have one :)

There's always a good gaming discussion here where you can join in and contribute, by sharing your gaming experiences.

Take care!

Be strong!
 
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When I was younger I suffered from serious depression that it affected my schoolwork & daily living. All I can say is a big thank you to the social worker at school.

She got me admitted to therapy sessions were I learned I was not alone with my problems. Especially with kids my age and in high school. I even knew some of them.
So hang in there Fluent it does get better.:party:
 
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Since i've gone through the same thing i'll make a few observations
1. there is no easy solution, its a slow recovery process
2. different methods work for different people, i.e. meditation and exercise work for me but may not work for you.
Other things that may help:
-taking a long walk just to be outside
-listening to music
-baking or cooking
-reading a good book especially anything by the late Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams
 
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I don't know how I've made it, but I don't have many depressions an<ymore, apart from the usual seasonal winter depression, and some "flukes" - mostly strobnger melanchholy, but rather no more depressions.

I have found 2 points to be important :

1. Socialisation ! We are social beings, so go into a hobby club, a regular meeting or just joing a group of board games players - or outright pen & paper RPG players 1

2. I once came acros an very important remark by a female book author on depressions : She wrote that "depression always comes when people hold too high expectations of themselves". I hope I could get that translated well …
What she meant was that she had found that depression often arises when people expect themselves to be better and more than they really are. When they are perfectionists, for example. Or when people say to themselves that they must be someone great - but they can't do that. So, she means that people should go down to a more healthy level of self-expectations. Something they can reaklly do. Like being able to cook a tasty soup instead of a meal which only a top cook could produce - this is my personal example.

And last, there is one very important, but to me alaso somewhat creepy excercise - one that really did work for me :
Look at your self in a mirror. Forgive yourself for the mistakes you did which still do pain to you. You can begin with ome on a month, or within half of a year, for example.

And, the best thing, of course, is, doing a good therapy.
 
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So many helpful and friendly posts. I'm glad to be back at the 'Watch especially now that I'm not in misery trying to argue about stupid stuff. :)

Comedians have been helping actually. All those Netflix comedy specials are great. I need to get out more, for sure, but being around people right now does not help a ton. It helps to post here and be around close family, sure, but crowds still make me anxious, as well as family members I'm not as close with. Exercise isn't really a great option for me right now since my energy level is so low that walking up and down stairs is a chore. I'll have to read more. I have the Planescape trilogy to still work through, but I find my attention and concentration wanes quickly while reading. Patience is really the main thing here.

Thanks again for the nice responses. Guess I'll be binge watching some more Seinfeld for awhile yet. :D
 
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Conclusion: Not everyone that experiences mania has bipolar disorder

We're going off topic but I believe you're arguing about diagnostic criteria without having read a diagnostic manual. You can't really make up your own criteria and expect other people following them, can you?
 
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Well, one of my primary reasons why I stopped playing dark games - both in colouring and in mood - is to keep myself away from the possibility to get into a dark mood also when playing that.

I've noticed that colourfulness really cheers me up.
 
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