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• October 5, 2009 5:33 p.m.

  I have been taking Effexor XR 150 for about 2 months. Felt okay but no joy. Then around mid-September I began to feel tired and staying in bed for hours. Dr. put me on Lexipro building up to 20 mg. Is it possible for an anti-depressant to stop working. I never had this happen before. Thank you.

  - Denise

• September 4, 2009 10:01 a.m.

  There are so many comments on here that I can really relate to. To the person who spent time with her friend instead of going to a party, please don't feel that you acted like a baby, goodness, I've been there too, actually even seeing a trusted friend can be more than you can handle sometimes. What I found shocked me more than anything else, even other peoples' attitudes to depression, was the LENGTH OF TIME it takes to even begin to start taking those small steps to recovery. And that awful feeling you had too of wondering if you could go to a party without crying, that is such a horrible feeling, I couldn't leave the house for about a year without crying, I went from hardly ever crying to crying all day every day. Small tasks totally overwhelmed and frightened me, trying to get through the last year or so has been the most traumatic experience I have ever faced, and I feel, as you all do, so alone and, most of the time, just broken and a shadow of the person I once was; I see the time spent suffering from depression as a total waste of my life but on the other hand, our characters will all develop as a result of having had depression, we will all emerge as stronger people, with more understanding and compassion then we had before; and you just never know who may need your support one day or the happiness you have yet to bring to other peoples' lives. I wish you all so much good luck, having been where you all either are or have been I do understand how hard it can be.

  - Debbie

• July 13, 2009 3:20 p.m.

  I envy most of you for knowing why you're depressed. I'm not certain. From the time I was 13, to my now age 43, I have been depressed. I think almost every day of the last 30 years I have thought of every possible way conceivable to take my life. I haven't, yet. But it's always right there, waving at me, inviting me to do it. I am an extremely private person and would never feel okay talking to a doctor or therapist. I wouldn't want my words written down. I don't want them to see my face or know who I am. I suffer in silence. My friends don't know and I have never been able to have a personal relationship. I don't date. I am able to have physical interactions, but never at a level where I have to be myself. I'm just not sure how much longer I can pretend to be a normal, functioning human being. I read your suggestions, but none of it has ever helped me escape the darkness that surrounds me all day, every day. It's eating my soul away. Quite honestly, I am at the end of my fight.... I hope that some day I can find a way to help myself. To the rest of you, good luck and I pray that you succeed. You sound like you are ready.... God Bless -TruBlu

  - trublu

• June 29, 2009 11:05 p.m.

  There's hope for this problem. I started the Dr. Mike Hyman program and thinks improved. I have had good days now. Please take a look to Dr. Hyman's program and everything will change.

  - Oscar

• June 23, 2009 7:53 a.m.

  As I'm reading the posts, I'm realizing that so many have experienced what I am experiencing. Every day for several years has been a struggle...hopelessness, feeling lost and having no drive or interest. Being angry beccause I do have to go on in every day life. At 41, the mother of 2 wonderful sons and the wife of 18 years to a chronically ill husband, wow, life is so difficult. It's helped to search for small miracles, finding 5 things every day that I am truly thankful for. My heart is with all of you and I wish you the best of Life Love and Recovery!

  - Cindi

• June 5, 2009 8:14 p.m.

  Hi, I feel bad for anyone going through depression. I've been there folks! and I've made it to the other side. I feel wonderful and I won't let it happen to me again! I was on antidepressants for an entire year before I felt the depression start to lift! You must stay on the antidepressant medication for quite some time but you will get better--I promise! Please, please please take care of yourself because you have people who love you and need you. You will overcome this terrible disease!!!!!!

  - Liz

• June 4, 2009 4:31 p.m.

  There is hope!!! Press Release: Local quilt designer sharing quilts created through healing. Bluff Country Art Gallery in Spring Grove, MN is proud to announce its first one-person art show. Entitled “Door’s Open” it is a show dealing with the harsh realities of mental illness and its consequences. The healing art quilts of Spring Grove’s own Kay M. Capps Cross will be shown during the month of July 2009. This autobiographical show shines a light on clinical depression and eating disorders among other behavioral health issues. There will be “Meet the Artist” and discussion opportunities available. Watch local papers and our website for dates and times. http://www.bluffcountryartistsgallery.org I would appreciate speaking to you about this and the best way to disseminate the message. My hope is to open discussions on behavioral health and perhaps chip away at the stigma. Thanks! Kay

  - Kay Capps Cross

• February 27, 2009 8:54 p.m.

  I have been depressed for about 2 months. I am seeing a therapist. The reason is I am Gay and my girlfriend broke up with me. I have had depression all of my life. I am 65 years old. Mostly I have not dealt very well at being Gay. Anyone that says a person choses to be Gay is very wrong. I want to forgive and forget and get on with my life. But I am depressed and do not know where to begin. I just have to go through it. The sun will come up again. Jan

  - Jan

• December 31, 2008 9:30 p.m.

  I know that recovery takes one step at a time, but how long does it take? I have been on antidepressants, and been in theraapy for almost three months now, and I don't feel any better. I have already been in the hospital twice for suicidal thoughts. I have set goals for myself and done little things to try and make myself feel better, but the motivation just isn't there, even for the small things. The truth of the matter is, I don't even like who I have become. I used to be a self supporting, independent person who loved to have fun. Now I'm so anxious,with such a lack of motivation that I can hardly even hold down a job. How did this happen to me? Then the idea that depression comes in episodes and once I make it through this it could happen again makes me not want to bother at all. I'm hardly making it through this time, I don't think I could do it again.

  - Rachel

• November 20, 2008 10:36 a.m.

  Depression,what a word that I just really never would accept or face. Sweep under the carpet, sit in the corner and keep your mouth shut, noone cares,they have problems of there own,thats what I was taught growing up! I grew up in a stressful inviorement, 90% of my family memebers have depression but we never really learned how to deal with it,talk about it,face it. Well now is the time to break this chain for me and my children. I recently lost my husband of 16 yrs in a vehicle accident with our 3 children losing there father. Unfortunatly my children have always been around a depressing mother and a father with OCD, and now I really have shut down. My mother has a pill for everything and I grew up with not wanting to be on medication for anything but watching my children spiral down, its time for action!!! I finally decided to get on medication.Ive tried 3 different types before and I know thats the process so now well see with this new one. Im first trying the counseling thing for the kids, but I may have to turn to a psychiatrist that specializes in grief and depression for all of us. With them growing up in the invironment of depression and having a family history of depression,we need help. I need to step up and try to get this under control so that my kids can have some kind of way of knowing how to control this throughout there lives,unlike I did. I am the top of the pyramid and it starts with me learning how to cope and control this for the sake of our future.

  - Natalie

• October 13, 2008 6:19 p.m.

  Today is a really bad day for me. It doesn't take much these days to make me cry. So tired of feeling this way, everything is so hopeless i just want everyhing to go away forever,

  - Ann Mn

• September 1, 2008 3:16 p.m.

  I was grieving the death of my parents and went to my doctor saying I needed help and even asked about cognitive therapy. My doctor told me that I needed to be on medication(zoloft) and that I could try therapy later after my depression was controlled by the drugs. I went off the drugs I got even more depressed than before I had been on them and then my depression cleared and life got better. A while ago I was low and felt like taking my own life and I told my husband about it. Shortly thereafter we had a really bad fight where he kicked me and hit me. We were both out of control and he called the local crisis line. He told them what was going on and I guess they asked him if I was suicidal. He told them that I had talked about it. So next the police show up and take me away in a squad car to the hospital in the afternoon. I had to wait in emerg for hours till I was admitted to the psych unit where I had to wait for more hours till I talked to the doctor on duty who after talking to me told me I wasn't crazy, gave the option of going to a women's shelter or getting a bus pass to go who knows where and then released me at 9:00 PM. I went to my doctor who was sympathetic but told me this experience should be a lesson to me not to do anything like that again. I have been in crisis with traumatic flashbacks feeling like a victim. I don't where to turn as I can't got through something like that again. I don't dare call the crisis line.

  - Azaelea

• August 28, 2008 1:36 a.m.

  Im so sick of waking up to another day. I just dont know what to do with myself. I am 24 living at my grandmas and have had my sis around me pretty much 24/7. I feel Ive wasted my life smokin pot but what now? Ive given up pot and want to be someone but the drive to do it isnt there. I find it hard to get interested in anything and have no idea what I want to be. Ive been off work for 3 months and have also developed an arthritic problem. God I need to get it together and learn how to look after myself. Well Im starting back at work next week 4hrs a day 3 days a week wish me luck.

  - luke

• August 16, 2008 2:41 p.m.

  i am very depressed and it is causeing my family to break up and that is the last thing i want i need help i cant let go of the past my ex husband beat me and raped me he cheated on me constantly well he isnt the only one to blame every man that has ever been in my life starting with my step dad has hurt me in one way or another well i finally found someone who loves me who treats me great but if he is 3 mins late getting home i freak out that he has found someone else this stresses him out it is making him not want to be around me cause i am constantly bitching i dont know what to do i just assume he will do the same thing every other man has done. i feel fat ugly and well not very deserving of someone so great i know my kids deserve him but do i? how do i let go of the past and stop freaking out on him he has a great relationship with his ex wife (the mother of his 4 children) and i hate it she has said she wants him back and i have to be honest im scared so anytime she calls just to chit chat i freak out every time he has to go see her i freak out i dont want to be like this any more what do i do?????

  - stacey

• July 7, 2008 7:44 p.m.

  I know that depression is real and have delt with it a lot especially lately. I am seeing my parents age and deteriorate and it is very depressing. One thing I am committing too is exercise- I think even a bit every day helps especially if you can reach your goals. I have started a run/walk routine and I am going to join the Running Room's FREE run/walk support groups which are held on Wednesdays and Sundays. It is a start anyway- hopw this helps someone out there-

  - Annie B.

• July 7, 2008 4:30 p.m.

  I'm so glad for Don that his depression turned out to be only "situational." He is very lucky. Getting past the denial stage of finding out that you have really truly clinical depression may be one of the biggest struggles there is. Once I learned in therapy that I had NOT deserved this, NOT done anything to make it happen, and that I was NOT ever going to convince my family or origin that my depression was real, I began to learn NOT to discuss it with anyone other than my family members who actually understood. I also had to come to terms with the fact that I NEED the meds, and that when I don't take them, I fall apart and become almost suicidal. When I take them, I still have depressive episodes, but the support and counseling of my husband, my children and my church family have made all the difference. I've learned where NOT to go for help, but it took me a long time. It is unfortunate but true that there is still not only a stigma attached to depression, but there is a worse belief: that it does not exist. Those of us who have battled it all of our lives can attest that it is VERY real, but that with a good psychiatrist, the right medication (which may need to be adjusted frequently until you find just the right one for you) and a good therapist, you can and will make it! If your spouse and children come to any of your doctor or therapy visits, they will learn just how real it is, and also what they can do to love and support you. God bless you all!

  - Kate

• July 4, 2008 3:44 p.m.

  I made a discovery that radically changed my life: I felt depressed and my primary doctor thought I was depressed. Depression meant I needed to be fixed with drugs and talk therapy. I then realized I really was UNHAPPY and there were real reasons for being unhappy and I was not addressing those things in my life that were making me unhappy. Once I listed those reasons, I was able to start the process of making the changes I needed to make in my life. Many people do have real depression because of chemical or other reasons and we would want them to get all the help they can ge but, many other people need to drop the label of being depressed and do what is necessary to make their life better. Yes, I did see a therapist who suggested how I could make the changes I needed to make and it worked. The last point: There is a huge difference between being depressed and sad; sadness is good and necessry and not pathological......

  - Don DeLong

• July 4, 2008 8:49 a.m.

  Dianne: Depression is an all-consuming thing. I don't think this article was designed to minimize depression. I think it's written with the goal of encouraging us to get through this one day at a time...because sometimes that's all we can do. It's a reminder for us not to judge ourselves harshly and to treat our minds and bodies gently. It's sort of like giving us permission to take baby steps and telling us it's okay to do so. However, I do understanding where you are coming from. Sometimes thinking seems too overwhelming, much less trying to do normal daily activities.

  - NativeRose

• July 4, 2008 3:36 a.m.

  Depression is a real bad thing. My family thinks that it's only for weak people "you're tougher than that" - yet I see that they dont find things easy and stumble sometimes. Why is there such a stigma to being depressed...? I sometimes feel my whole body breakout in a cold sweat when I get anxious... I have a good job and very independant. My husband carries a lot of baggage (ex-wife, son, dependant mother and sister).... i support him through it and feel like there is no one that understands what if feels like to carry this resentment.... I'm on anti-depressants - but sometimes you just wish that someone would take you and say "dont worry - everything is going to be alright"....

  - No name given

• July 3, 2008 2:20 p.m.

  To RM: Take baby steps in overcoming your depression, and don't judge yourself about how long you have been depressed. May I suggest finding a support group through a psychologist or a 12-Step program that might be available in your area. Just being around people who understand what you are going through will help tremendously. I've been in and out of depression most of my adult life, and my support group continues to be "the light at the end of the tunnel".

  - BJ

• July 3, 2008 7:22 a.m.

  I feel as if my heart is beating a mile and minute, and wonder how much more I can take.

  - Green

• July 2, 2008 3:34 p.m.

  being medication these past few months and seeing a "good" psychologist has helped bring me out of the fog and pull that depression can bring. Both my family and friends have noticed that I am back. Having to addmited that I was drepressed in the first place was a big step. Going to a knowledgeable psychiatrist was a the best step I ever took. My medication makes my stomach a little upset but eating less doesn't hurt any of us Americans. I hope that anyone wondering out there should take advice and get real. Depression can not only hurt you it can kill you. Please understand that we are only humans and that means that we are NOT perfect. This can happen to anyone at any age. -Nancy

  - nancy j

• July 2, 2008 1:46 p.m.

  Dealing with depression sounds so simple, according to this article. Just tackle one task at at time,and you can do it on your own! That's a disservice to those suffering from this affliction. Actually, dealing with major depression is an issue that may require counseling, multiple trials of different medications, and a great deal of support and understanding. I object to the light tone of this article... it implies that there's nothing wrong that a little effort won't solve. Even if you learn to cope with everyday tasks - and the method given does work for that - you still have an emptiness in your life that doesn't magically go away.

  - Dianne

• July 2, 2008 12:10 p.m.

  Well I can tell you that since I done my therapie for alcool and drugs back in 1997, things have change quite a bit now that I am clean and sober. Thing is I have been on meds since 1999 thats when I fell apart coming back from the Artic where I worked 7/7 12 to 16 hours a day. I keep taking the meds that are prescribe to me but let me tell you that its getting old I am still depressed after all these years, I see a psychologist every week since almost a year now we talk...and I'm getting in touch with some hard emotions. If I may suggest something dont be affrais to ask question when the Doc prescribes meds...after all You have the last word on that.

  - Mike

• July 1, 2008 8:45 p.m.

  This is the first time in my life that I have depression, and it's almost two years now. None of the meds work on me, they just make me phyically ill. Not too many people understand my suffering, they think I'm making things up. I've always been a person who was very strong -- they all came to me for help. Now that I need their help, they bury their heads. I'm trying my best, I want to be myself again. I'm going to take it one step at a time. I've missed out on too many things these last, almost two years.

  - RM