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BeyondBlue Hello! Read this if you're not sure how to get started
  • replies: 0

Welcome This section of the Beyond Blue Forums is for talking about our experiences with depression. There are lots of chats about how it makes us feel, what it’s like to live with depression and what has worked to help in these times. Thank you for ... View more

Welcome This section of the Beyond Blue Forums is for talking about our experiences with depression. There are lots of chats about how it makes us feel, what it’s like to live with depression and what has worked to help in these times. Thank you for coming this far, we know it can be really hard to take these steps if depression is in your life - we see you and think this is a great step. To get the most out of this space we have a few tips: Get involved. The Forums work best for you when you get active and post where you can. Now, we know that can be really hard, especially when you are experiencing depression. So, if you can post something supportive to someone else here, that would be an incredible start. Speak from the heart. This community wants to know how YOU feel and what has worked for YOU. We trust that you have something unique to say and we can’t wait to hear it. Check in. Lots of the discussions in this section of the Forums have been going for years and they are some of the richest conversations we have. Keep checking in to get new ideas and offer your support. We know it can be tough to start, but when you are ready we want to hear your thoughts. If you need some time to get to know the community, that's okay! Have a look around and see where you want to get involved. Thank you for being here! Beyond Blue

Jeriava How do I talk to my doctor?
  • replies: 9

I’ve been struggling with my life for the past 7-8 years but I finally made an appointment with a doctor. I feel really scared though because I don’t ever go to the doctor for anything, and I havent seen this doctor for so many years that I’m really ... View more

I’ve been struggling with my life for the past 7-8 years but I finally made an appointment with a doctor. I feel really scared though because I don’t ever go to the doctor for anything, and I havent seen this doctor for so many years that I’m really scared that they’ll judge me or won’t believe anything I say. I’m really anti social so I feel like I won’t be able to say what I wanna say or I’ll say the wrong thing causing them to just dismiss me and move me along without helping. I’m just tired of feeling alone, depressed and just worthless but I’m really scared to talk to them.

AGrace SELF HELP TIPS FOR MANAGING DEPRESSION
  • replies: 132

Hi Everyone, Here are some ideas you might like to try for managing symptoms of depression. Of course everyone's different, so let us know what works for you, and please feel free to add to the list... Mindfulness – through breathing or engaging the ... View more

Hi Everyone, Here are some ideas you might like to try for managing symptoms of depression. Of course everyone's different, so let us know what works for you, and please feel free to add to the list... Mindfulness – through breathing or engaging the 5 senses Distress Tolerance – Accepting Emotions and Self Soothing Distraction – Put the thoughts/feelings aside and come back to them when you are ready to deal with them Positive Affirmations – Have some affirmations written down repeat them to yourself daily Sleep/Exercise/Diet – All 3 aspects of our lifestyle can impact the way we think/feel Increasing Pleasurable Activities – Engage in at least one pleasurable activity per day

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Autumn14 Working with Depression
  • replies: 3

Hi everyone. Unsure really what to say. I have been living with major depression since 2008 with medication and in the early days a psych. I am a hard worker giving everything to my job rarely taking sick leave. Last week I had a relapse at work, cry... View more

Hi everyone. Unsure really what to say. I have been living with major depression since 2008 with medication and in the early days a psych. I am a hard worker giving everything to my job rarely taking sick leave. Last week I had a relapse at work, crying and unable to really express what was wrong. I stupidly said to to the manager I didnt want to go to work..as struggled to get out of bed. I hadn't felt this way for quite some time. I decided to talk to doctor and he gave me some time off. The manager was not happy and said "it was disappointing". After continued emails (maybe I shouldn't have answered in hindsight) she said the 2 managament staff had talked and decided to take one work role off me. Later on in the week she asked if I would be in for the rest of the week. I was so angry from previous emails and not wanting to be brash I simply said I wont be in but will be back Monday. The email that followed that was the worst. Instead of telling them I would not be there apparently I should have asked. They pointed out that they had been lenient with me and I should show more respect and professionalism. The said they have offered support yet I have never taken them up on it. Never did I say anything about struggling at work, sometimes theres no reason for a relapse. I like my work. Life just got on top of me I think. I'm just not sure what to do now. How do I go back to work and face them all?

Maggie_ Stuck in a rut
  • replies: 6

Hi all, I feel like I've probably suffered depression my whole life but only realised in the last couple of years that that's what it is. I've never ever felt content in life. Even at school I hated almost every subject and struggled to make friends ... View more

Hi all, I feel like I've probably suffered depression my whole life but only realised in the last couple of years that that's what it is. I've never ever felt content in life. Even at school I hated almost every subject and struggled to make friends as I was painfully shy and just generally felt unhappy. I am less shy these days however I still feel unhappy a lot of the time and have such little motivation. I called in sick to work today and will probably do the same tomorrow as I'm just so over it and don't want to go in. I find the daily routine of life so tedious it makes me want to cry. I feel like I'd rather just go travelling forever so that everyday is different but I know that's not realistic. I exercise regularly and am eating better lately which I thought would help me feel better but it hasn't really! I feel stuck in a boring rut and don't know how to get out of it. Sometimes I think I would like to re-train and learn a new skill to try a new career and get a better car as it's on the verge of giving up, but I just don't have the money. My partner is against me getting a loan as we have enough outgoings as it is and have a wedding to pay for. So even when I do muster up a bit of enthusiasm and start researching courses I could do I then remember that there's no point me researching it because I can't afford to do it anyway and that just makes me feel worse again like there's no way out of the rut I'm in and will just have to continue with my current routine and job which I'm so bored with. What's the point in living a life you don't want? I'm really at a loss of what to do. I've spoken to a psychologist a couple of times but I always relapse. I'm wondering if it's worth me finally trying antidepressants? I'm worried I'm going to drive my partner away as I'm always so down all the time.

Jugglin_Strugglin The purpose of Depression
  • replies: 4

Today I read an interesting article: 'Psychologists find the purpose of depression'. In summary: """Several researchers have advanced the argument that depression can serve a possibly positive purpose in the lens of evolution. In some circumstances, ... View more

Today I read an interesting article: 'Psychologists find the purpose of depression'. In summary: """Several researchers have advanced the argument that depression can serve a possibly positive purpose in the lens of evolution. In some circumstances, it may be yielding of insights & personal meaning. Depression may be an adaption for analysing complex problems. The physiological symptoms suggest an evolutionary design- to pull us away from normal life so we can focus on understanding & solving underlying problems that triggered. The meanings people derive from different experiences depends not on the amount that they've suffered but the extent of the reflection -or meaning-making. So logically, if the job of a depressive episode is to figure out what's gone awry, what emotional knots need untangling, what attachment patterns need to be identified, then ADs are an incomplete treatment. (Analogy: analgesics can't heal a broken ankle without a cast) Healing of depression needs not just an alleviation of symptoms but a reworking of psychological patterns. CBT etc may work cos they tap into &accelerate the processes that have already evolved to occur over a longer time frame. Depression is a space for reflection. A journey into the underworld where the adventurer is to go through the door.. ..immerse in the wound...and exit from the previous life through it. While disengagement from emotionality characterises depression, engagement with one's inner world looks to be the way out: You exit through the wound.""" At first, I found this viewpoint somewhat comforting. It is evolution. It is human nature. It is natural. It is healthy. I hope it helps some here to make sense of why they are feeling down,& to better overcome it. But with more thought, for me it is nothing new. I reflected on this long ago & I believe it to be true. It may be possible for some people & some circumstances, eg dealing with & acceptance in grief. Events can't be changed, but we move on. But what if the triggers are just surviving in day to day life & cannot be changed. We might understand &have no more knots to untangle. No amount of positive thinking or reflection & acceptance can change some circumstances (triggers) that we must continue to deal with in order stay on the rollercoaster of life. It might be a reason that we are never 'cured' of depression& can be prone to recurrent bouts. It could also account for 'treatment resistant depression'that can last for decades. Lee

white knight Crying, a gauge to our mental strength?
  • replies: 53

Reaching 60yo l can reflect on my early life and it is clear that my thousands of buckets l could have filled with my tears is in contrast to the period of post 2009. Why?. Diagnosed in 2009 with bipolar 2,depression, dysthymia and dwindling anxiety ... View more

Reaching 60yo l can reflect on my early life and it is clear that my thousands of buckets l could have filled with my tears is in contrast to the period of post 2009. Why?. Diagnosed in 2009 with bipolar 2,depression, dysthymia and dwindling anxiety meant the correct medication was prescribed. From then on it was more a case of fine tuning dosages. Last week l had the trauma of my youngest daughter leaving my life. She's 24yo and l have been tormented by this development BUT, I havent shead a tear. I feel it is a reflection of my newfound mental strength. Yes she has come and gone in my life but that fact doesnt mean it comes easy to cope with. What else could it be?. After much analysis l think acceptance of what life really is has helped. Life is not what we plan it to be nor wished. As kids we drew rainbows but not rocks. Life will throw stones, rocks, even boulders- without warning. Is our lack of being able to cope due to us expecting a smooth road in life? Or do we know life has hurdles but when they arrive its so devastating we have no learned skills to cope with them? At school we had no lessons in "coping with trauma" or "breaking up with your partner, how to do it with compassion and care" or "depression signs" etc.. even financial planning isnt taught. All these life challenges are learned the hard way. Some people can approach such challenges easier than others. So if you are sensitive, had a cruel upbringing, family history of mental illness and so on, you might let your tears become streams. Is it an indicator of your mental strength-lack of it? I suggest it could be. There is no worse feeling imo. That feeling of devastation, worthlessness, failure and mental collapse- crying. However I've known some people equally the same but not crying, with filming over their eyes as if deeply sad without tears so I'm not saying it is the case every time. If you have had a period of lots of crying, to work closely with your professional mental health expert with medication and therapy. Hopefully you'll improve and your stream of tears will dry up. Mine did so there is hope that your mental strength will return or develop even late in life. Accepting life has boulders will prepare yourself for them. Sh*t happens and its out if your control but you can develop strategies to cope better and a mentality that will look at life for what it is and always had been, unpredicable, hurtful but can be wonderful, incredible and more stable Tony WK

Guitarist Need to understand stuff.bipolar2
  • replies: 1

Hi all I have read all the literature out there about bipolar disorder and i am a little confused. I have been officially diagnosed with bipolar 2....but i don't get depressed?..my symptoms are i get so mentally exhausted from stress to the point it ... View more

Hi all I have read all the literature out there about bipolar disorder and i am a little confused. I have been officially diagnosed with bipolar 2....but i don't get depressed?..my symptoms are i get so mentally exhausted from stress to the point it effects my entire body and i end up with huge migraine head aches and absolute physical collapsed from fatigue and a very noticeable dip in my health to the point where it actually shows up on blood tests as an auto immune problem (not kidding i have proof). My point is that i think the doctor has diagnosed me incorrectly OR..can someone please let me know if this is what they experience with there condition? Or should I get another opinion? One more thing i would like to ask..is..when my thoughts race to the end of the world panic i get extremely angry...like really really angry...almost like a defense mechanism kicking in when i have shitty thoughts..which is kinda just as powerful as the bad panic. But..they are both things to have going on...which makes me think..why do i over think EVERY THING...is it to stop myself from drowning or boiling or both. By keeping myself occupied? And why do i constantly blame people for this stuff...not that i ever tell them because i keep it to myself. I sound so rounded at the moment. But this cycles every 3 days....the headaches are every few weeks.. the physical assault is unbearable..medication does nothing..instead of my stuff coming in every 3 days....it drags out over weeeks..at least this way i have some kind of control. I wish it would all go away because i can't really keep going like this....I'm 37...have a wife have children...i used to work...had a job for 7 years in the one place...before that 6 years...now there is no work...anywhere...i have applied for over 147 jobs since January last year..no luck. I no longer know how to talk to people anymore because i have been out of the work force for so long. I never was a social butterfly anyway. How do i fix this? I don't think i can.. Thanks

Divinci First time poster, just need to vent on recent times
  • replies: 5

Hey everyone, Not really sure where to start or what to say but here goes... the last few weeks i have been extremely tired and had no motivation to do anything and i was beginning to feel quite feint, thinking it might be diabetes i went and got som... View more

Hey everyone, Not really sure where to start or what to say but here goes... the last few weeks i have been extremely tired and had no motivation to do anything and i was beginning to feel quite feint, thinking it might be diabetes i went and got some tests due to my background being Maori and my dad and others having diabetes i thought it would be wise. I explained this to my boss via message which took me forever to press send and then i anxiously awaited a reply, in which he said health comes first just keep in touch which made me calm down a lot. so i have had the past over a week off due to this as well. Knowing i had to return to the doctors this morning for results i was up majority of the night with anxiety worrying/tossing and turning about my results which then lead to me stressing about work and money etc etc. Then i heard my mum awake in the kitchen so i crawled out of bed to go talk to her and have a smoke and i explained about my anxiety which i have never mentioned before as i am quite a secretive person and i guess hate to think that i'm dumping my problem on others. she then mentioned to me that i should say something at the doctors when i get my results. Finally getting to sleep and waking up for the doctors (which was a huge struggle) i went to my appointment with severe anxiety of my results which came back with no diabetes for now but a high chance of me getting them at some point. after i received them i mentioned my anxiety and she asked a few questions about how i feel like, tired/lethargic, motivation, work etc which all got a high answer on her 1-5 scoring chart so she gave me a referral to see a psychologist because she thinks it definitely is depression and worsening from what i explained. I feel a lot better knowing i have taken a step to do something about it, but now my fear is in my job, i cannot even bring myself to call or message my boss to explain what is going on or when i will come back to work and then i feel i "HAVE" to force myself to go because i am stressing about money and its just a viscous circle that keeps going around that i cannot escape. I find my only escape from reality and my issues that makes me feel better are video games, i feel i can really escape when playing and i would much rather interact with other gamer's online than face people in reality. it is pretty much the only time i relax and literally don't think about anything at all.

Debzmites Plan B - women?!
  • replies: 13

I'm 36 in October, single and struggle with depression, anxiety and BPD. I'm still trying to clear debt and don't think I have anything to offer a make or family. I'm just starting to think maybe it's time to give up hopes of a family and starting to... View more

I'm 36 in October, single and struggle with depression, anxiety and BPD. I'm still trying to clear debt and don't think I have anything to offer a make or family. I'm just starting to think maybe it's time to give up hopes of a family and starting to think what are things to plan and aim for if this is the case? Anyone else faced this situation?

MWV It's time to try something else
  • replies: 1

Hi, I am a 40 year old guy, 3 beautiful kids and I have an amazing wife. Not loving my career right now - considering a change (if I can figure out what I want to do). Often stressed, I tend to binge on alcohol and I suffer from anxiety and depressio... View more

Hi, I am a 40 year old guy, 3 beautiful kids and I have an amazing wife. Not loving my career right now - considering a change (if I can figure out what I want to do). Often stressed, I tend to binge on alcohol and I suffer from anxiety and depression. I've been on medication for 15 years which helps but the roller coaster of this illness is probably the hardest. I exercise a lot, I eat well and try and be the best person I can be, but this feeling of sadness, being lost and being depressed just creeps back in. No doubt the booze doesn't help, so I will endeavour to once again make changes there. I never really though about a mid-life crisis as I kind of still see myself as young (and I act it), but I'm definitely going through something, and it is affecting my family. So now I need to sort this out...... Adding to the already chaotic life that we live with 3 kids under 6, I need to be strong and helpful to my wife, not another pain for her. She is the rock in our family and I hope one day I can let her know just how much I appreciate everything she does for everyone. One thing I'm now going to do is head to a health retreat for 5 days or so and get some perspective. Has anyone else done this? I would prefer Melbourne based. I've read up on a few and love the idea of exercise / good food / talking and tackling mental health / working through over indulgence and addictions / stress / being overwhelmed / psychological health etc. I hope this can be a good next step.... Any thought? Matt

anqly I don't know what I get to Bipolar or Depression or anything else?
  • replies: 6

Hi, I am An This is not easy for me to get communicate and reach my feeling to people here. First at all I must apologies for my poor English. I don't know what I get to, It's been like a week or more I don't know. I have been sad, insecure, depress ... View more

Hi, I am An This is not easy for me to get communicate and reach my feeling to people here. First at all I must apologies for my poor English. I don't know what I get to, It's been like a week or more I don't know. I have been sad, insecure, depress and untrusted to people. Whenever I playing game or working on design I didn't think anything but when I leave it, I keeps thinking and worries about my relationship matters. I do not have much friend (just one at the moment) I like to make friend with local people to talk in English but those people won't stay long they keep ignore or barely talking with me. My family is another story. I been with them like forever I just finally move out last year and when I with them we talking in Vietnamese. I didn't go out or make any friend because they never gave me a break time to make friend. my life was work, home and study. 24/7 is a big circle and it makes me sick. I am a type of person like to out and see how the world running, want to trying and knowing everything (yes I am very open person) So go back to friendship, I do go out to know people, I did to use social network I also did try hookup app (I know most people here is not worth to know) but people like just chatting little bit and do not talk again. newest thing here I have know a person on social network we makes friend for long time but never talk (just play game together) then I contact him talking a bit and everything very cool yes like a great conversation but then next day when I login back he is out of my friend list. I was unbalance these days, very sad, unhappy and do not wanna do anything when I go to work it is very boring me and I just do not wanna do anything just do something boring to killing time. my workmate did try to cheer me up but it just work like a bit then I get down again. My feeling very unstable now sometime high some time low and down I did not upsetting or feel tired. I just dont care and do not want to do anything at all. also I been less sleeping time like 4 or 6 hours only. this Monday I been stay awake until 3am and wake up at 6am. I do not interesting to eat anything just eating because hungry and I did eat a bit. I did book an appointment to see GP but it take like 20 days later. I think I will take a day off tomorrow to sightseeing to cheer me up but I don't know is it make me better. I plan to watch a movie I love a most tmr but I scare a side effect. because I want to watch with my friend.

ageofbackwards numb
  • replies: 4

I have been fighting this disease for almost 10 years and I feel like I can't do it anymore. My medication has left me numb. Brain dead. little feeling at all. I can't do anything. I spend my days sleeping. It's not a life. I don't know what to do.. ... View more

I have been fighting this disease for almost 10 years and I feel like I can't do it anymore. My medication has left me numb. Brain dead. little feeling at all. I can't do anything. I spend my days sleeping. It's not a life. I don't know what to do.. Im tired of fighting.

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