Depression and anxiety my friends

[IanFR]

This is a little history I started writing.

Depressed all my life. Major depression at 24 yo. Therapy of no help I just couldn't stop crying. AD drugs made me feel normal. Life went on. i have a wonderful wife and two adult children at school one with autism. I'm retired shy of 60yo. 

Loss of my estranged father and resent estrangement of my brother over covid Vax disagreement triggered deep depression. My GP tried different ADs and pulled me back up.

I recently had prostate surgery and lost blood requiring emergency surgery i became anaemic. Past two weeks post op I feel so low. 

There's a long history of mental illness in my family. Personality disorder, depression etc. 

I really don't know how to move on. 

I wrote a diary of family a few weeks ago. I'll post it separately as it's too many characters.

[Bob_22]

Hi IanFR,

Welcome to the forums and thank you for sharing your story. It's great to hear you've written a diary and definitely feel free to share parts of it here. 

I'm sorry to  hear about your father and brother as well as your prostate. I hope things are ok now. Definitely, undergoing surgery is a very taxing thing and takes a toll on our mental health. If you have underlying depression it's likely to be aggravated by this also. Hopefully as the weeks go on though, you start to recovery physically and mentally. It's good that you've recognised this and have reached out here as well as writing a diary.

I would recommend checking in the GP who prescribed you the anti depressants to let them know how you're feeling. It might be appropriate that they refer to a psychologist whilst you continue to recover from surgery. I know stress and depression after surgery is quite common. Be sure to be gentle with yourself as well and keep self expectations to a minimum. Keep us updated on how you're travelling. Hope this helps a bit.

Bob

[Mark Z.]

Hi IanFR,

I'm so sorry for your challenge, I can't imagine how hard it is for you. But at least it's good to know that your GP managed to pull you back up after trying different ADs. I would encourage you to stick with your GP for the treatment of both your mental and physical health. The improvement of your physical health after surgery is extremely important and it will affect your mental health. I also want to encourage you to practise self-care in your daily life. Having a quality day to day life will be very helpful.

I know you have tried different ways of treatment and they didn't work. However there might still be some alternative solutions. You can ring Beyondblue hotline to get some advice, maybe there's something helpful out of your sight.

I understand that people have different views to Covid Vax, however that era has passed, do you think any chance to reconcile with your brother? 

Hope everything will be better.

Mark