Mesuesweet, You have come to the right place! Please feel free to roam the site at your own pace. If you look to the left of the screen under "TOOLS" you will find our Depression Test. This test is not a diagnostic tool and is not a replacement or substitute for a physician's advice. The purpose of these tests is to prepare you with information that you can present to your physician. When you're finished the test, you can either print your Final Report or email it directly to your doctor. This may better help assess the situation. Please also check with your doctor or pharmacist before tampering with your dosages, they will be able to assist you. If you have any question or concerns with our site or please contact Support Department at support@depressioncenter.net. We are open to any questions or concerns you may have. Looking forward to hearing from you soon! Josie ___________________________________ The Depression Center Support Team.

Hi Sangha, Well, right now I take a couple of college classes two days a week and the other three I "pursue other interests". I left my job in October, not because of the depression but rather because the working environment had become so stressful that other aspects of my health were suffering. During the days I am not in school I paint (badly); do my homework; write poetry, essays, and stories; and make an effort to stay in touch with those friends and family members who are supportive of my situation. I have therapy once a week and keep in touch with my therapist by phone or e-mail in between as needed. I try to spend 45 minutes or so exercising which usually requires me to "bargain" myself in to doing it. I am lucky to be married to a man who puts up with my depression so the weekends are a bit easier for me because he forces me to get out and do things. I am on medication for diabetes as well as a couple of other minor health problems. For my depression I am taking Wellbutrin and the generic version of Celexa. I also suffer from generalized anxiety disorder with mild agoraphobia so I take alprazolam three times a day for anxiety. Over the years I have also been on Zoloft which worked for a while. Then I was switched to Paxil which I was on for quite a while but didn't like as it made me feel like a zombie. My depression is the kind where I could literally sleep all the time if I let myself, especially with the alprazolam. However, I sometimes wake up in the wee hours with a brain that will not shut off and it takes me quite a while to get back to sleep. There are days when I very literally could spend the day under the covers, maybe not sleeping but just cocooning and I have to force myself to get up and get out. In the over five years I have been in treatment I have never been in complete remission but I have had lots of times when things were pretty good. I tend not to get too many "highs" (I'm definitely NOT bi-polar) but sometimes get to the level of "normal". But my issues run pretty deep so it took a big chunk of time to get under the surface and face some of the contributing factors to my illness. When I look back long-term I see amazing progress but it has been very slow and my situation is complex. So, that's th

hello everybody,i am new here....just thought i would intro..I am starting on prozac today after 7 years of on and off again depression..I have tried all the lastest antidepressants and i am going back to my orginal med..it seemed to help me the most..i had to go laydown after the first hour..i think i should take it at night time ...in reference to depression I have come to realize it is a coming to terms with your illness...it is ok..why keep fighting..get help...it is ok..I used to think it make me weak or deni the whole issue but now I realize that after a hsterectomy at a young age..my body needs some balance and believe me i have tried everything....great being here for the support...thank you..

ladyblue how do you spend your day? what meds are you taking and for how long? in the last 5 years since you began treatment did you feel any better? do you sleep ok? im on remeron(2 months) and lexapro(1 month). i feel a slight improvement in my mood since i got help in late jan. my MD was triggered by a stressful job. before this in 2003 i realize i had a mini D which i didn't even notice. i had hypocondria, a few nite panick attacks and sleep problems which faded in a few months only to return with a vengeance a year or so later. now remeron helps my broken sleep but i think im only getting REM sleep and not the deep one which explains why im so drained.

I think we all feel like "strangers in a strange land". I was just explaining to my therapist yesterday that I can look around me and see the beauty in the world and yet feel like I have no part in it, that it has nothing to do with me. But Sangha, it sounds like you've had your challenges to face as well. I guess we all do. They may be different challenges but it's almost like we all end up in the same place. I have learned to try not to beat myself up about my feelings. They are what they are. When times are hard, like the last few days, it can be very discouraging. But I've made it through another day and that's saying something!

Kathy, Thank you for sharing with us. Please feel free to roam the site at your own pace. If you look to the left of the screen under "TOOLS" you will find our Depression Test. This test is not a diagnostic tool and is not a replacement or substitute for a physician's advice. The purpose of these tests is to prepare you with information that you can present to your physician. When you're finished the test, you can either print your Final Report or email it directly to your doctor. If you have any question or concerns with our site or please contact Support Department at support@depressioncenter.net. We are open to any questions or concerns you may have. Josie ___________________________________ The Depression Center Support Team. Looking forward to hearing from you soon!

Hi ladyblue and kathy, Thanks for your posts. I do realize I am acting in a perfectly depressive mode by expressing guilt for my suffering. We all have our share and I mean to exchange my emotions with you and avoid comparing. It's nice to keep a line of communication with people who are in a similar boat. I am interested in your stories so feel free to share. Today is a sunny day in the big apple where I live. I say my therapist today and she helped me realize that I have been supressing my feelings since 14. Now I'm dealing with my 'coolness of heart' which I developed as a defense mechanism over the years. At 14 I also left my childhood realm for the worldy one of immigration to new cultures. I became an adult very fast, forced to deal with the hostile circumstances of a geographical transition. During that time In the course of 1 year I went from Bulgaria to Rome,Italy, (7months) to San Francisco where I started high school in 1990. It was a dizzying odyssey which determined the course of my subsequent life. I always felt as an alien even in my country of birth. My minority status there marked me as a black sheep from an early age. I can write a book about the whole epic but I will end here. I hope you had a fun read. I am looking forward to your posts.

Hi, I'm new to the group and was just going to browse for awhile before jumping in and posting, but just really wanted to respond to your comment about thinking you shouldn't be depressed because there are those who have it worse than you. There seems to be such a misconception out there that depression is the same thing as self-pity, and it is NOT! I've had so many people tell me not to be depressed because there are others who don't have near as much as I do...but that's not the point. They say think about the poor people in wheelchairs...or who are blind...or who don't have enough to eat. And that is suppose to cheer me up????? It just makes me feel worse because I am not a selfish person and I don't feel the way I do because I sit around feeling sorry for myself. All of the pain and unhappiness in the world makes me more depressed than my own less than perfect circumstances. Don't mean to write a book...just had to get that "off my chest." Thanks for reading. Kathy

Thank you Sangha. I was just reading so many messages from people who are 18 or 19 years old and seem ready to give up. It was breaking my heart so I wanted to speak up. Never feel guilty for your feelings, especially since we have no control over them in many cases because of our illnesses. What is sometimes difficult to remember is that scattered among all of that pain are some really wonderful moments. Thinking back, as much as it hurts, would I trade those times, brief as they may sometimes seem, to be rid of the pain? I don't think so. I'm older now and there are probably fewer years ahead of me than behind and I have a son about the age of some of the people posting on this message board. I guess the mom in we wanted to reach out to those kids in pain and say "If I can make it, so can you. Please don't assume that there will never be any good times, because there will be." I've been having a rough few days. I recently had a slight change in my meds and it's always frustrating trying to figure out if that has anything to do with it. But even though there are times when I truly want to die, I know I can't because of my son. So what I try to do is make myself do the little things. I force myself to try to eat right, get enough sleep, exercise regularly etc. etc. etc. Sometimes it seems so pointless and I don't always see that it makes much difference but I do it. I appreciate your concern and hope that you will keep writing. We may just be names right now but our pain (though unique for each of us) is a bond between us because we understand in a way that no one who hasn't felt it can ever know. So, I'm glad you responded. Don't feel bad about feeling bad. I feel the same way. I look at my life soemtimes and say, "what right do I have to feel so bad when so many others have it so much worse". But you know, that just adds to the downward spiral. Well, I looked outside this morning and the sun was shining. If nothing else today, I can feel good about that! Hope to hear from you again.

ladyblue, It seems like you've had a tough time with depression and been through a lot for a long time. I mean, I feel like a crybaby dealing with my 3-month-old ordeal, barely keeping my head above water. I admire you for your perseverance. Thanks for your advice. Writing and reading here has been a refuge for me. I'll try to hang in there. How is your life going right now?