Depression and Tips

Hi all! Going to take a break from my commissions while in the waiting part of creating. IE waiting for the glue to dry.

In this post I wanted to talk about depression and mood swings. Its a touchy subject for me as I don't like to talk about it.
For me depression is not the normal reaction of oh i failed or something bad happened and I am sad.
No....for me its more of it happens at random or, something happens that normally a person would feel down about then get over it and move on. For me or most people with depression it means that just about anything can trigger it if you aren't aware, or small things can trigger it, or when you would feel sad its felt more intensely and/or for a prolonged time. Or at worse when depression is felt it can quickly turn into suicidal thoughts that become actions.

For me, its felt prolonged, or just thinking about something negative can trigger. I AM aware of this and follow through with my teachings from life experience and NAMI WRAP Classes* in which should I start falling into depression I have steps I can take to circumvent it or stop it for the moment.

The unfortunate part is that I am off my medication until insurance kicks back up again and I am able to return to my doctor for regular checkups. I mentioned this in hopes of answering possible questions of
"But LCPonyNerd why aren't you on your medication
"Why aren't you going to a doctor"
"you shouldn't be depressed you seem so creative and happy!"

Yes, this is why, and it is not meant to be negative, however due to times a changing and things not working out in the past hubs has taken to his old job at a lower pay than before. Not going to get into that in this post, only that things happened the way they happened.
So until insurance is picked up again I am where I am, and for the most part I do well. When I have a negative thought I try to counteract or balance it out with a positive thought.

However with the mood swings its now a bit difficult. Its not so easy to balance out. And as the way I think I have a feeling many in my audience will laugh this off or dismiss it as typical female mood swings. NOT SO.
These mood swings are very random in nature. I could be laughing about something that is funny then all of a sudden, BAM not funny, I am angry at everyone for no reason. There was no cause for it, no effect, nothing that triggered it, it just happened.
I dislike these mood swings and when coupled with depression it makes for some long down times.

The one thing though, I will admit, I hide this from my friends for fear of seeming too needy or worse. I am often good at hiding it, or rather I feel I am hiding it and failing thus causing people to distance themselves. This is the other part, the paranoia as I call it, the worry that I am doing something wrong, people are judging me, I am a bad person, etc etc. Its very difficult to counteract these bad thoughts unless I can tune them out.

What was the point of this post? Perhaps to enlighten my readers some, and that as someone who suffers depression it can complicate things yet for the most part I am who I am. This is also to help educate. That there are more people with depression out there than you think and it is unwise, AND A BAD IDEA to dismiss someone that tells you they have or think they have depression. Here let me list what I MYSELF feel is a bad idea to do/say to someone with depression.

- you're not depressed!
- just snap out of it
- dismiss the person or laugh it off
- how can you be so depressed you seem so happy all the time!

what you can do is be willing to listen, actually listen and be there for that person/friend/family member etc and even if you yourself don't believe it don't let that person know. Why not tell them? Because in the midst of depression being told that you are not feeling what you are feeling or that you can just snap out of it or other such sayings is like saying that those feelings aren't valid or you are doing this for attention.

How would you feel if someone told you that whatever emotion you are feeling in that is possibly consuming you isn't real or you should snap out of it or you aren't feeling that its just a ploy? Not very nice, and it kind of makes you feel worse yes? That is how you are causing the other person in the midst of depression or mood swings to feel when you say that only WORSE.

As mentioned before the best thing to do is listen and be there for that person and ask if they want hugs or just need someone there. Sometimes that is all you can do and even just doing that is very helpful.

So for me, I do my best to stay positive even during the negative times and look to my daughter as she always seems to have a smile on her face!

Thank you for reading, there are links and information below this!




www.nami.org they have offices all over the states, their local office helped me with info, and classes on how to manage my depression ALONGSIDE with going to my doctor and taking my medicine.
The key point is as difficult as it is YOU MUST ADVOCATE FOR YOURSELF.
The NAMI website has an office locator and information on all the mental illnesses! It is free and optional to register. They helped me just by providing information. Hope they can help you too.

http://www.nami.org/ their main website
NAMI list of supports and how to find local offices in your state
NAMI.org on facebook