samboct
Posts: 1817
Joined: 1/17/2007 Status: offline
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To the OP Perhaps a couple of points of clarification may help- 1) Your reaction to not being interested in BDSM when depressed is common if we consider BDSM just another expression of sexuality. People who are depressed have lower sex drive in general. 2) The use of extreme BDSM play as possibly being indicative of suicidal tendencies- sure- same as driving too fast, walking into a street without looking up, drinking excessively, etc. I don't view BDSM as indicative of depression- but like nearly any human behavior- when taken to extremes it can be problematic. 3) I wish I could be more helpful about finding a good therapist, but I know very little about how to go about it in the UK. You may find that going outside the system (is this even possible in the UK?) i.e. whipping out a checkbook, to be more useful than wasting time with inadequately trained people. To DesFIP Sorry, but strong disagreement here. I did some survey work in the area, so I know what got reported by well trained people. There are two major types of depression: situational, and call it "organic" for lack of a better term. Situational depression is caused by life- if you find yourself unemployed through no fault of your own, imprisoned, in a concentration camp etc.- there are all events that can lead to depression. (and depression lasts for months- it's not a day to day thing- that's mood.) There are also individuals who suffer from a physical illness that leads to them feeling unhappy regardless of circumstance- call this "organic". Causes are unknown- genetics can play a role. MRI's can pick this out. (Note- I don't distinguish between physical and mental illness- the brain is an organ of the body and has a variety of ailments- all of which have some physical basis.) Talk therapy has been shown to reduce these depressive signals- as have drugs. One of the problems in the field is the lack of standards to ensure qualified therapists- which often means that there are flawed studies which show that drugs are more effective than talk therapy- paid for by pharma companies, where the therapists qualifications are not examined or not rigorous. All too often, the depressive pathways figure a way around the drugs, much like cancer figures a way around chemotherapy, and the drugs lose effectiveness over time. Talk therapy by qualified people is more likely to have fewer relapses based on anecdotal evidence, but again, the science of depression is in its infancy, and there's a lot of unlearning to do. Drugs may be more helpful in situational depressions- since if the person gets less depressed, the situation may resolve favorably. However, talk therapy has also been shown to work in these situations as well. There are also clearly some recalcitrant cases where talk therapy is ineffective, and drugs are ineffective, and occasionally some variation on what used to be called electroshock therapy (EST) is used (now termed ECT for electroconvulsive therapy IIRC). What this shows is that depression is a complex disease, and that there are a variety of possible treatments. Since there is little/no science to suggest which treatment will benefit a particular individual, treatment options remain something of a trial/error process. Sam
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