Aswad
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Joined: 4/4/2007
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quote:
ORIGINAL: slaverosebeauty
I guess I am one of the lucky ones, I have NEVER had to take anything for my depression, I use other methods of fighting it. [...] Good luck with the new meds, you might want to also try St. Johns Wort; at my worst times, it helps.
St. John's Wort is a herbal antidepressant of comparable potency and side-effects to the SSRI class of medications. Through the two active ingredients, it acts on a number of different neurotransmitters in various unpredictable ways, making it what is called a "dirty drug". There are plenty of synthetics that do the same thing, and IIRC, the principal active ingredient of St. John's Wort can be synthesized.
I don't get what's up with artificially distinguishing between man-made and chance-made. Sure, plants do their darndest best to think up ways to dissuade or kill whoever eats them, and this can sometimes have paradoxically positive effects on people. It doesn't mean the mechanisms are different, just that one is discovered, and the other is engineered. By now, most of what we eat, drink and supplement ourselves with is virtually engineered, by the use of selective breeding and (sometimes) genetic engineering.
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I took a class that had a LOT of different suggestion on how to combat depressoin WITHOUT meds, that was over 10 years ago. I hit the bottom a few times, but, never took meds, I balanced things on my own.
That's not the bottom, then. 
It may feel like the bottom but, speaking from experience, there is a long way to go at that point. A few years before things got real bad for me, I thought I'd hit bottom too. Life did not see fit to leave me in blissful ignorance, though. Crawling back at that point takes everything, even with meds that are strong enough to kill you if you're not careful. Got off with a few trips to the ER, some temporary heart issues and a few months of circulatory collapse, though, so nothing bad. Feels good when you finally improve enough to spend your days crying and banging your head on the wall occasionally.
Studying the topic in depth has convinced me of one thing: the bottom is an illusion, there's always further to go.
The interesting dividing line, to me, is the one where one has "fallen, and can't get up". That's when the meds become necessary to recovery, rather than a potential aid.
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With who I was around, music, food, activities, etc.
If one can still abide the company of others, enjoy music, eat without being forced to, or undertake any sort of activity, the bottom is nowhere in sight.
What is frequently described as "hitting bottom", is really the point when a light depression begins. For comparison, in laymans terms, moderate depression is when suicide might actually be the rational choice for that individual (emphasis on might), although generally detrimental to the people around; severe depression is what might in less politically correct times may be referred to as being "stark raving mad".
At least, that is a rough summary of the scale my pdoc used.
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I do believe a lot of it is, mind over matter.
Not so much mind over matter, as mind over mind.
Therein lies the difficulty.
It's like trying to lift yourself off the ground.
You can find something external to lift yourself with, whether a crane, a rope, a friend, a higher place to grab and pull, or whatever. By analogy, to the extent that your mind is still healthy enough to change the environment so that the stressors/dissonances/whatever can be managed, then you can "lift" yourself; similarly, meds can usually do it, therapy can sometimes do it, and so forth. A quadraplegic will have difficulty lifting themselves more than a few inches off the ground, while someone else can lift them back in their chair.
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I decided to NOT let my depression own me, once I did that, and set my mind to it, its harder for the depression to rule me, its difficult at times, but, its worth it.
I'm very glad that worked for you. 
For me, at the time, though, there would be a few problems with that approach, such as "I/me", "decided", "let", "set", "mind" and "worth it", all of which were void concepts at the time.
In helping with the treatment of other people with depression, I've found some markers to sort them according to what will be most useful to them, but that's complicated.
Suffice to say that, if one thinks "BDSM" is too broad an umbrella, depression is a useless term.
P.S.: In no way was this post meant to invalidate your experiences. I hope things will keep improving for you. I'm glad your efforts have worked.
_____________________________
"If God saw what any of us did that night, he didn't seem to mind.
From then on I knew: God doesn't make the world this way.
We do." -- Rorschack, Watchmen.
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Depression revisited - 
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