Perhaps another couple words might be helpful given what you're saying.
A few of the major symptoms of my depression included not having a lot of energy, being moody, and having a harder time just relaxing and having fun. It often felt like depression would come up and stand in the way of me being myself. That is really an experience of being controlled, where things were happening 'just because of the depression.'
The subjective experience I've had of starting medication has been beautifully transparent. All that has happened is that depression coming up and ruining my day happens far less often. It feels like I am allowed to be myself.
Obviously these things work differently for different people, but the experience that I've had has been great and I can't commend it highly enough.
I could talk a lot about it. So what exactly do you want to know ? :-)
I have the same symptoms. But the worst for me is that it is so difficult to keep myself under control ( like you have said that things are happening just because of the depression) I also often have weird thoughts,some kind of hallucinations. Most people equate depression with sadness. But it isn't only sadness. I would rather say it feels like inner emptiness. Or like someone dismembers you into pieces. ( I don't really know how to describe this feeling).Sometimes I'm even beside mysel...
My girlfriend suffers serious depression. She has sleep disorder, anorexia, chronic pain, problems to concentrate, low selfesteem, daily low mood, listlessness and is very indecisive. On the other side she considers herself very happy apart from the "depression periods" and we have a great time together. We already consulted a psychotherapist, but there is waiting time about one month. I buyed her fishoil capsules, because she eats no fish and there is mild evidence that it helps treating depression (I don't think this will affect her depression greatly, but fishoil seems like an overall good idea). We often go on walks to catch some sunlight and get her some exercise.
She says she never want's to take antidepressants because she fears to get dependent from them. I think she might change her mind if there are very good arguments in favour of them. She is quite rational in spite of not knowing the LW-stuff. Does anybody of you know if there is any information of the succes rate of medicamentous (and psycho therapeutic) treatment available?
I highly appreciate any advice.
Furthermore i want to call attention to the topic of depression. A huge share of the population suffers at least once in their lifetime under depression (~20% in Germany). Sadly it's often not taken serious and a big taboo to speak about. Many people see it as self-inflicted. My girlfriend's mother doesn't believe in depression as a disease (see diseased thinking). It's a paradigm of irrationality that hurts people.