Quote:
Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus
The depression may well be resurfacing because you're teetering on the edge of diving into something painful. My depressive troughs are often triggered by dread. If you dig in, at least you don't have to dread it anymore.
As far as eradicating depression, I have not had success with it. It cycles, and, unfortunately, and perhaps depressingly, each major depression you have in your life puts you at a greater risk for having another one. I have, however, had success with decreasing the depth and length of my depressions. Before I started therapy, I did not know what it felt like to not be depressed at all. That was just not part of my life experience. (I guess I could have been described as dysthymic with occasional terrible periods of nearly unbearable darkness) I have since experienced some time without depression, and it's pretty sweet. If you can recognize what's happening and use your resources the severity doesn't get quite so out of hand.
|
I appreciate you sharing this with me, Snuff, though it is SO NOT what I wanted to hear.
The last depression I came out of lasted, embarrassingly enough, fourteen years. The unbearably dark periods kind of came and went, but I really feel like I walked through life in this gloom and had a constant battle against despair. I never want to go back there again. Then again, I also don't want to have to be in therapy for the rest of my life to battle it. Maybe it is just a matter of managing it rather than conquering it though. I have read the statistics about relapse after you've had multiple bouts with depression and they're not pretty.
Thanks for the input about the dread contributing. Something to think about certainly.