You're feeling a little down? That's an understatement! I've been struggling with depression for 11 years (officially), and possibly for several years before that.

They've had me on all sorts of meds for it. They may as well have been sugar candy, for all the good it did, with the exception of Wellbutrin, which acted like a pint of Jolt! cola on my system. (Jolt is a brand of high caffeine cola; with my depression, I slept a lot)

The shrink at the hospital finally told me that though I was depressed, my problems were continuing to be caused by strong emotions, despair, anger etc. So now we are going to be going into really deep intensive therapy, both with my shrink in the community and a mental health nurse that will be coming once a week (For the first time, I will be welcoming VON into my home with open arms; they will be relieving pain instead of inflicting it on me for a change (They look after my cathetar every four weeks. I have a semi permanent cathetar)

Let your shrink figure out what med to put you on. Talk things through with him. I mean really talk things through. Start a journal about how you feel about the things that are happening to you and how you react to things. Put down everything in it, no matter how small and tell your psychiatrist. I've been doing this and it actually helped the staff at the hospital discover that I had a personality disorder and that may only be the beginning. (Don't worry about you being even more screwed up. I'm just a special case...ask Ozzie for the short version of events) But do the journal.

Find good and loyal friends that can be trusted and tell them what's going on with you. Just be honest about your feelings. You don't have to tell them you have depression but do tell them you are going through a rough time. Because if you don't, they are going to be asking themselves a lot of questions that they are going to be scared to ask you. (I know, because I just told my gaming group I was depressed, because for me, going out with them every week is crucial to my recovery and I may pull away....due to the personality disorder.)

Oh and if I didn't tell you before, drop by here. It saved my fanny from the fire more than once. Even though I'm still severely depressed, I'm still here. (Again, I'm a special case. Your problems will be more easily fixed than mine. And I'm not knocking your problems either. Mine are a little more....permanent)

Welcome to the board.

If you are ever in trouble...come to me. I will never counsel you to take the wrong way out. It's my duty to point out the right way...the way towards life. Just realize that I am struggling myself and don't hold it against me or use it as an excuse not to try to save yourself.

There is a thing more crippling than cerebral palsy: the prison of your own mind.