My main diagnosis is PTSD, but recently I started to slip into a major depressive episode. My shrink waited for 2 weeks, watching my mood, and then finally started me on a cocktail of meds, including an SSRI. The drag is that it will take a while for this all to work, and I'm in the last weeks of grad school so assignments are due. I'm not sure if I'll be able to concentrate or have the energy to do everything. When I'm depressed I tend to freeze and just want to be in bed or sleep a lot. I stop eating and doing things. It takes a huge effort to do things and then I'm exhausted.

When my shrink was deciding about putting me on medication, we went over my file and it turns out that for the past 3 years in mid to late November I have depressive symptoms and have gone on medication. It was surprising to both of us how exact the pattern was. He wondered if it was seasonal but it seems that this depression tends to end in December so SAD wouldn't really make total sense. We both wondered if there might be a buried memory that is like an anniversary that I often experience with PTSD.