Prolonged depression and CPTSD

For those of us with CPTSD, are you also struggling with major depression and what has helped?

It feels like this depression episode really hurt my self-esteem, and it has been cumulative. The longer I'm depressed the worse it is.

I don't really feel sad; mainly fatigue, lack of motivation, lack of enjoyment. So many problems follow the lack of motivation.

I find chronic depression worse than flashbacks, dissociation, anxiety, panic attacks, etc. That stuff is temporary and despite the episode the other night, i feel i have more control of it overall than the depression.

The way you describe your depression is similar to what I had last decade. Then several years back it moved onto C-PTSD because I was ready to confront the past. So I started having flashbacks. I still get depressed sometimes but it is temporary.

Medication helped a lot with the depression. Not sure anything else would have helped, the stress caused a chemical imbalance I couldn't fix on my own.

Hi Skies,
I find depression to be the hardest part too. The amount of times I've asked my therapist "How much longer will this go on for?!" is ridiculous.
Some antidepressants might work for you, others will not or even make it worse, so it takes a while to find the right one, if that's a path you're willing to explore. Over the years it's also become obvious that illegal substances are not friends and make that nasty depression way worse, yes, even weed... It kills motivation more than anything else for most people.

That's great yours lifted some-ten years is so long, that's dreadful. Did you go to therapy or do something on your own? Any tips would be helpful.

I've been in therapy over 7 years now. I started getting better about 2 years ago, then had some stressors and bad experiences in therapy. Never pulled back up.

I think it the stresses messes with your sleep and hormones and weakens us for depression. So glad medications helped you. Which one(s)?

No interest in those kind of drugs here.

Some medications helped me years ago, when i first got PTSD. TMS treatment erased my depression then gave me bad side effects. So yeah, I've explored that area.

I know! it is so ridiculous!! I feel like the longer it goes the harder it will be to climb out of. I have a twinge of hope because of getting better for a few months 2 years ago.

I think it's gotten worse because I don't sleep enough, so i may check into retaking the medications i took 2 years ago,..though they they wore off and started giving me side effects, which is why i quit taking them in the first place.

Sleep is a problem for CPTSD people. Plus I have sleep apnea. But the meds I take are Wellbutrin and Lexapro, sometimes trazadone to help with sleep. Some of the herbal sleep meds have helped a lot also. Try some of the muscle relaxing exercises before sleep, targeting muscle groups starting at your feet and working your way up.

Depression is my life, it seems. I only have lapses in my issues with chronic depression. Interestingly enough, I've never seen my depression as the most difficult of my illnesses to deal with. While, yes, it is ever consuming and leaves me begging for mercy every time, it is the anxiety and insomnia (and what those disorders umbrella) that maintains an unbearable strain on my life. However, answering the original question, I've dealt with depression for the better part of my life. Earliest I think I could've been diagnosed with depression was probably as young as six. I wasn't actually diagnosed until high school, though.

I had or stll have the same kind of depresion as yours, for me the half recovering or seeing it as a lesser problem its thanks to a activity plan that helped me with fatigue, motivation ,...

Basically I took Concerta to start with it, and continue by my own mainly without concerta. I focused on art therapy, reading, excercise, playing videogames, writing, ...

While I'm probably not qualified to speak for cptsd, as I've not been officially diagnosed with it, I do know that many MH issues will by themselves, and in culmination create problems as far as depression is concerned.

By the nature of the problems we face, they all interact with each other and have a knock on effect.

So far the only thing that has helped me has been trying to regulate my sleep more, as well as medication for my depression. As yet therapy has had no long lasting affect.

Depression does accompany PTSD, for me. Leading to PTSD was repression, denial, disassociation; and so, I repressed sadness. I didn't even cry for six straight years as a child. Working through my PTSD, depression arrives. I'm overwhelmed with sadness sometimes, and it feels so heavy. Worse, I can't find "time" to cry it out. When I started counseling, I cried every day. That sucked too, and it seemed like a problem and that concerned me, but at least I felt free and flowing. When I'm not distracted by responsibility and discipline, or love, I feel the depression. the way I look at it, I have something to be sad about. I have legitimate worries and sadnesses; some things are simply out of my control. I will suffer from those things, and I must accommodate. I now have compassion for my wounds, and I understand why they hurt still. I'm trying be patient. I now believe I can, and will heal. But, I easily go out of balance.

Good luck everyone