learn to live with depression?

i was just wonderering whats your opinion about 'learning to live depression'? is there really something like that? some of my friends tell me that may be the key to lighten up my mood is to just accept that i have to live with depression my entire life and so may be i should adapt to it. what do u say?

It depends on the severity of the depression, I think. Mild depression can often be managed with increased daily exercise and more friends and support. Severe depression is dangerous and often fatal. If you have major (severe) depression you probably need medication and ongoing monitoring to function well and be healthy. It doesn't really matter what your friends think unless they are all medical doctors with advanced psychiatric training.

Jiakhan, if you have the ability to fight the depression with meds and therapy, I really think that you should keep trying. Life with depression is no fun (understatement!). If you can have a life free from that torment, wouldn't you want that?

However I am also painfully aware that there may come a time when you have exhausted all of the treatment options available to you, like I have. My pdoc refuses to try any more meds for my severe (psychotic) depression cos I've been on LOADS over the last 4 years and none of them worked, even a little. She says that I need to accept that this is my life, and to try to make the best of it. (I am in T too.) And so that's where I am, trying to make the best of a bad situation.

I wish you luck

*Willow*

i took medication for about 2 months as prescribed by a psychiatrist but then she wouldnt even call me back on follow ups....she was very unsupportive. so i quit taking meds after 2 months. they wernt doing me any good afterall.

Please...for yourself get a new Pdoc! A true professional isn't going to let you take these meds and not supervise your progression and side effects!
I just recently stopped taking anti depressants which weren't making my situation any easier! After stopping...it's a week now, and I'm begining to feel better. I know that if I start to feel overwhelmed or stressed, I'm going to end up where I started!
The fact that you went a sought out help says a lot! You tried to get help, unfortunatly this wasn't the right Pdoc for you. Please don't give up! There is a pdoc out there for you! In the meantime, do you have someone to talk to, a therapist?
I hope that this gives you some encouragement

I agree. With good support and the right care team (Pdoc and T) and medication, many people can be healthy, functional and successful.

In a way if you find outlets you can probably live with depression quite easily. At least that's what I tell myself sometimes, it isn't easy though and especially when you can't predict how you'll feel when you get up that day... Using myself as an example, I wake up It takes me about 10 minutes to be able to pinpoint what I'm feeling and usually it's depressed, mellow or neutral, and I mean completely and utterly neutral. But as others have said it also depends on the severity of it...

I have tried to get help. Honestly, i did. But there is never ENOUGH help out there.

I think if you have had a major depression, you need to realize it may recur, even if you recover from it. If you never completely recover, then it is with you. Either way, you need to manage depression much like you manage another medical illness like diabetes or high blood pressure. You may need to take medications, have ongoing counseling, or just periodic check-ups to be sure you are not relapsing into an unsafe condition. Does this make sense? I have a schizophrenic/bipolar sister who is more challenged than most. She has told me she spends much of her life just trying to remain sane. I have the greatest respect for her, for she manages to do that. She holds a full-time professional job, mothers her two twenty-something daughters, and maintains a fairly healthy marriage of over 30 years duration so far.

The first part of dealing with a serious illness like depression is probably accepting it. It might be your T was suggesting that you need to do this. It might be an issue other than merely getting cured or having medication to help you. Just a thought--may or may not be true.