Strange cyclical pattern of depression

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.

lots of people are vitamin d deficient , sorry you are feeling this way .
good luck with your assignments.
take care

Thanks. Actually I used to have a severe D deficiency so that could be possible.

That would explain fatigue. ^^^

I found with SSRI's, I could write with more fluidity. Good Luck with getting through the assignments.

This is just my personal opinion, but I really don't believe in the SAD theory for many people who show signs of depression in the fall to winter months. I think some of the pdocs out there just slap this on as an easy dx. My pdoc used to say that for me, but what about all of the other months when I was in hospital living with depression? I was no more depressed in the fall to winter than I was for the rest of the year.

hi archipelago, your post got me thinking...many of my major depressive episodes going back 23 years have "come to a head" (ie where I have a hard time functioning--eating, self care, school/work) in November. I think the seasonal changes, especially less light, and impending holiday season (no matter how much I try to ignore it) exacerbate my condition.

good luck with your assignments! I always found the majority of profs in grad school to be so understanding and willing to work with me when I came upon obstacles (depression & breakup of marriage) when I told them what was going on. not all...but most. take care!

I agree with that. Thanks for articulating so well. It is too easy to say it's SAD. And my shrink has resisted it though it was discussed. I tend to pull out of this in late December so if it were SAD, why would I do that in the colder darker part of the winter.

Plus the symptoms are very pronounced. It's not mild at all. It's very painful and exhausting, caused lots of behavioral changes, including some impulsivity. That's why I wonder if it could possibly be an anniversary trigger since I have lots of trauma in my background. When I was 5 I was hospitalized in a body cast and it covered the month of November as a significant time. I am not having any specific memories of anything that happened then, but I know that I developed a bad case of pneumonia and they also cut off all my hair because it became matted. My shrink believes that this whole experience is the most significant trauma because of my age and that I was abandoned and treated like a thing. It just seems more likely than SAD to explain things.