bad days

I'm figuring out the format of the forums as I go here. I'm new so forgive me as I have already posted this a couple of other places in other forums.

I posted in the new members and general areas but thought I'd toss my question out here as well. I've been treated for depression for the past 6 months. Effexor and weekly therapy has been very helpful. the past month has been quite good. Today, for no reason that I can come up with, I woke up with almost all of my depression symptoms back. It has really scared me. Is it going to just be today? My life had become so much more "normal" in respect to my family, work, etc that this has been very disheartening. I don't know whether this is "normal" or not and if it is how people cope with "bad days".

Thanks in advance for your support.

Blueman

my experience with many, many years of dealing with depression is that one never knows how long a depressive episode will last. Sometimes it's just a bad day or two, sometimes it's a week or two, and sometimes several months. It's always a surprise.

As I learned to just accept the fact that I will feel depressed some days and that's me and that's okay, the depression no longer scares me as much. But for several years - it took me a long time to learn that how I felt was how I felt and okay - I felt very frightened and caused myself even more depression by not accepting that I have a problem with depression, and by not living one day at a time.

Now when I have a depressive episode I treat myself like I would treat anyone else I loved and cared about who sufferred from depression. I'm nice to myself, I treat myself, I try to cheer myself up and give me a break. I let the people around me that care about me know how I'm feeling but I don't dwell on it and I don't expect them to fix me.

I also take my meds, exercise as much as possible, try to eat healthy, try to get enough sleep, etc. Just use common sense and not expect too much from myself when I'm feeling depressed. And people who do not accept and understand my depression are not a part of my life anymore.

I hope this is just a bad day for you. But if the depression lasts longer, remember it will pass again and one day you will wake up feeling a little better, then a little better the next day, and so on until you are feeling pretty good again. Change is constant.

Thanks Pom. I appreciate you taking the time to share. It's been a long day, and it's good to know that this kind of thing does happen. Hopefully it will be short lived.