[InfiniteSadness]

I notice my depression hits randomly a lot or when im least expecting it. Also, it hits really hardout of nowhere.. Almost like cyclical or episodic bouts of depression. Im taking med but would this change my treatment or its still basically clinical depression? I guess im not depressed every minute but its still there waiting in the background..

Hello InfinteSadness: Oh yes, absolutely. Just a day or two ago, I was sitting on our couch watching TV. All of a sudden I noticed I was really depressed! Where did it come from? Who knows? I wake up depressed out of my mind every morning! Sometimes it sticks around for the day. Sometimes it disappears pretty quickly. Also different times of the year affect me differently.

There are a variety of different kinds of depression. And it is possible to have more than one at the same time, as I understand it. For example there is the kind of low-grade depression that can stay with a person for months or years. Then there is major depression. This can be more intense but may not last as long. And a person with the former can also lapse into the latter from time-to-time.

I'm not a therapist or a psychiatrist. So I wouldn't want to go too far out on a limb here. But I noted you wrote you're not depressed every minute but it's always waiting in the background. As a layperson, this does not sound like clinical (or major) depression to me. It sounds more like a milder, but perhaps longer lasting depression. (I think this is sometimes referred to as: "Anhedonia".) However, either way, it would be my thought that the fact you are on a medication for this would not change either your diagnosis or, likely, your treatment. Perhaps other members, here on PC, will be able to give you a more definitive answer.

[Altered Moment]

Mine has always come in waves in a sense. Normally the wave lengths have been very long. Like months between depressions. In the last year the wave length has gotten much shorter where there are weeks or days between them and they don't last very long. I attribute this very much to the med I am taking. It is working quite well but I will still get a period of a three day pretty bad depression that hits out of the blue. I was getting what I call a lot of rapid cycling up and down until I increased my dose and things balanced out. Normally this time of year I would be in a real deep one and I am not this year.

[Dan208]

Yes. For the last few weeks my depression has been all over the place, mostly down. My doctor thinks I might have sleep apnea (I have a sleep study next month) and I'm wondering if they might be connected.

[Fuzzybear]