How long does it take you?

I felt pretty good for a month and then everything changed. In a matter of 2 weeks I fell right back down into the hole. This seems to be a pattern. I am curious…does anybody else go down so fast? Most of the people I know who have problems with depression can tell for a long time and they slowly start getting depressed. How long does it take you to go from good to bad? 2 weeks? A month? 3 months?

DePressMe,

It can be just hours for me. Something can happen and I will plummet right away, like stepping off the edge of a cliff into a freefall.

Other times I can be going pretty well for days then feel it coming on, a slowing down physically and mentally... as if I have a dimmer switch and it's being turned toward dim.

Part of that is because I rely on external validation, I'm sure. If I could learn to find that internally, then the ups and downs would be less frequent, I think. If I could ignore or take more time with the external things that I allow to define me, I think I would even out some.

Do you notice what happens when you begin to start feeling depressed? The key might be right there and each time of slowly becoming depressed an opportunity to learn.

What do you think?

Hi Echoes,
I am not sure what happens in the start. I have just started paying attention to it—I just figured out I seem to be in a pattern. I can’t think of anything that triggered it. I am under a lot of stress right now, but this is a pattern that I’ve had for awhile. I’ll try brainstorming on what I felt like the first few days.

hi there.... It just depends.... If I have been "kicked in the gut" so to speak I can go down in no time... really. But I think I go in waves and sometimes I am stronger than others. I sometimes hit a period of time that I am lower than normal but not in the dumper... At that time I am more vulnerable to take a nose dive.

With the therapy I have been through generally the depressions are shorter and I bounce back over a matter of days or a week but currently this one I have not been so resilient. I know it is interesting when T's say that I am doing well because it did not last long this time which is good but I still feel slammed by the depth that I have experienced.

Currently this one has lasted a couple months... I am working on doing what I know I need to do to bounce back. It kinda works... though I am not there yet.

Do you know what you need to do to take care and nourish you back to being better? I know alot of these things but currently feel I need a bit more help than usual.

Core issues hit harder and last longer or at least right now...

I am sorry you are having a difficult time right now. You are doing so much right now it is important to take care of you. Sometimes it is not easy... I bet you are familiar with the routine.

Currently I am starting a new med...you know... to assist as he says I drop low and fast when I do. I think each depression has similarities and differences. I thought I knew... but this one is yet different...

I've personally seen in myself the same type of thing. One day I am doing great and feeling alive, then the next day I am dead and numb and a walking shell. I'm not sure exactly what it is, or if it's normal or not, but whichever is consuming.

It hits me in little clumps and can change according to what I'm thinking or have dremt about in my sleep.

One day I'll be fine-or at least, I'll think I'm fine but then I wake up the next morning and everything in my life and what is not in my life is validation enough for me to stay in bed for the rest of the day. It could last a couple of days to a week but then one day I wake up again and I'm fine.
??? These aren't major or very serious depressive episodes either so that may have something to do with it?

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SecretGarden said:
hi there.... It just depends.... If I have been "kicked in the gut" so to speak I can go down in no time... really.

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yup -- usually it doesn't take too long, more likely to be a 3-10 days.