HI, my name is chris, i have disthymia

well that is the first step right?

ive been there, back last year this time. Now i have a mix of disthymia and adhd.
I am scared of the rollercoaster, of feeling helped, then hit a med peak, or change, and back to the beginning.
I am there right now actually, but i am on the upswing, i just dont ever want to be there again.
I dont have a support group, and dont even know where to begin. It just seems i was diagnosed, given a perscription and sent on my way. Thats military health for ya.

Any suggestions i am all ears, i just want to be out of this hell...

> It just seems i was diagnosed, given a perscription and sent on my way.

Not enough. But you know that.

You now have a support group. Us.

hey, chris. i'm glad you found psych central. it's a great place to come for support. we are a support group, seriously. and you'll find good friends here. you're more than welcome. keep posting.

welcome Chris. I hope you find what you are looking for here.

BB

Hey,
Like the others have said, we're your support group now. Everyone here is very friendly and helpful - keep posting!

Hello Chris.

I have been doing some thinking lately and I have started to wonder what it means to feel an emotion. Is an emotion a purely physical phenomenon? Is there a spiritual basis to emotion? Is emotion a subjective overall assessment of the difference between the bodies current mental and physical state and a balanced homeostasis.

What does it mean to feel an emotion. That is a question that bothers me, and I hope that it is a question that will bother you in the coming months. If our emotions tell us that we feel bad, we go to the doctor and complain that we are feeling sad. Depending on what doctor you visit, there is a very good chance that he will give you a prescription for a medication that is supposed to make your emotions feel good again. There are many different names for this medication. It could be Prozac, Paxil, Trazadone, Wellbutrin, Cymbalta, Zoloft, Trazadone, or Effexor. All of these medications are designed to work primarily on three neurotransmitters in your brain. This chemicals are seratonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. After these medications work their magic on your brain you should be happy again and you can forget all about the experience of feeling sad. But if we take this approach to fixing our emotions, then we are suggesting that emotions are an entirely physical phenomena. The physiology in our brain that controls these emotions and how we feel them is somehow connected to the outside world. If somebody you know well dies, then we will feel sad, and if you get a raise at work, we feel happy. These outside influences have a mysterious way of regulating the release of chemicals in brain which in turn create the subjective feeling of emotion.

Now comes an interesting question in psychology. Is depression a spontaneous medical condition? Can the feeling of "sadness" and the feeling of being "blue" strike anybody at any time in any social and financial class and affect the levels of seratonin in their brain and make them feel depressed? Is depression clearly caused by a "chemical imbalance" in the brain? Should it be treated as such? Maybe it was external factors that caused the chemical in the brain. Maybe it is more important to find the original cause of the depression instead of just treating the chemical imbalance in the brain because if we just treat the depression with medication, we are just treating the symptoms and not the cause and the depression is still imminent. However, if we treat depression with antidepressants and we find that the symptoms are alleviated, then how do we know that that Chris is still depressed at all? Maybe it was just a chemical imbalance all along and there really was no factors in his life that were causing his depression. It is a very interesting area to think about and I hope that you do some thinking yourself in the next few months about this Chris.

I believe that medication can really help for depression. I am only 17 years old and I have been on Effexor XR for 6 weeks and I have already started to notice an improvement in my mood. The Effexor may not reproduce a natural mood of well-being, but I can feel that seratonin in my brain reuptaking and I can feel the wonderful pleasure that goes along with the beautiful chemical. When you dose yourself with Ecstasy, Chris, all of the seratonin is released in your brain at once and the feeling has been described as a "5 hour long orgasm". Well you see, Effexor XR is just a less potent form of Ecstasy that allows me to feel the same pleasures, just not to the same amplitude of Ecstasy. Am I a drug user? Am I a drug abuser? Is Effexor XR a safe medication to prescribe to a 17 year old male?

Depression is a very interesting mental health conditions and it leads me to think about many interesting questions about life, death, and reality. I think that you should start thinking about this vital questions too. If you find answers to these questions you'll be alright. It's all for the better in the end. It will all work out. Do what you want right now. You have been going through a lot of %#@&#! lately and if you keep fronting like you have been then the %#@&#! is going to hit the fan if you know what I mean. When I am depressed I do some reading or some television watching. Go to the library and find an interesting book and read about it. You must find a way to escape your everyday physical reality, because there is so much more to life than the people you talk to, the places you go, and the things that you hear and see. You need to explore your own mind and find what it really is that you are missing in life. Answer some of the questions that I have proposed above and you might find that it helps to comfort you at life knowing that you have your own ideas now about life. Begin to think about why you are sad.

Wow, that was alot to take in, but i do agree. My current environment thinks that the meds solve it all, and that it was just a chemical thing. I really tried to get help on a conversational basis. Someone to sit there and help me organize my thoughts, my past experiences, and where to go in the near future. I am at that point in my life that where i am begining to get the things i always wanted, but with a catch. I am emotionless to it. Right now i just want to be pushed in a good direction. I want that drive that i once had to achieve what i have now. I am only 21. I own my house, just got a brand new car, have a wife, a wonderful daughter, and the best pitbull in the world. Where now? I did that all on my own. I have been non stop until right now. today. I sit here writing this just wondering now what. Now the curve ball. I deploy on in a week, next monday. The only thing i see coming from this is 6 months to get back in the abyss i was in, and trying hard to get out of. It could, however go another route, which i am trying to figure out. I can use the next 6 months to focus on me. To really think about my life, and answer such questions others throw my way. That is the route i want to take. I dont know where to start, or how to grow with it, so i dont run my self in circles. Only time will tell. Thank you for that post, that really triggers self thought.

Chips, wow, you are so wise!! Are you really only 17? Amazing! Many mental health professionals themselves don't understand the link between life events and brain biochemistry. They think depression is either "situational" or "chemical," not realizing that life events change our biochemistry and result in different levels of neurotransmitters, etc. Kudos to you for your insight and wisdom.

Chris, are you also working with a therapist? Or maybe that is impossible due to your situation. I am sorry you are in a "meds solve it all" environment. Best wishes to you in your efforts to heal, and best of luck in your deployment. Can you bring a couple of helpful books along with you to aid your desire to "focus on me" and "think about my life"?Journaling is helpful too. Congrats on your marriage, daughter, and best pit bull! You have a lot of positive things in your life. Hang in there.

yeah i can take books, i plan to keep a journal too. this has really effected my memory. Thanks for the encouragement