An uncommon depression symptom--or not?

I have had prolonged episodes of depression since age 19. (I'm now 74.) The principal symptom I experience never appears on any of the standard lists of symptoms. I describe this symptom to my psychiatrist and therapist as a continuous feeling of being drugged, sedated, foggy. I experience the world through a sort of haze, as if I were partially anesthetized. This is not the "brain fog" usually described as affecting memory, thinking ability, or concentration. I can function quite normally but have constantly to "push through" this haze. It takes all the fun freedom out of life. My doctors assure me that this is the way I experience depression. (My scans and MRIs check out fine.) I'm interested to know of other who experience a similar symptom.

It may be uncommon but I think I have experienced something like that. Depression can be such a complex and chameleon like condition. I've found certain symptoms so hard to describe that I don't even try to describe them anymore. And there seems to be (or over time become) layers of symptoms.

Hi rossovers, Especially if your symptoms are unusual, I would ask to be checked for physical or nutritional problems that might have been missed. There are many of these and it has only recently been realized that, for instance, allergies or gut problems or omega 3 fat deficiency, can cause mental symptoms among many others. Here is a video overview

- vital

You are certainly right about the difficulty of finding the right words to describe symptoms that don't fit the neat categories of "sadness," "lack of enjoyment," and so on.

Thanks for the YouTube reference!

I'm sure I have experienced something similar, maybe it's not so unusual, just that different people describe it differently?
I recognise your description, I often describe feeling as if I'm living behind a sheet of glass and that the world is grey with no colour. Every thing feels like I'm reaching across a distance to interact with the world, when I still can, I agree, it does take the light and fun out of life.
I have also experienced the brain fog when more severely low and agree with the difference you describe.

I wish you every strength to find the sun on the other side of the haze, even if for short periods, I hope they become frequent.

That doesn't sound uncommon at all, actually. As Fizzyo said, it's probably just described differently by different people. I feel a heaviness and yeah, foggy when I'm depressed. When it's really severe, I can sometimes dissociate--I'm there but not there, if that makes sense. It's like I'm going through my day in a haze, like I'm moving underwater. I remember only general things about my day.I usually try not to drive when I'm like that; I ran a red light this past spring when I was feeling that way and totaled my car. I'm incredibly fortunate the other person and I weren't seriously hurt.

Is it possibly a sort of dissociation? I'm just tossing it out there.

I definitely do! I also just want to tell you I am proud of you for dealing with this for so long. Visually it's like standing in an old smokey room. The way I experience it is my eyes are in front of my body, but the processing gets clogged going to my brain. You are not alone.

I have explored dissociation, and I may suffer from a form of it, though I never really feel as if I'm outside my body and looking at it, the characteristic often associated with this disorder. Rather it's a straightforward feeling of being sedated--or maybe groggy in the way you might feel after being suddenly awakened from a long afternoon nap. I've recently had a sleep study but still awaiting the report after 3 weeks! I was well for 16 years on 20 mg of Prozac, but it suddenly stopped working. My psychiatrist and I are moving to higher doses of Prozac to try that. I've never taken a dose higher than 40 and never for more than a month.

Sorry your Prozac suddenly stopped working, it shakes your word when something that has worked for years lets you down.
I had that with lithium, brilliant for over 20 years, made my depression manageable, now no benefit so came off it.

I hope you find an alternative, there are other options if you haven't tried them yet.
Best of luck and sending warm caring vibes your way in case you can sense them.

Cinnamon stick, you describe my symptom perfectly! Have you found treatment that has helped you clear out the smokey room?

I have had that since I was a child -- the foggy thing I mean. I don't really remember not having had it except brief respite from it. I thought it was like a low affect type thing, kind of the opposite of ADHD. Low Cognitive Affect?

I have the same problem. Somewhere between dissociation and depression. It's like my brain just isn't excited by anything anymore. This is the first time I've even been able to get on my computer and post on forums in a looong time. I hope we all can get past this.

I have a similar disassociation feeling , i sometimes feel that this body is not me , this is not me. I feel a stranger to myself. Also i feel why was the world made, what is everyone trying to achieve. Why we all are doing what we are doing..like these questions keep coming to me since years and years...
I dont know if these symptoms are similar to urs..how are you handling?

OP, reading your post relieved me a bit. I think we both might be experiencing the same thing, or similar anyway. I thought mine was disassociation at first, but it seems to coincide with my depression. For example, when my depression is really bad is when I feel the most 'out of it' and I have to push through the 'fog' in order to function properly. I also only started having it when I started getting depression symptoms. When I was in school, it made it hard for me to focus in class, and I know I must have appeared 'drugged' to my classmates and teachers as well. I even slur my speech a little; I'm slow-moving and lethargic; I'm just not "all there".

I compare it to sleepwalking, in that I go about things normally, but I'm not present; my mind is elsewhere, wrapped up in its own blanket of fog. Sometimes I just can't push through the fog. Those are the times I get a bit scared, and I'll do anything to just 'wake up'. I want to be real and feel real things. I want to feel like my surroundings are real and solid, and not like my hand would go through the wall if I touched it. In that state, I feel like I'm not me, or anyone really.

Like OP, I never see this in any of the list of symptoms for depression. But I know that mine is part of my depression. I've read such feelings of unreality can be a result of trauma, which i've experienced, though not to a very severe extent (I've just seen and heard a lot of things that messed me up). So maybe this feeling is really the brain's attempt at coping, by 'removing' us from reality, though in the end it does more harm than good?

I'm sorry I don't have much in the way of advice. I just wanted to share my own experience with this 'feeling of unreality' and my relief that I'm apparently not as alone in this feeling as I once thought,

Dr. Mark Hyman is great, isn't he? Thanks for posting, Vital.