Help with treatment resistant depression?

Question

I have moderate depression that never fully gets better. Some days are worse than others, and lately I feel tearful and sad and lonely. Depression and Bipolar run in my family (both parents). Basically, I have low self esteem, there are very few things that I enjoy and I feel rotten 90% of the time.

I have a wonderful doctor who I have been in long-term therapy with. But somehow, although I can see areas where I have made progress, my MOOD never seems to improve significantly. We've tried many different medications but I am very sensitive to side effects. There was one medication, Celexa, that helped me immensely but I can't stay on it because it makes me gain a lot of weight and causes sexual side effects that I can't tolerate.

What should I do? I'm scared that I'll be living with depression forever. I'm interested in trying Lamictal. Could this be helpful? What should my first choice be?

Answer 1

Well...maybe it;s the medication...maybe it's the doctor and maybe, it's you.

I find it odd that you have moderate depression and with years of counseling and different meds, you see no improvement. I hate that for you.

I will agree with you about Celexa. That made me gain 60 pounds that has been hell taking off.

What about Cymbalta? I have several friends who've taken it..they swear by it in terms of mood stabilization AND they say they've lost weight on the stuff.

I can only speak from my own personal experience. Sometimes, we put way too much emphasis on the meds. We expect them to chemically turn those emotional corners for us. Sometimes they do and sometimes, we just gain weight. I was once in your shoes...not overly depressed or to the point of needing hospitalization, but I wasn't happy either...kind of stuck in that miserable middle. I tried all the drugs, too disappointed every day that I woke up despondent.

It was frustrating.

I had a conversation with someone who once asked me why I was depressed. Naturally, my first response was to explain that there was a genetic predisposition in my family. I then explained how life was a struggle and I couldn't find happiness in anyone or anything--then he asked me the damndest question. He asked if then what was I getting out of being depressed, that kept me depressed. My immediate reaction was to get pissed off because he wasn;t enlightened enough to understand the depth of my malady. Then I thought about it for a while and realized how convenient my depression had become.

It was a great excuse not to deal with much, cope with much, to avoid people and places and things. I had grown dependent on not feeling good and allowed that to become my crutch.

I too had low self esteem and even that became a great excuse not to have friends, a social life...a boyfriend...a great job.

I started working on myself instead of only for the hour I saw my therapist each week. I realized that very often--not always--but sometimes, being happy is a conscious decision. We can change our feelings, by changing our perspective.

I realized after that, that I didn't need meds. I was coping because I was trying. And it was working.

I'm not implying this is the case with you, but sometimes we perpetuate our own myths. Depression is horrible. It's claimed lives and it's certainly claimed quality of life too, but I do think (I am proof) that sometimes we have much more control over our seratonin than we think.

I guess it all has to get to a point where we just get damned tired of being sick and tired.

Answer 2

My first thought was Lamictal, it's an anti-depressant targeted for bipolar disorder.
Second thought, if not Celexa, try Lexapro.
Lastly, be patient. Give them all a chance to take effect and try new ones until one fits. Keep tweaking until medication and dosage are right. Always consider a slow or controlled release anti-depressant as an alternative.
Keep a journal and record how you feel on each.
Get a second opinion by a doctor if you must, but remember the longer a doctor works with you, the better your chances are, much better. Work with a doctor not patients.

Answer 3

Hi, I dealt with depression for a long time after I quit drinking and I thank God it didn't last past about a year but later on I studied about it from every source I could find. One thing many people don't know is that Barnes & Nobel offer free online courses for some subjects. I took their course on the fundamentals of mood swings, depression and angziety. It was very informative and I jighly recommend it to those suffering from any sort of personality disorder. It is all about how to alter the brain chemistry with the foods we eat. Some of it also relates to vitamins and mineral supplements because the amounts of the necessary nutrients are often hard to get with what we find on the market shelves these days. I really hope you take my advice and sign up for the next free course so you can learn more than I can offer here. The books that go with the course do cost money but if you cannot afford them, sometimes you can find them for cheap reused or do without them and follow along with the lesson plans anyway. God bless!

Answer 4

“Research on unipolar depression has been dominated by catecholamine and seratonin concepts of disturbed neurotransmitter receptor function. These fields are undoubtably important and the partial successes of the tricyclic antidepressants and the selective seratonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and the related drugs have kept the pharmaceutical industry research focused on the identification of better and safer drugs within these classes. The dominance of industry funding in this field has obscured the facts that about 30% of patients do not respond to any drug, that the definition for response for those who do respond is usually a 50% rather than an 80-100% improvement in rating scores, and that in terms of efficacy the current drugs are no better than those introduced in the 1950’s.....Given the intensity of research on neurotransmitter hypotheses, we have either been unlucky or unimaginative in not finding better neurotransmitter-based drugs, or alternatively there are other quite different mechanisms which contribute to depression and which remain quite untouched by current drugs.”




Horrobin, D.F., Bennet, C.N., (1999). Depression and bipolar disorder: relationships to impaired fatty acid and phospholipid metabolism and to diabetes, cardiovascular disease, immunological abnormalities, cancer, ageing and osteoporosis – possible gene candidates. Prostaglandins, Leukotrines, and Essential Fatty Acids, 60 (4), 217-234.


Which explains why meds dont work for a lot of people.
I am about two hours past my bedtime - shoot me an email. I have a paper you might want to take with you to your doctor.
I researched treatment resistant depression.
You arent alone.

Answer 5

The drugs which doctors say that will make you feel well, will do so, but for a very short period of time. If you think that you will live forever like this and do not want to do so, I would recommend you to go and see an psychoanalyst which can make a dream come true... in a few years of exciting treatment. If other kind of psychologies and drugs will not do the job so that you can realize it, an psychoanalyst will be doing it as it will be like magic.

Answer 6

The best to do is to contact a coseling . medicatuion for depresive Cymvalta good medication . Andb if you live in the United State find a Texas Tropical if free Free Doctor visit Conseling you don't realy need to be a U.S cityzen to recive this service it all depend on how many do youn won. The Center is Texas Tropical

Answer 7

this is only a suggestion i dont know anything much except for some things i have seen threw work ,try another doc with fresh ideas sometimes people tend to do things the same way ,just like us getting in a rut so do they ,you could try that,and i think its best to go into your past and get threw some of the old garbage ,i know a lot of therapists dont like to do that now days but my friend did it wirh her therapist and it helped ,,and they are doing experament groups for alacohlics anonomis type classes for people who are depressed and helping them learn a new way to live .you see the idea is that people tend to depend on the depression because they know no other way to live and if they give that up then what??? how do they feel then???and how can you know what its like to be happy if you dont know it???and i believe in action theripy where you actualy do the giving up of the thing that tie you down,,,such as write down everything that hurts that you dont want as baggage anymore write it down on paper no name needed ,put it in a hellium balloon and tie it to the balloon and let it go ..you cant imagine how that feels untill you do it.it may take a few times to get it all out..and sometimes new meds can help talk with doc see if this is still the best choice..keep looking online for answers and asking for ideas write them down and try some that you can do alone go threw and give people back there garbage mentally i mean tell them in your mind or go to a room alone and picture them standing there and take the garbage they put on you and give it back to them and tell them you dont want to drag it around anymore,keep doing physical things like that ,,if you dont think its things that were done to you that are holding you down ,get some towels and get a doll and say some of the garbage that wwas said to you and with each one tos a town on the doll this will show you how much junk you are carring,,then go threw and tell yourself that its not true and re think things when you think no i cant do that ,,say no !!! i can do that!!! and they cant eat me!!!! take a physical safty class and agressive training to be more assertive,,,,take back your life and regain control dont let it get you down anymore !!! good luck

Answer 8

A change of environments and subjects you think about could help. If you continue staying in the same environment ,thinking on the same emotions then nothing will have a chance to change. Love is powerful.and it grows around you and me the same. look to experience another emotion you deserve to give yourself that choice. have a nice day.

Answer 9

Theres a great article about treatment for depression i found here http://geobay.com/bf6f34. Hope it helps!

Answer 10

it might sound strange, but i think that jump roping is the cure for depression. look up jump rope tricks on google or another search engine and go outside and try them. it helped me tons for some reason, so it might help you.