Re: depression » rjlockhart37

Thanks for your response. I think that you made some very good points in what you wrote, specifically in what you said about nobody being able to feel happy all of the time. I agree with you, and I think that it would seem kind of unnatural if we were to feel happy all of the time, including when bad things happen. I think that one sign of mental balance is having and expressing emotions that are appropriate for the situations that we face, and feeling happy all of the time would certainly not be an appropriate response to the events in our lives because, let's face it, bad things are sometimes going to happen.

Another point that you touched on that I also agree with is that there does seem to be a definite distinction (in my mind) between clinical depression and sadness/depression as a healthy response to sad or depressing events. Like being happy all of the time, feeling "depressed" all of the time (no matter what form of depression it is) is an inappropriate response to the things going on around us, assuming that there are indeed some good things happening, and I think that it's something that we should try to remedy.

I think that you also have a point in saying that depression basically means slowing down, which would make depression a state of being low in energy, or understimulated. I guess that the main reason why I now avoid using the word "depression" to describe the feelings of fatigue and understimulation that I experience is because the word "depression" tends to oftentimes be used to describe feelings of sadness and/or despondency that arise in response to either life events or one's thought processes. That description is not one that I think fits or explains the fatigue and related symptoms that I experience. I don't think that my fatigue and related symptoms were caused by an overabundance of negative thoughts, and even though I certainly think that thinking positively has its advantages, I think it would be inaccurate to think that my fatigue is something that I could think my way out of. Although I don't know if this relationship is one of cause and effect, I think it's possible that having insufficient vitamin D could explain my fatigue and related symptoms. Supplementing with vitamin D has helped me to some degree, and my level of the vitamin was low, so even though I can see how one could say that I was slowed down and hence "depressed," I haven't found using that particular label to be helpful because of differences between what one could call "my depression" (if that's what it is) and other forms of depression. Having said that, I know that others with symptoms similar to mine do tend to find it helpful to say that they have depression, and if you find using the word "depression" as a way of describing your symptoms to be helpful, I certainly don't want to discourage you from using that word.

Well, I think that this sums up my response. Thank you again for writing back to me, and please do your best to be well.

Has an affective psychosis (schizoaffective disorder) with strong symptoms of fatigue, hypersomnia, and difficulty concentrating

Taking Abilify, niacin, & vit. D

Re: depression » rjlockhart37

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