Hi. I have never felt like this before. I am totally in a depressed mood, and have been for about a month. There are times when I start to snap out of it, and then I will have feelings like I don't deserve to be happy, or I can't let myself be happy. I don't understand it, I don't want to feel like this. I feel like I am sleep walking. I just want to get my day over with, and go to bed. I have NEVER felt this down before. It is starting to scare me a little bit. I have only laughed about once in a month, and then I felt guilty for being happy. I am scared to spend money, I am scared to do anything fun, I am having real anxiety attacks. What should I do, short of going to the doctor, I am not doing that since I feel like I could snap out of it soon.

I do hope you go to the doctor. This could be just a seasonal dpression (SAD), but you never know.

I've lived with a dh with chronic depression, and I've had anxiety disorder all my adult life. I know it's hard. It's really hard.

Try some B complex. Try to exercise if you can. Even a walk. Try some fake sunlight.

Seriously... pushing yourself to do some exercise will help a lot. I send my husband to the Y to run around the track there, or play a game of pick up basketball when he can't get out of bed.

But getting some zoloft might be the best thing, too!

Oh BIG hugs!!!!!!

I also suggest that you see your doctor. Depression coupled with anxiety can just cripple your life and it doesn't need to. Can I ask how your diet is? How many carbs you eat a day?

Yes, see your doctor.
Do you take Vitamin D3? Most of us are deficient. I used to feel this way every February - like the winter would never end...

okay-
I agree that you should see your MD, but you can also see a therapist, psychologist or counselor who does COGNITIVE BEHAVIOR THERAPY- if you google it you will see it works for depression.
Some other things you can do- WALK. Get out and do at least 30 minutes at 3 MPH everyday- shown to elevate mood. You can take at least 1000 units of D3- look at the posts on the D experiement. Women who have post-partum depression are deficient in Omega 3 fats. You can take a good quality fish oil with at least 1000 units of the good omega 3 fats in it(add up teh amounts on the label).
Please do something- glad you wrote.
You have to help yourself out of this- going to the MD or therapist is helping yourself.
E

I started taking omega 3 oil (2 tsp), vitamin d3 (2000-3000 IU/day), and Mg Citrate (400mg/day). I started about the same time I started an AD, so I can't be sure they're what's helping me feel better. But I *know* all westerners are deficient in these 3 nutrients, so it can't hurt, I fell. And my skin is greatly improved, so I know they're at least helping that!

I agree 100% about the cognitive therapy. Unless this is out of the blue, with no known cause or triggers or is simply due to dietary deficiency or perhaps too low carbs, it's likely something that you need to deal with emotionally, too.

If this has been going on for a month, please go see a doctor.
As with anything, if it is interfering with your normal daily life for that length of time, you need to seek medical help.

My eating habits are a little too carb high right now as well but the depressing winter blahs have me craving carbs. I do have SAD; winter is very tough. I do belong to Curves and that does help. My DD has to go to school every morning so I have to get up. But some days, I really just want to hang around the house in jammies and my robe with the kitties. Therapy does help; try to stay away from the drugs IF at all possible. Deal with the underlying causes of what is happening because no matter what you do, the drugs are only a temporary fix. The problem may still exist when you're done with the drugs. If you absolutely need anti-depression meds, ask about all of the risks and benefits before deciding on going that route. Therapy will help!!! Cheers!

I suffer from depression, and understand every emotion you have described. I take anti-depressants and don't have those problems anymore, however, I understand the mentality of wanting to avoid them. There are always alternatives, but they do take work.

I found that when I was walking at least a mile everyday my depression almost completely disappeared. Exercise does wonders for the chemical make up of the brain. I don't know how it works, but I do know that it works. The problem lies in the fact that depression causes severe fatigue. When you are depressed you don't want to get up and move...you just want to go to bed. I had a friend that was very supportive and went walking with me every day. You may not be so lucky, but there are many supportive people on here that I'm sure will help keep you motivated and hold you accountable if you want them to.

Also...I am not a big advocate of "diet" pills...or anything like that. However, a male co-worker lost his 6 year old nephew to cancer last year. He fell into depression and just had a real hard time dealing with it. He had such motivational issues that he went to a sports nutrition store and asked for advice on something for energy. He was recommended a product called Venom 3.0 hyperdrive, and began taking it. It is NOT a natural supplement, and I don't know what the long term health issues could be, but it is supposed to be good for depression as well. It snapped him out of his "funk" and he lost 20 lbs. as well. I am not advocating this method...just listing it as an alternative to prescription medication and as a short term resolution to get you up and moving.

Good luck.

Thank you all for your suggestions. I need to start exercising again. I did for months, and then just fell off the pace. I also have NOT been taking my suppliments because you have to eat with them, and I am just not really hungry. I am losing weight though, and trying to get into planning our vacation that is coming in April. I just want to be normal again. My doctor did tell me last year that if I want to go to the tanner a couple of times a week, and it made me feel better, then I should do it. I was thinking about getting a bottle of St.Johns Wort. I heard that this does a good job for people in a funk. I am just totally in a "don't care" mood right now. I avoid people because I don't want to bring them down just because I can't "snap out of it" like I want to. I did laugh yesterday for the first time in about a week. If I don't feel better in another couple of weeks, I will go to see the doctor.

You can use medications *in combination* with therapy. Therapy is HARD--if you really apply yourself to it. Sometimes you need to know you won't "crash" after a particularly hard appointment, b/c for example you either have a very responsible job or you have a family of small children to care for or something else. It doesn't have to be medications OR therapy. It's just not that black and white.

This has been my worst winter ever. I really started to think that I would need medical intervention, but thanks to all the wonderful advice on this forum, I started some D3 along with upping my b's. It's only been a month and can tell you I feel a lot better!

Give it a try and see. In the meantime take time to pamper youself
{{{{you}}}}

The following two segments is from your profile:
-------------------------------------------------------
Risk is it's own reward....Dare to be great
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2 kids, love my job, am getting healthy for myself. I feel better everyday, and am happier that I have been in years. I am also wearing jeans sizes smaller that when I was in high school.
Location:
Michigan
Interests:
reading, walking, and i love the show Survivor.
Body Fat %:
40%/31%/22%
Start weight:
245
Current weight:
163
Goal weight:
145
---------------------------------------------------------

Just that should make you "SNAP OUT of IT"..

I didn't hear you say anything in your posts that sounded like you were going to harm yourself. I am not saying "don't go see a Doctor", but there are other things you can do and possibly it is not necessary to see a Doctor.

One, be logical with yourself. You are aware you're not happy with the way your life is right now. That's the beginning of all therapy... self awareness....

Whether you talk to a Doctor or get any kind of counseling, the focus is to change your feelings about yourself. The number two thing to do to get better is realize you can change your feelings about yourself. I'm sure you've heard things like; "happiness is a choice". Life is all about choices, so start choosing things that will change your feelings. Think of all the counseling sessions you'll get to avoid if you can do this on your own... I hope you realize, we must laugh at ourselves and I was just injecting a little humor for you to digest...

Vitamin B-12 is very important for a sense of well being. If you were on that and need it and you've stopped taking it, that in and of itself can be at the root of your feeling like you do...

Eating less reduces energy and can give us that blah feeling, but then you might say, well I'm eating less because I'm feeling depressed. Choosing to go eat a good steak or a great seafood dinner does wonders for me...

One thing I see amongst my family and friends is this: Many of them are living for the day "they can do this" or "they can do that" and in the meantime they're just ho-humming along with nothing to celebrate today, just that miraculous time at some future point when they will be happy doing what it is they dream of doing "one day".... NOW is the only reality. We need to celebrate life today, or we'll soon get into a rut and find ourselves old and we haven't enjoyed living...

Floyd Wickman, a Real Estate trainer, and from Michigan by the way once said, but I think he was quoting someone else and I don't remember who, but he said; "Success, is when we can learn to kick our ownselves in the Ass to get going again"....

Considering your own headline "Dare to be Great"... go for it and have a happier today, tomorrow.... Looking at your weightloss stats, you're a role model for others, whether you're aware of it or not... Congratulations and remember that life's circumstances is not our life!

I'll be keeping an eye on ya!

Wow Cajun boy that was a real eye opener. I did realize that I have been sitting around feeling sorry for myself about things that don't matter in the long run. I started taking my vitamins again, and started to wake up and believe that it was going to be a great day full of happiness and success, and I am starting to feel better. I am down to moments of depression now instead of moments of feeling better. I started feeling so low because I found out people I trusted, that I thought were my friends, turned out to be back stabbing, jealous users who were only using me for their own gain. These kind of people have been taking advantage of me since I can remember, and I felt absolutely ALONE for about a month. I didn't even open my eyes to see my husband worrying about me and the way I was feeling, I didn't see my kids wondering what was wrong with me, instead all I did was believe that I couldn't trust anyone ever again, and that was an awful lonely feeling. I am starting to feel better again, so thank you for all of your good thoughts, I won't be depressed enough to "hurt myself" I truly don't think anything could ever be bad enough to hurt myself. I was just having a really hard time "sucking it up" and realizing that there are just some people that are just a waste of air.

Just a hint; trying to understand human behavior is a bottomless pit........

When becoming aware that people are a certain way, realize, they didn't change. Your perception of them changed, they've probably been that way for years if not forever...

There's good and bad in everyone. It's easy to love someone whose sins you don't know. The challenge is loving them once you know their sins.... (Sins, by my definition just means errors). Logically speaking, it makes more sense to love the people whose sins you know, then they can't surprise you...

Your post, by the way was 2 minutes shy of 24 hours after my post. I'd say you had a remarkable turn-around in your feelings... Now, get out there and cheer someone up who might just need it worse than you did...

Ron