Tar, Cheer up...........WOW, look at all the friends you have here, and most or all you have never seen in person. What a GREAT bunch of loving and caring people. You mention you have a daughter, I have three and one son. You, my BOTL are a fortunate person. Pick your self up and enjoy what is out there to offer.
Scotty

Work out. Drink less. Go camping. Hang out with your friends. Learn something new. The main thing is keep yourself busy and don't brood over it. If it gets really bad, take a pill. I like the orange ones.

^ ^ ^ ^

You guys are scaring me.
Do cigars bring on depression?

Just kidding, of course. But this thread makes me thankful for the good things I've got, including my family and my health.

Depression seems to be one of the deep, dark secrets that we only find out about when it is extremely severe, or when it's too late.
But like most chronic diseases, it affects all your loved ones every bit as much as it affects yourself.

I know I can be a sarcastic **** on these boards, but feel free to email me at anytime if you need to chat.
It can be about anything.
Or even about nothing.

jnasuti at argosco dot com
or on weekends: grafhik at juno dot com

The book...Your Erroneous Zones. The author... Dr. Wanye Dyer. The store... Amazon.com . That's all needed to be said. JonR

"Get over it!!"
"Don't be a whuus".(sp)
"Real men don't cry".

Ya,I've heard it all,and wondered whats wrong with me?Why can't I be like other people,you know, happy?
My depressive disorder went undiagnosed until I was 28.I did see a Pschy. when I was 13,my parents divorced and my Father put a stop to that, because no son of his needed to see a shrink,"just deal with it"he said.
I walked through life thinking other people had gotten the owners manual on life and happiness and I hadn't.

My answer was to self medicate,I got into drugs and alcohol.drugs to get me Up so that I could at least function, and drinking to numb the pain.
10+ years sober and 9 years under a doctors care, and life is better,much better.Knowledge that its an illness and can be managed is a life saver.
I am a sick person not a bad person.
Thank you for the topic and feel free to contact me anytime.
Jim
Jimgbigj at Aol dot com

I don't think I have any clinical depression problems. But I get down like everyone else does from time to time.

I've found that I'm more likely to get depressed when I'm just sitting doing nothing. If I'm doing something (i.e. working on the house, playing in my band, going to the gym or biking or rollerblading, spending time with my wife doing something)I'm to busy to get down.

So when you are feeling down get up and doing something. Get your body moving and your mind working. I guess other then drugs this is the best thing to do.

If men cried more often, this world would be a better place. It helps alot sometimes to cry.

My heart goes out to Tar and the rest of you who suffer from depression. I am fortunate enough to had a stable life, but have seen some good friends suffer severely. And its such a great feeling to know there are so many BOTL that are here to help one another out.

choner

I have great respect for those, here, with the courage to discuss their depression. I am very thankful that I, personally, have not experienced true depression, but a dear friend, a woman with four children and a loving husband, took her own life as a result of her depression, and I challenged myself to learn as much as I can about it.

Depression is not only treatable, it's beatable!

The new generation of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, like Paxil, can virtually make depression disappear for many sufferers. But you absolutely must be both honest and proactive with your healthcare provider. If you feel like crap with the current prescribed medication, albeit, better than you did before, tell the Doc. Don't settle for just feeling okay.

Any medication, Zoloft, Paxil, Prozac taken without counseling and a plan of physical exercise isn't sufficient. If you are suffering from depression, weight gain and pain is very common. Exercise really helps and so does a solid nutritional plan.

Whatever you do..DON'T DISRGARD YOUR DEPRESSION THINKING IT WILL GO AWAY!! Depression doesn't just go away without the appropriate course of treatment.

And, always, keep in mind, that you has a human being, have value.

I don't have anything really to add to the post, I just wanted to let everyone know that I think the people at this forum are awesome. I'm relatively new, I don't know you all that well, but this is a great post, and i'm glad all of you are sharing so much. Just outstanding.

My wife's depression destroyed our marriage... It's an insidious disease. For the most part, it's invisible, it masquerades as other things, it is argumentative, defensive, aggressive and unyielding.

If you or someone you love is clinically depressed, beware... take steps (major ones) to protect yourself.

My mom suffered from clinical depression for years before they found the right combination of meds that finally worked, and now she's fine. Thing is, though, it sneaks up on you so gradually that you don't realize you're not supposed to feel like that. It's insidious, but you think it's normal.

As a young man, I had some really low times. This is what I found out. No alcohol. It's a trigger. Exercise. Your brain loves the endorphins. Always remember that there are people who NEED you. I think there is still a stigma associated with this issue in the Navy. But if you relly need them, get the meds!

xrundog-

what do you mean about the issue in the Navy? Just curious.....

People just don't wanna hear about how you feel bad! That's what I mean. Yes the Navy has some good health care professionals. Use them. But the guys you work with just want you to get your job done. They may even hold it against you if you are debilitated. "There's nothing wrong with him. He oughta pull his weight". A broken leg is one thing. People can see it. Many people who haven't experienced depression don't believe it's a big deal. And they expect you to miraculously snap out of it. That's my opinion. I understand your experience may be different. In fact,I hope it is. I guess it's not just the Navy. Could be any job.

I do know what you mean. I don't like to let anyone here on the ship know about my problems. Back on shore duty, it was easier to see the doc and not have others really know about it. On the ship, however, it is hard to keep anything personal.

After reading this post I honestly could feel the pain here and the only thing that made me laugh was thinking about posting "hey we are beating a dead horse". At risk of offending many of those here I don't know, I hope those I do can laugh a bit at my attempt to bring back my nutty sense of humor. I leave you all with a bid of kudos. While I am not close to this issue, I envy your ability to share such personal experiences with honesty and courage. It's not easy to let people in, even behind the wall of anonymity; the internet. I don't think when I posted here 4 years ago, such a new forum would evolve to the point where the members would discuss such real issues.

I have never seen a doc, but I have a weird tendancy to be depressed from 4-5am. I used to travel internationally a lot, and it was troublesome when it would be during normal hours.
Now, it only bugs me when I wake up early, and I have come to realize that it will pass soon..
Strange.

mrtelcom wrote: "weird tendancy to be depressed from 4-5am"

Check your temperature. It may also be a fluctuation in your Circadian rhythm. See the following article, which seems to address your issue:

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/317/7174/1704 

Steve -

Thanks for the link. I will read more in depth later, but at first glance, I learned the hard way how the body has it's own internal clock. For instance - I would sit on a plane in Papua New Guinea and get totally bummed out about why in the hell am I over here, and it would snowball. I learned to check the watch and correlate with my body. "Oh yeah, my body thinks it is 4:30." An hour later, I was bartering for **** gourds at the market and having a grand time. ;-P

Still don't know why I get depressed during this time period when I am normally asleep, and am not real interested in going to a doc to figure it out since I have learned to recognize it for what it is.

I do know that I could not deal with that as a regular part of my life.