Have you been treated for depression?

[cflame1]

I was on antidepressants for awhile, following a couple of deaths in my family... can't say that they fixed it completely at the time, more like just took the edge off of it so that I could deal with it all.

The last year's been really hard. Total of 4 deaths in a little over a year.

[nobody]

One reason for the poll is to see how many people with OSA were possibly misdiagnosed with depression.

Well that is a good question then since there is a lot of that going around.

It is not logical to assume if someone was treated for less than a year, they in fact, probably did not have depression?

That would not be logical at all, no, since depression is a normal human experience of varying degrees depending on the person and/or situation.

However, chemicals in the brain of people diagnosed with manic depression do differ from "healthy" persons:

This is just labeling nonsense. The link you provided talks about "medication-free" people, but it does not go into detail. It is well known that many, if not all, the medications used to treat bipolar disorder are brain damaging. They cause significant, long-term changes in the brain and a person would not have to be on them long for the damage to happen. That the participants in the study were "medication-free" at the time of the study says very little. We don't know what or how much drugs they took prior to the study.

So yes, there is proof of chemical changes in the brain of some forms of depression.

I do not doubt that the experience of depression is caused by a chemical change or reaction. This is what it is to be human. Our thoughts and emotions are all caused by chemical changes. It does not mean that those changes are abnormal or faulty in some way. So the imaging studies really mean nothing and prove none of the claims that depression is some biologic abnormal disease from faulty brain chemicals.

Hopefully, further research will lead to one drug for manic depression rather than the "cocktail" taken by some patients.

Hopefully people will wake up and realize that none of these mental disorders are abnormal life-long conditions that require a life of drugs, poverty and misery.

[ozij]

[urlhttp://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/psychiatry/expe ... mison.html]Kay Redfield Jamison[/url]:
Jamison, K. R. Touched With Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artisti Temperament. New York: Free Press (Macmillan), 1993.

Jamison, K. R. An Unquiet Mind. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. (Translated into 25 languages).

Jamision, K. R. Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999. (Translated into 15 languages).

Jamison, K. R. Exuberance: The Passion for Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.


Interview with Kay Redfield Jamison 34 minutes, 13 seconds .
http://bigthink.com/ideas/16713

[nobody]

I've read her works. It's an account of what she believes to be true about herself. It is not proof that those experiences are caused by faulty brain chemicals.

[urlhttp://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/psychiatry/expe ... mison.html]Kay Redfield Jamison[/url]:
Jamison, K. R. Touched With Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artisti Temperament. New York: Free Press (Macmillan), 1993.

Jamison, K. R. An Unquiet Mind. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. (Translated into 25 languages).

Jamision, K. R. Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999. (Translated into 15 languages).

Jamison, K. R. Exuberance: The Passion for Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.


Interview with Kay Redfield Jamison 34 minutes, 13 seconds .
http://bigthink.com/ideas/16713

[jnk]

There are many long-running debates on these matters that are unlikely to get solved in a forum thread in the year 2010. But I like how one author summarized one form of the historical debates:

"Debates about the causes and treatment of mental illness can provoke powerful emotions . . . The heat in these debates has often been stoked by professional rivalry between different groups of mental health professionals. . . . As phychiatry is . . . older . . . and clinical physhology is a relative newcomer, it is the medical approach that has taken precedence in the mental health services of most countries of the world. . . . Throughout the history of phychiatry there have always been people who have opposed the medical approach . . . This opposition has come, not only from other mental health practitioners such as clinical psychologists, but often from within phychiatry itself."--Doctoring the Mind: Is Our Current Treatment of Mental Illness Really Any Good?, By Richard P. Bentall, 2009, New York University Press.

Perhaps we can all agree that there has been a failure, not only within the medical community but also in the social structures in place on the planet, to be of sufficient help to those humans who are having debilitating difficulties dealing with the human experience, whatever the cause or the treatments, or the ways of dealing with the difficulties, that may be available at any given location or moment in time.

[ozij]

I've read her works. It's an account of what she believes to be true about herself. It is not proof that those experiences are caused by faulty brain chemicals.

[urlhttp://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/psychiatry/expe ... mison.html]Kay Redfield Jamison[/url]:
Jamison, K. R. Touched With Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artisti Temperament. New York: Free Press (Macmillan), 1993.

Jamison, K. R. An Unquiet Mind. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. (Translated into 25 languages).

Jamision, K. R. Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999. (Translated into 15 languages).

Jamison, K. R. Exuberance: The Passion for Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.


Interview with Kay Redfield Jamison 34 minutes, 13 seconds .
http://bigthink.com/ideas/16713

I was not attempting to prove anything about the brain or depression.
Neither "Touched With Fire" nor "Night Falls Fast", are accounts of her self or her life.

[nobody]

Perhaps we can all agree that there has been a failure, not only within the medical community but also in the social structures in place on the planet, to be of sufficient help to those humans who are having debilitating difficulties dealing with the human experience, whatever the cause or the treatments, or the ways of dealing with the difficulties, that may be available at any given location or moment in time.

I agree with this quite a lot. There is a tendency to isolate those going through those experiences. Often when they reach out to family and friends for support and help they are told to see a doctor or what drug might "help" them, or that they are just imagining it. What they need most is social support and rest, not a bottle of pills. Even worse, serious medical problems such as sleep apnea are often overlooked when people seek help from doctors. People go to the doctor complaining of fatigue, problems concentrating, apathy, aches and pains and when the blood tests come back normal they must be mentally disordered. Nevermind that lack of proper sleep can cause all those things, even hallucinations and delusions at the extreme. We live in a pill popping society that's very indifferent to individual problems and experiences. It's just gross.

[ozij]

We live in a pill popping society that's very indifferent to individual problems and experiences. It's just gross.

Yes.

[roster]

My guess is there is a significant number of people who have been depressed and/or treated for depression who are really suffering from a sleep disorder.

Rooster science says between 50 and 90% of people diagnosed with depression or anxiety have sleep-disordered breathing as the underlying cause.

One talk therapist has told me, "If I sent all my patients for a sleep study, more than 50% of them would be diagnosed with sleep disorders." My reply back was, "Well send them right away, you @#&."

Now anytime I see that guy in town, he crosses to the other side of the street. I just want to ask him if he has sent all of his patients yet.

[roster]

Feb. 28--BREMERTON -- The year she turned 55, Ruth Napier of Bremerton found herself waking up at night, gasping for breath for no apparent reason. She felt depressed and irritable. Her doctor sent her to a psychiatrist who prescribed medication, but her seemingly mysterious malaise just worsened.

"I knew there was something desperately wrong that was bringing the depression on, and no one would listen to me," said Napier, now 69. "I would wake up and feel like I didn't sleep all night."

....

Napier eventually learned that she suffered from sleep apnea, a common yet treatable sleep disorder.
Full story: http://behavioralhealthcentral.com/inde ... -wash.html

When will the blasted psychiatrists and mental health counselors learn about sleep apnea? Maybe 90% of them will be out of work if everybody gets their sleep apnea treated early in life.

[DreamOn]

When will the blasted psychiatrists and mental health counselors learn about sleep apnea? Maybe 90% of them will be out of work if everybody gets their sleep apnea treated early in life.

You are right, Roster/Rooster.

My sleep specialist started out as a psychiatrist!

[torontoCPAPguy]

While I have not been treated for depression I have been prescribed 'sedatives' to help me on those nights that I simply cannot sleep due to the happenings of the day. I now discover that CPAP therapy makes me feel better and to the extent that I have been able to reduce my pain medications from Oxycontin (11 times more addictive to heroin) to Ocycocet to Tylenol 3 and now to Tylenol 2. Next step Tylenol and Tylenol 1 (which in Canada is over the counter). I am also taking almost zero mild sedation to sleep and deal with day to day traumas (with two teens believe me there are traumas). The GP wanted me to enter a methadone clinic to deal with the Oxycontin. Sic. I am sleeping better and feeling better than ever before I think... but more importantly I believe that my body is healing now that I am getting rest.

[DreamOn]

I am sleeping better and feeling better than ever before I think... but more importantly I believe that my body is healing now that I am getting rest.

What a wonderful success story, torontoCPAPguy! Way to go!!!

[Robespierre]

Seems like a silly question. Depression is a normal human experience.

Some people just refuse to believe that clinical depression is real. They seem to be perfectly content wallowing in their own ignorance. And I'm content to let them have a nice wallow!

[kcarlee]

Ok, Depression is the bodys way of saying, listen, there are some things going on or that have gone on in your life that you have to deal with. It is a normal reaction, it does cause chemical changes but the cause is not chemical changes. Just like a high blood pressure can be brought on by stress, (Im sure there are chemical changes) there is a reason. There is an explanation to every behavior. I believe sleep apnea and depression do walk hand in hand. God(or whatever made us)
did not make us flawed. We as humans do not understand how our Unconscious drives our behavior. There are things to help with depression other than meds. Meds just push the depression deeper. Thats why the dose keeps having to be increased.
I myself have learned through psychoanalytic therapy that I have been depressed all my life. I am using my cpap and going to join a singing group (to hopefully strengthen my throat) exercise. Lose some weight and continue talking to my therapist to learn more about myself and finally lift this depression.