posted June 25, 2012 04:55 PM            

I also want to add that some psychiatric drugs...or even non-psychiatric drugs....can induce or intensify suicidal thoughts.

So I wish people would only use them as a last resort, and even then, try to find alternate solutions to their problems and wean themselves off again.

My brother-in-law is an EMT. A while back, he responded to call for help from a man who was on the verge of committing suicide. The man had just lost his wife and job...basically going through very dark times.

So he said to my brother-in-law, "My life is over!"

My brother-in-law said, "No buddy. I just got diagnosed with cancer and MY LIFE IS OVER. And how dare you just throw your health away right in front of me? You're going to make me WATCH?"

The guy was just stunned. It forced him to look at his situation more realistically, and value what he did have: a clean bill of health!

My brother-in-law kept calling to check on him, still using that mock-tough tone (he's a Cancer and a genuine softy at heart.) And last we checked, the guy was still alive.

So is my brother-in-law.

posted June 25, 2012 04:56 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Hera:
I've been there.. It's horrible to be trapped in that hopeless place. But there is always hope, ALWAYS!

---

You're SO upbeat and fun. This is a shock!

posted June 25, 2012 06:50 PM            

Nothing made me appreciate life, until I finally hit rock bottom. I have always had some form of disthymia but last year I was in major depression BIG time. Up until then I was at least apparently functional, it didn't affect my work and the more urgent social interractions. Major depression is smth else. I did need pills and yeah, it's true they can enhance your suicidal thoughts, it happened to me too. My attempt was in the first 2 weeks of treatment, actually. But they also WORKED. The upbeat positive person you exprience now is the result of that (not ONLY that, true, but they can help if they are prescribed right, if they are indicated, if they are suited for you).

I am actually quite upset about this whole anti depression meds campain. They should be taken with great care and not prescribed lightly as I assume it might happen in some cases. They do have some nasty side-effects too. But they WORK. Ofc, most of the times, they don't work alone. You also need to do some of the lifting and yeah therapy too.

I have always been a pretty "together", Cap rising, sort of person. I managed to get up from "sad" times by myself, over and over again. But depression always rebounded. Pills helped with that. I am in much better control of my moods and my thoughts now. I manage my life differently. That is what has changed. It's not that I don't get sad anymore, ofc I do, but I don't get *depressed* anymore. I am no longer in that numb, hopeless, empty space I used to call my life. I can feel the sunrays on my skin. I can hear the birds singing. I can take a breath of fresh air in the morning and feel amazingly alive and connected with the awesomeness of nature around me. I am in awe with this greatness that used to pass me by and leave me unaffected. It is like I was reborn a second time.

posted June 25, 2012 09:38 PM            

I do think, as a last resort, they have a place, and in your case, it's clear they do.

But in America these drugs are marketed directly over TV, and I'm alarmed by how often my normal friends tell me that others are urging them to take medication. Another friend boasts that she doesn't take them...as if I should expect that anyone in her situation (dealing with low income) needs them?

I have been depressed. Thank God it didn't last too long. I know what you are describing. I didn't care about anything at all, not really.

I hope that you just get happier and healthier and that maybe even this community can play a role for you in that.

Oh yes and your eventual babies

Thanks for sharing your story.

posted June 26, 2012 07:24 AM            

I am sorry to hear you've been through this, as well.

I've written here in that period (oct-nov 2011), about that.. quite a few threads. It does help but at that time I didn't completely understand the magnitude of it and eventually I took a break from LL for a couple of months when I really started to recover and get back on my feet..

posted June 26, 2012 08:13 AM            

Oooops, I'm getting ahead of myself....

I know you'll be a great mom!

quote:

---

Yeah, my babies deserve a completely sane and healthy mom, I wouldn't have it any other way. I don't want them to know the person I used to be, ever.

---

If it's any comfort, my father was diagnosed with some kind of serious mental illness when he was 18 and it lasted until he married my mother at age 36. It's hard to explain how my mom "cured" him...but let's just say that his family dynamic was extremely detrimental, and once he got out of the house, he recovered.

But here's the thing, I never knew that he ever was considered insane, not until after he died. When I heard about it, I complained to my aunt, who said something smart: "WHY would you want to know about it? He was protecting you."

After thinking it over, I agree. It spared me a lot of worry.

I think his six children helped keep him happy and functional too.

The book I read about over-use of psychiatric meds in the U.S. is called Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry is Medicating a Nation. http://www.amazon.com/Com fortably-Numb-Psychiatry-Medicating-Vintage/dp/0307274950/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1340712065&sr=8-9&keywords=comfortably+numb

Book description:

quote:

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American doctors dispense approximately 230 million antidepressant prescriptions every year, more than any other class of medication. Charles Barber explores this disturbing phenomenon, examining the ways in which pharmaceutical companies first create the need for a drug and then rush to fill it. Most importantly, he convincingly argues that, without an industry to promote them, non-pharmaceutical approaches are tragically overlooked in favor of an instant cure for all emotional difficulties.

---

I'm glad it's not that way in Romania.

Nice talking with you.

posted June 26, 2012 09:03 AM            

I am finally healing. It is a number of factors. They sound easy when you write them, but they are hard as anything--super, super hard.

One is to have a passion you adore. I adore my website. I adore doing readings. I love the group of people in my life from there

Two, would be to offer something of service to people and to have appreciation from them. This has given me true self esteem.
Three, I am learning to sing and my teacher says I have to let my sexuality out
As I do, my life force gets stronger.

I have more, but I have to go, for the moment

------------------
Passion, Lust, Desire. Check out my journal

posted June 26, 2012 10:49 AM            

In hindsight, he wasnt just an alcoholic, a mean beligerant alcoholic, he was also very depressed....

The night he did it, tho, he was out for revenge as I was divorcing him.

He did it at his parents little ranch, his mom found him, feet sticking out of his truck window with a gunshot to his head, his dad didnt want to disturb him earlier as he thought he had just gotten drunk and fallen asleep...There was a party planned at the ranch, his grandma's friggin birthday. They all got together that day, but for a much different reason.

People who want to opt out, will eventually and it is usually those that dont display the common "cries for help" as pop psych culture would have us believe.

As an ICU RN, I have had many, many experiences with the feigned attempts of lonely, emotionally mal-adjusted individuals, that are merely to draw attention to themselves.

Come on, you take a bottle of something, benzos, tylenol, blood pressure pills, even flexeril, then you immediately call EMS?

I have jumped the case of more than one of these individuals....I loathe when they play head games like this, I have told them MY story and how suicide is nothing to play with nor is the emotions of the real victims and potential victims of suicide which are the friends and families left behind, wondering, why?

Like I said, the folks who are the greatest at risk for suicide are the ones you would never suspect. They have a well organized plan and act on it.

There are often signs IF one were to observe and look closely, the kids dad was getting his life insurance in order.

Depression is nothing to sneeze at.

We all have periods of depression, it is normal, it is the dark night of the soul that allows us to go within.

Pop psych culture would have us believe that all of these melancholic moments need to be addressed, hurry put them on meds, meds, meds!

NO!

Clinical depression is another thing. As Hera speaks of.

When it just wont go away, when the dark night of the soul, becomes the dark day and the dark life. These are the people who are most at risk for suicide, these are the people meds can help, but, often, the individual is too depressed to speak out and say, I really need help!

Then are those like me, having terrible PTSD from the hellish marriage, realizing altered brain chemistry will be mine forever, I have to keep on a med. I am on just one, Lexapro, and it really helps me. Balances out my mixed up brain chemistry so it funcitions as normal AND it protects my heart. I have a heart disorder that is directly related to PTSD and my alteration of brain chemicals, that is not going away either, so I am on blood pressure pills and a beta blocker that keeps the nasties (the stress hormones, from the altered chemistry) from assulting my heart any longer.

I, too, as Hera so eloquently described have found my signs that I am headed down the dark road...for me when I can no longer find beauty in life...when the things I love, my kitties, the sunset, the birds, my roses, etc. hold no beauty for me.

Fortunately keeping on my med, I rarely have these dark times anymore.

Then presents last week. I have been going through some stuff since January, and have been in a terrible funk, despite meds, but have been laxed on my meds as well. Last week, I was headed down that old friend of the dark tunnel, that sucks you in and, like an abyss, you cant get out of. I even got so bad, that I ran out of my Lexapro and I did not have the emotional or physical energy to get up and renew the prescription...how dumb is that?

I finally pulled my rear out of it enough to go and get the med....feeling much better now.

posted June 26, 2012 09:05 PM            

*

I think this is a great thread. With lots of wise advice and wisdom to be gleaned from people whove been there .... and back.

Seems neverending sometimes. It's a rough ride for some of us here on earth. Dark night's of the soul, thunderbolt karma....etc.

posted June 26, 2012 09:32 PM            

------------------
Passion, Lust, Desire. Check out my journal

posted June 26, 2012 10:14 PM            

btw,...random.... i heard the following quote on a video/speech i was waching the other night and made it my signature: Thought it was great....

posted June 26, 2012 10:17 PM            

Great little show. She's cute.

Also quite wise.

Louise Hauck Speaks on
How to Let Your Spirit Move You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc6Nlnob65s

posted June 26, 2012 11:26 PM            

I'm just grateful that we are all okay now!

Praying it lasts and lasts.

posted June 27, 2012 05:41 AM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by Hera:
I want to give everyone a huge group beary hug! I am happy we are all alright now, too!

---

Awwwww

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Passion, Lust, Desire. Check out my journal

posted June 27, 2012 11:56 AM            

I feel like the dad of my kids has NO good intent toward me, at all.

posted June 28, 2012 09:37 PM            

Yes, lots of interesting info out there. With an 8th house moon, it's something that has effected me deeply in many ways and the 'other side' has always fascinated me too. I'm always reading up on it.

There's more to life than what we see here, for sure.