Anyone suffer from Depression or know someone that does ?

[TH3JUICEMAN]

Sorry to hear about your girlfriend Bronx. It sounds like she's in a very dark place. I hope she get's the help she so badly needs. Self injury (cutting) is a coping strategy for many things (anxiety, depression, etc). Suicide ideation and attempts are quite different.

You having her hospitalized is a very strong and courageous thing to do, you really care for this person. Hopefully medication and therapy can help her, that combination is proven to be most effective. Understand there is not much you can do other than be the support that you clearly are.

Praying things get brighter for you two

[Jaws]

"Everything in my life can be changed and reversed...except what I have just done." - the only person ever to survive jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge.

Dear Ones —

The sad news about Robin Williams's suicide makes me need to remind you all to please, please, please take care of your beautiful lives, and to please seek help if the snakes in your head have been attacking you without mercy.

I wanted to share with you this tweet that the great Harvey Fierstein wrote yesterday, in mourning over his old friend. He has said it perfectly. Do not mess with depression, and do not let it corner you alone in a room.

Pick up the phone and call someone. Don't let your pride or your pain force you into silence or isolation.

I once read an article about the Golden Gate Bridge, and how it has become a suicide magnet over the decades — to the point that public health officials must struggle with how to make the bridge somehow less appealing to the despairing and the lost. The story quoted the one man who ever survived a jump off the bridge. He said that he had wanted to die because his life was so hopeless, and he'd lost everything — his spouse, his job, his dignity, his friends, his meaning. But then, he said, in the moment that he jumped, he was overcome with this one remarkable, true realization: "Everything in my life can be changed and reversed...except what I have just done." Luckily, impossibly, he survived. But far too many others do not — and far too many others do make that final, irreversible decision.

As someone who has been through depression and came out on the other side (with help from: therapy, friends, medication, meditation, prayer) I beg you to not walk alone through your darkest shadows.

And please share here your own thoughts and wisdom and resources on this topic. Let's be of help to each other, always.

With love,
Liz (Elizabeth Gilbert)

Harvey Fierstein's tweet: "Please, people, do not "mess" with depression. It's merciless. All it wants is to get you in a room alone and kill you. Take care of yourself."

[Sophia23]

Too soon for me to cp you, Jawsie! I just wanted to say thank you for the great post.

I've been shocked more than once by folks I thought were happy, enjoying life, being one who brought an end to their own. Very sad, it is a selfish act. Many times they don't know how loved they are by so many family and friends alike.

[notwithit]

Great story. I wish mine was as easily dealt with. If it wasn't for my openness with my wife and family I probably would be gone long ago. For me there is no "fixed". I have tried. The only coping is to get out and tell my wife when I'm refusing to get out and be with family/friends to force me to. What happens once that fails and my mind and heart tell me to simply fully not care anymore? We don't know Robin Williams situation. If his was anything like mine is, it is a daily struggle. One of which I'm tired of fighting but am driven to keep going through for my wife and my life.

"Everything in my life can be changed and reversed...except what I have just done." - the only person ever to survive jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge.

Dear Ones —

The sad news about Robin Williams's suicide makes me need to remind you all to please, please, please take care of your beautiful lives, and to please seek help if the snakes in your head have been attacking you without mercy.

I wanted to share with you this tweet that the great Harvey Fierstein wrote yesterday, in mourning over his old friend. He has said it perfectly. Do not mess with depression, and do not let it corner you alone in a room.

Pick up the phone and call someone. Don't let your pride or your pain force you into silence or isolation.

I once read an article about the Golden Gate Bridge, and how it has become a suicide magnet over the decades — to the point that public health officials must struggle with how to make the bridge somehow less appealing to the despairing and the lost. The story quoted the one man who ever survived a jump off the bridge. He said that he had wanted to die because his life was so hopeless, and he'd lost everything — his spouse, his job, his dignity, his friends, his meaning. But then, he said, in the moment that he jumped, he was overcome with this one remarkable, true realization: "Everything in my life can be changed and reversed...except what I have just done." Luckily, impossibly, he survived. But far too many others do not — and far too many others do make that final, irreversible decision.

As someone who has been through depression and came out on the other side (with help from: therapy, friends, medication, meditation, prayer) I beg you to not walk alone through your darkest shadows.

And please share here your own thoughts and wisdom and resources on this topic. Let's be of help to each other, always.

With love,
Liz (Elizabeth Gilbert)

Harvey Fierstein's tweet: "Please, people, do not "mess" with depression. It's merciless. All it wants is to get you in a room alone and kill you. Take care of yourself."

[Jaws]

Sophia, I'm not so sure about the selfish word myself as a blanket adjective for suicide.
In some cases perhaps it is, but with genuine severest depression I think (and this is just my opinion and understanding) people have been living a living death for months maybe years before they reach this place. They no longer really know what they are doing. They are dead inside and nothing external makes a difference. They genuinely believe that the world and their loved ones will be better off without them as they feel a burden, even though that is not true.

Notwithit - I applaud you for your courage in battling through this and am glad you have a supportive family. They make a world of difference don't they. It's impossible coping alone.

I do not have direct experience of depression myself, but my little sister has suffered greatly and also the older brother of my bestest friends eventually took his own life because of it.

[Sophia23]

Jaws, I do hope I didn't imply that my opinion of suicide being a selfish act was what I took away from your previous post. That isn't what I took away from your post. I feel that this thread is a very important thread, and do not wish to disrupt it with my opinion. My own life's experiences have led me to have a different opinion than some on the subject. I'm not always capable of looking at a subject from an emotional or empathetic view, no matter what my understanding is of physical or phycological pain is.

I see the act of suicide as being the final act of someone who is focused on how much pain they're in, whether it be due to depression or a horrible illness that they can't overcome. This isn't to take away from the fact that their pain was so horrible their is no way around it. I didn't live their life, and don't wish to judge another. I am aware that phycological pain can be severe that they may feel their is no other answer, and the pain from a terminal illness would fall in that same category, and my opinion is not meant to take away from the pain someone else is struggling through.

[Jaws]

I hear you Sophia.
And thanks for elaborating.
Depression & suicide is such a sensitive subject.
It's important to have open, honest conversation and seek to understand various viewpoints.

[notwithit]

I'd love to discuss the hospitalization and how that generally goes in PM's with you.

Sorry to hear about your girlfriend Bronx. It sounds like she's in a very dark place. I hope she get's the help she so badly needs. Self injury (cutting) is a coping strategy for many things (anxiety, depression, etc). Suicide ideation and attempts are quite different.

You having her hospitalized is a very strong and courageous thing to do, you really care for this person. Hopefully medication and therapy can help her, that combination is proven to be most effective. Understand there is not much you can do other than be the support that you clearly are.

Praying things get brighter for you two

[notwithit]

Glad this topic is being more openly discussed and understood by people. When I was a teen this topic was essentially, "Suck it up and be a man about things" which certainly didnt help one bit and led to a fair amount of very very bad nights.

[Emily Diana]

- There's Nothing Selfish About Suicide -
Katie Hurley - Huffington Post

"I am a survivor of suicide.

I don't talk about it a lot these days, as I've reached the point where it feels like a lifetime ago. Healing was a long and grief-stricken process. There were times when I felt very alone in my grief and there were times when I felt lost and confused. The trouble with suicide is that no one knows what to say. No one knows how to react. So they smile and wave and attempt distraction... but they never ever say the word. The survivors, it seems, are often left to survive on their own.

I experienced endless waves of emotion in the days, weeks, months and even years following the loss of my father. The "what ifs" kept me up at night, causing me to float through each day in a state of perpetual exhaustion. What if I had answered the phone that night? Would the sound of my voice have changed his mind? Would he have done it at a later date, anyway? Survivor's guilt, indeed. ...

Yes, I experienced a range of emotions before making peace with the loss. But one thought that never ever (not even for one second) crossed my mind was this ill-informed opinion that suicide is selfish. Suicide is a lot of things, but selfish isn't one of them.

Suicide is a decision made out of desperation, hopelessness, isolation and loneliness. The black hole that is clinical depression is all-consuming. Feeling like a burden to loved ones, feeling like there is no way out, feeling trapped and feeling isolated are all common among people who suffer from depression.

People who say that suicide is selfish always reference the survivors. It's selfish to leave children, spouses and other family members behind, so they say. They're not thinking about the survivors, or so they would have us believe. What they don't know is that those very loved ones are the reason many people hang on for just one more day. They do think about the survivors, probably up until the very last moment in many cases. But the soul-crushing depression that envelops them leaves them feeling like there is no alternative. Like the only way to get out is to opt out. And that is a devastating thought to endure." ...

Until you've stared down that level of depression, until you've lost your soul to a sea of emptiness and darkness... you don't get to make those judgments. You might not understand it, and you are certainly entitled to your own feelings, but making those judgments and spreading that kind of negativity won't help the next person. In fact, it will only hurt others.

As the world mourns the loss of Robin Williams, people everywhere are left feeling helpless and confused. How could someone who appeared so happy in actuality be so very depressed? The truth is that many, many people face the very same struggle each and every day. Some will commit suicide. Some will attempt. And some will hang on for dear life. Most won't be able to ask for the help that they need to overcome their mental illness. You can help.

*Know the warning signs for suicide.
*Check in on friends struggling with depression.
*Reach out to survivors of suicide.
*Encourage help.
(The article elaborates on these)

30,000 people commit suicide in the United States each year. 750,000 people attempt suicide. It's time to raise awareness, increase empathy and kindness, and bring those numbers down.

It's time to talk about suicide and depression.

Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-273-8255 for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katie-...b_5672519.html

[Rancid]

I have SAD-- Seasonal Affective Disorder.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-c...n/con-20021047

My Doctor says it is because of a lack of vitamin D brought on by less sunshine as winter approaches. Also, the body produces melatonin at a higher rate in the dark as a sleep-aid and the extra melatonin makes me lethargic in the winter. I snap out of it late May or early June as the sun gets bright again and as I can get outside more. By the end of March I am grouchy and irritable and just generally PO'd. But, after a couple sunny days I get a spring in my step and humming tunes in my head again. The remedy the doctor said was to start taking vitamin D in August.

[HUMCALC]

I need your guys advice on something. Is it better to get my hopes up about anything, just to be let down? Or should I just stop caring about hardly anything? It doesn't seem to matter what it is: movies, TV shows, sports, games, etc. every time I seem to get my hopes up, they come crashing down around me

[Rancid]

I need your guys advice on something. Is it better to get my hopes up about anything, just to be let down? Or should I just stop caring about hardly anything? It doesn't seem to matter what it is: movies, TV shows, sports, games, etc. every time I seem to get my hopes up, they come crashing down around me

It probably makes no difference which one you pick, but the people around you might like you better with a smile on-- which could help make some of those hopes come true.

[HUMCALC]

It probably makes no difference which one you pick, but the people around you might like you better with a smile on-- which could help make some of those hopes come true.

Well I don't smile anyways, but thanks for caring

[ELWAY421]

I have SAD-- Seasonal Affective Disorder.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-c...n/con-20021047

My Doctor says it is because of a lack of vitamin D brought on by less sunshine as winter approaches. Also, the body produces melatonin at a higher rate in the dark as a sleep-aid and the extra melatonin makes me lethargic in the winter. I snap out of it late May or early June as the sun gets bright again and as I can get outside more. By the end of March I am grouchy and irritable and just generally PO'd. But, after a couple sunny days I get a spring in my step and humming tunes in my head again. The remedy the doctor said was to start taking vitamin D in August.

You might not believe me or think it's stupid, but I know a few people that have the same thing, they started tanning after some research, and it worked.