Hi there,
And sorry in advance if this post is in the wrong spot - this site is huge and I've mostly just lurked until now.
My question is about possible ways (non-drug related) to cope with maybe unipolar.
My life 'til now:
I've dealt with depression for many years (20+) and I've been on and off anti-depressants since my early 20s. Over the years things have gotten worse until I worked a horrible job that combined with personal issues, tipped an extended depression into a suicide attempt (which was half-hearted and failed obviously). I went to my doctor shortly after, went on meds, and was referred to a psycho-pharmacologist who diagnosed me (or at least confirmed my doctor's diagnosis) that I suffered from unipolar depression, I changed meds and after a few months of suffering just about every side effect of first one then another medication, I went off the meds altogether. At the same time I also quit my job, felt awesome the next day, and have since been trying to monitor the onset of my depressions to try to understand what's going on. In the two years since then, I went through a little over a month where I felt depressed around Jan/Feb last year, and this past Nov/Dec again for roughly a month from onset until I just felt "normal" again. So not to doubt the abilities of my doctor (GP), but I wonder if I don't actually suffer from cyclomythia or S.A.D. instead of unipolar.
All that being said, I'm wondering if there's a short term treatment or something I could try if this pattern persists. Would taking Xanax work for something like that? I'm not unwilling to try CBT or something similar, but if what's going on could be neurochemical is there something to just interrupt the really bad days until I can ride the depression out?
Thanks in advance!
And sorry in advance if this post is in the wrong spot - this site is huge and I've mostly just lurked until now.
My question is about possible ways (non-drug related) to cope with maybe unipolar.
My life 'til now:
I've dealt with depression for many years (20+) and I've been on and off anti-depressants since my early 20s. Over the years things have gotten worse until I worked a horrible job that combined with personal issues, tipped an extended depression into a suicide attempt (which was half-hearted and failed obviously). I went to my doctor shortly after, went on meds, and was referred to a psycho-pharmacologist who diagnosed me (or at least confirmed my doctor's diagnosis) that I suffered from unipolar depression, I changed meds and after a few months of suffering just about every side effect of first one then another medication, I went off the meds altogether. At the same time I also quit my job, felt awesome the next day, and have since been trying to monitor the onset of my depressions to try to understand what's going on. In the two years since then, I went through a little over a month where I felt depressed around Jan/Feb last year, and this past Nov/Dec again for roughly a month from onset until I just felt "normal" again. So not to doubt the abilities of my doctor (GP), but I wonder if I don't actually suffer from cyclomythia or S.A.D. instead of unipolar.
All that being said, I'm wondering if there's a short term treatment or something I could try if this pattern persists. Would taking Xanax work for something like that? I'm not unwilling to try CBT or something similar, but if what's going on could be neurochemical is there something to just interrupt the really bad days until I can ride the depression out?
Thanks in advance!