A thread for people to learn some more about mental illness

My consultant said that in my condition I wouldn't care if I heard that I had won the lottery and he was right. I had no feelings left at all.

Posted before I finished.
KatyK I have a friend who mostly seems a happy person but who suffered a severe bout of clinical depression late last year which came on suddenly. Luckily she had family to help her as she said something had been driving her to the edge (literally) and that seemed the most logical thing to do. She said she could not make sense of anything.

I agree, Mishap that we are still in the dark ages re treatment of mental illness and understanding its causes.

unable not able

Anya. Do you mean that you feel blanked on this thread, or elsewhere? Please feel free to talk more about schizophrenia if you want to.
I do hope that no one feels able to talk on this thread.

kittylester - no I dont think that the thread is off course at all. Quite the opposite.

Maybe your brother needs the counselling to keep himself on track? Just a thought.

I think that whether someone is a naturally happy person or a naturally not very happy person has no bearing on whether they get a mental illness. But I could be wrong.

I think clinical depression can just come out of the blue, sometimes to people who have no reason to be depressed. I also think that when people have had a lot to cope with over a long period of time, it's like the top blowing off a pressure cooker. I consider myself a 'coper' because I have had a lot to cope with but a few years ago I totally lost the plot. It was as though my mind had been an ordered filing cabinet and someone had tipped it upside down and all the files got mixed up and I couldn't get them back in order (does that make any sense?).

The theory about depression seems to be that we deplete our serotonin levels if we are under too much stress for whatever reason. The idea of the anti-depressants is that increase the amount of serotonin that is kept in the brain and so help to relieve the problem. But by no means all scientists and psychiatrists buy in to that idea.

The treatment of all mental illnesses is really still in the dark ages.

I hope that what people will take away from this thread is the essentially physical/biochemical nature of the illness. The idea that it is a personality weakness and of pulling oneself together, which used hold sway has thankfully been discredited, but is still prevalent in some of the general population.

I can only say that the worst aspects of depression for me were overwhelming physical: extreme weakness and nausea and the sensation of life being sucked away. There was no sadness, which is why it is so different from "feeling depressed" as it is used in casual parlance.

It is an appalling illness and makes you feel out of control as these dreadful sensations drop on you from nowhere. Hopefully one day there will be a fuller understanding of both depression and psychotic illnesses so that people will get more targeted treatment, rather than, as at present, a hit and miss trial and error approach.

loopylou I can't remember what the doctor put on my sick note, something like post-flu exhaustion. It was a very long time ago.

It was always thought that clinical depression was due to a chemical imbalance in the brain and I think this is what many drugs are based on.
However, the more we learn of the human genome I think the more we will find out about mental as well as physical illness.

Some drugs have their side effects, of course, one of them allegedly being a tendency to suicidal thoughts, which is scary. What is supposed to help does the opposite for a few people.
And the more young people use drugs such as skunk etc the more people may react and end up with a mental illness.

kitty you sound like a real trooper and your SIL sounds as if she has found a convenient excuse for getting out of things she doesn't want to do!
But don't say that!

We could definitely have a support group for people like that loopy.

Sorry if I've taken this thread off course. I'll just read it from now on!

Bit of both kittyl.....
I don't think anyone can really get the whole picture because there are too many variables and we're all so different.
Possibly because I've never been able to please my mother then I try to please just about everyone else!
I'm learning the harder way

Thank you loopy. You said that it is lack of support in your case that contributes, is that lack of support in general or when things get bad, I wonder?

This has made me think about my siblings and I. We are all completely different. One brother hasn't a care in the world, one brother has had counselling for ages but, actually, doesn't seemed to need it (but is that because the counsellor is good?) I tend to think he is indulging himself but is that me being harsh because I don't understand it?

Our mother had a 'nervous breakdown' having lost one of twins when he was 2 but it is my brother who is 'the other' twin who has no cares at all. The brother who suffers from depression was born after Mum got better and was really (too) much loved. My mum never really liked me once she had sons but I seem to cope fine with most things. I do get stressed, sad, cross, etc but those feelings never last.

I've still not got the hang of this!

Hopefully the stigma of MH is lifting too, it wasn't so long ago that sufferers were treated like pariahs which must have compounded their situation.
I was so ashamed the first time round, as if it was all my fault, that I wouldn't let my GP put 'depression' on my sick note - he wrote 'debility' which probably didn't fool anyone!

I don't think any of us is comparing or one-upping Kitty which is why this thread is so good.

When I was in hospital the sister of a well known murdered girl was there at the same time. I was in such a bad way that I had no idea who she was and for that matter could not have cared at the time. She was very keen to be 'worse' than anyone else and belittled my situation saying "Shut up it is not as bad as me, my sister was raped and murdered". I walked out of that session saying "this is not a competition". Actually the press never said her sister was raped. Clearly hers was a really terrible situation but her attitude didn't help her or anyone else.

Not at all kittylester, perhaps there's an underlying predisposition in some of us. Many 'copers' carry on happily and maybe they have coping mechanisms or supportive people around them.
I find I need to do more physical activity if heading downhill , which I tend to not do if I'm mentally or emotionally stressed. Brainache is how I describe it.
For you it's different as perhaps you have a better balance?
It appears to me that very extrovert people quite often seem to prone to clinical depression and other MH problems - I'm thinking of Stephen Fry, Spike Milligan.
Definitely it's lack of support or understanding in my case DH ignores/can't understand it and my parents are of the 'pull yourself together' school.

You didn't offend me jingl about your post on schizophrenia. Better than being blanked anyway

One of the reasons why I asked the questions was that I am the 'go to' person round here and I quite enjoy it but one of my sisters in law, as she puts it, runs out of emotional energy. I take no credit for coping with things, it's just me, and I wonder if, sometime soon, I'll hit a buffer and not cope any more. That thought terrifies me after reading what some of you have, or do, go through.

Please don't think that I feel my life experiences of life are in any way as awful as some of yours - they most definitely are not, though life hasn't always been fantastic - but is that all that determines whether one will have any sort of mental illness? Do 'glass half full' people become depressed? Or is GK's serotonin?

I hope I'm not offending anyone - I'm trying to understand.

My experience was similar to loopylou - work problem, coupled with a personal problem.
I could not have functioned enough to work but I know I was stressed and depressed rather than having clinical depression.
Some of the patients attending our psychiatric clinic would seem to be high-functioning charming individuals but had been diagnosed as psychopaths.

I think it is possible that some may be more susceptible than others but only in the same way as some are more susceptible to cancer than others.

Loopyloo the book Depression is the Curse of the Strong exactly describes your situation, a very good little book which suggests some coping methods. It is interesting to see that it so often happens to those of us who are the 'copers' and not to those who are naturally weaker.

On Fb this morning there was a quote "Telling someone with depression to 'get over it' is like telling someone with cancer to stop having cancer. I think that makes the point rather well that it is not your own fault if you are suffering from clinical depression.

In my own case I was the 'go to' person at home, at work and with friends. I always propped everyone else up but when faced with the need for support from my Director it wasn't there and, after severe bullying, I went under. Often wonder if mine should have been diagnosed as post traumatic stress disorder.

I agree soontobe
Sadly for some there may not be a way out.

I think that depression, in the main, is because the brain cannot cope in some way.
Not just depression, but OCD, eating disorders, perhaps all mental illnesses.

The brain then needs rest and time to heal.

Because of things that happen in someone's life, life events, trauma, someone is stressed or overburdened, or bullied, or may have inherited it, or through bad parenting eg being constantly belittled etc etc.

But some people can get out of it too. Better life events happening, better relationships, may be a different diet in some way, talking, and talking therapies, CBT, and yes even self help books etc.

But a little exchange on here with Ana was cheering. As always.

Even the most highly qualified psychologists don't know what the real cause of depression is. Or why some people suffer from it whilst others don't.

I hope I didn't offend anyone with my posts about schizophrenia. I was responding to absent's suggestion of going into mental illness a bit more deeply. The book I read was published many years ago, and, as I said, the so-called experts have most likely changed their minds several times over since then.

I know one thing. The day I had on Gransnet yesterday, didn't do a lot for mine.

That should read.... Absent you are so right.

Absent you are do right!