am i suffering from depression?

[sadsister]

Hi there,

Where do I begin?
7 years ago 3 o' clock in the morning, someone came into our house attempting to kill my father, the gun shots woke me up and I got up to investigate, they saw me and came after me, thank goodness they did not succeed.

4 years ago my sister was diagnosed with PPMS, and she is just progressing and getting worse.
It feels like I'm carrying the world on my shoulders and can't go on, I just want to cry non stop,
I've even had suicidal thoughts, but then I think what about my family, I can't leave them behind.
Do I need to go see a pshycologist? Or. Am I just going crazy??

Thank you in advance,
Sad sister

[Jo*mar]

Hello,
You may also want to read or post on our Survivors of Suicide forum, they are a very caring & active group of members.

Even surviving thoughts about suicide makes you a survivor.

Survivors of Suicide -
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum29.html

Also be sure to check out the helpful sticky threads at the top of the forums.


crisis & hot line numbers
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread79898.html

[youractualtherapist]

It sounds like you have had some difficult life experiences, it would be likely anyone in your position would get low mood.

Clinical depression is often presented as a lack of lust for life (anhedonia), poor sleep, appetite etc. It appears you are likely suffering from situational depression. Medication can have limited effect on this.

You may benefit from therapy. without assessing you it would be difficult to diagnose, however, do you suffer from flashbacks to these traumatic events? You may have some PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) whereby memories haven't been processed correctly as the brain is trying to refuse to accept the events have happened.

If you give some more detail of symptoms, I will try to give more advice

[waterwillow]

I agree with the previous opinion, I live in Belfast, N. Ireland, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder still affects thousands of people here after 40+ years. It is very easy to accept that all your symptoms are down to depression but if you can seek some counselling/therapy from a QUALIFIED source the hopefully your quality of life will improve and your ability to deal with the difficult situations should be better.

Good luck

[Spiney95]

Any time you are having thoughts of suicide, it is time to see a mental health professional ASAP. You have been through the wringer and would be abnormal if you weren't having some degree of problems. I would guess a clinician would seriously consider a dx of PTSD. Depression often is one of the symptoms that goes with it. This can be dealt with. Best wishes.

[Leesa]

I would see a doctor who could give you a prescription for an antidepressant if he deemed it necessary, and a psychologist cannot do that. A psychiatrist CAN DO THAT, so I think I'd go to one of them. You may not even need any meds, but after some therapy he may think it would be a good idea, and he can write you a script right there so you don't have to make another doctor appointment.

Personally, I DO like psychologists better, but they can't write scripts. So you may as well save yourself some money.

Best of luck and God bless. I sure hope you feel better as soon as possible. Take care. Hugs, Lee

[Spiney95]

As ususal, I agree with Lee. Remember, just because you are put on a needed antidepressant, doesn't mean you will be on it forever. A MD needs to make that decision and that means a psychiatrist. Don't bother with your primary doc. He/she can write antidepressants but this is beyond their scope at this point. IF your local psychiatrists don't like your ins. and are only willing to see your for chemo therapy (meds) because that is a decent reimbursement rate, have him/her refer you to a psychologist for talk therapy. I've been down that road before. Best wishes.