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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
[email protected]Shown: posts 1 to 10 of 10. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by DC on March 30, 2000, at 1:31:09
This is something I've been wondering about lately. When people talk about depression they often talk about the "blues" the "lows" and it is, of course, supposed to be an emotional disorder. But I'm wondering if sadness is really even a major component for most people who are depressed. I feel crappy and miserable, but I'm not sad. This feeling is totally different from what I get when I cry during a sad movie, for instance. I know some depressions are precipitated by the death of a loved one or divorce. I sense that most people in here do not have these "endogenous" depressions, but rather something different. I wonder if most anti-depressants work better for people who are really "sad" as opposed to numb, tired, miserable. No one seems to talk about this. But these are very different emotions and it makes sense that they would respond to different meds. I wonder how many people in here would describe their depression as feeling "sad". I wonder if very many people actually experience extreme "sadness" for long periods of time--or does the sadness transmute into the numbness. Is depression "learned helplessness"? hopelessness? In other words what is the basic emotion involved in depression?
Posted by PaulS on March 30, 2000, at 2:11:10
In reply to Does depression = feeling very sad?, posted by DC on March 30, 2000, at 1:31:09
Depression has never felt like sadness to me. I hate it when it is called the blues. To me, it is the absence of feeling...happy, sad, otherwise. With no real feelings I feel disconnected from people and the world most of the time. It does make me feel angry and frustrated though at being stuck in this condition.
Posted by NikkiT on March 30, 2000, at 3:47:22
In reply to Does depression = feeling very sad?, posted by DC on March 30, 2000, at 1:31:09
I wouldn't say i felt "sad"... I'm not sure how to explain how i feel.. sometimes I feel very bland, and un feeling, and other times I feel very angry and hateful.. I do seem to get angry very easily at the moment, and very agressive, but the rest of the time, I just feel, kind of like a balloon with a small leak so going a bit flat.
but not sad... I certainly don't cry much.Told you I couldn't explain how I really felt!
Posted by Phil on March 30, 2000, at 6:38:41
In reply to Re: Does depression = feeling very sad?, posted by NikkiT on March 30, 2000, at 3:47:22
Numb, apathetic, angry, ruminating.
Posted by Greg on March 30, 2000, at 9:43:56
In reply to Does depression = feeling very sad?, posted by DC on March 30, 2000, at 1:31:09
I agree with the rest, I don't feel sad, most of the time I feel nothing. Although lately I've been
really angry because I think I've been doing everything possible to feel better and its not working. Frustration, anger, emptyness...yes. Sadness, no, not for me.Greg
Posted by CarolAnn on March 30, 2000, at 10:55:41
In reply to Does depression = feeling very sad?, posted by DC on March 30, 2000, at 1:31:09
My depression consists of all the negative and/or lack of emotion the others describe, but I also have experienced periods of very intense sadness. Times when I would actually feel as though my heart were breaking, and have absolutely no reason to feel that way. It is utter "depression" and hopelessness, to know intellectually that you really do have everything you ever wanted in life, and still, feel no joy and worse actually feel the kind of sadness(grief, even) that most people would only feel with a major family catastrophe. Lucky for me, I haven't been that low in a few months! CarolAnn
Posted by NikkiT on March 30, 2000, at 13:22:39
In reply to Re: Does depression = feeling very sad?, posted by Phil on March 30, 2000, at 6:38:41
> Numb, apathetic, angry, ruminating.
Yeah, I guess that pretty much sums it up... Definately apathetic most of the time.
Finally got an appoinment with a psychiatrist though.. even though now I'm simply scared he'll tell me theres nothing wrong..
Posted by DC on March 30, 2000, at 14:28:15
In reply to Does depression = feeling very sad?, posted by DC on March 30, 2000, at 1:31:09
Most of your posts seem to confirm my own suspicion, namely that sadness is not the major component of depression for most people, or atleast the people on this board. A lot of you mentioned anger and frustration and lack of feeling, though. With lack of feeling being such a strong symptom, it seems odd that so many people say that anti-depressants prevent them from feeling things. I have found, for instance, that I don't have the same emotional reactions to sad movies while on ADs.
Posted by MA on March 30, 2000, at 22:44:13
In reply to Re: Does depression = feeling very sad?, posted by DC on March 30, 2000, at 14:28:15
Not always, but sadness has been there over the years and perhaps is part of the years I have lost to this illness. I usually don't feel anger even when I'm not depressed but some of my most distressing symptoms are vulnerability to stress including sound sensitivity, inability to follow conversations, inability to focus, feelings of apathy and uselessness. Also the feeling like I didn't fit in any where, not being connected to life or feeling any pleasure or joy, no matter what situation I was in. I was always pretending to be having a good time even when I was crying on the inside. I was attractive, smart, had friends, but didn't feel like any of it meant anything.
I have known people whose depression was the opposite. Not sadness, but irritability, anger, anxiety. I have heard this called an agitated depression versus melancholic depression, where the symptoms are sadness, crying, etc.
Sadness, I think, can be a later sign after you feel crummy for so long.
Posted by bob on March 31, 2000, at 21:24:21
In reply to Re: Does depression = feeling very sad?, posted by DC on March 30, 2000, at 14:28:15
Wow--someone who actually knows about learned helplessness. Certainly, the cognitive-behavioralists will tell you that's one component of it....
> With lack of feeling being such a strong symptom, it seems odd that so many people say that anti-depressants prevent them from feeling things. I have found, for instance, that I don't have the same emotional reactions to sad movies while on ADs.
Maybe that has something to do with the variety in our neurochemical make-ups (certainly more than anything cognitive or behavioral). I certainly felt that loss of the ability to feel for the 2.5 years I was on SSRIs. Apparently, the biological aspect of my disorder has more to do with norepinephrine and dopamine than seratonin ... maybe all that massaging of my seratonin levels contributed to it.
Certainly, tho, my depression played a HUGE role in not feeling. Like everyone else, what I feel (or don't feel) is far more than sad, but deep, profound sadness always accompanies my worst depressive episodes ... it's the last (bale of) straw.
Going the other direction, I spent most of December and January in a great deal of pain and sorrow -- perhaps the worst depressive episode I've had in a decade. The crasy thing about it all was that I knew I was feeling that way because my meds and my therapy had brought me *UP* to that place where I could begin to feel and begin to care again.
... the problem, of course, being that my life was so shitty, caring about it was not necessarily the best thing for me to do! ;^)
my two cents,
bob
This is the end of the thread.
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