Depression (major depressive disorder) is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. Fortunately, it is also treatable. Depression causes feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities once enjoyed. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease a person’s ability to function at work and at home.

Depression symptoms can vary from mild to severe and can include:

Feeling sad or having a depressed mood
Loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed
Changes in appetite — weight loss or gain unrelated to dieting
Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much
Loss of energy or increased fatigue
Increase in purposeless physical activity (e.g., hand-wringing or pacing) or slowed movements and speech (actions observable by others)
Feeling worthless or guilty
Difficulty thinking, concentrating or making decisions
Thoughts of death or suicide
Symptoms must last at least two weeks for a diagnosis of depression.

Also, medical conditions (e.g., thyroid problems, a brain tumor or vitamin deficiency) can mimic symptoms of depression so it is important to rule out general medical causes.

Depression affects an estimated one in 15 adults (6.7%) in any given year. And one in six people (16.6%) will experience depression at some time in their life. Depression can strike at any time, but on average, first appears during the late teens to mid-20s. Women are more likely than men to experience depression. Some studies show that one-third of women will experience a major depressive episode in their lifetime.

https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-familie...t-is-depression

With the recent death of Chester Bennington, the world is shocked by this 'silent' killer. Read more about this in http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/che...-a-mood-w503934

I think we need a support group to try to help or for people who are having mental issues to talk about it. Hopefully it is a beginning to the long recovery of depression. Of course we are not professional here but we can share our stories and help support each other.

This post has been edited by abubin: Sep 19 2017, 02:01 PM

What medicine is the best for depression?

What vitamins can help reduce depression?

Can also reach out to Befrienders for support.

Try taking a look here.

This post has been edited by ZenXL: Sep 19 2017, 11:46 AM

not at the peak level, and i'd rather classify it more as anxiety.

the onset of anxiety can lead to depression (they are both different), and i have gone through (and still going through) some of the toughess time in all my life.

here's a reddit thread that has given me some tips recently https://www.reddit.com/r/Nootropics/comment...nic_depression/

the takeaway i get is, sleep !

i rarely get restful sleep. my mind is hyperactive. i always wake in the middle of the night, at least once. if i wake more than once, the next day i'll be very irritated and tired. the uncontrolled thoughts is easier to attack me when i am at the weakest.

when i get the onset of panic attack, i know my symptom quite alot now, which is very fast heart rate and the hand will turn ice cold. what i do is, i will stop everything im doing, and do deep breathing. if that isn't enough, then i'll walk away from the location and find something else that will distract me, like scenery. then i will do the breathing exercise there until symptom subside.

now, i have bought a lavender essential oil, it helps keep me calm.

This post has been edited by dtdw: Sep 19 2017, 12:12 PM

i support!

just read the news about the statistics from befrienders showing how people with suicidal thoughts are rising this year. i also was in a similar place a few years ago but i was lucky to have a supportive family.

How about anxiety support group?

I have extended this topic to all sorts of psychological disorder. If it is too large a topic then we will have to split it. Else, it helps for those having this problem to read about them and then find out exactly what kind of mental disorder they are having.

I just had some sort of anxiety attack recently and my hands almost became numb. I was driving and had to stop at the curb to relax.

I feel you, i get anxiety attack from time to time too..Not really sure how to overcome it.

Need to find out what is the cause of it. I think for some people there is a trigger.

.

This post has been edited by dtdw: Sep 21 2017, 08:08 AM

May i know more about your panic attack, especially the heart rate part. does it gradually racing up & subsides instantly after the breathing exercise?

Last month i have symptoms of physical panic attacks although my mind was clear & not really anxious.
I got a sudden increase of racing beats out of nowhere without any alarming thought, no strenuous activity at all during attack.
After experiencing a few sudden racing episode & feel ashamed to measure my heart rate with mobile apps at work (usually within 130+ bpm), i finally bought myself a fitbit device.
2 days after I got a quite nasty panic attack that sends my heart rate from 100+ to 171bpm in seconds. spontaneously cough up this one & it drops suddenly to below 100 bpm. Crazy but amusing at the same time. No other symptoms, no hyperventilation & dizzyness, just the racing beats.

Although my physical symptoms are brief but it was quite painful...lol. annoying pressure feel in chest & my back hurts hours after that episode. I got intermittent palpitation for days...lol, become very sensitive with food.

I dont think my panic was triggered by emotions, it maybe something i've eaten....for the last 6 weeks before the big attack i quit carbs cold turkey & embark on a high intensity exercising but without proper sleep & rest. I accidentally dropped on the diet bandwagon & have eaten white breads & more carbs for a few days. It looks like my body really hated that shit im eating.

Thank goodness it's been 4 weeks i dont experience it anymore. Just hoping that was the last one.

This post has been edited by speedfamgirl: Sep 22 2017, 02:52 AM

it has quite alot to do with sugar levels, that much i can say. i also have other health issues. i suspect it's those cases where a sudden drop of blood sugar triggers the effect. but coupled with lack of sleep, all sorts of things can happen.

usually the heart rate for panic attack is sudden rise, so when i tested it is up at 120bpm, and after deep breathing it falls back down to around 90. My usual is 86bpm.

170+bpm is probably a little bit unusual, i think yours is mainly diet and nothing much to do with anxiety driven panic attack.

This post has been edited by dtdw: Sep 22 2017, 07:48 AM

Well i did consulted our medic at work about the sudden increase in pulse rate because i feel so sore the next morning...he hinted it may be atrial fibrillation & urged to get it checked. The mentioning of AFib makes me really anxious, i took a quick glance on my fitbit during the meet up but the rate was only 110 bpm tops...lol. so yeah it's not too high & i can sense it coming because it creeps up.

I dont think I have any weird heart/thyroid problem of course, but sometimes being on ketogenic diet may cause some arrhythmia during the induction stage.

When is the last time you have your medical check done?

In my clinical practice,
I found that most of the panic attack sufferers was triggered by certain condition.
Such as heart palpitation or dizziness when people stare on them in the public area.
Food itself also plays a role here.
For example, teh ice during late dinner and then midnight wake up with heart palpitation (This might relate to blood sugar level and stress hormone issue).

We shouldn't only work on one factor but take a more holistic approach to improving mental health issues.
Psychotherapy or clinical hypnotherapy works very well if therapist finds out the root cause and provide them with various coping techniques.

on July this year

Appreciated your response.

Just a short story about me here:
I myself too in the past, few years back i did feel a bit moody & lost with low esteem, poor communication just because of working night shift for almost a year. The resource & encouragement i had was minimal, it makes me quite anxious with people & slowly it was affecting my work performance. I always feel negative & thinking people will always talking bad about me behind my back. I snapped so easily. I was in big trouble in the verge of losing my job, hence im asking for a counselling session while doing the dreaded improvement plan.
The counselling somehow worked, it feels like a great relief to be able to talk to a professional 3rd party without prejudice about my background. Once the mind has been set clear (i just learn to be assertive in communication with people) the rest follows. Completed the improvement plan & saved my ass from being terminated.
Most of the bad people that make my life miserable (or its just me?) have moved on & the new supervisors didn't care so much about my past. I finally get all the resource & help i need to succeed.

I know the feeling of having mental stress...it may affect on the physical. when the mental are tired i have more stupid dreams, dull skin & acne due to lack of deep sleep, despondent (gundah gulana) feeling every day..but never heart palpitations.

The palpitations for me comes from physical stress. I have researched a lot on my physical symptoms for the past few weeks, yet nothing matches exactly on what i've experienced. My medical reports are good & its pretty impossible i'm suddenly getting weird heart problems at the age of 33...lol.
The only strong reason i got sudden rapid pulse out of nowhere is due to low carb crash diet.
https://www.etobb.com/question/i-have-been-...he-past-f-36353

So peeps, eat well & dont do drugs mmkay? (p/s: i dont smoke, no drug & very seldom do alcohol)

sometimes, test report can come out all clean, afterall those are one time and not constant monitoring. i still get sudden drop in blood sugar feeling and i have to keep on eating every 2 hours. i have also other health issues that needs to be fixed but yeah, diet plays a role apart from mental stress.

it goes both ways. a person needs to take care of both to be able to function well. and sleep of all things is most important. especially slow wave sleep.

i somehow suspect i always get REM sleep and fragmentation more often, and wake up multiple times cant fall back asleep. these stacks up and will make a sane person go crazy.

CAN SOMEONE KINDLY GIVE ME SUGGESTION FOR A GOOD HYPNOTHERAPY PERSON, WHO CAN HELP ME WITH MY ANXIETY . I BEEN READING ONLINE,HYPNOSIS CAN HELP DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY. BUT ALL ORANG PUTIH PLACE.
CAN SOMEONE GUIDE ME FOR THIS.