[vickiejaynem]

:lol:

hi all i am new to the site. i am 27 mum of three. when my youngest (now 9 months) was 6 weeks i was diagnosed with post natal depression for the first time. I have lived with all the symptoms of depression but the umbrella of 'post natal depression' didnt quite fit as my main propblem is feeling totally detached and feeling spaced out almost 24/7 and BIG mood swings.
my gp here in scotland didnt really help at all,just put my symptoms down to being an overworked mum. However, i very briefly spoke to someone in the psychiatric field who said that i have depersonalisation as my main illness. Didnt give me any ideas on how to help live with it though.

can anyone please help guide me in the right direction.here in scotland the medical care esp mental health care is well crap unless you want to pay HEAPS.
i have no idea how to live with this.i have tried to do it for 8 months without any meds. I admit defeet.

I can no longer cope with feeling like this 24/7.just when i have a few hours better,it all comes back again and i get annnoyed that i feel like this.

well,i say i.i dont know who that is half the time as i feel like i am looking in on a totaly weired place and dont recogise anything.i feel i exist,i dont live

I dont know what to do. GP basically just thinks i am wasting time as i am not keen to go on anti depressants until i have tried everything else. can anyone recommend any natural help such as st johns wort,omegas etc.i tried omegas for a while but didnt help. any ideas?

can anyone recommend any books? not that i feel like reading them most of the time.
or which meds are best to take. as i say,i have 3 kids to watch all day too
i wiosh this crap would end and my hubby,kids and i could get 'me' back.
thanks
vickie

 

[Martinelv]

Hiya Vickie. By the way, whereabouts in Scotland are you from ? I spent four years at Glasgow University, and I swear it never stopped raining, not for a minute.

Anyway, don't think that because you're considering meds is admitting defeat. Not at all. Med's aren't a cure, for most people anyway, but they can be extremely usefull in helping you cope...helping you to cope while sort your head out. There is plenty of information on this site regarding possible medications that you might suggest to your GP.

Also, you don't HAVE to live with it. It's not neccessarily a life-long curse. I've recovered, and so have many others. The trick is finding out what helps you...and sometimes that's a bit of a beast. The best advise I can give is the only advise that worked for me....continue with your life as best you can...keep going, keep doing what you enjoy even if you don't want to....

Anyway, I'm sure you'll get lots of advice from other people on here....hang in there.

 

[vickiejaynem]

hi
thanks for the reassurance . i just hate living like this. i have known a few people who took anti depressant meds and it took months 4 them to find the right one for them,eg loads of side effects, doesnt work etc. i guess thats why i am not keen on taking them. however,i have come this far and cannot do it anymore without some sort of help be it medication,alternative therapies etc. my kids and hubby dont deserve this robot they have,they need me back to my oldself. Havent been like that since baby was born.
how did you get through it? any suggestions.my gp is CRAP!!! I was reffered to a cpn for post natal depression but after only one visit,i was put back into the system as I had been reffered to the wrong team and they didnt cover my gp surgery. could be months again before i am seen.
finding info on the subject in the uk is sparce. this forum is great though,whereever it is based.
does anyone know anything that might help?
thanks
by the way i am in aberdeen,and yes it is snowing just now.makes a change from the rain :lol:

 

[Martinelv]

Hey Vickie.

Don't worry - everyone on this board knows exactly what you are going through.

As for medications, the newest type of anti-depressants, the SSRI's, have relatively few side effects for most people. I've been on most of them at some time or another, and had very little problem. The most successfull, from experience and others on this board, seem to be Cipramil and Effexor. The older types of anti-depressants, such as MAOI's and Tri-cyclics, do have sometimes have some nasty side effects, but if you can stick with them they are usually as effective as SSRI's. Keep in mind however, that all these type of drugs take a good month or two to kick in, and (ironically) they may actually make you feel worse for a week or two, so you have to stick with it.

The other type of medication used is..........and it's a point of argument on this board, is a group of tranquilizers called benzodiazepines. You'll know them as Valium, or a myriad of other types....such as Clonazepam, Lorazepam, etc. Now, while these drugs are stupendously effective at relieving anxiety, and usually DR/DP to a certain extent, they are of course only a short term (say when you are feeling your worst) or intermittent solution. They can be, when used in large doses over a long period of time, habit forming and some people have terrible trouble withdrawing from them. However, I've used them over the years, only when needed, and have had no trouble at all. In fact, I'd say they have saved my life. Instead of thinking of them as a long term solution, think of them as a crutch to use when times are intolerable.

With regards to therapy or counselling, unless you are willing to go private, the mental health services in this country, as you know, are pretty appaulling. They are geared towards people with 'serious' mental health problems, such as schizophrenia.

How did I cope ? Well, as I said, I just kept on trying to live my life as normally as possible. Luckily for me, I had no psychological problems before I took loads of illegal drugs which triggered my DR/DP, and it faded on it's own over about a year.

Anyway, good luck.

 

[vickiejaynem]

hi
just bumbing this to see if anyone else has any recommends for treatment so I can to go my gp and say right I would like this,this or this to try to help me medication wise.
many thanks

 

[coco33]

Hi Vicky,

I live in N.Ireland.....not too far away from you. I know exactly what you are going through. If you have time read MY STORY, MY SURVIVAL. It is about what i went through and i suspect some of it may be similar to what you are going through.

My advice to you would be to take medication. I took Effexor xl and it saved my life and enables me to take care of my 2boys and have a normal life.

If you do not treat depression soon it can lead you down a darker path....believe me i know.

Medication does not have to be forever but it is there to help you get through the hard times, you should listen to your doctor.

 

[berlin]

HI Vicky, any updates? If you are waiting for the mechanisms of our health sevice to get started you'll be waitin a long time!!!! Im from Lanarkshire in Scotland and identify with you on a few counts. I also developed this 24/7 after the birth of my second child, he is now past three and I'm consious of all that I, and they are missing as long as the essence of me is absent.

More by luck than design I was identified as a dissociative when I was reffered by my health visitor to the local mental health intervention unit (she was concerned I didnt have feelings for my children).
I had already been to the Dr and prescribed AD's. I have no problem with these but felt misunderstood as I'd experienced serious deppression and this 'felt' the opposite. I didn't and still don't feel, not even anxiety by that time.
When I met the psy nurse he agreed with me when I told him I didn't 'feel' depressed and scored me for a thing called dissociation. My score was high but the information that he could give me on the condition was very limited, I came away believing I must have been abused in childhood to have developed this method of mental escape (so limited was his understanding of the condition).
I function very well from day to day, not feeling has its benefits, I dont react emotionally to things, or hold onto bad feelings and torture myself with them. But I so badly strive to regain the experience of the old me and not miss out on much more of my babies young years. Id like to say persist with the health service but I haven't . Its very difficult to communicate though, why should it be treated if it doesn't affect you're functioning is the message I got.
PLease feel free to get in touch.