General management tips for depressive episodes unhelpful.

I have been fighting the good fight with severe major depressive disorder for the last 5 years of my life. Twice I have been hospitalized for it and finally received ECT back in March '12 with initially great results.

I do my best to live by the following 9 general rules for managing depressive episodes:

1. Do not let your depression define you.
2. Be mindful of your negative thoughts.
3. Do not make major life decisions during an episode.
4. Do not use alcohol or other drugs
5. Eat healthy
6. Exercise for 30 minutes at least 4 days a week.
7. Do not isolate yourself from others.
8. Do not neglect the things you enjoy doing.
9. Seek or continue the help of a mental health professional.

I agree that all of these examples are generally helpful to those suffering from depression. Though, all but #9 have proven to be unhelpful for someone with severe major depression. My depression holds me hostage without any chance for negotiation. I have had ECT, am currently taking industrial, weapons grade medication even when I am not currently having a depressive episodes and it will still sneak up on me and destroy me.

Much like those who live in a flood plain or tornado alley, the flood or tornado will inevitably and perpetually come barreling through and leave you in utter ruin with nothing. Then you do all you can do, begin rebuilding your life and do your best to prepare for the next natural disaster for which you are never fully prepared.

Is this all I have to expect from life? To build it up and have it destroyed even when taking all of the necessary precautions?

I am an eagle scout, army veteran, and a married father of 4 and this cycle is destroying me, multiplied by the fear of being unable to support my family. I recently lost my job due to excessive absences due to a combination of my depression and a then, undiagnosed severe sleep apnea. I then returned to school, where I am going to have to drop classes due to my depression and apnea.

I have received a CPAP machine but the prescribed pressure is too low to be helpful and I have been told that the pressure can only be changed by my doctor and I can only see him once a month because of the number of patients he has. I went to the school's special needs office only to find that in order to receive special needs status you have to have a meeting with the special needs counselor who is completely booked and has a very mean and useless secretary... I have no idea what to do...

Im sorry to hear about your difficulties. I find that a lot of these tips are great for those with moderate depression, but for someone with severe long-term depression, they are quite irritating, because it feels like people just say its in your control, you're just not trying hard enough.

Ive been recommended by my psychiatrist to strongly consider ECT after trying pretty much every med combo there is, but am terribly scared about the process, particularly the potential loss of memory. How long did you find the effects lasted for? Any memory deficits?

I had excellent results from the ECT, even after just the first treatment I could tell a difference. I had a total of 6 over the period of about a month,they usually say somewhere between 6 & 12 is in the therapeutic zone. With the treatment, it's as if someone hit the reboot switch on a computer completely refreshing. I was generally dazed for most of the day following the treatment, mostly from the anesthesia and potent muscle relaxers. It's hard to gauge the memory loss since I was in such a bad way already at the time of the treatment. Math is still difficult for me, but I'm an engineer, so it's already pretty brutal, occupational hazard I suppose...

I would recommend ECT to anyone suffering from moderate to severe depression if it is an option. The results are nearly instantaneous, way better than treating the depression with years of toxic medications that barely work, unpredictably at that. I made the decision to go in for ECT only after I had read up on the subject, there was a really compelling white paper done on the mechanics of the brain when going through ECT at the Goethe University Frankfurt. Long story short, researchers saw that dark, thick, dense clusters of low functioning neurons were pruned away while leaving active and lively neurons intact during ECT. Getting the useless brain cells out of the way so that the synapses can do their job seemed to be a pretty compelling argument.

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.43.7121&rep=rep1&type=pdf

I had clinical depression do to PTSD issues. 20 years of clinical depression. 13 major episodes. Not now. I don't have it now. Well, I have depression.. I healed up. Deep Clinical depressive episodes rate as the worst nightmare one can think of. I feel its the worst of the mental conditions to have. Its very dangerous as you know...

lots of 12 step work, going to meetings, working the 12 steps with a sponsor..

Make sure others are aware of what your going through. If you can, don't be alone for months on end...

have people you can call.

Isolation is a killer.

That stuff you got from the therapists office?; The therapists can do a great job, However, they may not know what this level of human suffering is like. They always have those simplified pamphlets created by Graduate students.

In the middle of my depressions, I was lucky to stay alive. I was completely gone and paralyzed. Keep some lights on, get rid of knives, pills, drugs.. ropes..

have you been hospitalized for this.. you might consider in-patient hospitalization.