The depression thread

Culture
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While all this raising awareness stuff is great, even though it is already well raised, these guys seem to lack one crucial thing. How the fuck do you get yourself out of depression? Knowing that Bressie went though a panic attack in his past is all well and good but how does that actually help people suffering with depression?

Depression deals with human emotion. The term is thrown around for all types of bad feelings and as a result a ‘one size fits all cure’ is impossible. Everyone is different. In my view, anyone that attempts to tell someone that they know the cure for all depression should be immediately ignored.

Instead what I have developed is some insights I have gained into the disorder.

  1. Depression relates to the depressive state. This is an entirely different beast to anxiety. Depression is all encompassing, with you from the moment you wake up until you go to bed. Nothing can bring joy, cannot never see it shifting. Life is a struggle. Relationships are affected, Job is affected. Everything is affected. In my opinion the worst place to be as a human being.
  2. Depression is very difficult to lift, and if it does so it rarely lifts in a short space of time. This is part of the frustration with it. You are suffering like never before yet there is very little to cling to in a hope of relieving this misery. In my view that is where the suicide danger appears.
  3. Depression is a physical state. In that something has shifted in your brain which has caused you to enter this state. In my experience it has arisen from an intense period of anxiety. While it is extremely difficult to realise this while in the throes of it, some hope is offered in that it is not ‘the true you’ and ultimately can be ‘cured’.
  4. Medication is initially excellent but its effects can wane over time.
  5. Time passing is huge. ‘Ride it out’ is a term that used to bug me but unfortunately that is all that can be done sometimes.
  6. Focus needs to be on keeping well outside of the depressive states.
  7. Keeping well for me means accepting that I am prone to depression. Unfortunately it has taken two depressive states to tell me that.
  8. Keeping well for me is about accepting that this is going to cause me discomfort from time to time. But that’s ok - ultimately everyone has discomfort. Hello life. If I don’t accept this, I will fall unwell again.
  9. Keeping well for me is realising that much of my anxiety and depression comes from completely random and unsubstantiated negative thoughts.
  10. Keeping well for me is about trying not to react to such thought and let them pass by. A very difficult thing to do yet entirely possible.
  11. Keeping well for me is about challenging myself anxiety wise and receiving the boost from the benefits that brings from taking on the fight and winning.
  12. Keeping well for me is about regularly visiting a therapist to reinforce the above ideas.
  13. Keeping well for me is about doing things I like - pontificating about music and drinking pints of Guinness regularly with my lady or my mates.
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Good article in the Independent today on thoughts

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OH YES

November 20, 2015Michael Moynihan
Maurice Shanahan picked up a hurling All Star a couple of weekends ago, and by revealing his struggle on the evening of the event, he hoped to encourage others to seek help, just as he did, writes Michael Moynihan

Maurice Shanahan with his brother Dan, pictured on RTÉ’s TGIF this summer.
The lunchtime crowd was emptying out of the Dungarvan pub when a middle-aged couple broke away to approach two big men putting away BLTs in the corner. The couple shook hands with the two men and congratulated the younger one in particular.

“And not just on the All Star, either. What you said was very important, not just for you, and not just for Waterford either. Well done.”

After a few more pleasantries about Lismore’s chances of returning to the senior ranks next season, they were gone out and along the quayside, and Maurice and Dan Shanahan returned to their sandwiches.
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Ever since the younger of the Shanahan brothers spoke frankly and bravely about his battle with depression, such encounters have been occurring regularly. Maurice picked up a hurling All Star a couple of weekends ago, and by revealing his struggle on the evening of the event, he hoped to encourage others to seek help, just as he did.

“I’m overwhelmed by the reaction to what I said, to be honest. People have come up to me on the street, like they did just now, and been very encouraging, saying I’m brave and so forth.

“But I didn’t talk about it for that reason. It was to try to encourage people, particularly kids, who may be struggling with depression. It’s great to have people say to you ‘well done’ or whatever, but the real point is to help other people, and if I can help other people with what I said, and am saying, that’d be great.”

When he sought help, he turned to family first, and then to a wider circle. Clubmates. The county set-up. Derek McGrath, the Waterford manager. The Gaelic Players Association.

“They’ve all been very good to me, Derek, all the lads,” says Maurice.

“As soon as we got in touch with the GPA they sent Conor Cusack down to my house. There weren’t a lot of people I was talking to, but when he knocked on my door I thought, ‘here’s a guy who was a hurler himself, he understands the set-up’. He was outstanding.”

No-one was prouder than his big brother. Dan Shanahan’s goals and grin made him one of the best-known hurlers of his time, and now, as a Waterford selector, Maurice is one of his charges.

“It was fantastic. I was delighted he came out and spoke about it. This is something that affects every family, but when it comes so close to your own door you learn what it’s like.

“It’s to his own credit to come out and speak about it like that, to try to encourage other people, young and old. I’d say there isn’t a family in Ireland that hasn’t been touched by depression.

“The coverage will hopefully encourage people to talk. I suppose it’s come to the fore in the last three or four years, people seem to be more aware of it - maybe people just didn’t feel comfortable talking about it before that. It was a problem always and it’s a problem still, but there’s help available to people, no matter where they are.

“That’s the most important message to get out — that there are people who can help, that you don’t have to go through it alone.”

If the younger Shanahan got the support one might anticipate from the expected sources, he was also helped by some less obvious ones. One old foe came through for the big youngster.

“Davy Fitzgerald was the one who put me on the Waterford senior panel first day when he was manager here,” said Maurice.

“He gave me my start. And when he heard I was struggling, he picked up the phone and rang me.” Fitzgerald went further. He travelled to meet Maurice and talked to him for hours. He said he’d keep in contact and he’s been as good as his word.

“He was good to me and he still is. We’re still in touch. That’s the hurling community for you, the way people row in and help you even if they’re on the other side from you all year. That’s why hurling is unique.”

He had a fine season as the tip of Waterford’s attacking spear, hitting crucial scores in their successful league campaign and voyage to the All-Ireland semi-final. The statuette he got earlier this month underlined that.

“It was great for myself, at the start of the year I sat down and wrote out three goals — the Munster championship, an All-Ireland, and an All Star. I got the third, but even though we didn’t achieve the other two goals, we lost to the Munster and All-Ireland champions, the only two games we lost all year.

“Picking up an All Star was special. It was.” And where’s the award now?

“It’s out in the boot of the car, it’s seeing a lot of the country at the moment as I go around.

“Willie Kiely, the boss (with Iverk Produce), and his wife have been very good to me — in difficult times and when the hurling is going well, it doesn’t matter. They’re very accommodating, and it’s the same for all the lads I work with. Their support has been fantastic.”

“It was great for my mother and father when he won the All Star,” says Dan. “They’re very proud of him, obviously, and it’s a great boost for the family. The GAA, the club, they’re massive parts of our family. And since Maurice spoke out other people have been in touch with them asking what to do in similar situations, what to expect, so they’re involved in it as well, trying to advise people where to go and what to do.

“For Maurice, the turnaround for him in hurling was huge between 2014 and 2015. It was great for him to get that recognition. Hurling is just a game, though. Life is life.”

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Davy Fitz

:clap:

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25

Depression is a cunt of a thing. My ma has it most of her life. I have it too. So does my sister. Its strong in my family! Taking multiple yokes when i was younger hasnt helped the serotnim levels though.Important though to realise its there and just get on with it. My kids drive me on and give me real focus and determination.

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26

fair play
id be in serious trouble if i was using my 2 year son as a motivational tool
interesting point re seratonin depletion due to MDMA, i guess it is essenially a seratinon dopaine catalyst, i guess short term it can cause anhedonia , i didnt know there were Log term effects tho

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+1. Davy Fitz is at heart a very good lad.

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My understanding is that mdna works by releasing the serotinin levels / good mood but uses so much that what it used up cant be retrived. So if you have any sort it its intesified by this. Maybe open to correction. Any docs on here to clarify?
As an aside i watched a doc one night and mdma in its full form has huge potential in dealinng with parkinsons. The had a guy in and he couldnt even zip his jacket, gave him some mdna and he was a new man, was swimming lengths of pools, was unreal

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Just home from my uncle’s funeral. He was 62. Drank & smoked himself to death since his wife left him 15 odd years ago. Most of his kids hadn’t talked to him in years, one of his daughters didn’t even come to funeral. His youngest kid never got the chance to know him - he never made the effort and her mother disencouraged contact.

A right clusterfuck of a situation and one very depressing and sad one.

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good fuck,
depression porn at its finest

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Sometimes I feel like I’m the only person in the world whose not depressed. I feel so alone.

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We need celebrities to start opening up about not being depressed. This would go a long way to end the stigma of not having depression in modern society.

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Who’s

35

I am depressed today, for the first time in a long time. I am having savage bad thoughts.

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Stay strong mate, we won the derby remember.

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You home for Christmas mate?

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aye. Saturday the 23rd. I have to go to a Christmas function at 1 o clock, I just drank a few bottles of cider to gee me up

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Do you have the fear in case the jilted man whos fiancee your tapping comes and smashes you up?

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