Physical Symptoms of Depression?

[Popbiscuit]

I had PND after my third and last baby which I was able to successfully treat with Citalopram. Have been off the anti-depressants for about three years now and mostly feeling good but I know that I'm still fragile in that if anything is thrown off balance; too little sleep, too much stress, too little exercise that I start to feel my mood plummet again. Anyway, I have noticed that when I start to feel the emotional symptoms that I also have a strange physical sensation that I would describe as kind of a prickling or pins and needles like sensation across my back, shoulders and neck. Almost like a sensation of being cold across those parts of my body. It's very strange and always seems to accompany the foul/low mood but goes away when I get back to feeling on an even-keel.
Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this? Have not told my Dr. this as I think it sounds really bonkers but it's definitely not my imagination.

Your description sounds very much like what I experience but in a different part of the body. It affects my hands (sometime lower arm up to elbow) and feet. Earlier in the year it was constant (daily) for months but now it comes and goes. My gp knows about it and she thinks it's just due to the anxiety that I also suffer with. I wasn't convinced at first but after whole heap of blood work (I think calcium and/or magnesium deficiency can do this) I reluctantly accepted it. Certainly the last 3 days have been really bad for me and I have also been awfully anxious so gp is probably right in my case. Personally I would suggest telling your gp. It doesn't sound bonkers (after all how we feel physically affects our emotions and vice versa) and anyway he/she has probably heard loads worse!

Thanks for your reply, Choc. Yes, it definitely comes and goes but when my PND was at it's worst it was constant. Fortunately, I know that it goes away when I'm sleeping properly etc. I think you're also probably right about it being related to anxiety.
Hope that things look up for you soon

Well, as long as no one calls me mad for saying so I have read that depression has some connection with electrical charge. When I'm depressed more lightbulbs blow in our house. Always when I switch them on, not when someone else does. When I'm really depressed, things like toasters catch alight or fuses go.

I'm aware this sounds bonkers, but we do all carry a level of static electricity and it may well effect our moods, or vice versa. I know I used to think I was alone in noticing this, then read an extract from a book about pnd that said the writer had exactly the same problem with bulbs blowing when she was rock bottom. What you describe sounds like a mild electrical charge - that skin prickling feeling is like static.

Just wondering.

Wonder if I've just killed this thread....

Racing--Electricity is EXACTLY what it feels like. I actually refer to it as the "buzzy-tingling" sensation when describing it to DH. That is really interesting.

I experience the back tingling thing -- also on my first pnd (after child no3 also) I could hardly get out of bed as my back was so stiff. I have found deep massage has helped.