questions

[festiveface]

How can you tell if it's depression or if it's just your personality type?

if you are always that way then is it best not to take a.d's and get on with it, i mean otherwise you might be on thwm for life.

if you are gettting on with things and appear fine to everyone else is it not depression

appearing fine to everyone else isn't relevant. "everyone else" is hardly medically qualified. i was once told by a GP - here's some Prozac, they won't work, as you have a depressive personality, but aren't depressed - the GP was wrong - I had OCD and the Prozac did work!! IMHO it either is clinical depression/anxiety or it isn't. Personality is a separate issue.

ADs aren't the be all and end all of treatment - sometimes counselling/psychotherapy/cognitive behaviour therapy are used instead of or as well as ADs. Small things like healthier diet, more exercise, avoiding caffeine/alcohol, getting enough sleep can also help.

GPs these days are quite keen to limit how long you are on ADs - you are NOT likely to be on them for life.

thanx for the helpful advice mummytosteven
think i'm having a bad week.

hello festive face. I think that if you need to take a.d.'s then you should hun.

i have been on them for 5 years, i asked my gp why i hadn't got to a point where i could come off them and he explained to me that some people do have a tendancy towards depression and need take little somehting to keep them on an even keel.

There is such a stigma attached to depression because it is a mental illness. If you were diabetic and need to take drugs longterm to keep you well then you would take them, why should it be any different with depression. There tends to be a feeling that its something you should get better from at some point and indeed many sufferers do but this isn't the case for everyone.

If anybody is struggling with depression and taking a pill every day helps them to lead a normal life then i think they should definately take it

Julie x