long term depression - strategies when you feel yourself sliding?

[mileniwmffalcon]

i've not been feeling quite right lately. nothing that merits a trip to the gp, but a general sense of unease and the beginnings of thoughts/feelings that only really surface when i'm depressed. prolly for about 2 weeks out of the last month.

i've been well for the last couple of years, but in the past have suffered several major episodes in reaction to bad things happening as well as entirely out of the blue when life was on the up, so i'm always alert to the possibility of it coming on again.

i'm living a pretty much exemplary lifestyle at the moment, exercising, drinking infrequently, not dabbling in anything else mood-altering, eating well, have been losing weight very sensibly but pretty much at goal now. very little stress, regular time to myself etc. etc. slightly at a loss as to what else i can do in terms of emergency measures to stave this off (if it is the start of something).

anyone got any ideas? or just a shoulder? i'm not yet at the "here we go again" stage but i'm concerned and wondering if there's anything i can do to nip it in the bud. help!

for me its talking about it, saying to someone you feel close to that its all getting too much and them letting you off load/cry or taking some of the weight off you, hope someone with more experince comes along to offer advice but it is such a positive step when you can start to reognise you are slipping x

thanks insy i've learned to be pretty alert to it at the beginning as once it kicks in i lose any kind of perspective. like, when i'm ill i can't remember/imagine ever feeling any different, and the same when i'm well. it's only when i'm at that crossing over point, for a few weeks, when i have any kind of insight into what's rational and what isn't.

dp's my rock, always has been, i think he's a bit worried too

but i have a couple of nice weekends lined up, including a night away just for us, so if anything was going to help that should.

I would 2nd talking to friends. Or spending time around people who make you feel good, not the draining type. I was also going to say don't drink but see you are already doing that. I plug my ipod in and go for a walk which has a (temporary) lift. Is there anything in particular you can pin-point over the last 2 weeks?

hmm the social bit is the first to go when i'm down, and one of my indications that i'm a bit wobbly is when i begin to avoid socialising. i'm always torn about this as in theory i know it's good to spend time with friends, but i can find just holding a conversation utterly draining, and in the short term it can make me feel much much worse. so i swing between making myself socialise and not pushing myself to do things that hurt, never sure which is the best...

no trigger i can see. my mood usually fluctuates with my hormones, somewhat unpredictably, but this month it just doesn't seem to have righted itself when it should have done.

does exercise help? like castle says it can give a temporary lift, I avoid socialising too when down but I do get more into my craft type things mainly scrapbooking and photos as minimal effort required but I do see a sense of achievement which is a lift when I'm ready to socialise a bit more I tend to go to workshop type things that I can do an ativity so I don't directly have to socialise if that makes sense, gardening and singing (not necessarily at the same time!) help too, I guess for me when I find myself at the junction I'm trying to learn to look for a different outlet - the weekends away you have planned sound lovely

I've taken a tumble recently, was aware of it approaching, I was becoming compulsive about things, trying to over-achieve, brittle, if that makes any sense. Yesterday I stayed in bed all day, crying for long periods, sleeping for hours. Hope it's flushed some of the toxins out, always a sure sign I need to take more care of myself.

sarajen, yes you do sound like you need to take care of yourself, hope you can (or even better have someone else who can take care of you ).

hmm i do know what you mean about becoming compulsive though. i'm a little concerned how my diet is likely to pan out. i'm a week or so off goal and in a normal frame of mind i'd be yippee wine to celebrate, spend what little remains of my inheritance on frocks and slinky undies and that would be that. but i dunno. back in the mists of time i had a bit of an eating disorder just as i was emerging from my first serious depression. it's control when you can't control how you feel, it's step-by-step self harm (i have a lot of urges to sh when i'm down but i'm too much of a pussy to actually do anything) and it's a, well, comforting feeling to be slowly disappearing

but i'm aware of all this, which is a good thing, right? it's not all stewing unchecked somewhere in my subconscious...

i've just started running insy, which definitely does help, i go 3 or 4 times a week, but i'm trying to be super careful to pace myself and not push too quickly cos if i got injured and couldn't go at all that would be really really bad.

thanks everyone, talking it through is helping, i think.

bumping this for the evening crowd as i'd appreciate any more ideas, really i would.

When I notice a collapse in mood, it's back on the tablets! I find I improve with the first dose, and that's that. I find it's a very physical thing.

thanks bla, i'm the same when i reach a point where it's clear what's going on, but this is more like a niggle than a full-on crash. hard to tell if it's the start of something bigger or just a little blip.