Posted by LyndaK on July 19, 2001, at 3:15:21
In reply to Re: How much can one recover from suicidal depression? » adamie, posted by Noa on July 18, 2001, at 11:51:08
> Hi, Adam. Those statistics are averages/aggregates. It is different for each person.
>
> My personal experience is that I have recovered from a very serious suicidal depression. It has taken time, though, and it hasn't been a straight path all the time.
>
> You must be patient with yourself. That is key, imho. For me, it also involved learning to accept some intermittent depressed moods or days as part of life, and not panicking at every potential "sign" of the depression possibly returning. Intermittent setbacks turned out not to be the catastrophes I feared, and learning to tolerate them really helped in my recovery, because of how debilitating the shame, and anxiety and depression *about* my depression were.
>
> For me, both medication and therapy were essential, as was support including the support I got here.
>
> Give yourself time and patience.
I'm glad to finally see someone acknowledge the importance of psychotherapy. Medications are a GREAT help. They truely address the brain-chemistry-gone-astray. In my case, I was on medication for a number of years before I came to the conclusion that it wasn't "fixing" me. It was relieving some of the symptoms, but there was something else going on as a core problem. I finally found an excellent phsychotherapist who has enlightened me tremendously about my thinking / beliefs about myself / behaviors that trap me in my own unhappiness. I couldn't have made the progress that I have without the meds -- they kept me functioning day by day and allowed me to benefit from my therapy. But the therapy was/is the factor in my recovery that was missing previously.
poster:LyndaK
thread:70157
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010714/msgs/70801.html