Gabapentin side effects?

For MOST people. But some people have very resistant depression. Some have dysthymia. Some end up getting shock treatments or transcranial magnetic therapy. Many find relief from meds after trying different ones. Some struggle, never see a light at the end of a tunnel and kill themselves. I am just saying it isn’t as simple as saying, “Depression is a very treatable condition.” In my mind that sounds like telling someone they can get over it if they just “buck up”. Makes me wince.
Depending on why they are depressed also plays a part. I had developed a severe situational depression in reaction to severe ongoing pain. I am very lucky I was finally able to find the cause of the pain and eventually get it fixed. It went on for almost 10 years. Constant unrelenting pain in my jaw that effected my ability to eat, smile, talk, could barely open my mouth, hurt to have things touch my face, including the phone. May sound terrible but my ex husband committing suicide during that period of time kept part of me going; I knew I could not do that to my (grown) children. Plus guess I am lucky I am bullheaded as all get out - I KNEW something was very wrong and no matter what I was told or how I was treated, knew I was not crazy! I have now had artificial jaw joint implants bilaterally for 11 years this coming June. Pain went away almost immediately (sure, had postop pain but that’s different)! My depression took awhile, but it did improve. I was one of the lucky ones.

Excuse me but I said nothing at all like, "just get over it" or "buck up". I said it was treatable. There are three kinds of treatment. The first is talk therapy, the second is drug therapy, the third is bibliotherapy or reading books about the causes and effects of depression. All three of those methods are known to work. Any two of those methods of treatment in combinations are proven to work twice as well as anyo one alone. All three used together are three times as effective as any one of them on its own. After many years of treatment, I'm not sure I know what situational depression is as I have come to believe that depression isn't about what happens to us, depression is about how we think about what happens to us.

Awful things happened to human beings and they make us sad, things break our hearts, we experience extreme loss. Being made sad or worse by situations is not necessarily depression. Sadness is a normal state of being when we lose people or we lose a job or maybe we lose a friend. Any number of things can happen to us to darken our mood and leave us wounded. This may turn into depression which needs to be treated but we don't need to experience loss or injury to become depressed. Depression runs in families. Depression can be learned behavior. Depression can be based on a person's brain chemistry, their diet, their lack of exercise or any other combination of poor life skills or poor life experiences .

I'm not speaking about manic depressive disorders, those are completely different and don't respond to the same drugs that we take for depression without mania.

From my observations of friends and fellow artists, manic depression seems to be a much more serious condition with a much bleaker out look for treatment.

I'm not playing down the seriousness of depression either. Left untreated, depression is a terminal disease. It can affect our general health, our longevity, our relationship with other people, our ability to hold jobs. It also affects our ability to heal, to recover from illnesses. For patients with chronic pain both depression and anxiety can greatly worsen our situation. It increases our experience of pain and by that I mean what hurts really bad when I'm depressed doesn't hurt quite as much when I'm happy. This presents serious pitfalls for some patients who say I don't need talk therapy, I don't need drugs, it's normal to feel this way when you're in that much pain. I am not depressed, depression is not my problem. Too many people look at depression as a character weakness or a flaw and refuse to admit they are depressed and refuse to seek for accept treatment. This is very frustrating to watch in another person, especially a loved one. I know this to be true because in the beginning I refuse to admit that I was depressed and didn't seek help until I was in a great deal of pain and perhaps it risk for ending my life. When I began treatment, I used all three methods at the same time which is what I would encourage anybody else to do. You can take too many pills and you can take have too many operations but you cannot have too much bibliotherapy, or too much talk therapy. You can't have bad talk therapy but that's another story.

The two best books I read were "Feeling Good" and sadly. I can't remember the author. I also loved "The Four Agreements", by Miguel Ruiz.

If you are depressed, please get help. If your doctor or your family tell you they think you might be depressed, please listen to them. If you get the impression from someone that they think depression is a character flaw put as much distance between them and you as is possible. Love & blessings.

Thank you so much for your kind words, you're very generous. Haven't gotten my intrathecal pump my life is on a much better track and I don't suffer with that much pain at all anymore. Life is good. Love and blessings

In my mind, if/when I was the very depressed patient, and read, “depression is a very treatable condition” it would personally make me feel horrible. Jutmy way of looking at and interpreting what you said. Perhaps by saying something along the lines of, “For the majority of people with depression, it is treated successfully.” Or something to that effect. I will tell you that I was actually diagnosed with a case of PTSD as a result of my ongoing situation during that time and I’m guessing when I read what/how you wrote your sentence it immediately brought back a lot of feelings that I still struggle with re how I was treated during that time. That’s all I can say at this time. Sorry if you were offended.

I wasn't at all offended. I said, "treatable", not easy to cure, or even easy to treat.By treatable I mean there are a wide variety of approaches to treat depression.

I had a very rare sarcoma. It took 3 months to begin treatment because I couldn't find a doctor who had treated it or new what to do. It was not very treatable. Many diseases are not treatable, easily or otherwise. Many prople have depression so there is money to be made so there are lots of drugs lots of therapists and lots of books to read.

What made my treatment for depression difficult was my own refusal to come to grips with the fact that I was depressed. I blamed my situation and what had happened to me for my discomfort and the way I felt. By the way, this was several years before cancer.

When I could no longer function in my every day life, when I knew I had become useless to my self and my family and death seemed like the only option, I put myself in the hands of a good doctor and a good therapist. Then and only then did I become, "very treatable".

You might ask why I would persist in explaining myself to you or anyone else. Why not just let it go? I can't just let it go because you or someone else reading this thread might be suffering like I was, before becoming a "treatable" patient. Life is a beautiful thing. Love is everywhere. Tomorrow is a new day. I have no idea who you are but I am sending you all the love and all the healing energy I can muster. That's all it is about. You deserve to feel good and I know you will. Love and Blessings.

Thank you. Sarcomas can be nasty (I was a RN) so good you got the care you needed!

I asked if you were a doctor because you were giving medical advice as though you were one, (wsh66). Most people share about what they've tried and how it worked for them; they tell us where the advice to take their meds came from ('my pain doctor said', or 'I read a magazine article that recommended', et. al.). They don't tell us what we should do or how everyone should feel. Peggy

Which post are you referring to please? I just reread my recent posts about depression and everything there is about my own situation and the treatment I received. When I hit reply I wondered if I had put everything in the best terms. Obviously not for you. I'll be more careful.Thanks

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@wsh66 Hi Stephen, I am so glad that you are not in much pain now. Life with pain is horrific. I was scheduled for a trial of the Dorsal Root Ganglion Stimulator, and of course, it was canceled due to Corona. I live on Kratom and Marijuana for severe foot neuropathy. Feel like a pot head from the sixties. But it beats severe pain. Be safe, Stephen, and thanks again, for all that you do here to help people. Blessings to you as well, Lori