Hi Ginger! I had to LOL when you said I had "picked" an older discussion to post into. Let me assure you, my computer skills, which are a joke, seldom extend to getting me where I actually want to go. I believe I belong to the Mayo Clinic Club? Group? Forum" (SORRY) and have for several years after being diagnosed with AFIB and then eventually having an ablation. Every day in my email I get a notice about new posts in the Heart Rhythm section. I thought I recalled seeing an index and would be able to jump into a group about depression very easily. Well, I'm very glad you found me and hope you will set me on the path I'm suppose to be on.
I refuse to get depressed because I don't know how to "drive a computer!"
I was very happy, Ginger, that you understood what I meant about the era we grew up and personal/family issues were not talked about. Aunt Betty wasn't "crazy," she was going through menopause and my older cousin Katherine wasn't "crazy," she had post-partum depression really bad and "crazy" Uncle Jack was an alcoholic, but we didn't find out for years that his wife had died during childbirth, he lost his job, began drinking, lost his house and soon Uncle Jack left town.
It's sad when you realize if we had known more, how much we could have helped. It's a better world but we still have a long way to go.
And why men can't, or won't, talk about feelings is a frequent topic among my women friends. Probably a topic among women the world over.
You ask how I've been handling my depression so far. Please know Ginger, I don't mean what I'm about to say in the slightest derogatory way at all, but have YOU tried to find a therapist any time over the past several years? They are ALL booked. Many became so overbooked, they burned out........now there are even fewer. I am on a number of waiting lists, but I've been waiting for a long time.
You suggest talking to close friends and family, Ginger, you have no idea how much I wish I could.
I know how pathetic I sound. I know all the things I could be doing to help myself feel better. I live on the West Coast and we had a very wet Spring, so all the yard work that I love to do, got put on hold. The night it stopped raining, we woke up to a heat wave. Today is Day 5 of 90+ degree heat in an area that normally doesn't get much over 70. Tomorrow the heat wave is suppose to break with record rainfall........I'm not just moaning about our little part of the country. I know there are folks that have it SO much worse than us. With everything going on in the world............I think I've reached my tipping point.