(Untitled)

[scruffypumpkin]

it's been, what, a matter of weeks, and i'm back to being capital-D-depressed again. i don't know whether it's environmental factors, or time-in-my-life factors, or career/relationship factors, or what. i just know i spend too much time in tears, in bed, or wanting to hit myself over the head with a large shovel.

and i have no idea what to do about

Comments

[dynonichus]

Hello. I haven't replied to this yet, because I wasn't quite sure what to say, or how to say it. I'm still dealing with/not dealing with depression and all the issues behind it.

All the advice I do have is, in the end, very conventional.
-try to track it, depression is often seasonally affected or related to menstruation.
-exercise regularly, eat well (and regularly), time out your sleep period and make sure you stick to it.
-continue to force yourself to do stuff - force yourself to socialise, go to work, go do fun stuff. maybe enlist someone to bully you into doing stuff when you need it, ie a jogging buddy.
-

i highly, highly recommend going to see a counsellor. i still feel...embarrassed about it, and i still get nervous before i go, but seriously, it's really good.

BUT i found a mega mega difference between seeing the counsellors at the uni melb clinic and the two i've seen privately. i mean, yeah, everything i've heard has been all like, "well, it's just about finding someone you click with," but i found i "clicked" with the two expensive independant shrinks i've seen and totally not at all with every single overworked person i've met at uni clinics, and i can't put it down to coincidence.

uh...i'm also on the brain drugs - a low daily dose of sertaline, a commonly perscribed seratonin reuptake inhibitor (SRI), the well known brand of which is Zoloft. it's been over a year now, and i still feel deeply ambivilent about it, but i know it's the right hting for me at this time, and it's made my life so much better, and so much...calmer.

If you have a health care card, you get a couple of free counselling sessions and cheap drugs ($5 monthly instead of $30). You can register for a health care card if you earn less than $3384.00 over 8 weeks, it's just a bundle of paperwork from centrestink.

rah rah rah rah. i leave in a week and a half, if you wanna catch up, give me a call. yo.