Feeling Depressed?

When you can't say, "No,"
because you don't want to anger, hurt or upset someone;

When you can't say, "Yes,"
because you don't have anything left to give;

When you can't ask for help,
because you can't hear someone give another excuse for why they can't
and because you wouldn't know what to ask for anyway;

When you deal with the above by withdrawing
and becoming sullen and irritable with your family;

AND when the cycle repeats itself daily.
and every day is Groundhog Day,

YOU are depressed.

If this speaks to you, what do you do? If's it's about someone you care about, how have you helped them?

Read More at: Are You Anxious or Depressed?

Depression and Suicide see: "I'm going to kill myself"

Don't isolate, reach out and share your hurt and what you're doing about it at: Are You Depressed

Resources for Depression:

NIMH
WebMD
NAMI
Mayo Clinic
Wikipedia

 

 

 

Follow Mark Goulston, M.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/markgoulston

Comments

[RPLinNYC]

06:55 PM on 05/03/2009

I clicked to read the rest of the post and it sent me to
an annoying 'google documents' registrati­on form.
now i'm depressed!

[Mark Goulston, M.D.]

08:10 PM on 05/03/2009

The link is fixed, so click on the "Are You Depressed or Anxious?" link and you will see PDF of attached article.

[Mark Goulston, M.D.]

06:45 PM on 05/03/2009

Thank you for writing. You are right that many depressed people are difficult to get to accept help. Sometimes what works better than telling they seem depressed and should go get help or asking their permission to get them help is to have an appointmen­t made and which you accompany them to. A good person to start with is a family doctor they already have a relationsh­ip with.
BTW if they get resistant, you can say with full conviction in a non-negoti­able voice: "I don't need your permission to step in and get you help when you need it and can't get it for yourself and I would expect you to do the same with me, even though I might fight you just as strongly as you're fighting me. So get dressed and let's go, since I have made an appointmen­t."

[Flavor]

01:58 PM on 05/04/2009

Thank You, Mr. Goulston, that was an excellant answer. I also wanted to state to you I think some mental ILLness start off with some form of depression­, do you know if this has been looked into. Once again thank you for the article, I'm sending it to many of my husbands family, ha,ha,ha.

[Flavor]

05:48 PM on 05/03/2009

Dr. Goulston, thank you for the article, but it is hard I have found out to reach some depressed people because they have learned how to cover up what there actually feeling. As a African American it is still something in the black culture that we don't seem to like to discuss for fear that someone would think your a crazy person. In fact I know that's the opposite, everyone of us have probably had a time where we were depressed for a short time and we came out of it. But there are those who I believe get so far gone it's hard to reach them, those are the one's I am really speaking about, I believe they think no one can help them and so they just get into themselves and soon they are so bad off they require medication­. Not to say there is something wrong with taking meds, its just that I'm saying it's hard to reach some who you know are depressed. Once again thank you for the article.