depression and meniere's

I agree that proper breathing technique is extremely important. I was a massive advocate of it not too long ago. I read a book called Hyperventilation Syndrome: A Handbook for Bad Breathers. It has great ways of achieving proper diaphragmatic breathing. It really isn't as easy as it sounds.

After 20 mins of proper breathing, you really do feel euphoric ...

What I've found interesting about Acceptance and Commitment Therapy though, is that although breathing technique can work at alleviating anxiety symptoms once they start, it may not be helping the root cause of your emotional problem. It's not something that will help suppress future attacks. It's not really something that is a part of the ACT program.

This sounds a bit "buddha" .....but if you're trying to focus on your breathing to slow down your anxiety response, it means that you are unwilling to feel the anxiety. You are scared of the anxiety, and you don't want it ....so you breathe differently to try and get rid of it. So although it will help lessen the "flight or fright" response, it will still mean that you are prone to future anxiety attacks. It means that you are unwilling to feel the panic. And if you fear the panic, and are unwilling to experience it, it means that there is a massive chance that future attacks will reoccur.

I know that's probably a hard concept to grasp ......but for me ....someone who has suffered immensely from anxiety. That type of thinking makes a lot of sense to me.


It happened to me in bed the other night. I was laying there in bed and I felt a "turn" coming on. I was suddenly immersed in panic .....I started to try and focus on my breathing. But at that point, I realized that I was terrified of my bodily sensations, and I was trying to escape them forcefully through breathing slowly. It was like a light bulb went off in my head, and I asked myself "why am I terrified of these sensations" ......I basically smiled to myself, and told my body to give me everything it's got. As soon as I was willing to experience the panic and dizziness in all it's glory, it started to subside.

Another concept about this therapy that is hard to grasp is:

It's important that you're not using your "willingness" as a means to escape the sensation, whatever that sensation may be. Because if you were, it would mean that you really aren't willing to experience the sensation in the 1st place .....errr if that makes sense. We use willingness to give our mind breathing space...... not to escape.

 

I'm not familiar with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy per se but there was an Australian physician by the name of Claire Weekes (passed away not long ago) who wrote many books on anxiety and this sounds like one of her major techniques. She always preached "acceptance" as a cornerstone of her therapy. I have a few of her books that really helped me when I was going through the worst

George

 

I know Claire Weekes' books very well. Read a couple

She used to use to say accept the feeling of panic, and "float" through it. There was a 4 word phrase of hers that I used to carry everywhere in my wallet. It was some thing like "Don't run" "Accept" "Float" "Be patient with time"

ACT is very similar I guess, but it takes a similar concept into all areas of life. It also focuses on committing to the things in life that mean a lot to you, and to stop letting your suffering from stopping you doing the things you love.

 

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When/if you're suffering from depression, all you can think but is your own pain and how to get out of the blackness that surround your life. Depression is partly in our genes, partly in our childhood experience, partly in our way of thinking, partly in our brains, partly in our way of handling emotions. It feels and is overwhelming because it literally affects every area of our being. Charlie Brown said, "Adversity is what makes you mature. The growing soil is watered best by tears of sadness."

Depression must be understood to be overcome. What is this monster and I learned to choke out the words - depression. There was a small sense of relief in naming it. In my early stages of wrestling with the "black dog sitting at my heels" - Winston Churchill's words - I exhaled a bit and found that depression is as old as the earth itself. Depression blocks out anything but darkness. It's as if someone placed a filter over the heart's eyes that allows only the sense of defeat, loss, hopelessness to seep through. As Anais Nin wrote, "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."

On the website for Cleveland Clinic, depression is defined in simplistic terms: "Being depressed is a normal reaction to loss, life's struggles, or n injured self-esteem. But sometimes the feeing of sadness becomes intense, lasting for long periods of time and preventing a person from leading a normal life."
No kidding!! How about "being depressed is a violent reaction to loss and of life, filled with unknown seasons of intense doubt." As for lasting "long periods of time," it took more than a year for me to even admit to myself I was depressed.

Unfortunately, many people do not seek treatment. Left untreated, depression can last for years, causing untold torment, and needless wasted years and loss of life. Far too many people live hanging on by their fingernails, ashamed, afraid to reveal their despair in spite of the fact they/we live in a day of the most advanced and enlightened treatment available.

There is beauty and loveliness here on earth, but it's...hard-fought-for, hard-won and as impossible to retain as it is to grasp the wind in your hand. Far greater is the truth--the understanding that depression does not define the end of our story.

If you are thinking that only the weak or faint of heart suffer from depression, then I invite you to explore why some others suffer from other diseases and disasters:endless varieties of cancer, forms of addictions, divorce, deaths from Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, car wrecks the list can go on and on.

IMO we tend to think life should be fair because God is fair. But God is not life. And if I confuse God with the physical reality of life - then I set myself up for crushing disappointment.

We find ourselves caught between holding on and letting go - and our cries need to be heard. We build up our walls of isolation, despair, crazy thinking, distorted images or ourselves. Walls keep us trapped. A weak spot in the armor, a slip from the ladder of life, a sudden loss, and we back or retreat into a place of hopeless darkness. Sill we call out, most of us, in odd, strange ways for someone to hear, for someone to find us and pull us back into life again. Changes in sleep behavior, lack of interest in life and in what usually brought you joy, changes in eating patterns, physical-intimacy issues, tears - free flowing weeping, a cloak of hopeless sadness, worry, anxiety, anger, irritability. These are a number of easily identifiable warning signs of depression. They are by no means exhaustive. But a majority of these particular signs are present across the board in any stage of depression.
Listen to your life, your heart, your tears, your rage, your lack of rage, lack of tears, lack of sleep, lack of desire ... Listen to the physical and emotional alarms that go off when you/e need help.

We have to know what we are fighting to win the war. This is all about taking the power out of depression, understanding what you/we are facing, and then moving on up your ladder with knowledge and healing. Let me say, "You will not always feel this way." I IMO encourage you to explore aspects of recovery and relief. I know many a day I longed for relief in my darkest days and ached for someone to tell me I wouldn't always have to feel so very hopeless. Don't minimize your pain, but with understanding, move ahead one step at a time into wholeness again. Denial is put to death by knowledge. Knowledge puts to death the mystery of depression. Hope is the key to finding help and knowing there is a way out of th darkness.

Untreated depression caused the untimely passing of the despairing artist Vincent Van Gogh and darkened heart of the author Dorothy Parker. The words of he esteemed author Ernest Hemingway - "Life breaks us all in unexpected ways, but some of us grow strong in the broken places" - comment sadly on the history of his work since his passing was as Van Gogh's. Hemingway's words echo a truth beautifully written yet impossible for him to grasp during his manic-depressive episodes.

Antidepressants do not make me high - not even close! There is no rush...no thrilling vibes...no living in la-la land. Antidepressants allow me to see life for what it is. They make sleep now possible for me, although it's still difficult at times.

Antidepressants are not the be-all-and-end-all solution to depression. For many, however, they radically improve the recovery process. There is no shame in reaching out for all available aid. your life is worth every ounce of energy, time investment, and investigation spent on saving it.

During counseling I began to throw out some of the garbage I'd attached to my self-image. I began to surrender to the reality of being human - having limitations, and respecting what those limitations were/are.

Any and all are in my prayers that suffer with this dark beast. Good Luck and Best wishes. :-*

Ok my fifty cents worth .... I will step off my soap box :-[ :-*

 

Teresa, of all the posts on this topic, I think yours is right in tune with my own thoughts on the subject. I was in a miserable state with both anxiety and depression AND, I was prescribed medication for both and had counselling. As I've said before the therapist did a terrific job of bringing things out in the open that I just wouldn't bring out when talking to family and friends. Anyway because of the medication and the ability to communicate with the counsellor I have been able to come off one of the medications and this coming Monday I will be seeing the Dr. about being weaned off the other one. Having said this,- all it means is that this is the stage I'm at right now. Will I be able to stay here ??? I'd like to hope so BUT,- should this all return, I know that the medication is there and the therapist is there and I'm not one bit afraid to go back to either one.. I have accepted the fact that I have a chronic illness that affects a persons physical well being and affects the mental well being as well, the two go hand in hand. People have no problems with running to a Dr. for help with their physical problems so why would they hesitate to see a Dr. about their mental problems as well. It bothers me that there is such a "stigma" surrounding the use of anti-depressants etc. and they cause all sorts of side affects. Well, I know for a fact from first hand experience that drugs for physical ailments do the exact same thing and there are some of them that I HAVE to stay away from. Just because a person is taking anti-depressants does NOT mean they will be on them for life, in some cases they might be, but what's the difference between having to be on a medication for that or for a medication for heart problems. They are both ailments of the human body, different areas are affected, IMO that's the only difference, if a heart patients stops taking their medication they will run into big problems, if a patient with severe depression stops taking their medication the same thing will happen. If I have a rotten headache I'll take something to take away that pain and when the pain is gone I don't need to take the pain medication anymore, the same thing goes for the anti-depressants, if with good counselling I can get the anxiety and depression under control and can stop taking the medication I will...
And now I will get off the soap box,-- lol
Loretta

 

Well said, Teresa, Loretta, George and Cheese! I think it takes tremendous courage to reach out for help. As Teresa said so well, when you wake up and your world is just black, it's hard to see that help is even out there. Lisa

 

I realize now that I suffered depression in varying degrees from about later elementary school age to the age of about 40 when I finally sought serious help. I don't think my parents had a clue that I was depressed as a child and adolescent, so I didn't get any help then. Later, as a young adult, the only thing recommended to me was talk therapy, which actually made me feel worse, so I quit after trying several different therapists.

I eventually dealt with my major life issues through a 12-Step program, and that did help me understand things. But I was still depressed.

I learned to keep quiet about being depressed because I got tired of the same b.s. stock answers I got from people. "Keep busy", "think positive", "others have it way worse than you do", "snap out of it", etc. ad nauseum.

While keeping busy did help to keep the feelings at bay temporarily, it did not solve the problem, and no matter how busy I kept, there always came the time that I did have to face my feelings. And during the times I was so sick with the MM, I was physically incapable of "keeping busy".

People do not understand that a depressed person is incapable of "positive thinking". While telling a person who has suffered a temporary setback to "think positive" might be an appropriate thing to do, it is definitely not appropriate for a depressed person. Not only couldn't I think positive, but then I also started feeling defective because I was unable to do so!

I was very fortunate in finding a psychiatrist who had a lot of experience in dealing with depression in people with chronic illnesses--and who had dealt with a number of MM people.

I think that it is only in recent years that depression has been more publicized as the illness it is, and not a character flaw, and some of the stigma has been removed, hopefully encouraging people who need help to know that help is there and to get it.

So anyway, (whew!) what I am trying to say here is that maybe a lot of people who don't seek help are like I was--simply not aware that the help is there. I wish I could have had help starting as a child--my life sure would have been better and easier.