Depressed for the past 2 years?


Question:
In 2004 I was 16, was a high achiever and somewhat confident in myself. I had a positive outlook in life and was determined. I always wanted to be a doctor and that was my goal in life.

Then one day in I went into cardiac arrest and was "dead" for ~2 mins. I had no pulse, no breathing, nothing. My mother had to do CPR on me until the paramedic came in which I had to be defibrillated.

I was rushed to A&E and was induced into a coma to give my body/brain a chance to recover. Basically my life was 50/50.

To cut a long story short, I ended up having an ICD implanted about a week later. I had no choice as I needed to have one having survived an out of hospital cardiac arrest.

This was a big shock to me in my young life, I just didn't know what to feel at the time. I guess I just felt "numb" about what just happened to me. It just seemed so surreal that I was dead but didn't know or recall anything about it.

Continued...

Answers:
The best medicine for depression...( I think )

Get a hobby...find something that you really enjoy doing and that makes you happy...that is a great starting point to get you moving...

The more you enjoy your hobby, the better you will feel...

Write down all the positives in your life, no matter how small...
Write down all the things you love about yourself.

Add to this list every night before you go to bed...really take time and reread your list and think of other things you can add to it...ADD THE HURDLES YOU OVERCOME!

You need to realize you are still the great person you was before.PERIOD.

As for friends...you cant make any just sitting there...right?
GET A HOBBY! Share that with your family and any other hobbyist you meet along the way...once you begin to open up, start moving and doing things that make you happy, you will begin to meet new people...

Contact your old friends...go out to lunch.reconnect with the ones you concidered your true friends...Im sure they felt a deep loss since youve disconnected yourself from them...they will be happy to meet with you!! (invite them over if you cant afford lunch)

I hope this helps.
But, sometimes seeing a shrink can be very helpful...just beware if they do put you on medicine, it may not be the right kind for you...very often, people need to switch medicine 3 or 4 times until they find something that really works for them...

Also too, you could have had some nerve damage. You first need to contact your heart doctor...explain to him how your life has changed since this incident and how you feel now...
YOUR THE NOT ONLY ONE! This is very common for others who have been thro what you have...The doc could already have the best course of action for you to take !
MAKE AN APPOINTMENT!

I hope this helps <333333

I would also like to add...if you have AOL, go into chat. Find a chat that has a room that is closest to your health problems or, better yet, after you start a hobby, join a chat that has your hobby interest.this can be fun! Talking to people with the same interest and/or problems as you can help you.

Good luck <333
Hey, yes yes yes. I have been through depression, as have others I know too. It can go on for long periods of time but don't give up hope because it will change (especially since you are putting in the effort).

I'm not the best at giving advice, so feel free to ignore my comments. It could be that you are still suffering from hormonal effects (16-19yrs = still a teenager, achne relates to this) so really try not to think like this is a problem specific to you. If you add less weight/significance to things then they become less significant and less depressing.

My advice is to keep yourself (and most importantly - your mind) busy. I got a part time job (in a bar incidently) and was very very busy and made lots of new friends through this. It kept my mind on other things, I made money and made friends. This was all good for my depression. It also gave me loads of new confidence.

I think the best way to reduce your depression is to keep busy and to try and force yourself to think problems in your life are not as important as you once believed. A counsellor helped me by saying 'actually there is nothing wrong with you and you are normal'. Counsellors are not good if they reinforce your depression by keeping your mind on your problems.

Sorry if this was useless. The main thing i want to say is you are very much normal and lots of people have bad **** happen and come through it to be (very) happy.

Good luck!
Thanks so much for disclosing so much to us. You are not alone. Depression is very common. The good news is that you are making steps toward recovery. I pray that you get a rockin counselor. If she sucks keep looking til you get 1 you will work with.There's a reason why you made it through '04. Part of the reason is that you're going to help many others recover from depression but there's 1 catch. You have to do so first! The worst thing about depression is that when you're in it you feel like you've never been happy nor will you ever be which is such a lie!Work w/ your therapist. You may also need meds. Do SEVERE cardio. It kicks the **** out of depression. Trust me. Just try it for 3 days straight and I know you'll be a believer. Click on me and tell me how things go OK?
dear friend,
my heart goes out to you, but you must understand that you must be one of the few lucky ones to have got back that precious thing called life. instead of worrying you should think of it as a bonus & that god gave you your life back for some divine purpose, it may be saving lives of poor people in your country or in poor countries, it could be to look after your parents, it could be for any of the many causes from taking care of our envronment o helping others in many small ways that you may.. so take this gift of life & do something meaningful that makes a contribution to the world & your life..just dont waste it by brooding & feeling depressed..once one does something from the heart & meaningful...there is never room for any depression...only deep satisfaction of LIVING EACH DAY doing something wonderful...!!!
Hey mate, sorry to hear about how you are feeling, to me it definately sounds like depression and believe me mate i know where your coming from, it's the most horrible illness that people just dont seem to get until you've actually been through it yourself.

The greatest thing you have done is to admit there is a problem instead of just trying to pretend there is nothing the matter(i know it sounds like a cliche but its true).

I had/have depression that seemed to start around the same age as you which seems to affect alot of young men at that time of their life (the reason i say had/have is i dont really think it ever goes completely away as you'll never forget how terrible it felt to feel like this, which i think can sometimes be a good thing because when you do start to feel happy again it feels all the more sweeter. IT DEFINATELY GETS BETTER...i still have good and bad days but its not that bad because i know i will feel better.

I think it has alot to do with anxiety about the thought of responsibilities and pressure to how you should be feeling ,and that these should be the best days of your life and all that crap.

I had the exact same feeling about going outside , it even got to the point i would go to the bus stop to go into to town and get so panicked i would turn around , go back home and sit in my room which was probably the worst thing i could've done as it made me feel worse that i couldnt even catch a bus without freaking out..i just didnt feel comfortable in my own skin and all i could think/wish for was to feel half as confident and happy as i used to.

Different people have different ways of dealing with it and different levels of severity, no two seem to be the same as i think we all have different issues to deal with from different events that have happened in our life(its possible yours mightve stemmed from the cardiac failure) so there is no straight answer that can make you feel better just like that but it is important to remember that there is lots of other people that suffer or have suffered from depression.

For me, i struggled to figure out what caused it and how to fix it, im not sure if this was the right way for me and instead i had to start again and learn to live with it.

Like i said before, everyone that i have met that suffers from deppression is different and has different ways of dealing with it . if you feel up to it you should try to talk to your family about it (dont hold back) you will be surprised at how many people have had similar experiences.

Remember they are there for you no matter what ..i didnt really talk to my family about it and it made it alot harder for me as i felt on my own.As hard as it is it's worth a shot right..its better than the alternative.

Have you tried googling depression to read up a bit more about it?

Also i think that after you talk to your family (maybe your mum first?) that you should go back to your doc, he might prescribe you with antidepressants that could help, if he does dont feel weird about taking them..afterall if you had a physical illness you'd take tablets for that, right?

Hope some of this has made you feel not so alone dealing with this, i could literally go on for hours about my personal experiences as i am sure you could.

Just remember mate that although it doesnt feel like this feeling will ever shift , i guarantee to you it will and you will get over this and move on.

It sounds daft but once you get over this will make you a stronger man, dont be in a hurry to get contented again as it probably wont come instantly, it will come though.

Feel free to pm me if you want.

Take care bro



p.s. if you are still interested in being a doctor maybe you could do something in mental health, who better to help other people with this than someone who has dealt with it first hand? just a thought.
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