DreamBelieve, before you lie down on the wheeled wagon headed for surgery, DO investigate this procedure very closely. Don't limit your learning to the surgeon and the company website and salespersons ie, customer service representatives. Study up on it. A few have had the device removed for various reasons. Do you know about the side effects?? And read about the studies?

If you find a "support group", feel suspicious if the group is heavily moderated and only has positive glowing reports, as it might be owned (behind the scenes) by the company.

Have you TRULY tried all the possible antidepressants? There are DOZENS and very few people have actually tried all the ADs, just a handful. Which ones have you tried? What happens when you try them? Have you been tried on any of the TriCyclics? Different ADs are not just "different brands". They are not just like cans of green beans with different brand names. They are each distinctively different compounds that interact with your brain neurotransmitter in totally different ways.

80-90% of people who try ADs will eventually find relief, tho some may have to try more than three or will have to try a combination (like adding thryroid, etc) or trying a mood stabilizer. See McMan's website - http://www.mcmanweb.com/article-17.htm

What, exactly, happens - how does your body or mind respond to being on these meds? Do you go off them within the first month or do you give them at least 2 months to work? Or do you have a rapid response, within the first 3 days, that makes you want to stop them? What is that reaction like?

Have you been tried on a mood stabilizer like Lithium or Lamictal? What does your psychiatrist say about your major depressive disorder?

How does psychotherapy do for you? How many different therapists, how many types of therapies have you tried? Do you try them while you are on ADs?

How long have you had depression? Is it every day? Are you often suicidal? Does it keep you from being able to work? To interact positively or productively with your loved ones? Can you leave the house, shop, keep house and cook? Can you function? Do you have self-harming thoughts at times? Have you ever attempted suicide or planned a sucide (yet then didn't do anything)?

What are your depressive symptoms? Lots of anxieties, too? Do you have very little appetite or do you tend to gain weight, more and more -a huge appetite? Do you cry a lot? Do you have trouble getting to sleep or trouble staying asleep or wake up too early and then can't get back to sleep? Do you have a chance to nap during the day? Do you have a lot of stress in your life? Or did you have a lot of stress when you were a child?

What other medications do you take regularly? Or supplements?

My concern is that there is the strong profit-motivation behind this unproven device. Yes, there are patients who report it cured them -- but the cure may not last for long. And consider that placebos of the right color (red has found to be the best) can "cure" depression, too. Do find out a great deal more about all the possible complications and read the studies yourself. (at least the abstracts online).

These are things you should think about, write out, then present to your psychiatrist and ask him if seeing all these information makes him consider anything else? A psychiatrist, seeing you for generally short periods at spread appointments, rather than one hour a week, often has a very spotty notion of you, as an entire person.

I wish you the best in your exporation of DreamBeliever.
Theresa


PS:
I have no desire to have anyone live with depression for year after year. I was very overwhelmed and (I guess) depressed during high school, given that I flirted with suicide by car wreck, over and over, during at least a couple of years. I was depressed in junior high, too. But my "adult form" of depression didn't start until late in my 20's, when I had a great sense of the hopelessness and helplessness of my life, and my life, in all aspects but my children, was falling totally apart.

In that period, I spent an entire year of my life sleeping, sleeping, sleeping - day in, day out, before I was put on a tricyclic, desipramine - a medication I was on for the next 8 years. Actually, it has remained the best AD I've ever been on - and I have recently been considering giving it a trial run again. It is still a highly recommended tricyclic for bipolars. Gave me low blood pressure (bit woozy if I stood up too fast) for a while til I got used to it. Also a dry gummy mouth.

But during that year, I would get up in the morning, fix breakfast for the children, then go to sleep on the couch - they would wake me for lunch, then my husband's phone call before coming home would wake me to make supper. I MIGHT stay awake for a bit after supper, but then it was sleep again. Prior to that year, I had a 7 or so years at least, of near-constant anxiety --- "nerves". After getting on the AD, my "nerves" went away. Everytime I came off the AD, my "nerves" would come back with a vengeance -- until, after a number of years, they no longer did.

When I am depressed, I am never tearful, don't cry (can only really cry when I am doing well). I eat too much, I sleep too much. I vegetate. I retreat from the world. My bedroom becomes my world. ADs get me out of my bedroom.