Anytime I pick up a book on MS, I always read that depression can be a common symptom. But I don't hear the neuros talking much about it or asking patients about it explicitly. I don't see too much on the topic in forums. It makes sense that MS would cause or exacerbate depression, right? 1. Physically the disease attacks the brain 2. Any chronic disease is bound to cause depression because of the psychological difficulties dealing with never ending health problems.

What seems to make it tricky is the fact that you can't determine what the root cause is--or maybe it's a bit of both. Maybe it doesn't even matter--the depression is just there and overwhelming.

What have been your experiences with depression? Did medication help? Did it ever get worse during MS flares? Did you only suffer from it after your diagnosis?

I've had clinical depression since my early 20s. I got diagnosed with MS at 39. I'm now in my 40s. I've been on antidepressants since the beginning. -- 20+ years ago. I just suddenly realized today that I'm in the midst of a relapse of clinical depression. Sometimes you don't figure it out until you've hit bottom and you look around and think wow: I'm having the old black dog symptoms again.

I've got an appointment with my psychiatrist in a week. Three weeks ago we had talked about trying the newest medicine out there now called Vibrydd. I've tried every other one known to mankind and many of them I just couldn't tolerate because of side effects. What I am on now just isn't cutting it anymore. I just pray the new one is tolerable and helpful.

I try to tell myself the blues are probably the result of severe stressors right now: my hospitalization and bad infection/ recovery for the past 3 months. Then there was all the anxiety of whether or not I could stay on Tysabri. And there has been endless drama and crazy with an out of control teenage stepson. I feel like my house is no longer my peaceful space. And throw in the holidays on top of it.

I'm trying to keep my head above water but feel like I'm sinking deeper. Ughh. I just have to hang on until I see the doctor next week. For those of you with depression, what do you do to survive (in addition to regular therapy and drugs?).

Sometimes I wonder if my depression starting in my early 20s was the first MS symptom until age 39 when optic neuritis arrived.