Ihad been depressed most of my adult life, inherited from my mom probably. My onset of PD was heralded by a severe depression.
I only really totally got rid of it after my DBS. ( yet another pleasant surprise of having one)
I think many of us are eithere poorly treated or not at all. Pills only are not the answer IMHO.YOu need counseling to teach you how to cope with your depression.

the most insidious kind is the depression you do not recognize. This is the one you think is normal feelings. The one telling you that you "can't" be reasonably happy. the one that makes you fearful of heights because you are afraid you might jump for instance.

Everyone needs to do some directed soul-searching to see if they are indeed in this group.

Charlie

I dont know a whole lot about depression, or anti depresants..I have used spiritual tools when Im feeling down, and most of the time am successful

If I could recommend a spiritual book it would be "The Language of Letting Go" by Melody Beattie

Let go or be dragged..

THanks to all of you for this forum. I do not have PD, but certainly have been enlightened by reading this. I am a disabled son of a disabled father. I have not yet reached the point of complete immobility but as getting there, and I am quickly getting to the point of mental incompetency, so I can relate to what was written. What irks me more than almost anything is the notion that somehow the disabled should fight a courageous battle with their diseases and I alway wonder how that can be done. You cannot fight them physically that is for sure and to think that somehow you can do so mentally, with a stiff upper lip , is to me totally unrealistic. Many of our diseases come with a host of mental problems that we need to recognise badly. I am often depressed, and I will be damned if I do not deserve to be depressed. to hell with cheerfulness in the face of disaster. Pink ladies be damned. My father would not allow them in his hospital room, and hooray for him, their cheerful optimism drove him nuts.
I do not want to stand up to my disease and put on a false face. When I am sick, I have the right to be sick.
How would you counsel a child who was dying of a disease.... what can you honestly say to anyone who is sick except to be as sick as they want to be.
we are too full of inspiring stories. Everyday I feel grateful to my physician, disabled father who taught me a lifetime of lessons on illness and disability. I learned and learned and learned. At his bedside I watched him die and saw how natural and peaceful it was, not the horror that I always imagined. I watched him go from a cane to crutches to a wheelchair, how improved he was at each step. I pulled off his socks at night and helped him dress the next day. I emptied countless urinals, and know what a fool I am not to have one myself rather than peeing in my pants over and over.
So thanks you guys who wrote honestly about the horrors of PD. I don't want to be in your shoes anymore than you want to be in mine, but thanks. I learned.

Posts like that make it worth it to stick around here.

paula

I truly think that the most important thing in dealing with disease of any kind is a sense of humor. When you can share that with someone, despite disability and pain, it lifts you up, and the other person doesn't view you as a tragedy. And they enjoy being around you.

I'm lucky that my brother shares the same kind of humor as mine, and we can crack each other up during the darkest times. I live alone, but I try to make myself laugh, and I often succeed.

I joke about my PD symptoms, and people are not horrified by the way I look and walk. I believe they see the real me that's often hidden by symptoms. I can be depressed in the morning because I awake with alot of pain, but when I get to work I cheer up because my interactions with people make me smile.

I don't know how it would be with a husband and kids, neither of which I've had. But I think that hiding away, viewing my symptoms as tragic, would alienate them.

It's hard to get out of a bad rut. But I encourage more interaction with lots of laughs, and that goes for the kids' friends, too. Try something different; it might lift your spirits and theirs.

One can have PD and still be a mentor. Important lessons can be taught and learned. Don't think of yourself as a burden!

~Zucchini

never did I say my methods will work for everyone. They will. however, work for most..

Charlie

as you point out, attitude is everything, and laughter is the panacea for many ills.

OF course many of the folks out there do not have too much to laugh about. You can laugh at your at your self always though!!

Charlie

I think we are dealing with two separate issues: clinical depression due to a chemical imbalance related to PD itself, and our attitude and self-talk about PD. It is useless to talk about attitude at all unless depression is successfully treated. It is not possible to pull yourself up by your bootstraps when you are hanging over the edge of a cliff by your fingertips. If you are dealing with intense and prolonged anger, sadness, or depression, please do seek professional help.

I feel really conflicted about this thread. I have wanted to say something since the thread began, but didn’t because I feared that my thoughts would be viewed as non-supportive or shallow or lacking understanding of how bad it really is. On the one hand, the physical and emotional pain that so many of you are experiencing is heart wrenching and I admire you for sharing your perspectives. Honesty and “telling it like it is” take courage and strength in the face of such pain and feelings of helplessness. And I agree that sometimes we need others to listen and understand.

But on the other hand, our self-talk (what we tell ourselves about our own illness) influences how much we distress ourselves over having PD. Anger and raging against the illness can only make a person feel worse. There’s a big difference between disease and dis-ease. A positive attitude not only makes it easier for others to live with me, it helps reduce my own dis-ease over Parkinson’s, i.e., it helps ME to live with me. We all agree that stress makes symptoms worse, and we can increase that stress by what we say to ourselves about how terrible or awful this illness is.

For me, the goal is to live as well as I can and to distress myself as little as possible. That doesn't mean happily accepting everything that comes my way, so much as gritting my teeth and working with what is. Anger and self-pity just make things feel even more out of control. I’m learning that I need to focus on today, on what I CAN do, and how to cope with the problems that PD throws in my path. I am trying to act out of practical adaptive thinking, not upset feelings, because upset feelings just tear me up and make things worse—adding distress to the stress of having PD.

I also feel that we are dealing with two groups of people in this thread: those who want focus on their discomfort and anger over PD and those who want to focus on ways to reduce it. It makes for a difficult discussion, since each group is pretty rigidly into its own approach.

I have had the feeling that I would get "creamed" if I tried to say anything remotely uplifting. I, for one, do fall in the second camp and keep looking for ways to take care of myself better both psychologically and physically.

Judith

There's a lot to be said for cognitive behavioural therapy.
Changing the way we perceive things won't happen instantly, a lot of homework is given to help alter our way of thinking but I have to say for me it was one of the best moves I ever made healthwise (apart from DBS)

me thinks:

the ebb and flow of depression goes hand in hand with the ebb and flow of pd.

when a good day is experienced, life in general is good. things dont hit as hard. physically we can do more so mentally we are released from the binds of what we cannot do. there is more freedom in movement, more clarity in thought, more ability to do what we know is life. we know we have pd, but we can deal with it positively. in general, life is ok..

this can change in a blink of an eye if stress is thrown into that day. we all know what stress does to pd. it becomes frustrating and downright unfair when our good day suddenly turns bad because our bodies are reacting to something we have no control over. the good feelings have been zapped away from us. we become bitter. we become angry. depressed.

bad days speak for themselves. there is no place our mind can go to get rid of the stupid pd. it is there.. showing itself in true color. full force.. all of the soul searching, praying, yada yada yada.. will not make it get better. all we can do is go through it. it sucks. its hard. and when its bad, nobodys words of "it will be better.. " make any difference. all that is on our minds at that time is "this bites!" people in our lives dont really know what to do when its this bad. we dont know what to do when it gets this bad. we just go through the motions.

i think anti depressents, counseling, and journaling are important to battle depression. recognition of who you are as a person, not just a person that has pd.. needs to become part of your mindset. take the times that are good and relish them. have fun. laugh. dont dwell on the bad when it aint bad.

also, it is a hard battle to go through alone. if there is no help from friends/family.. there are many online support groups. find one that fits you and utilize it.