Answered questions(19)
If Not For Yourself, Then Do It For Me!: Motivating Behavioral Health Change In The Family
I have an adult family member who has been diagnosed with severe clinical depression and anxiety. She is very cooperative in terms of going to therapy and taking the prescribed medication. But when it comes to actual necessary habit changing, she doesn't budge. For example, her CPAP sleep apnea machine just collects dust because she says she can't sleep with it on, and she smokes CONSTANTLY - every 10 minutes or so. My questions are: 1) When someone is in such a horrible condition - pretty much comatose 24/7- is it an appropriate time to try to get them to stop smoking? She is very sensitive to even the slightest bit of "stress". So would trying to quit just be compounding her troubles? 2) What do you think of using cigarettes somehow as bargaining chips to get her to use her cpap machine?
Read answer →Helping The Depressed Mom: Can There Be A More Important Task?
My wife is a stay at home mom with our two kids who are 3 and a half and 8 months old. She is going through a tough bout of depression right now. She is on medication and seeing a therapist but it is still not really going away. I am at work 50+ hours a week and she is left on her own at home doing the hardest job in the world, which is looking after very young children. I wish we had more support near us but I had to move here with my job last year so we don’t have any family here. I don’t know what to do. I am very worried about the effect her depression might have on the development of our kids. It is not her fault at all but she I think she feels very overwhelmed so she is always yelling at them and because of the depression I think she has a really hard time showing her love for them. I think the kids can feel this though they do not understand it. I try to provide a lot of support for her when I am at home by taking the kids as much as I can but I don’t know if this is enough. How damaging is this lack of maternal affection for young children?
Read answer →Depression & Anxiety With Academic, Cultural and Familial Pressures
hello. I am a 17 year old teenager from India. My father is 61 year old and my mother is around 50 . Upto class 8th i used to do very well in studies but after it my performance began to decline. In high school my situation worsened so much that i used to fail almost every subject. My teachers warned me and threatened me by saying that i will not graduate. I was in a very sad mood . when my exams were approaching i had that thought in my mind every time i sat down study. There was so much tension built in my mind that i could not concentrate on my studies. I felt hopeless and thought that i would never be able to do anything in my life. I often thought of suicide . I thought that things will never change and my life would be ruined forever. from that time i always felt low on energy,my appetite changed (i started eating more), my sleeping hours increased and i used to get irritated so much on small things that i felt like killing everyone around me.my stomach problems increased from that time.My parents don't understand me and want me to be an engineer and to graduate from INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY but my true heart lies in film making in hollywood . They have also enrolled me in a coaching ( to get selected in IIT) where they teach for 4 hours at a stretch after 6 hours of school . they did that without taking my advice and now i'm facing a lot of problems. those feelings of depression continue to hover in my mind and i have written to you as no one is around to help me. Please HELP me........
Read answer →Ghost In The Machine?
How do you motivate behavioral health change in the family?
Read answer →The Bipolar Child: A Challenging Diagnostic Task
Can an 8 year old boy be bipolar? Half the time when I visit my nephew he is so hyper (manic?) that you can't get him to stop talking nonsense for a second and other times when I come over he is sullen and withdrawn and he does not want to leave his room. My sister says his teachers at school are also confused about his behavior but she is in total denial and she thinks he is totally normal.
Read answer →Anxiety About Antidepressants: Iatrogenesis or Phobia?
If I take SSRIs is there any danger that they will change my brain permanently once or if I stop taking them? Serotonin toxicity? I am terrified of the idea that I will lose myself or my personality with medications and I won’t be able to get myself back.
Read answer →How Many Shrinks Does It Take To Change A Light Bulb?
My sister is addicted to pain drugs. This morning her boyfriend found her on the floor not breathing with blue lips (actually she was still breathing but just barely and it looked like she wasn’t). He called 911 and they were able to resuscitate her. This is the 3rd time she has accidentally overdosed. If someone was going to keep trying to jump off a bridge we’d out them in a hospital until they weren’t a danger to themselves, even if they didn’t want to be there. My sister doesn’t want treatment right now but she is going to die soon without it – so what’s the difference? How is one form of suicide different from another? The hospital says they can’t take her on unless she agrees to the treatment. Is there anything I can do to get her forced into this?
Read answer →All Treatments for Depression Are NOT Created Equally!
I feel like my doctor is giving me Zoloft just to shut me up. I am pretty reserved and it was hard to open up to my doctor about how I am feeling sad all the time but as I was talking about it I could see that he was barely listening and he pretty much cut me off halfway through to recommend that I take anti depressant medicines and he gave me a refillable prescription to get filled. He didn’t even schedule a follow up appointment or anything. Maybe it doesn’t matter but I just feel like he had diagnosed me within about 3 seconds of my story. He seemed so arrogant. Pretty crap bedside manner anyway. Should I just take the medicine and see if it works or should I try to find someone else to talk to who will listen to what I am going through.? Maybe it doesn’t matter if I like my doctor or not. Does every doctor just recommend antidepressant whenever you’re dealing with lasting feelings of sadness?
Read answer →Why Can't I Concentrate?: Paying Attention To Inattention
I am on luvox. My depression has lifted but my concentration is still a mess. I will be lucky if I can stay with this paragraph for long enough to finish it…So where was I??? Oh yeah – concentration. I am 9 months into Luvox and I have mostly really good things to say about it. I have heard other people say that it helped them with concentration but honestly mine is as bad as it was at the worst of times. I used to do coding and I took a breather but I have enough goodwill to get some work – unfortunately I just can’t focus enough to trust myself to handle a complex job. So what do I do?
Read answer →The Right Medication For The Condition: Tramadol Is Not An Antidepressant
I have taken a lot of tramadol which is a serotonin boosting analgesic. I really liked how the pills gave me more energy and boosted my mood but I really did not like how I got addicted to them and how they gave me restless leg syndrome when I tried to ‘kick’ the habit. I am not sure if I am really depressed or not but I guess you could say I am dissatisfied with things since I am always trying to find that next new drug that will make me feel like I want to. My question is if I really liked the serotonin boosting effects of the tramadol should I consider going on an SSRI, even if I am not depressed in the classical sense?
Read answer →Depression and Suicidal Thoughts are NOT Normal Teenage Problems
Thank you very much for your reply . Due to this I have gained some hope of getting recovered. According to your question I possess attention difficulties.During any lecture in my school, I am not able to concentrate no matter how much I try. During that time some random thoughts come in my mind . My feelings of depression are worst during exam times. Those thoughts of suicide were at peak when my high school exams were round the corner. That time when I thought of suicide, every time the thought of my parents came in my mind so I did not took that step. But the most important thing is that during normal days these feelings of depression comes to my mind at not so much intensity (These are mild and I feel neither sad nor happy ). I also don't think of suicide during normal days (except sometimes). I also procrastinate during normal days thinking about my life and thinking whether I will be able to get out of this situation or not. This leads to a lot of waste of time and I am not able to study anything. Even when I get down to study these feelings don't let me to study. To avoid these feelings I just sit on internet most of my time. Are these normal feelings and normal circumstances faced by teenagers?
Read answer →Coping With Anxiety in Sobriety
Hi, I enjoy the Choose Help Site very much. I suffer from Anxiety, ADD & a long history of drug addiction. I have been clean for 1yr & 4months! I'm very excited about the life ahead! My drug of choice was meth. I still suffer from Anxiety daily. I take Concerta & Chilorpromazine. I have cut caffeine from my diet. I wanna live life to the fullest but the anxiety gets in the way a lot. My tel-a-med Dr. acts like the anxiety should just go away, kinda like Ive stopped using, now I will stop living with anxiety. Not the case & I feel the med. I take does not help! What can I do to help my Dr. understand its very real & how can I help myself in dealing with it. Is there a med. that would help in my case more than the one I take. I hate trying med. after med... it makes me feel like an addict all over again. And because of my past use of meth they feel like I could abuse med. that they prescribe, which is so not the case! I just wanna feel like a monster isn't erupting from my stomach & the consent worrying that creates confusion in my mind! I also wanna ask you about a book that you talk about, The Feeling Good Handbook by David D. Burns (Paperback - May 1, 1999) It seems that book is older in date & they would have newer info??? Or is this a book that maybe I should read as well? Any help please!
Read answer →Painful Limits: What We Can and Cannot Do For Others
(1.) I am very scared to tell my parents what i am going through . I don't know whether they would believe me or not . They would probably think that it is an excuse to run away from studies and to hide my weaknesses . They have very high expectations from me. (2.) Also my mood changes from time to time. sometimes i feel sad and sometimes i don't and sometimes i feel casual and carefree. example like past 2 weeks my exams were going on and i felt very casual and carefree. I did not studied a word to prepare because i was not able to concentrate on the books. I know my sadness will come again when I will get to know my marks and there are hardly any chances of getting passed in any subject. (3.) I have lost interest in school and coaching. I just wan't to get locked in my room and do nothing. AM I NORMAL? ARE THESE PROBLEMS FACED BY EVERYONE IN THEIR LIVES OR AM I TOO MUCH EXAGGERATING ? Also suicidal thoughts don't come on a regular basis.
Read answer →How to "Be" With A Friend's Struggles
My girl friend has anxiety disorders, depression and agoraphobia (all formally diagnosed and currently under medical/prescriptive care). She also suffers from some mild OCD habits, though I've seen people with worse symptoms, myself included. The more we get to know each other, the more she shares with me. She doesn't let many people get close, as she has trust issues. Recently, she shared her obsession with death, as in her obsession with wanting to die to end her physical and emotional pain. She apparently journals her thoughts about death and dying frequently. At one point in her life she was a "cutter" but she hasn't done that in a very long time. We've spoken about that specifically and she has assured me that that obsession is in the past and is not a part of her thoughts anymore. I wouldn't have known except that she and her grandmother told me- her scars are not evident because it was so long ago. She couldn't relax the other night as she was totally focused on a death poem she was writing, and paused the DVD we were watching as she finally had the inspiration to finish the poem. Then she insisted on reading it to me aloud, pausing for effect at certain points, like it was a dramatic stage performance. I didn't say a word, and then she put her journal away and we went back to watching our movie. We never spoke about the poem at all since then. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do- embrace her thoughts, ignore them, or confront/challenge them. She is going to counseling for help with her many emotional issues, and I want to help. This issue concerns me though, and I'm not sure what I should do. Thanks-
Read answer →How Obsession Begets Obsession...With Anything
Hello, I am a 23 y/o female and I don't know what's wrong with me, l am a big time overeater. The only reason I am not obese is because I exercise. I'm always preoccupied with food. I'm always thinking of what I will eat next. After having my child I started taking phentermine and that has been the only time in my life that I did not obsess over food. l don't know if I'm depressed, have Social anxiety or what my deal is. There is absolutely no time for me to be depressed. I do'nt feel sad. Mostly, I feel like a zombie going through daily routines while shoving processed food down my gullet. 1 also get this weird brain fog that happens when ' believe I'm possibly anxious, like around people. As a nursing student one instructor told me l needed to pay attention and the worst part is I do try but my head sometimes gets cloudy, and 1 will just feel this overwhelming fatigue. I'm going to start a job as a RN soon and feel this foggy brain is going to make everything So much harder. I hate not being able to pay attention, always eating, Worrying I'm going to mess up. I would like to ask my PCP about Wellbutrin but I feel embarrased asking.
Read answer →Helping A Loved One Help Themself
Hi Dr. Schultz, My son, late 20's, took a medical leave from work to attend a partial hospitalization program, he had been in therapy and feels stuck. He has been extremely frustrated with himself for not feeling like he could follow through on recommendations. He's been diagnosed with depression, also ADHD (Inattentive type) and anxiety. He tried medication for a little more than a month, then had difficulty refilling the prescription and is no longer on medication. In the meantime, he has lost his job due to downsizing. He no longer receives therapy and has not followed through on a few job leads. I find myself worrying way too much about the situation. I have a hard time not offering support, and find myself trying to help him prevent this situation from getting worse. I need to know the best way to be supportive. Please give me some suggestions...
Read answer →Are You Depressed Enough For Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation?
Is there any problem to trying transcanial magnetic stimulation before medication for depression. My husband has a hard time with sexual side effects of SSRIs. His doctor told him his depression was not as bad as they normally treat with this approach but is there any reason why it would not work for someone with medium grade depression?
Read answer →Marijuana Is As Effective For Treating Depression As Gasoline Is For Extinguishing A Fire!
If a person is depressed is smoking marijuana going to make things worse or better? My brother seems to be happier for a while when he is high but then he seems more depressed after the high wears off so i am not sure. I don't want to give him a hard time though about the one thing that seems to give him any happiness.
Read answer →On Being With "Boredom"
If I AM JUST FEELING BORED ALL OF THE TIME WHAT DOES THIS MEAN. I NEVER USED TO HAVE A PROBLEM ENTERTAINING MYSELF BUT NOW ANYTHING I THINK OF DOING SEEMS SO DULL AND I DON'T EVER REALLY HAVE FUN ANYMORE AT THINGS THAT I USED TO DO ALL THE TIME WITH MY FRIENDS? DOES THIS MEAN I AM DEPRESSED? IT REALLY BLOWS TO HAVE A WHOLE DAY OFF AHEAD OF ME LIKE TODAY AND NOT HAVE A SINGLE THING THAT I WANT TO DO WITH IT SO I GUESS I WILL JUST WATCH TV.
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