Lived Experience Forum

[gyp]

Hi there, I was wondering if anyone has been diagnosed with melancholia depression. If so does CBT help to manage it. When I get depression the episode lasts for 6 months and I have all the symptoms of melancholic depression. I do no that all these types have now been bundled under major depression and there are many types of symptoms. Can someone shed some light on this please as I feel confused.thx x

[suzanne]

Hi @gyp, that's a really interesting question.  I just did some googling (as I'm sure you've done yourself) and came across some interesting articles like this one that suggests this type of depression responds less readily to talk therapies.  It seems that medication and ECT tends to be used due to the strong biological basis for the condition.

I searched for previous conversations about melancholia within the forums but only came up with this one by @MoonGal although I think she was actually using the term more descriptively than diagnostically.  There may still be members who respond with their experiences which would be incredibly useful.

What's the advice that you're receiving from your GP or Psychologist? 

[MoonGal]

Hi @gyp - @suzanne mentioned a post - and I did use melancholia as descriptive, however all my depression is melancholic (diagnostically) I live with manic depression - (the old term for Bi Polar). So that post - "It goes like this" does describe it, and some of what I try to do to live through it.

I find that the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy does help if I have the right therapist. More recently ACT - Acceptance Commitment Therapy has also started to help.

A diagnoses is only part of living with it, knowing ourselves, catching the fall, having some insight, finding things that help can be a toolkit of various things. No one thing has ever fixed it for me, combination of medication, therapy, phyical exercise (even just  little bit of walking or weights or soemthing if physical issues prevent anything more). 

Someone else might know more about the diagnostic side of things, but I have also found that labels/daignoses do help - but only so far. I pinned alot on the diagnoses and then discovered nothing much changed except better (or heavier) medication. i was still me. Hope this helps a bit if it doesn't, sorry! Hope someone else can help.

[Kurra]

My depressions come from no where and involve severe psychomotor retardation. The pitch of my voice drops and very slow and halting until it becomes monosyllabic. This level of depression for me rapidly turns into psychotic depression and usually requires hospitalisation as I no longer have any capacity to care for myself. When I'm profoundly depressed like this psychological intervention has no impact at all. This type of depression lasts between 18 months to 2 years. Medication helps to a small but insignificant degree. It is a total nothingness. The earlier I get help the better it is for me. 🎶💕

[gyp]

my Psychiatrist has not diagnosed me with melancholia depression but I have the symptoms of it. I do tend to self diagnose my illness as I read so much of the medical docs often don't get the correct diagnosed. Fear is a part of it too..my mother had two attempts to leave and the second one was successful. It happened 13 years ago and still seems like yday. She had ECT in 1994 and she lost a huge part of her memory, she never picked up her paint brushes again as she did not know how to. I now wonder in hindsight what type of depression she had as her illness was never discussed because my father insisted it was not illness but a weakness. So I will never know what it was and how long she had it for. So this is what I am fearful about. I guess I am projecting into 'what ifs' and that's where I'm at because everytime I have a depression episode it takes longer to come out of it. I also have a friend who's husb had ECT last year and he shared with me that he is not the same and he still gets SI. I take ssri AD and they do not work, if they did I feel the depression would lift in a few months not 6 months. I hope I have explained this properly as this damn depression debilitates my thinking.

[Former-Member]

Hi @Kurra

I am sorry to read about how severe your depression is and how much it impacted your quality of life.

I believe my depression was severe too and it affected me really bady too

Would you be able to describe what psychomotor retardation and how long you had this for, I think I had this with my depression?

I am thinking of going into hospital for some respite atm because I don't want a repeat of that severe depression.

Have you got back to were you were before you had your depression?

What do you think as been the most helpful in managing your depression?

[Kurra]

Hi @Former-Member
The psychomotor retardation slowed my walking speed to an enormous degree. My capacity to think at a normal speed became impossible and thinking was a laborious process as was speech. I guess you could say the brain had basically shut down. Every time this happened I would lose the capacity to enjoy anything. There was no relief at all. The psychomotor retardation lasted for up to a year at a time.

If you're speaking of less severe depression medication combined with regular appointments with my psychologist and a hell of a lot of hardwork myself really helped a lot but working has been the most effective way to prevent my depression getting completely out of control. Working full time gave me a lot less time to think about how awful I felt.
I'm completely free of any symptoms at the moment but I still take meds. The addition of an ssri has given me stable mental ddhealth since February and I no longer experience any anxiety. 🎶💕
ts