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Originally Posted by CRISSY
I'm curious to ask are you a success story did you get through it, How long did you go through it, and how do you feel now. Thankyou so much!
lots of love
crissy
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Crissy -- I think I am a work-in-progress success story. It's a long, long, long story with a lot of details, but the end of the story is that I found out why I was depressed and I am fixing it. It's very empowering. I have changed my life in a fundamental way as a result of the process I went through.
The depression began in early pregnancy (Fall 2001) and hit badly at about 30 weeks in pregnancy. i got a Zoloft starter kit and then got cold feet. I ended up at a homeopath who helped take the edge off until delivery. I totally sheltered myself -- no phone, no email. I couldn't handle one iota bit of uncertainty. My family didn't leave me by myself but they gave me space. I wasn't suicidal. As I told my midwife "there's no way I can take myself out without hurting the baby, so we're safe with suicide." That's when she gave me the medication. LOL. I didn't put that together until recently.
And the story goes on and on. Difficult birth, breastfeeding, screaming baby, etc. 6 months postpartum it got very bad again. I talked to my primary care doc who said "medication will just cover the symptoms, all women have hormonal shifts, but not all get depressed. Why are you depressed?" I actually left angry at him but his question nagged at my. The chiro agreed. Neither of them knew how bad my case was because I didn't give them full information. The doc probably would have given me meds to get me through. I should ask him.
I spent 18 months under various tests for toxiticities, allergies, and deficiencies and I had them all. As we identified one, I would make changes and I would feel better, but not entirely well. I cut out corn because of a corn allergy, I went on a candida diet, a cleanse for uranium (of all things), added Bs and essential fatty acids. Over time, I did feel better but still had pretty strong down cycles. In Feb 2004 I started on amino acids and BINGO it was like night and day. Aminos are very important in brain chemistry. Tryptophan, for instance,is the precursor to serotonin (as in selective
serotonin reuptake inhibitors-- SSRIs like Zoloft). I have felt very good ever since starting on the aminos.
Why I am a case in progress is that I am still taking the aminos. My new chiro says that it's not that my diet is deficient, but that I am not absorbing it properly. He says there is still an underlying deficiency that's affecting my digestion. When that's fixed, I'll stop the supplementation. But in the meantime, they have save my life. I posted something about it in this forum and linked to a thread in Health and Healing that I started back in February of 2004.
Overall, I would say that the depression took about 3 years of my life. It would have been shorter had I had access to better resources from the beginning, but I was not in the position to read or advocate for myself, so the search happened in fits and cycles.
Amanda
RW. Good luck at the therapist, it'll probably feel good to vent some. Thinking of you all... 
Yes, do something nice for yourself, a hot bath or some take out food of your choice. Do your kids know the "play dead" game?? 
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