Depression, anxiety, stress ect

Beebee:
Hi I’m new to this so bear with me. I’ve read through the posts & there’s a bit of a theme. Men & women deal with health problems differently. Women (in my opinion) are more open about having a problem & will turn to others, men keep more to themselves. It does not help that drs can only give you a 5min appt (10mins if you book a double) & you have to take a day off work & another if you need to have tests, a bit difficult if your a tramper. If you do have some form of mental health problem tablets do not work in all cases, counselling unless private, has very high waiting lists & what driver can attend an appointment every week for say, 12wks. With the long hours when do drivers get to wind down,exercise. Someone who is suffering from depression & sits in a cab all week does not need to be told “pull yourself together” or any other type of derogatory remark, they need to find the cause & how to change the effect it’s having. Sadly, for some people their situation cannot be changed & life becomes about learning to cope.

Totaly agree. Men will never say a word when in trouble.

Doctor visits are short here in Florida, too, and expensive. In the USA we have insurance companies making a profit on doctors and drug costs – in other words, investors making a profit on illness. I think we pay more for health care here but are at the bottom of the industrialized country list for patient care. We have another problem, too. The “War on Drugs”. The DEA scans through what doctors prescribe, raid their offices, and drive the price up to the point where this govt agency must be in league with the pharmaceutical companies, especially when it comes to anti-depressants. My co-pilot, “Cheater” has something to say about this on our blog under “Cheater Rants”. Title “Big Pharma”. bleepfreepress.com/blog – you Brits will love it (I think) :unamused:

Music videos for truckers recuperating at home. There is a new one out from India, foreign language, doesn’t make a bit of sense, but somehow it put a smile on my face. To wit:
tinyurl.com/cozrenp
Indian trucking video (foreign language)

But nobody beats Slim Dusty for his Oz road train music videos, my personal, last ditch depression buster.
jbaal.com/tempshare/Slim-Dus … -Hill_.flv

Hope this helps.
s/ Mo’hammer & Cheater

jessicas dad:
this website is recommened for help from the leeds nhs mental health team.

glasgowsteps.com/

Great link! Thanks for the heads up!

carlnwo:

jessicas dad:
this website is recommened for help from the leeds nhs mental health team.

glasgowsteps.com/

Great link! Thanks for the heads up!

It is a great link! I have one problem with the depression treatment system, however, both in the UK and the USA. The control freaks and those making a profit from pharmaceutical companies are driving up health costs and making many people more sick. Anti-depressants are expensive, have a poor success rate, and have numerous side effects. A controlled opiate and barbiturate regimen, presently illegal in many areas, has a 95% success rate for severely depressed patients with the only side effects being the amount used requiring a written prescription. Greed and stupidity often rule in medicine just like they do in other more commercial enterprises. They say that there is also a withdrawal problem with the use of anti-depressants. Hmmm… An addiction in sheep’s clothing seems to me.

Just been reading this ROB Ks posts on the previous page that depression is b-s. With so much medical experience you are obviously in the wrong job son you should be a GP and earning a good salary instead of driving for £7,50 ph. You obviously have never mores the pity ever suffered from this condition as if you had you would not open your mouth and talk a lot of BULLSH-T. Eddie.

My experience of gout pills is that they give you the uncontrollable squits. I mean proper big style, no ■■■■■■■.

If you want to go mental, try and give up smoking on Champix. No sleep for days on end, and you can’t trust yourself to differentiate between dreams and reality

erfguy:
Just been reading this ROB Ks posts on the previous page that depression is b-s. With so much medical experience you are obviously in the wrong job son you should be a GP and earning a good salary instead of driving for £7,50 ph. You obviously have never mores the pity ever suffered from this condition as if you had you would not open your mouth and talk a lot of BULLSH-T. Eddie.

A lot of drivers suffer depression in varying degrees & never talk about it -it can take many forms ,lack of ambition,motivation,socializing ,alcoholism,etc. It doesn’t necessarily mean you sit in the corner of a darkened room thinking of suicide all the time.

It’s a shame that there have been so many immature posts on here, they seem to have been by the same 2 bloggers, thankfully it looks like they have both gone quiet.

Depression and anxiety, they’re crap, if you have it or live with someone that has it, I sympathize with you. To any one that that says it doesn’t exist, I should warn you that the next time you go for a drive you better watch out that you don’t fall of the edge of the earth.

I consider myself lucky that I don’t have it, but I have a few closed family members that do, and have watched, and tried to give support as they go through it.
The brain is an organ, as is the heart, lungs, liver, kidney, and just like any other organ in the human body, it can go wrong. Unfortunately over the years there has been a lot of immature finger pointing if the brains function is disrupted, unfortunately even by some doctors. But that’s s totally different subject.
Like any other illness it effects every one differently and with different severity; some can cope with it, and some can’t.
It has many different face, and every one tries a different strategy to control it. It may surface as pure depression, anger, anxiety, irrational behaviour, you could be very irritable, anti social, withdrawn or avoid everything, constant negativity, confusion, or in denial, or many more symptoms.
What ever the symptom, get some professional help, the first and easiest step is a visit to the GP, perhaps it’s not to severe or you can catch it in time and a simple course of medication for a while will sort you out , ( but I don’t know you circumstances so I can’t comment ).
Another route is to see a psychologist or psychiatrist , ( yes I know “warning words” and all that ) but if you had a heart condition and your doctor said don’t worry about seeing a cardiologist then he would be inept.
They’re just people that specialise in brain function and emotional problems, and if that’s what you have then they’re the best people to see.
Seeing either a psychologist or psychiatrist usually needs a referral from a GP, so discuss the situation with him/her first.
There is a relationship thing with both a psychologist and psychiatrist, so if you don’t think it’s working, then you can try again with someone you feel more comfortable with.

For some people depression is a very dark, confusing, place, and it’s often very difficult to make well informed decisions when you are being consumed by it. A lot of the time depression follows a set route, from the beginning of the spiral, into the bottom of the pit, then eventually out the other side.
If you are in the bottom of the pit then it’s often the darkest place to be and perhaps making any kind of decision should be left until later, or at the discretion of a loved or trusted person. But depression does ware many faces.
An analogy could go like this…
You live in Chicago, depression is the ■■■■■■■■■■■■, there are various ways of getting there, you can drive in a car , go by bus or get a plane.
It would be better if you never visited at all ,but “you can” get help anywhere along the way. May be most of the time you stay in Chicago, but through no fault of your own you find your self on the way, and your getting closer be the second. Perhaps you fell asleep on the bus one night and when you woke up you were almost there Even when you get to the visitor centre, you can still get help, it’s not inevitable that you will fall in, as long as you are even half awake you can get help.
What ever you are feeling, if it doesn’t seem right than it probable isn’t. Please get some help, it doesn’t gave to be like that, it can be better and you deserve it.

If it’s something that’s reoccurring then it can be very helpful to keep a diary, even marking it out on a calendar can be very helpful for a professional to make a more informed diagnosis. Tell your doctor exactly what you think is going on, if you only tell them half the systems them then they can’t make an informed diagnosis. At worst they can even go the wrong direction and may be treating the wrong thing. If you have highs before you have lows tell them that as well, because that’s different again.
If you are prescribed medication, then remember that your body can build up a tolerance to it over a period of time, and the medication could need increasing or change to something else. And again it’s a personal thing, what works for someone might not go so well for someone else.

Jeff…

One other point that I would like to mention are a few of the things that could possibly trigger depression.

There as many triggers as there are people on the planet, but here are a few more common ones.

It could be you were just born unlucky and have a genetically pre disposition to it. ie ’ It doesn’t matter what you do, you have it and it’ll run it’s course.

Some times it might activate at puberty or a bit later on in life, again it would depend on you genetically programing.

Just because a parent or sibling has it doesn’t mean that you will get it.

Perhaps none of you family has it, it doesn’t mean that you won’t get it.

It could be that you have it very marginally, and are getting by, but then there’s an abnormal outside influence, like the death of a loved one, major relationship problem, loss of a job, or financial problems, vehicle crash, hi jacking, or any other kind of traumatic incident. ( Just because it’s less traumatic to someone else doesn’t mean it not traumatic to you. Every one is different and reacts differently to individual circumstances )

Or it could be a slow build up of a lot of smaller things that happen over a short time period.

If you have it, or are going to get it, don’t try and ignore it, or side step it, the chances are you will need some kind of help, so go and see someone.

Some people react different to medication, if it doesn’t seem to be working for you then go back to the Doctor and tell her / him. There are thousands of different medications on the market, so don’t give up.

If your medication is working well, and you seem fine, don’t stop taking it with out the advice of a medical professional.

Every one deserves good mental health and that includes you…

Jeff…

My mate suffered from early death syndrome. His mother, father,sister & older brother all died before they were sixty. He was trying his hardest to drink hisself to death. That was three years ago. I rang him the other to see how he was getting on. He told me he was fit as a fiddle ,feeling v.healthy & was sixty-three years old. Lovely… then he told me his younger brother who has been living with him had just tested positive to HIV,after losing 45kgs & living in denial for the last three years! :unamused:

It’s always very sad when that happens.

Jeff…

Saratoga:
I reckon I’ve got a problem with stress and depression at the moment but for the most part it has brought me out as being emotional with using alcohol to calm things down. Although I only have the brandy in the evenings :blush: :blush:

Good days and bad days :unamused: Guess today isn’t a good day :frowning: :unamused: :frowning:

Read the stuff on the PDA site. Interesting information, but I [zb] up the option of joining the PDA years ago. So here I am, getting back into transport and living life on an edge…

Course, after a double brandy I’m probably note safe to be on the internet so I’d best stay away from those selling and auction sites then :astonished:

I’m not getting any pains or complications like that but more of unstable and emotional. Not sure what else to do to handle it…

Oh, and I’m doing my learning for the theory for my cat C. That’ll be the stress then :astonished:

Agreed 100% - take it from someone that has suffered with this illness for over 10 yrs - Telling someone to man up, get over yourself or whatever some say will not help and will make you feel even worse…Depression and anxiety does not discriminate - it is a bloody [zb] of an illness.

I have taken anti depressants etc and there is no shame in telling family and friends how you feel - get to the doctors, as I found once you tell someone you will feel a lot better and time will heal. I don’t take anti depressants anymore as now know how to deal with the warning signs -

The other thing I found is don’t surround yourself with negative whinging people as this will make you feel worse - Joining a gym or taking some form of exercise is also extremely good as it releases toxins into the brain…for anyone that has the illness there is light at the end of the tunnel and yes I drove on anti depressants without any side effects, it all depends on what the doctor prescribes.

I never told my boss I had the illness as some do not understand anything about the illness and I believe if they did some research they may also be suffering in some way…

Good luck to anyone who is suffering the first thing to do is tell your wife or partner how you feel. !!! :confused:

I have suffered this for many years although I do take anti depressants it does help & yep I can still drive with them as it is such a low does but it also helps with other health problems that I have

Advice go speak with your Dr there is help & advice out there if you want & need it

Defo try some exercise that suits you it does help

You have to find your way to manage it although it is not easy I still suffer at times for it but a lot of time I know the symptoms although I cant alway stop it just have to ride it through at least I know what is wrong

Depression’s really awful, I’ve suffered from it for a long time - funnily enough, most of it was caused by a rubbish upbringing (won’t go into details) and being ground down in jobs I hated.
A few months ago, I quit work to try being self employed as I was doing okay with my side business (was and still am fully registered with HMRC), but struggled with money so tried a part-time job again. The plan was to get a few hours a week to bring in the rent, then work hard on the business in the meantime. That’s the van driving I’m doing now. I was so happy when I was fully self-employed, despite the money worries, and yet I started loving the driving, too.
But work want me, in fact are able to force me as I stupidly signed the contract with this clause in it - to go and do retail work in the store. The thought of dealing with their weird till system, trying to flog financial products and upsell stuff to meet targets and KPIs, and deal with customers for hours on end, brought on a panic attack and the depression kicked in big time earlier this week. This evening has been pretty bad. Shame I was enjoying the van driving and looking forward to moving onto better driving jobs after some experience, but this has put the mockers on it because I can’t face shop floor work. I’ll probably resign, I have no choice, I won’t last if I’m put on the shop floor. That’s my ambition to train for a C licence put on the back burner, as I’ll need my savings to survive until I can get another part time job (business not bringing in enough to keep me fully afloat, trying hard though).
So I’m not trying for sympathy, I’m just stuck again, and I’ve been in worse situations, but this is where the triggers start going off, and no-one can help me but myself. But it’s rubbish while it lasts. And I think it’s that feeling of utter helplessness that can push someone under; when you’ve got virtually no support network (no family, rubbish GP, etc) it can easily get overwhelming. A long time ago I nearly checked out completely, yet from the outside looking in, you’d never have known.

I’m usually depressed when I think of my life and realize that it’s not going anywhere. Having a life without an aim is really very depressing.

Almost all of my hobbies have become a waste of time, my health is going downhill and the job has helped drive most of my friends away.

I was tempted on going to the doc again but I found a link last night about things that are notifiable.

Bob24:
I’m usually depressed when I think of my life and realize that it’s not going anywhere. Having a life without an aim is really very depressing.

The past is the past you can’t change that but you can change what you do tomorrow next week next mth your eyes look forward for a reason your go forward

Now easier said than done but find something to plan for wether it be replacing some of your clothes tho looking for a new car etc don’t have to be big just small steps 1 at a time find thing do to

Interesting discussion. Take a look at my recent post that potentially links depression, anxiety and stress with electromagnetic frequencies. I’m prepared to share links to specific papers I’ve stumbled upon:

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=163890

I was interested because of the name of this thread, anyway, I’ve found lots of info about depression. You know what is the best way to live with it? Go to the doctor.
I believe, even 1 session may help you to understand the way out of this condition.