Mild 1/2 speed;  Severe no speed.

Hi MM and all,

Thanks for the question. My experience tells me that there are times when severe depression requires immediate attention. When a person is not eating, hardly moving, sleeping excessively, and staying in isolation, intervention may be needed to provide a way out. If the person is not communicating at all, someone has to bridge the withdrawal or a life is at risk. Mild depression is more like trying to swim with an anchor tied to a limb. Movement is possible, but the struggle is constant. In either case the pain is very real to the person with depression. With severe depression the symptoms are more easily detected. Whereas a person with mild depression can pass for being uninterested, "self-centered", socially inept, dull, anti-social, unmotivated, or moody. The treatment for severe depression has to be much more focused, with hospitalization as the most intense antidote. During recovery forward steps are

first tiny. Larger strides easily fool one into believing the unwanted "guest has been dismissed. Mild depression is a welcome reprieve after a severe bout. The 

hardest part for some one who has spent years of relative gregarious living is

finding that many who are not in your condition do not fathom what is now common for you. Thus an added burden to being depressed is sensing being misunderstood. Enough probing! Thank goodness for wonderful medications, counselors who accept insurance benifits, days, weeks, and months of relief in between hard times.

Ric

In what ways is mild depression different from severe depression?   Mild depression may be situational in nature.  The symptoms are mostly the same as in severe depression, but have less effect and are more easily handled.  For me severe depression has included the wish to die and lack of fear of death with hoarding of old medications which might be effective in ending my life.

Do you think that the severity of depression is primarily subjective?

It can be.  But there is no doubt for me when I have severe depression, as my whole life is affected extremely adversely, and I think about dying to get out of the pain.

Should mild depression be treated differently than severe depression?  Yes, I believe mild depression would be more easily treated with therapy and medications.  For me, severe depression is treatment resistant.  I've been treated with therapy, medication, ECT, hospitalization, Vagus Nerve Stimulator implanted and settings adjusted.  I've also tried fish oil supplements without much positive effect.  I did finally come to a point where I was feeling better and had several months of mood stability.  However, since shortly after my mother's death in July, my mood has been worse due to bad memories stirred by going through her things and having them present in my home.  I've lost motivation to do as I need--get her things out and taken care of.  She named me executor of her will, and I've had to decide what to send each of my two sisters, who live away from the town I live in.  I have too little motivation and organizational ability due to the effects of my depression.

And lastly...which type of depression would you say you have? Or does your depression fluctuate from mild to severe?  Since the end of July there has been a fluctuation from a relatively mild depression back to a more severe one, though without the suicidal ideation.  My therapy and medications have remained the same.  As far as I know, my VNS is still operating.

I've been diagnosed with major depression. I have ups and downs with mild to sever depression. I live alone and it drives me crazy. I get so depressed I don't know what to do, along with anxiety. 

hi there

i go to the doc's a lot with depression all he ever say's is this wont get sorted over night that is what i have been told for 15 years now and is getting a whole lot worse, my simptoms are i do not enjoy anything at all anymore, my 2 kid's say to me i wish you were a fun mum again, that really hurt'si isolate myself from everyone, i have lost friend's and family due to this. i have anxiety aswell and stress, everyone say's i am a hypricondriact or however you spell it, my sis say's it is a fake illness, my mum says i should go back to work i would feel better, i work in a bank, also have severe mood swing's fly off the handle at the slightest thing's including things i used to know now forgotten and get really annoyed with myself and customer because i have forgotten which is not their fault, all i want to do is hide and not see anyone at all, i am happy to go a week or two without seeing anyone or going out, my son is trying to get me to befriend his friends mums which i am not interested in, i used to love socialising, find it very difficult to get up in the morning and getting to sleep at night, to try and feel better when i can be botherd to pull myself together go out and spend money on things i do not need, does not make me feel any better at all, i feel absolutly worthless and that their is no point in my life, the only thing that acctually stops me from doing anythign stupid is my kids i got tattoos of their names so i remember why i am here that does help sometimes, i feel they would be better off with their dad and his girlfriend, i feel everyone is back stabbing me and talks about me so i try to avoid it and stay in with curtains shut, i used to take carwe of my apperance ii have forgotten how do that, probably wont get a message back i am lost and confussed i am married but think he just takes the piss out of me and is only here cause he has nowhare to go please