I would never say to someone "buck up" or "cheer up",
because I know how dismissive and unhelpful that is. I don't want anyone to think I'm suggesting it's easy here, I had a very hard time of it myself.

Probably a lot of depression is caused by something transient, such as a bereavement, and pills just help them through it.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Mon 15 Jun 2009, 15:03, archived)

OK I'm sorry, I've got the wrong end of what you were saying there
I do agree that a lot of the time it's situational, it was for me certainly. But I do think the pills helped me personally. I don't think they're magic cures nor that they work for everyone, all I can say is that they helped me sort something out when I needed it.
( Theoban What of it, Mon 15 Jun 2009, 15:05, archived)

They do say psychotherapy works best with the pills as well,
what credit I can give them is that they did seem to remove a lot of the anxiety, which probably helps, but psychotherapy did nothing for me either, to be honest. Most people have better luck with that, I hope, I'm just one of the awkward cases it doesn't work on! But maybe it did do some good, in a round-about sort of way.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Mon 15 Jun 2009, 15:09, archived)

The psychotherapy they gave to me ended up with me in hospital for an overdose
So I'll chalk that one up as a 'failure'. But I got better after that.
( Theoban What of it, Mon 15 Jun 2009, 15:12, archived)

One can only presume it works for some people,
otherwise they wouldn't do it. Mine did say it was "a long, slow process," but the way she was going on, it would have taken forever, and I didn't really have forever. Ultimately I came to the conclusion that she wasn't going to be able to fix me and that I'd have to go and do it myself.

It was weird, though. She wouldn't say anything. I'd go in there every week, and she'd just sit there looking at me, and I kept asking her "what do you expect me to say?" and "what am I supposed to say?" and she'd just come back with things like "are you expected to say something?" and "are you supposed to say something?" She was worse than that bloody Eliza program. I tried to start normal conversations, and she'd just go "this is not a normal social interaction." So I was completely at a loss, week after week of half-hour sessions of near silence. It occurs to me perhaps that most people, once the meds have taken away the anxiety, naturally tend to talk about themselves. I don't know, but I know I don't. Some people accuse me of "bottling up", but it's not that, it just rarely occurs to me to say anything.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Mon 15 Jun 2009, 15:20, archived)

I just used to lie to them, saying what I thought they'd want to hear
I know that entirely defeats the purpose but I don't like 'opening up'. I'd rather keep it inside where it can't bother anyone.

The woman had me handling stones going 'which one do you most identify with?' Utter nonsense it was.
( Theoban What of it, Mon 15 Jun 2009, 15:25, archived)

haha
that's like some kind of crazy new-age weirdness. My dad does this thing called the Luscher Colour Test, that's quite fun.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Mon 15 Jun 2009, 15:27, archived)