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My fondness for psychology is borne out of my love for philosophy. It seems like a natural progression (for me anyway) to have studied the words of those trying to make sense of the world, ethics, etc., and then to move toward the personal -- the differences and likenesses amongst us.
I like depth psychology: Jung, Freud, Hillman, Woodman, Jacoby, Von-Franz, Rogers, etc. It appeals to me more than Cognitive Behavioral, though I know it can be enormously useful in practice.
I have suffered from one clinnically diagnosed depression a few years ago that, through a good bit of therapy, has lifted. Hmm, as I write that it seems to me that it both lifted and deepened me as a person.
I guess I've come to see depression as a gift (albeit, a painful, disorienting, sad gift). I know there are varying levels of depression, different presentations and the like, so I am reluctant to make sweeping comments about it.
In my own experience, however, I am happy to know myself better now, and my own symptoms when they come on. I am better able to gauge the severity, and what's really depression or just kind of a mood thing.
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I happened to get into psychology when I started reading self-help books. After being diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder and Depression I began to research just what social Anxiety disorder was. That was part of my way of coping. But from there my interest spread and I started reading more and more on different disorders, then just got interested in character traits and the basic similarities between everyone.
I started to go to school for a pre-major in Psychology, but I never finished working full time and doing full time school proved to be a bit much so I chose to let school be so that I could maintain some semblance of normalcy.
Not sure that I would say that Depression has been a gift to me, but I have slowly learned myself and my symptoms. Another big help for me to get better has been rededicating my life to God and joining a church. Not really gonna say much else about that, because I know there are many mixed opinions, but if you want to talk more about it just send me a message and I will be more than happy to discuss this with you.
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Hi there. I'm new to this group as well. I am really fascinated by memory loss, whether it be from trauma or a mental disorder. There are three fiction books that I would recommend to anyone into amnesia: The Raw Shark Texts, Remainder and The Vintage Book of Amnesia. Does anyone have any other memory related recommendations?
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Thanks for your suggestions. I, too, am fascinated by memory loss and anything that has to do with depression, psychological disorders and I don't know why, but I always have. It's not easy finding these books (especially now that I am listening to audible -- there aren't as many books on these subjects on CD). However, I did enjoy Crazy: A Fathers Seach in America's Mental Hospitals by Pete Earley and Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls
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I think on this too. My theory is that because memories are all associative additions, sometimes they are not grouped with logical assumptions. Memories seem more sorted and tagged with all the stimulus data that was being collected at the time. It's like the brain throws a net over it all and drags it into a pile. The weird thing is when an experience gets tagged along with something that was perceived and yet not consciously collected.
Sometimes I wonder if that's not where a lot of weird compulsions come from.
Back to memory loss, have you ever experienced a situation where someone has asked you a question, and due to the context of the person and the situation, you have forgotten some memory that would be relevant to what they are asking, but due to the social setting and your experience with that person, you've never thought about that idea around them before, and so it's almost like the information is rusty? Later on you think, wow! I totally didn't remember this rather big thing that happened to me once, maybe because I have made an effort to move forward from it, but to be in a conversation with someone who has just revealed they share in that experience, and yet to still forget you experienced it even after they themselves are asking for your relating memories? It's not that I didn't remember that event, it's that I had grown to have this expectation of what that sort of event would mean and be like in the contest of this other person's life, to the point where I didn't feel like I had any relating stories because we had grown up so differently. But then, looking at it logically, instead of relationally, it became perfectly obvious to me later that it was the exact same sort of experience.
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My interest in mental health stems from a desire to find something in the medical field that would be remotely readable. Some background- I just finished med school and whilst in med school I was reading everything I could get my hands on apart from medicine- go figure. It was an attempt to unite my business(medicine) with my pleasure(reading).
I really like books by R.D. Laing-whose prevailing theory is that many of the so called mental illnesses are variants of normal adaptation and functioning. Anybody read any titles by him?
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My love of psychology came from having the coolest prof teach it. Then I had an English prof do grad level work in Psych - Frued Jung etcetc, soc and Neitzche and both made insane differences in my first (ahem....) six years of school. Then, my life changed...I met a guy who was amazing at first and I really loved having him around. Within months I was diagnosed with MS. From there, I deteriorated mentally. It took me four of those years to get him out of my life. That was my first battle with depression and the first round of drugs. Once he was out of my life, I made more mistakes and let my mother tell me how awful I was etc. And now, here I am ten years later in therapy because for six weeks starting in May, all I did was cry. I may be manic, I may be something else. I am on some pretty BIG drugs for pain and now for depression too. I have been on Lexapro, prozac and now Effexor 175 mgs. I am also on a regimine of pain meds and muscle relaxers for the MS, as well at a neural pain med that kicks my butt. I have a very good friend in Utah that has these ungodly headaches. I worry about her. She is on some of the same stuff. She deserves better.
I have all sorts of texts and reading material. I love learning about things - for example when I was a kid, my mother told me that my dad was a Sociopath. He really isn't. I have no doubt that she is the crazy one :P
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I have suffered with depression on and off all my life. Recently my doctor thinks that it might not be depression, but bipolar disorder because I have days of crazy hyperness mixed in between days of inability to do anything. What I know about psychology because I majored in it, is that it is different for every person. What helps one will not always help another.
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I may as well "out" myself. Oh well. Rowan and belljargirl have been so refreshingly candid. I guess I waver between wanting to appear to "have it all together" and wanting to just be honest. It can be such an effort to look better than you really feel. I've probably had bipolar probably for about 20 years or more but was diagnosed about 9 years ago. I've been on Depakote for most of those years and believe significant weight gain has been the result. It was easier for me to be on than Lithium, but the weight has been hard to take. I've tried going on Topomax which is supposed to help treat bipolar while also counteracting Depakote's action on appetite, but the side effects for me were tough. I did lose weight, though, and that was wonderful.
I'm a happier person without the Topomax, but I want to go on it again for the benefit of appetite suppression. People encourage me not to worry so much about the way I look, I'm beautiful, etc. But it is devastating to have looked one way most of your life and then suddenly, within the span of a couple of years, look completely different. It is like aging very fast. I know there are worse problems to have, but this has had some consequences for me and I struggle a great deal, not to mention what being a bipolar person means and the challenges it presents.
Thanks for letting me talk like this here. I would talk about my books on bipolar. I guess I used to read a lot more on this topic when it was still more of a curiosity, back when it was new to me, and even before the diagnosis. Now it makes me angry and sad. But who knows, maybe I could find some healing in the work of authors who are survivors, despite side effects, stigma and a sometimes completely inexplicable emotional life.
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PS I just want to add very strongly that I am glad I was medicated for bipolar disorder, despite the side effects. There is a saying that some in bipolar circles say that definitely holds true: I'd rather be fluffy and sane than crazy and vain. This might sound a little harsh, you know, that word "crazy," but people with a diagnosis need to laugh and I don't think it's all bad. Anyway, I didn't want what I said about my outcome to scare anyone about getting help. There are things you can do to counteract this side effects and I didn't work hard enough from the beginning to exercise and eat better, but I wouldn't trade in my happiness, which includes a full life of work and family, for my thinner body. I know I couldn't have lived long unmedicated and what good is a thinner body then?
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Hi ya folks, I have a struggle with depression and some anxiety, too. I know plenty of people with depression and anxiety, diagnosed or not, and some people with more severe mood disturbances. I have read a number of books on the topic in an attempt to problem solve and others as an extension of my interest in people. A recent one that I found quite helpful was *A Secret Sadness: Hidden Relationship Problems that Make Women Depressed*. A helpful book introducing using cognitive behavior therapy to help yourself with distorted thinking is *The Feeling Good Handbook*. I'll add them to the bookshelf.
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If I might make a book suggestion that can sometimes help me. "The Noonday Demon" by Andrew Soloman.
I've been medicated for severe depression for about 5 years and when the meds don't work, I have my books and Solomon's has been one of my outlets.
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yoteun
- Wednesday, September 26 2007
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Hello,
I had just joined this group.
If you want to know something ask me ;)
Greetings
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I very much enjoy the company of creative and off-beat people, and for that reason (maybe) I've know quite a lot of people who have been diagnosed with bi-polar disorders, and who have used those extremes to generate very strong works of art.
There are times when I sometimes wonder if I'm not on a pretty breathtaking roller coaster myself. But the other side of that is that life is one giant surprise. Typically I try and do a lot of things, and when I feel burned out I eventually hit a lowest point and then take the opposite approach of working even harder with the hope of that one last throw of effort might be enough to tip the scales. When it's not, I get more quiet. Lie low. Try again later.
When the effort finally is enough, I've already built up enough steam from all the other tries that I usually end up blasting into joy at a new accomplishment I didn't quite know how long it would take and if it would really ever finally work out. I know that me on a full night's uninterrupted sleep after a successful proposal at the office, a strong cup of coffee, and a good long run is very similar-looking to a manic person. Whether that's because it IS a manic episode I have sometimes wondered but never worried too much about it, except to try not to be annoyingly perky during someone else's bad day.
I find as I get older though, that there seems to be more of a solid core to my being that wasn't there when I was young. I'm not sure what it is, but it's something that just makes you sigh and trudge on rather than throw fits or stick your head in the oven.
I've been depressed before during hard life experiences. I think a lot of depression is situational and normal though, because a normal person put in a depressing situation is by nature going to get depressed without the sort of interaction everybody needs. At least if you wake up and realize you're depressed you know you're actually dealing with the problems, and recognizing what's going on.
For me, psychology is interesting in being able to watch how people sort of bump into one another in the night, which is my way of describing what I see online. I recently discovered Alan Watts, who it seems was a little bit ahead of his time.
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Hi, I'm new here. My fascination is with mental health, particularly how it can be impacted by one's spiritual health. I am interested in depression, personality disorders, and eating disorders as I've struggled with them all. I received excellent medical care: dozens of medications, dozens of hospitalizations in psychiatric wards, hundreds of hours of psychotherapy, and over 100 shock treatments...for starters. But I didn't overcome depression until I addressed the its spiritual roots in my life.
I'm a writrer and speaker and have a book on overcoming depression scheduled to release in October 2008 (NavPress).
Looking forward to this group!
Peace.
Sharon
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Fran
- Sunday, March 30 2008
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I realize that this is an old post but it seems like a good place to introduce myself. My interest in Mental Illness, Psychology, etc. stems from having taught middle school students with various emotional and behavioral disorders and from having been diagnosed and medicated for major depression and anxiety myself. I find it interesting to learn how these disorders occur and how they are treated. Learning more has made me more patient with my students and with myself.
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