Once, and it was brilliant
I was planning to study in Idaho, in America, for a while... Sadly that lasted only a few months, and my ongoing depression stuck with me around that date.

During my time at the high school, I had befriended someone who was being pushed around, which I wasn't too fond of. We had a few chats and really got along, and stayed in contact ever since (coming up to 6 years ago).
After I had left, this friend introduced me to another friend, and we started chatting online.

Funnily, despite me and this person going to the same school, we never spoke until 'after' I came back to London.
We became really good friends online, and earlier this year I went to visit them both in Washington state.

One person I hadn't met in over 5 years, and another whom I had never met until that one day.
We really hit it off, and we became even stronger friends in real life. While I haven't seen them since, we're actually quite close - and honestly speaking, it makes me that much happier knowing that despite my experience and living conditions at the time being, well, not what one would expect, some people are out there who genuinely care, and will make you feel better: whether it's coping with a death of one of the closest person in my life, to generally feeling blue.

I'm still trying to deal with my depression, though my friends and close family are really upsides to an otherwise complicated, and sad reality that I'm facing currently.
( PoshMurder <goat head>, Fri 21 Oct 2011, 2:22, 5 replies)

depression is all in your mind.
but what is worse than depression is trying to wean yourself off of SSRIs. I watched my closest friend try to do it and it made me want to beat up all the pharmaceutical companies in the world.
(Gritty, yet fluffy. kipperpillock is obsessed with me =), Fri 21 Oct 2011, 2:50, closed)

Why, for producing antidepressants that help millions of people? You make SSRIs sound like crack.
Of course it's going to be difficult to stop taking them, the underlying depression is probably still there.
( 2 Can Chunder Word to your mums, I came to prod bums, Fri 21 Oct 2011, 8:37, closed)

SSRIs are worse than crack
the difficulty in getting off the fuckers has nothing to do with underlying depression, it has to do with the fact that they fuck with with your brain's ability to regulate its own chemical and electrical processes.
They are supposed to be for short-term use ONLY, to help the patient get a grip and to be used in conjunction with other forms of therapy - notably, cognitive. Yet we are seeing people who have been on heavy doses of the shit for 10 years+.
Just for shits and giggles, read wiki's list of side-effects, then come back and tell me how awesome they are.
(Gritty, yet fluffy. kipperpillock is obsessed with me =), Fri 21 Oct 2011, 8:54, closed)

Or for more shits and giggles read the side effect list of any medication. I don't need wikipedia, I have a copy of the British National Formulary on my desk.
They're not meant to be used short term.
( 2 Can Chunder Word to your mums, I came to prod bums, Fri 21 Oct 2011, 8:59, closed)

and i have a beer on my desk. what of it?
The four clinical psychologists I have consulted with over the last 6 years involving this case are all wrong, and YOU, internet stranger, are clearly right. I think it's your obsession with eggs that swayed me.
(Gritty, yet fluffy. kipperpillock is obsessed with me =), Fri 21 Oct 2011, 9:57, closed)