Newly Diagnosed / Fluoxetine
hello, I have been depressed since about 5 months ago but only just recently started getting help. Been put on fluoxetine which I dont really want to take but would be grateful for any advice / experience shared on this. Going to a full mental health assessment tomorrow which Im apprehensive about because tbh Ive talked about all my issues to my close family and I feel like talking about them to professionals isnt going to help or alleviate them. I know Im being cynical but this is just how I feel nowadays, Im so low all the time. I just feel hopeless and that getting help wont really help me.
@Ccharlie3 Hi. It's great that you're getting help for depression and it's to your credit that you recognize how negative thoughts about outcomes might not be correct. When I began treatment, I was very pessimistic and this is how depression ensnares us.
I can think of a dozen reasons why talking to a therapist will be different than talking to family or friends about depression, I'll share my top 5 and please let me know if you have questions.
1. We couldn't/shouldn't/wouldn't be as honest and open with family and friends. We self-censor around them, sometimes unconsciously, to spare their feelings or our own. We can't be open about certain subjects like sex, gender, or how much we sometimes really hate our family members or the roles we/they play.
2. Therapists are non-judgmental professionals who know what advice helps vs what hurts. Friends and family mean well but can hurt us by offering advice they believe is helpful: "Suck it up", "Other people have it worse than you", as examples .
3. Therapy is NOT just talking about your feelings, it's where you'll learn skills and tools for dealing with the symptoms and challenges of your illness. Coping strategies for difficult emotions or situations, how to identify negative thinking patterns and break free of them, why certain individuals or interactions trigger behaviors, etc.
4. Therapists are trained to identify thoughts and behaviors twisted by depression and make you aware of them so you can change them.
5. You, me, everyone who lives with depression has thought long and hard about our problems. Without the benefit of therapy it is easy to convince ourselves that we have identified every important issue (nope!) and/or that we are 100% certain that our problems don't have any solutions (also nope!). In fact we are not particularly good at assessing either until we've learned how our illness influences the way we think and taken measures to treat it.
I hope these are helpful and encouraging to you. It sounds like you're just getting started on treatment for depression and you may have other questions (medication?) so please, feel free to ask them. Wishing you a good launch in your treatment and better times ahead
