Question:
Just curious as to how many of us are actually being treated for
depression and suffering through marital difficulties. I'd be
interested to know if you feel the depression caused the problems in
your marriage or vice-versa.
For the record, I am clinically depressed (diag'd about 3 years ago)
and on low-dose meds (Wellbutrin and Zoloft).
I feel the depression was a causative factor in our problems, although
the issues existed before the depression started.
Answer:
I think you will find a number of people on this NG who suffer from
depression, both clinical and situational.
My wife has been clinically depressed for the last five years or so, with
chronic severe depression. She is taking about seven pills a day for it
at this point, mostly Prozac, but she's tried a number of other pills
(Zoloft comes to mind) and was on electro-convulsive therapy ("shack
treatments") around this time last year. She's been hospitalized four
times for suicidal depression during the three years of our marriage.
She also self-mutilates and suffers from PTSD.
Depression never makes anything BETTER, with the possible exception of
curbing a high-desire partner's sex drive -- and that isn't always a good
thing either.
You can check out dejanews and hear more about my wife. I'm not
depressed, and if I ever was it was only situational (for example, I feel
much better overall now that we are apart).
It can work both ways. Those who are predisposed to depression often have a
rejection sensitivity (they handle rejection poorly; they recover from
rejection slowly). In this regard, marital problems can impact on depression.
Conversely, depression itself cannot help but impact on a marital relationship.
So it can work both ways.
