Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group I miss my daughter

i will keep you in my prayers I'm so sorry you take care

Oh my dear Erika - I am only just catching this. Am so very sad for you and your family, a tragic loss indeed. In my thoughts and prayers - I think of you and your family a lot.

Molly

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers. I will not leave KickAS, because you people have truly saved my sanity over this arthritis monster. My poor daddy dealt with psychosis his entire life, and was diagnosed as schizophrenic later in life. And my husband's first wife died of depression also. It's just so sad, because in our family nobody considers mental illness to be a character defect... and she knew we would all help her if only she had been able to ask... it's an awful disease. Kat I hold your sister in my prayers. My sister has also had many attempts, but none for 30 years thank God. What's especially sad is that after a person is "labeled" as mentally ill, society tends to forget that they lived full lives as composers, musicians, world travelers, preschool teachers, community activists, parents, children, etc., etc...

Erica ...

There is a movement here (and I would assume in the States) to be open about mental illness to create understanding. I wish my sister would be open about it. She hides it and then accuses people of prejudice against people with mental illness. She could be such a wondrous advocate for people living with this. She's intelligent, well educated, talented, a marvelous artist, and has been, until the last year or so, an awesome mother. What she has accomplished in her life is that much more impressive, more awesome, when you consider how incredibly depressed she's been her whole life ... with no support from the medical community. She presents as completely normal, completely able to cope, so the doctors never recognized how very far gone she truly was.

Depression seems to run in our family. I've been in therapy on and off since I was 14 years old because I was always just so damned sad for no reason. Been at the razor's edge of suicide more than once. Somehow dragged myself back from the precipice. My aunt, my cousin, my sister. It's only since starting on the biologic meds that the black curtain that has shrouded my emotions has lifted. TNF-a proliferates in the brains of people with depression.

Anyway, this has been on my mind a lot lately. Thank you for talking so openly about it. It's been hidden in my family for too many decades.

Warm hugs,

Oh my God I am so sorry. My heart goes out to you. Thank you for using your devastating loss to help others by providing this information.

Love and light and healing to you, friend...

My prayers and thoughts go out to you and your family so that you can bear such a tragic loss.

Depression is such a terrible disease. It strikes both the patient and their loved ones. I have a dear friend from work who is manic-depressive and we suffered through many episodes. And we have a very close family member who thankfully asked for help with depression. But, unfortunately I just learned this weekend of another friend I worked with for almost 10 years who took his life at the age of 40. On the surface this was a man with a very successful business and beautiful family with two beautiful small children. I was envious of his "success". But he had an inner turmoil that appears to be brought on by financial problems from losing his home.

Yes, we need to remove the "label" to try to make it easier for our friends and loved ones to ask for help.

Inanna's comment forced me to do a quick Google and I found this: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18504118 "These results confirm earlier studies regarding the comorbidities of depression and support the hypothesis that activation of the TNF-alpha system may contribute to the development of a depressive disorder."

Yes! I've talked about this with my GP and rheumy, as well as with the nurses at Enliven. Somebody needs to do a study on the benefits of anti-tnf meds on people with chronic depression. It sure changed my life!

Warm hugs,

And then there's this:

Medical News Article

Annals of General Psychology

For me, there's a straight line for new psychiatric treatment for patients with chronic depression. Just gotta get someone to listen.

Warm hugs,