fakesmiles

Here I am AGAIN. This time is different though. My husband now knows about how much rum I have been putting away as he has been watching the bottle (even though he doesn't know about my hidden bottle). I also went to a doctor to get some help. Turns out I am also depressed. So her options were: 1, try therapy, 2, get chemical dependance counceling/help, 3, sleep meds (b/c I don't sleep), 4, anti depressants, or a combination. Her thinking is my depression is caused by my alcoholism and if I can stop the drinking the depression might go away on it's own. I chose to start therapy and stop drinking (with family support). But I am so depressed, tired, achy, etc. Do I have to go on anti depressants to get through this??????

BullDog777

i can't speak for you, but i didn't. my depression went away when i got a little sobriety under my belt. after a few good weeks of eating right and getting really restful sleep and living without any drugs or booze, my brain started to heal.

most of us are depressed in some capacity. mine was only situational. when i stopped feeding my body poison, it started getting better in a hurry. Since getting sober, i got over all of my sleeping disorders, anxiety, OCD and depression.

if i were you, i'd go to therapy, and get some light sleep meds until you can get your body back to a good sleep rhythm. maybe AA or chemical dependence counseling as well.

good luck.

coop1

It took me years to get past Day 5....but once I did the depression and anxiety slowly went away. That is just my experience though...everyone is different. I found that I drank to ease the depression and anxiety but in doing so the drinking made both much, much worse. It is a vicious cycle. Good luck in your recovery.

DayTrader

Depression is one of the MAIN components of alcoholism. I don't know that I'd say alcoholism "causes" it... they tend to work in tandem. And for the real alcoholic, the one who has chronic alcoholism, the depression doesn't go away. In fact, it gets worse when you're NOT drinking - and it doesn't matter how long one "doesn't drink" either. For the chronic alcoholic, the problem isn't the consumption of alcohol....it's alcoholISM....which is treated (although poorly) by drinking. The drinking is a band-aid for the alcoholism. Take the bandaid away and the wound is still there...and it festers. For that "type" of alcoholic, there is only 1 form of "treatment" that's ever been documented to work.....and it's a spiritual solution - a solution to a problem that is beyond human-power to fix.

Therapy helped (and still helps me) and not drinking kinda helped in a way - at least "not drinking" eliminated all the "I drank AGAIN" guilt and shame.... But those two alone didn't really lead to a happy life that I enjoyed living. Granted, I learned a lot about myself, learned a lot about others too. I got a lot of knowledge.......but I didn't get that "happy joyous and free" feeling I heard so many ppl say they were living in.

I even did the anti-depressant route for a while and that, well, it helped in that I didn't "feel" depressed......but I just felt "nothing" (or, at least, very little). It made me feel more neutral to everything - and neutral wasn't "happy joyous and free" either.

All that 'close but no cigar' stuff above got REALLY old. Thankfully, I had the clarity to see that I was moving back closer to another drink...which freaked me out enough to get willing to really give the spiritual program of recovery a whole-hearted shot. Prior to then, I was convinced I could find the right people, or do the right things, or change the right stuff to get happy. It was the spiritual-based program in AA where I learned to live without the drugs, the alcohol, and the Rx medications.......and most importantly, how to live happily, joyously and free.

I won't say the things you suggested won't "work," but.....for me anyway.....they didn't work well enough. I was faking my way through life and I knew it. I was a phony....always telling ppl "it's ok today....I'm sober" but it wasn't ok.... I was trying to talk myself into it and it wasn't working. Heck, I spent most of my life being a fake, a manipulator, and a phony and here I was doing it and not drinking and it was awful. I knew it was no way to live but I just couldn't come up with any other schemes..... I was out of bright ideas.

Give your chosen path a legitimate shot and take note of your actual results. If it's working and you're enjoying life like nobody's business....stick with it. If it's not...keep searching. If you seem to run into a wall and nothing's working and you can't stay sober (or, worse yet, you can stay sober but aren't enjoying the hell outta life) then give AA a look. ......it's made ALL the difference in my life. I guess it's no surprise to me anymore.....why all my previous schemes hadn't worked....they were all drummed up in MY mind.....the same mind that got me here in the first place. Who was I to think the mind capable of destroying myself was the right tool to use to dig myself out? lol

good luck to you. There IS a wonderful happy fabulous life out there for you....be willing to look for it and don't settle for anything less than it.

CarolD

Please give yourself time to get back in both mental and
physical balance

My doctor diagnosed me with situational depression caused by
my drinking. He suggested AA....off I went.

My depression began to lift rather quickly...maybe a week?
By the end of 2 months of AA recovery ..it had vanished
and has never returned. I required no meds.

I was also eating a healthy diet...taking a daily multi vitamin
walking often....drinking lots of water...attending AA daily
and praying a lot...

Good to see you again..
Be gentle with yourself....you are coming off a toxic liquid.

least

I'd try getting sober for a while, say a couple months, to see if your depression gets better. If not, then give antidepressants a try. I've been on antiDs for years but they work so much better cause I'm not drinking anymore.