Video I made: Timelapse from Sofia, Bulgaria

[Meatpie]

This is the first time I've hard of the gay mafia. True that there are lot of influential gay people in the UK but calling them mafia hints on hate from str8 people.

Telling someone you like dead guys will scare them, of course the first thing they would think is you are a serial killer. Good to hear you realized your mistake.

 

[CamoNoose]

Allow me to pull out my couch once again Cognitive therapy is a form of analysis in which we help the patient to understand how they are thinking, feeling and how that affects how they act hence the term cognitive. In this form of therapy we are helping you to understand what is triggering your depression and helping you to deal with the overly critical way that you perhaps are seeing yourself which is only furthering and deepening your depression. It is an effective form of therapy for mild to moderate depression and sometimes has to be used in conjuction with some antidepressants although I prefer to start with therapy then if necessary send you to a psychiatrist for medication since as a licensed counselor we cannot dispense meds which I am glad since I don't always agree with pills first therapy later.

 

[Micky]

It's a really comfortable couch you've got there, CamoNoose! Thanks for the info

 

[Micky]

I went to a psychiatrist in 2009 out of curiosity mainly, it turned out to be great fun as the doctor was more fucked up than most of her patients.

 

[CamoNoose]

Well I did my clinical work in a psychiatric facility for a year and sometimes said I met more normal people in the hospital then on the streets.

 

[Micky]

Well I did my clinical work in a psychiatric facility for a year and sometimes said I met more normal people in the hospital then on the streets.

 

[deaddirty]

My best friend was diagnosed with potential schizophrenia a few years ago - wrongly. They gave him anti-psychotics, and they made things worse (and so did the anti-depressant - the anti-psychotic made him more depresseed, the anntidepressant made him more psychotic). From what I've seen, antipsychotics have a lot of side-effects, particularly the old ones like clozapine and Largactyl - newer ones like respiridone seem to work better with fewer side effects, but they're still not something to take unless they're really necessary (yes, if someone is clearly schizophrenic, hearing voices etc, the drugs are needed - they're not wonderful but they're the best we've got at present, and counsellling probably desn't work in that situation.
I've been around quite a few people with depression over the years. The modern antidepressants do seem to work pretty well for the majority of people, but not everyone - a lot of people have mood swings for the first month or so as they start to take effect, and for some they can be dangerous - from euphoria to suicide within a few hour (my friend was a bit like that). I think in the UK the SSRI (prozac-type) antidepressants are now banned for under-18s because of the suicide risk, and from what I've seen that risk is there for older people too. BUT I know people who are on them and are absolutely fine, far better than before - so they do work well for probably the majority of people, but they can make things worse too.
I'd agree with CamoNoose (I think) - far better to try counselling or therapy first, get the pills only if counselling doesn't work (guess what, that doesn't work for everyone either, at least not on its own|),

 

[CamoNoose]

Well deaddirty, my concern for your friend and the talk of mood swings on antidepressants is that they are not normal. What I have seen happen more times then not is that the person is diagnosed with depression but they may actually be bi polar or what we often call manic depression. The manic part never shows up in our office, it is always the depressed side that finally breaks down and comes in and most docs/counselors say depression, take these pills have a nice day. If they take a little more time to explore what is going on, they may find that they are actually dealing with bi polar which takes an entire different medical regime to treat. Manic refers to that high they get where they seem to have limitless energy without taking any pills. Some of the most creative people are manic depressive because they use that energy to create. Sorry I have trouble resisting the urge to bring out my couch

 

[deaddirty]

I think you're absolutely right - it's easy to misdiagnose the down phase of bipolar as depression (and I think there are guys who get depressed phases alternating with normal, rather than 'manic'?), and those probably are the people for whom SSRI antidepressants can make things dangerously worse. In fact my friend who had trhe major problems is now on a low dose of a mood stabiliser, and that seems to have helped a lot - he's much steadier, managed to cut the drink out (that wasn't helping, though it was symptom not cause!), no notieable side-effects to him or to me. B/ut he still hasn't had any proper help like counselling or CBT to help him deal with the real root of his problems.

 

[nelman09]

Nice videos!, thanks for post them.