[JJMTBC]

Yes we sure can, and we're more extreme when depressed!

[Neon Knight]

Oh I'm in total agreement! Doing more research today and all you people's answers here and elsewhere have been really helpful and I feel like I can (finally) accept I am a 7w6. :) Now, if only my shrink can :P

[wicked]

I don't understand how I'm supposed to get out of my depression though. Because when I read about it, they say that we should stop ignoring it and stop distracting ourselves with stuff. But without distractions I get even more depressed. Goddammit.

[Neon Knight]

Distracting ourselves is more of a defence mechanism and those are very useful things to protect us until we can get treatment. I use several at the moment, one which I have major issues with but my therapist said that it's ok to have them, just not to depend on them for the rest of your life. Without distractions I get anxious and depressed. I needed meds and therapy and so far so good once you find an antidepressant that works, that is. I find the SSRI's useless for mine, the first one that worked was an SNRI and now I'm on a DNRI which has given me more energy to do what I needed to. The SNRI just made me have to sleep, not just want, but absolutely have to sleep at least 12 hours a day and still force myself up and force myself to stay awake. I needed therapy bad to get over the panic attacks and the anxiety attacks I was having and was on a low dose of Klonopin for about a year, but I also had to figure out my triggers. When at my worst during that time though, I needed everything I possibly thought necessary to distract myself to avoid the possibility of going through another bout of anxiety for no reason. My therapist said the reason I needed to distract myself was likely because I was afraid of the silence allowing my deeper issues coming through, which it certainly was uncomfortable when I was not distracting myself with tv, books, drawing, music or computer. Boredom is only part of it, but having not enough distraction was very uncomfortable and I avoided it at ever cost. I still do it it's just that I found the triggers for my anxiety and I am avoiding the things that make me depressed for the time being such as intense or intimate relationships, especially since my only addiction has ever been relationships (I'm in aversion mode right now, which apparently drug addicts go through too). I have a lot to deal with now like my depression which I've had for almost 30 years now by my doctor's estimate. Anxiety is not so much of an issue since I am dealing with that too, it's still there but not like it was before when I needed drugs to control them. So what it came down to for me and I also read about the most successful treatment has been a combination of drug and therapy, since each by themselves is only about 30% successful. But combined it's most like 60%+ successful. Hope that helps.

[The Great One]

Do you become an like an unhealthy 4 too when you do? That seems to be the only time I can albeit temporarily allow myself to feel anything unpleasant emotionally. That being quite often myself, but not every time I feel like I've been depressed, I just don't allow it anymore. Of course it come out in strong spurts at unwanted times but it seems like I'm dominated by anger these days rather than down.

I am actually going through a shit period in my life right now. So I am actually in the unhealthy 7 w 6 mode right now. Right now life sucks and I am basically having to confront situations that I don't want to confront and do things that I don't want to do to get my life healthy again. I will have a tendency to want to smoke pot and drink alcohol more often, party more, have more sex, and just do anything mentally fun and stimulating and almost forget like I have any problems what-so-ever. However like I said, I tend to almost regress and act like I have no problems, but I must admit that I have them and confront them.

[The Great One]

Distracting ourselves is more of a defence mechanism and those are very useful things to protect us until we can get treatment. I use several at the moment, one which I have major issues with but my therapist said that it's ok to have them, just not to depend on them for the rest of your life. Without distractions I get anxious and depressed. I needed meds and therapy and so far so good once you find an antidepressant that works, that is. I find the SSRI's useless for mine, the first one that worked was an SNRI and now I'm on a DNRI which has given me more energy to do what I needed to. The SNRI just made me have to sleep, not just want, but absolutely have to sleep at least 12 hours a day and still force myself up and force myself to stay awake. I needed therapy bad to get over the panic attacks and the anxiety attacks I was having and was on a low dose of Klonopin for about a year, but I also had to figure out my triggers. When at my worst during that time though, I needed everything I possibly thought necessary to distract myself to avoid the possibility of going through another bout of anxiety for no reason. My therapist said the reason I needed to distract myself was likely because I was afraid of the silence allowing my deeper issues coming through, which it certainly was uncomfortable when I was not distracting myself with tv, books, drawing, music or computer. Boredom is only part of it, but having not enough distraction was very uncomfortable and I avoided it at ever cost. I still do it it's just that I found the triggers for my anxiety and I am avoiding the things that make me depressed for the time being such as intense or intimate relationships, especially since my only addiction has ever been relationships (I'm in aversion mode right now, which apparently drug addicts go through too). I have a lot to deal with now like my depression which I've had for almost 30 years now by my doctor's estimate. Anxiety is not so much of an issue since I am dealing with that too, it's still there but not like it was before when I needed drugs to control them. So what it came down to for me and I also read about the most successful treatment has been a combination of drug and therapy, since each by themselves is only about 30% successful. But combined it's most like 60%+ successful. Hope that helps.

This is exactly like me, I have been prescibed every pill in the book and all of them give me side effects and I've tried probably 6 different medications. Klonopin hurts me the least of any though, but they won't prescribe it for everyday use though because they tell me that it is addictive and that my body builds an immunity to it very quickly and that they will have to keep uping the dose. All the pills fuck me up really bad; they hurt my stomach, lower my libido, make me gag, and kill me physically. Another member of this site who is also a 7 w 6 has enlightened me on new ways to treat myself; I am now trying to get into things like yoga and when I get my health better exercise as well.

[Neon Knight]

I am actually going through a shit period in my life right now. So I am actually in the unhealthy 7 w 6 mode right now. Right now life sucks and I am basically having to confront situations that I don't want to confront and do things that I don't want to do to get my life healthy again. I will have a tendency to want to smoke pot and drink alcohol more often, party more, have more sex, and just do anything mentally fun and stimulating and almost forget like I have any problems what-so-ever. However like I said, I tend to almost regress and act like I have no problems, but I must admit that I have them and confront them.

Sometimes distractions are a good defence mechanism until you can cope, the important thing is to not go overboard and forget to deal with things when you eventually actually can. If you don't they creep right back on you with a vengeance in the form of anxiety and panic attacks, at least that's what happened to me. I needed lots of things like you do until I was ready and until the right help was available. If you've never had those types of attacks, you're lucky because they really, really, really, suck and will only go away when you do deal with the underlying issues properly. It takes a lot of looking inside, which is very unpleasant to people like you and me, but it's a necessary evil sometimes and that is one of those times. You can't do it alone though otherwise it just makes things worse by my experience.

[The Great One]

Sometimes distractions are a good defence mechanism until you can cope, the important thing is to not go overboard and forget to deal with things when you eventually actually can. If you don't they creep right back on you with a vengeance in the form of anxiety and panic attacks, at least that's what happened to me. I needed lots of things like you do until I was ready and until the right help was available. If you've never had those types of attacks, you're lucky because they really, really, really, suck and will only go away when you do deal with the underlying issues properly. It takes a lot of looking inside, which is very unpleasant to people like you and me, but it's a necessary evil sometimes and that is one of those times. You can't do it alone though otherwise it just makes things worse by my experience.

Like I said before, I'm trying to learn to find healthy distractions, instead of unhealthy ones like pot and booze.

[Neon Knight]

Sorry it took longer to answer, I tried to yesterday but I got some sort of page or script error and lost my entire message:( I'll try again here lol. This time I will be smart enough to copy entire message in case something goes wrong.

Klonopin isn't a problem nor is any drug including opiates that you take only as prescribed. I've Been on benzos and opiates and never had a problem because I apparently don't have that kind of addictive personality. Sometimes also I've heard some doctors don't prescribe properly like they either under or over prescribe, neither of which is good so doing your own research is an asset and talking to your doc about your concerns is a good thing. A lot of doctors these days seem to under prescribe which is a sad thing because I've been there and no amount of suffering is worth enduring if your at risk of suicide because you suffer too much. If I was a doctor I wouldn't have a problem weighing addiction POTENTIAL versus suicide and I don't know how anyone else can't see the same way. You don't have to be dependent on any medication like that for the rest of your life usually and if you are one of the few, so what? If these docs and other people who criticize people for needing meds like this, they should try wearing our shoes for a year and see if they don't change their tune. I got off Klonopin AND very strong opiates without going back, at least until I need them again if ever. The only thing I'll likely need for the rest of my life are antidepressants which help me with pain and keep me off the pain killers in conjunction with the physical treatments I get.

To answer your question, the best non-drug ways for me to distract myself I found were mostly artistic during the course of my life such as music (I'd seriously die without it), writing, drawing, photography and the others that I've been relying on are watching tv when I can't be on computer much, being on the computer when my head can take it doing all sorts of things like reading, photoshopping (I guess that goes under artistic), games especially rpg ones or hockey or other things that occupy my full attention, learning new programs, chatting (and admittedly arguing ;) ). If I had more people I know around me that were ones I wanted to be around I'd be a lot more social since I'm trying to avoid negative people or people that wear me out. When the weather is decent I go for walks, never sans mp3 player of course, that would be dull as hell lol. If I have money to spend I go shopping. If I was physically able to I would love to do yoga or tai chi or something like that, I used to love working out too but I can't do that any more.

[purplevelvetmask]

i didnt realise this until recently that sevens did get depressed, my best friend who is a 7, whenever she used to feel as though she was about to be depressed, she'd get hyper. but recently i went to visit her and she was so depressed she wouldnt get out of bed,, it was like years of not dealing with the emotions and she'd had some kind of a breakdown. :(

Was getting extremely hyper a sure tell sign that depression was about to kick in for her?