Parkinson's Disease Community

Haylen
If the medical profession had lisened they would have known years ago that parkinson affects more than just movement. It affects every thing to include personnality change. Have I experienced depression? I almost lost my husband 3 times and currently we are waiting to see if cancer is going to return. He is suppose to be my caregiver but instead I am his caregiver. I would like to retire but cannot. I am Tired. Yesterday at work I had remarks from 2 coworkers. One stated you are the only one who can stand her. You are always finding the good in every one. the other was the comment you are awsome technologist . I have never met any one like you. This brightned my day as I usually lock horns with these two. So what I am taking the long way around to tell you is yes I do experince depression but something always happens to lift me out of it. My neurologist is aware and said if I ever felt like I needed medication call and she would make sure I recieved it.
Even with Parkinson's I feel I have been blessed. The lord always seem to know when I have hit a low and something always happens to lift me out of depression. I have 2 pschologists, Taz and Shadow. They are the best medicine. So btween the Lord and my to psychiatrist I am usually a happy optomist who is currently fighting a weight problem.

I believe that not many patients get depressed after the initial diagnosis, I'll bet most even get a sense of relief with it because they know something is wrong and just the need to know is very strong thing . I think frustrated and or stressed would best describe most patients going through it, but may develop it while the symptoms progress to the point where they get a reality check because of the frustrations with doing every day stuff... are now gone.things others take for granted are not possable for them any longer...That's hard to deal with. Thier loved ones are probably the ones more likely to be depressed while even going through all the testing and watching thier loved ones struggling with thier condition. and watching them loose thier dignaty and pride and sense of self worth day by day as they struggle through it.I know that has got to be really hard on them. They most likely have way more issues on thier shoulders than they can bare.....

I spent the majority of my life with depression that wasn't officially diagnosed until I was in my 4o's. ( I am now 60) and my Parkinson's wasn't diagnosed until just last week. It took the doctors almost 7 years to decide that there was something wrong, but they couldn't tell what. I"ve been given numerous chances to get help for my depression but I need you readers to understand this....in my day and age talking about being 'not right' in the head didn't just show how much the person was in pain, but it also was considered a blight on the family to admit that someone's mind was faulty. Physical diseases were fine, but not in my head.
After having many financial troubles, relationship failures-including family, personal problems and other illnesses besides, now I am faced with this. I don't have the support of family or friends, even my husband just does not have a clue about this disease and depends on me too much to be able to handle it and probably would be scared out of his mind that he wouldn't want to admit that this was happening, Even my career of 30 years that I once considered the most wonderful thing to ever happen for me is gone,because of the symptoms of this disease and my inability to do my job,,......
.I've had the desire to stop everything since my early years of grade school but I've managed to set it aside and go on...I can't present this disease to my family, there is nothing there. I have this weird feeling that the results would be nothing but a locked padded room some place all alone, which is how I grew up. My distrust for doctors has prevented this from happening.
How does one deal with something like this? I think of Micheal J. Fox and Mohammad Ali and it totally freaks me out. Is this what's in store for me? I had only heard bits and pieces about this disease and have never known of anyone that went through it. I know that I'm probably seeing something inside nothing, but where do I go from there? I don't want the people close to me to have to go through that. It's now so hard to function I don't know in which direction to turn.
Please, any advice would be appreciated, and I will thank you now for reading this post for a chance to vent, thanks for reading.....

AN
True there use to be stigma attatched to mental illness. My sister is bipolar and she also was a single pregnant girl at 15 when there was a stigman for out of wed lock births. She attempted suicide several times. She almost succeded the last time. The family decided where her 3 children would go. But she pulled through. Now she fights to stay alive. She connected with the right analyst and was plaaced on the correct medicine. And when she feels the same feelings she had before the meds she notifiys her analyst. I admire my sister she got help for her illness and did not abort her first borne. That would have been the easy way out. She is married with 3 children and 6 grandchildren. She had a heart attack at 49 and was given a 20 percent chance of survivial thanks to the incompetency of the er staff. She made it. She was not ready to go.So what I am trying to tell you is you have to make the first move to get help no one can do it for you. Talk to your husband. I think you under estimate him. He loves you other wise he would have left by now. There are support groups you can attend and you can vent here. Give your meds a chance to work. They have made great strides in treatment. I think the majority of the community here has had problems with diagnosis. I was staggering and falling with no use of the right hand and arm, my vision was affected. My ability to learn is affected along with memory. After 5 years I was finally diagnosed and th emeds worked wonders.
Life is what you make of it.

AN please inform your neuologist about your deperession. he/she can recommend someone and if that dr does not click keep looking till you find someone. Keeping info from your neuro pertaining to depression can cause disasterous results