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On a serious note. What are your thoughts on Depression and/or people who have serious mood swings?

Whenever I am sad (which is a good portion of the time) my family starts in on the "oh, you are just too MIS-ER-Rebbel" To me, it seems like a lot of foreigners (west indians included) Depression or any other mental related diseases as a state of mind you could change like your drawers. Why is that?

THAT IS TRUE SOME PPL BELEIVE THAT IT IS NOT NORMAL AND
UNHUMAN, I GET MOOD SWINGS ALL THE TIME AND SOME OF MY RELITIVES SWEAR THAT I'M CRAZY,,BUT I'M NOT I'M JUST HUMAN.

Suga,

Exactly. I swear if my father tells me one more time that I am the most MIS-ER-Rebbel person he laid eyes on I will hit him with a plate!

If you have alot of mood swings it's alot on your mind which your not talking about your more less askin ah question and answering it your self without have anybody to talk to..When I use to have them it was alot I wanted to say but didn't know how or who to say it to..Most of the Time the best person to talk to is God..That's the only person that never stops listening..

This is so true.

Hey, mood swing are indispensable as part of a human being. I believe there are those who can manage it better than others ..for me i put things into perspective and disallow one thing to conusme my thoughts to get me to that stage. I am not saying that some things may bother me more than others but i tend to focus on the more positive aspects of my life or others in it....meditation and speaking to your higher powers are also helpful as mentioned by Dr Desper

I think people just have different ways of dealing with depression, anxiety and stress. Lord knows, I've had my times when I really felt depressed and I considered seeking professional help. I would just pray and ask God to give me the strength to get through whatever it is at the time. Depression is not something you can just turn off and on but I think if you're strong enough spiritually and emotionally anyone could overcome it.

I really don't see how any kind of pill that a doctor prescribes can help you feel better about yourself or life in general. All pills can do is suppress the feeling for the time but it can't really make you start appreciating life and make it better.

We all come on Imix, cracking jokes and speaking our minds about general things but our true selves aren't really revealed. The personal issues that we have are not expressed. Therefore when we log off we return to our real lives and real problems. That's when the pain surfaces. We all experience mood swings and there's times when we're really down on ourselves.

Speaking to higher powers and thinking to yourself to clear your thoughts and ease your mind is probably the best solution. It's also good when we have someone trsuted who we can open up to and that is not always there to criticize...like saying you're so miserable.

The thing that I realize within our community is that while it may be alright and normal that we can be moody, it's not accepted that we also can be depressed. I find this to be especially true if the "miserable" person is young. People cannot understand that just because we don't have "big people problems", that we can't be stressed and experience depression.

There is a real ignorance towards mental illnesses and as a result, there is a lot more going on with a lot more people than we know about.

I just luv to come in here, because most of the times, people have some really intelligent things to say and show that we really do care about each other.

Depression is a very serious issue in our community as well as the general community. People often have problems they are dealing with and they dont feel comfortable talking to others about their issues and they may not want to go to therapy.

Caribbean people really stigmatize going to therapy and being on any type of medication. You do hear all the jokes about so and so so miserable, but no one really listens to hear if what the person is saying is a serious issue or is it just a complaint. Sometimes we all need to talk to someone and for whatever reason we may not feel comfortable talking to our friends. We dont want our friends to judge us or talk about us behind our backs, so we should feel comfortable going to an independant person and talking about our problems.

My last year in graduate school, I had an extremely big exam, which would pretty much determine my getting a job or not getting a job. I was having problems with my boyfriend at the time and I felt I needed to talk to someone. I was talking to my friends, that wasn't the problem I was facing. I was young and really felt I needed the advice of an older more mature black woman to advise. I found this wonderful older woman at the Women's Center at my school and she was so helpful. Just helped to get myself in focus and gave me good advice. It was more like talking to a nice aunt then anything else.

I understand where you are coming from. Whenever I try to express to my parents that I am depressed, they quickly disregard it and tell me to seek guidance in the Almighty.

This book is great - she is one of my favourite authors - it may sound a little bit too academic, but her writing style is real accessible and down-to-earth...Obviously it is specific to black women and racism, but ALL women interested in empowerment should read bell hooks :)

Sisters of the Yam: Black Women and Self-Recovery
bell hooks

Sisters of the Yam makes more sense, covers more ground and offers more meaningful healing strategies than most of the self-help literature combined. Grounded in an astute analysis of how a racist and sexist culture wounds us, bell hooks calls for us to heal ourselves by struggling against both institutionalized and internalized patriarchy.

This thoughtful book suggests approaches to healing the self that are practical and attainable for any woman, such as renewing our relationship with nature by gardening, wearing comfortable shoes, or spending time in a park or wilderness setting. Not just another feel-good approach to feeling bad, Sisters of the Yam analyzes the forces which make us and keep us dysfunctional and carefully shows us how we can overcome these powerful limitations. The suggested self-help strategies are simultaneously simple and complex: to be truthful in the way we present ourselves to the world; to overcome our hunger for acceptance and assimilation; to read, not pop psychology, but poetry and novels; to struggle to find work which affirms and excites us. Community, sexual passion, work, loving and caring for others: these are the antidotes to our alienation and loss of self, suggests bell, and the key to our self-recovery.

=>some other titles that could be relevant

Willow Weep for Me : A Black Woman's Journey Through Depression
Meri Nana-Ama Danquah

Can I Get a Witness?: Black Women and Depression
Julia A. Boyd

What the Blues Is All About: Black Women Overcoming Stress and Depression
Angela Mitchell, Kennise Herring

If your mood swings are uncontrollable and you do things that really affect your life, like spend all your money, or your depression is so bad that you can't get out of bed or take any pleasure in life and this happens more often than not, then these are signs of clinical depression or bipolar disorder.

I know that there is a real stigma against mental disorders in the Caribbean but if this happens to yyou, I encourage you to see a professional. Many of these disorders are malfunctions of the brain and medication can help replace some of the missing chemicals in the brain. A therapist can also help you to understand how this disorder affects you personally, what causes you to be depressed, help you make a plan to deal with the depression.

Too ofen in my line of work, I see people who do not seek help until there is a major crisis that could be prevented if they got early treatment.

A lot of people who are depressed feel like there is nothing to live for and once they get on the medications they are loving life. It really is needed for some people more than others. What I don't like about the anti depressant medication is that is becomes very addictive.

I think I need some medication