tripete
Very helpful member
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2014
- Messages
- 1,002
- Reason
- PALS
- Diagnosis
- 12/2014
- Country
- US
- State
- PA
- City
- Lancaster
At each of my doctors appointment they are always concerned about my wife and I being depressed. There answer is to prescribe antidepressants. Their supposition is that we should not be depressed. Why?
I have been diagnosed with the second worst thing I can think of (the worst being something like Alzheimer's where I have no control over my mind). The more and more I think about ALS and what it does, it is quickly becoming the worst thing I can think of. Someday my mind will work as well as ever but my body will be dead. Kind of like being buried alive.
We have a disease that will take every single thing away from us in a relatively short amount of time. Almost daily we suffer with another loss of who and what we where. We will see our loved ones become slaves to our disease as they try and take care of us. Our dreams are dashed and all hope is removed. We will die with our minds fully intact and not be able to do a thing about it. To me the question is not am I depressed, why shouldn't I be. No the question is what I am going to do about it.
For me mood altering medicines are not the answer. I pass no judgment on those who do use antidepressants, on the contrary I completely understand. As I understand it, we will all eventually 'choose" to die, unless we are fortunate to have some other disease or accident take out lives. I am now 49 years old and what do I have to look forward to but being paralyzed and kept alive by machines. At some point either I or my loved one will have to choose to end the life support, is this not a choice to end my life?
I am convinced that the point of this type of life is for benefit of others and not for me. And to me that has to be why we choose to deal with this each day. It is my hope that during the course of all this that I do not become a burden to those I love and care about. I of course know that I will be a physical burden, I hope though that I am not a mental burden by being mean, angry, or nasty to them.
Depressed -of course. What I choose to do with it is to seek to love those around me as best as I can.
I have been diagnosed with the second worst thing I can think of (the worst being something like Alzheimer's where I have no control over my mind). The more and more I think about ALS and what it does, it is quickly becoming the worst thing I can think of. Someday my mind will work as well as ever but my body will be dead. Kind of like being buried alive.
We have a disease that will take every single thing away from us in a relatively short amount of time. Almost daily we suffer with another loss of who and what we where. We will see our loved ones become slaves to our disease as they try and take care of us. Our dreams are dashed and all hope is removed. We will die with our minds fully intact and not be able to do a thing about it. To me the question is not am I depressed, why shouldn't I be. No the question is what I am going to do about it.
For me mood altering medicines are not the answer. I pass no judgment on those who do use antidepressants, on the contrary I completely understand. As I understand it, we will all eventually 'choose" to die, unless we are fortunate to have some other disease or accident take out lives. I am now 49 years old and what do I have to look forward to but being paralyzed and kept alive by machines. At some point either I or my loved one will have to choose to end the life support, is this not a choice to end my life?
I am convinced that the point of this type of life is for benefit of others and not for me. And to me that has to be why we choose to deal with this each day. It is my hope that during the course of all this that I do not become a burden to those I love and care about. I of course know that I will be a physical burden, I hope though that I am not a mental burden by being mean, angry, or nasty to them.
Depressed -of course. What I choose to do with it is to seek to love those around me as best as I can.
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