A COUPLE of years ago when I first started to try and make sense of having depression and also felt bewildered and scared by facing up to others' mental illness, I discovered the forum Dealing with Depression. I will be eternally grateful for the help and support it gave me.
So how wonderful it is to welcome founding member (and now owner) Suzi Shaw as a guest blogger on Breaking the Silence.
She writes:
My name is Suzi from Dealing with Depression, known as DWD, a forum for people with mental health illness, specifically depression, their friends and family. Although none of us are professionals, we all have experience of depression.
How did DWD start? My partner (now husband) was diagnosed with "severe clinical depression" and honestly our lives fell apart.
He was too ill to work, he was on medication which gave him horrible side effects, we were at risk of losing our home, everything changed. I had to cope on my own with him having a breakdown, a three-year-old with Aspergers, a 15-month-old baby and a newborn and had to negotiate the benefit system.
I didn't know about depression at the start. No doctor would talk to me about it, no one would explain to me what was happening. I didn't know how to help, I knew nothing.
As do most people, I did some research on the net and I found horror stories, some forums which I found almost terrifying with the talk of self harm, suicide, and just depressing with the lack of hope. I didn't learn much which was any help.
I had been a member of a wonderful parenting forum (www.mumszone.co.uk) and started talking about depression.
It was only when some wonderful people started talking to me openly, letting me ask the questions and them answering honestly that the owner of Mumszone started DWD.
I was the first member and have been admin until recently when I took over as owner.
I am incredibly proud of what we do. We listen. We don't judge. We help our members to unravel what is in their minds, just be there to provide support and friendship.
We now have been going since January 2007, we have more than 2000 members and are growing fast. We have general open sections as well as private sections.
DWD is not only for the not so good times, but is also there with fun and games, arts and crafts, distraction and chat.
We believe that you should never deal with anything like depression on your own, talking really does help.
I thought that I had posted on this when it was first posted! Sorry!
Thank you so much for your kind introduction. We do try to be as supportive as we can, and we do genuinely care.
I am so proud of DWD, I am proud that we talk about hope, we talk about how to get through the tough times in sensitive and caring ways using strategies which have helped our members.
I just am glad that we can help at least one person... and it's true, you should never be alone and Keep talking!
Posted by: Suzi Shaw | 07/22/2010 at 10:37 PM