I am 44 years old and have suffered from severe depression since age 6, at which age I can remember being suicidal. I also have PTSD and Borderline Personality Disorder. I have been on anti-depressants for many years, having tried quite a few. I had 17 ECT treatments about ten years ago and have been in and out of the hospital over 30 times in the last ten years. I keep searching for hope, but feel that this is something I will have to deal with all of my life. What do you think?

*****FROM ABC NEWS MEDICAL UNIT*****

 

Thank you vphrog for your question.

 

We think you'll get the answer to your question in the Living With Depression section of our OnCall+ Depression site.

 

Copy and paste the following url into your browser: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/DepressionLivingWith/.

 

If you still have questions on living with depression, please post again in the message board and we'll work to get them answered.

 

If you are in crisis, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline phone number is 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

 

*****FROM ABC NEWS MEDICAL UNIT*****

I understand you may  not answer questions specifically, and this is only for informational purposes. However, the generic answer you are giving assumes that people have not read the information in Mind and Mood series. And some of the questions that have come up, the information is not in the current articles, some is. Other than the Topamax question you refer everyone back to the articles. Why have people ask questions that you may not answer? Maybe the original answers in the article were too vague.

My question too.  Why bother with this if you're only going to get pointed to articles you've already read, probably a thousand times in one form or another, and not get specific answers to specific questions?  I thought there was going to be a live doctor to help.  Waste of time.  Thanks for being so incredibly helpful...geezzz.