Seeking advice on coping with post-surgery stress and depression

Hello Twinkles.

Thank you so much for reading my rhymes and for being so complimentary about them.

It is sometimes difficult for people to truly understand the effects of trauma and even those who have been through it themselves may not have had the same emotional and psychological experiences as someone else who seemingly has been through something similar. 

The reason that the original recipients of my rhymes felt that it was 'spot-on' what they were feeling, is that all I did was listen to what they were saying and then translated their words, thoughts and feelings into rhyme. (and then I gave the finished product back to them to show that I had 'listened'). This was a technique that I labelled as 'Inverse feedback'. (in fact the rhymes were a reflection of what they were telling themselves, so they were nevitably going to be accurate. 

I think I may speak for them when I say that they would be so very pleased that someone else might have 'enjoyed' & benefitted from their stories as these are the people we are likely to get closest too in these difficult set of personal experiences. 

This is why communicating with people on a site like this can be both helpful and rewarding as it would take 'forever' to wander the globe trying  to find such people who can instantly understand the basics.

Best wishes

Bill 

I've suffered from clinical depression and GAD (generalized anxiety disorder) since my husband died at 31 from testicular cancer. I was 26 and we had a 15-month-old son. When I had my first panic attack at age 30, I thought I was going to die. I couldn't drive because I continued to have panic attacks, but I had to work and a fellow teacher lived near me and I rode with her.

The first psychiatrist I saw was a waste of time. Fortunately, friends recommended I look elsewhere and I found a wonderful "shrink" who used behavioral modification and slowly, with his guidance and reassurance, I was able to drive again. But to this day, I avoid highways.

I grew up with an alcoholic mother, and my father manifested his first bipolar episode in his '40s. I remember the police taking him away in a straitjacket. He would be in and out of hospitals for many years. Eventually, the mania subsided and he suffered from crippling depression until he died.

Consider yourself lucky if you've never known what severe depression feels like, and please don't tell someone it's a waste of time and money.

Thank you, Audrey. Hugs