Overcoming Depression

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Overcoming depresion especially when associated with traumatic events can be hard without proper management. I know this personally because I have suffered from it off and on over a period of years. My latest bout came after having an Open Ventral Hernia Repair. This occured during the course of my job as a home health nurse. I had complications after surgery and had to stay in the hospital a week.

When the surgeon tried to do my hernia repair he found a staple that was left in me from the surgery to remove the kidney. My bowel was resected and I came home on oxygen. It did not do my nerves much good because I had lost my job trying to please an insatiable woman who berated me and my personal remarks to me. I know that she had a need for a home health nurse but that did not mean that I had to be her personal maid. Okay I lifted a pot of hog meat and cut it up to put in her freezer. When I told her that I was not supposed to be doing that, she flew into a rage. Whenever she wanted something done that I was not supposed to do, she would threaten my job. She discussed my personal issues with members of her family trying to shame me into doing more than the job called for.

I knew that I had a hernia from the way it felt after I had lifted the heavy hog meat, and I called my boss to tell them four times that she was abusive and beligerant. Her children knew that she was this way and told me that she was taking to much pain medication. I admit that I neglected my own health for her and so when I came home from the hospital, I contacted a lawyer to find out what I could do. My boss refused to sign an insurance paper for me, because they were denying that I had developed an hernia. I also failed to mention that on the last day that I worked, they called me at home and told me that I did not have to go back there anymore. In other words they had replaced me.

The following weeks were hard and we are filing bankruptcy because of debts, I can keep my house and my car because we are paying that. However going back to the doctors and getting released to search for a job was depressing. I seriously believe that by writing I was able to keep a handle on things, even with taking anti-depressants. I did put everything that happened down, however my former boss did not. Today it felt like a three ton gorilla was off my chest when I received the letter that I would get my benefits.

The key to overcoming depression is to admit it, put down in writing how you feel and yes ask for anti-depressants. Writing is therapy for me and so I am glad that I have a source to do so and say to others going through the same thing, hang in there. You can overcome depression and work through it, the light at the end of the tunnel is not a train. It is your health and your way out of a dark fog.