How do you deal with depression when you're out of touch with your emotions?

[Porcupine]

How do you go about dealing with depression when you're out of touch with your emotions?

When medication doesn't work?

When therapy doesn't help?

When you don't know what it means to feel depressed. When you're alexithymic. When you have anhedonia and emptiness and a very intense intellectual sense that there is a 'a deep hole in your soul' that saps you of all motivation for almost everything in life and makes you unfit to do almost anything besides eat and sleep (and you also have too much or not enough of both of them)?

What do you do when you seem to have all the symptoms of depression besides suicidality, self harm and an intense feeling of sadness or frustration? What do you do when you are simply just sapped of all get-up-and-go for life, just an intense lack of mental and physical energy ... that is extremely debilitating and nothing seems to help?

And what do you do when you seem to have also lost the ability to feel pleasure? And when you keep seeking pleasure and entertainment but can't remember the last time when you found any by yourself---and you are stuck being alone?

And what do you do when your GP doesn't have anything to offer either?

[no one]

Mushrooms.

[Little lunch]

Go and help other people.
You may get yourself back that way.
Take just one small step forwards and consider yourself on the mend rather than on the way down.
I'm sorry you feel so bad.
I've been there before and it seems such a hopeless situation.
I always say that family helps.
It did for me.
But that really depends on who your family is.
And remember that the situation won't be fixed quickly.
Be prepared for it to be a gradual process.

---

Mushrooms.

Joe Rogan would agree.

[Porcupine]

That's just it. I can't interact with anybody outside the internet because of the pandemic.

Not that I'd want to or that I'm going to after the pandemic ends In any case.

I guess I was wrong to say 'that's just it'

---

Go and help other people.
You may get yourself back that way.
Take just one small step forwards and consider yourself on the mend rather than on the way down.
I'm sorry you feel so bad.
I've been there before and it seems such a hopeless situation.
I always say that family helps.
It did for me.
But that really depends on who your family is.
And remember that the situation won't be fixed quickly.
Be prepared for it to be a gradual process.

I've been to the bottom before. I've been a 0/10. And I've been 1/10 a few times.

Right now I'm a 2/10. And I don't think I'll ever reach a 1 again. And I will DEFINITELY never reach a 0 again. At least there's that.

But staying a 2/10 for the rest of my life? Boy, that would suck.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Dunno (never been in your situation) but seriously I wish you luck in dealing with this. You mentioned that your GP has nothing to offer. Could you be referred to a specialist for therapy, perhaps?

Boru

[Porcupine]

Dunno (never been in your situation) but seriously I wish you luck in dealing with this. You mentioned that your GP has nothing to offer. Could you be referred to a specialist for therapy, perhaps?

Boru

Unfortunately there are no specialists near my area and I can't afford to travel. I know it sounds ridiculous. But it's true.

And thank you. It's really very appreciated to know that you care. Even though you're a stranger. Sorry if we've bumped virtual heads a few times. And I really never intended to be an annoyance. Really really.

EDIT: One way to put it is---I was isolated even before the pandemic started.

[chimp3]

Lexapro changed my life!

[Porcupine]

Lexapro changed my life!

I've been on many different sorts of medications, such as that, all to no avail. Unfortunately.

[brewer]

ECT,.......... professional, not DIY.

[Belacqua]

And what do you do when your GP doesn't have anything to offer either?

I know a psychiatrist who works with chronically depressed people. In private she has harsh words for GPs who tend to hand out whatever pills the drug companies are pushing this year. They aren't set up to help you. So if there's a problem there, it's no surprise. 

And I know a psychopharmacologist who believes adamantly that getting depressed is a natural and predictable reaction to the way the world is now. So it's certainly not something to blame oneself about.

From your other threads you seem like a guy who isn't afraid of books, so I'll mention a few here. You may know them already. They've helped some people, although everyone's different.

Feeling Good by Burns is kind of a classic. It can be pirated for free here:

http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5...A043ABFD99

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Dummies is an introduction to that type of therapy. Not to imply you're a dummy, but it's a clear overview. 

http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5...7C7E9C9245

Cognitive therapy is criticized for being short-term, but I say short term is better than nothing. It's also a kind of therapy that you can do on your own, more than most. If it appeals you can get into the more academic stuff in the field, by Aaron T. Beck and others. 

The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon is more about how depression occurs in our culture, rather than how to treat yourself. But it might make you feel less alone.

http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5...8FB8DEFA5C

Books aren't treatment, of course, but I've found them a way to focus and think with other people about depression, rather than leaving it a formless cloud of gloom.

Good luck to you.