You know, you do have a point. I was trying to come up with an argument against you, but I see how it's hard for me to prove otherwise. Yet, it is also pretty hard to say that it is the depression causing my symptoms. Let me explain.
Here's the thing. I have to mention, I'm not constantly depressed. Especially when an exciting event is about to come up, or I read about something exciting, I can almost feel the dopamine squirt, so to say, and I become excited, energized and positive. However, my cognitive abilities are still almost always at a low performance mode. However, I do get largely depressed after I return from social situations, because this is when my symptoms/problems become most apparent: Not being able to think as fast, not being able to discern and analyze the things that people say - I end up being isolated from a group of people talking (even if the group is as small as a 3 person group). I get mental blocks on what to respond or how to respond - even though I shouldn't. I often can't express myself verbally very well, I stumble in speech, my sentences are uttered out in chunks or parts, because I can't process thoughts/words fast enough - as a result people just tend to, pause for a bit, then "overlook" what I just said and simply continue on as if I did not say something of relevance, or because my speech is simply unusual? I don't know. So, when I'm in a situation where this becomes the most apparent (mostly social ones), I realize how I didn't fit in, how I can't develop deep relationships, and this thus cause me to be depressed (and yes, this depression might be refeeding itself into the cycle, making it a downward spiral). To add, at this moment, I feel OK. I feel like I'm able to type this post out articulately (but that's coming from me.. how ironic, heh), I don't feel mentally tired.. i don't feel mental lethargy, brain/thoughts seem less sluggish and my social concerns aren't in the forefront as much. I just woke up not too long ago, haven't had anything to eat, haven't taken any supps yet. Was out partying for Halloween last night - and I went through the same issues I described above. I was drinking quite a bit last night, though I did take some of the supps from my stack before going out, including Piracetam, ALCAR and Phosphatidylserine)
So, to me, that largely seems to be a cognitive issue which is the cause of my depression. If that is true, taking Deprenyl would be curing the symptom and not the root cause, no? What do you think?
Recently, I've been thinking about anxiety also being a big factor in my problems - not the only factor - because even behind the confines and comfort of my computer and the Internet, I'm not always cognitively sharp, but social anxiety might be causing further mental blocks from my already lower mental performance. What do you think about this?
Ugh, I really don't want or mean to turn this into a psychological help support thread, I feel there's something physiologically wrong.
Edited by Templanoid, 01 November 2012 - 09:59 PM.