Project Beyond Blue: A New Community for Treatment-Resistant Depression

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The last few months I have been working on developing a community that is not on Facebook for persons who struggle with treatment-resistant depression or another chronic mood disorder, a place where folks can form groups and post videos and have conversations that won’t accidentally show up on their timeline. I also wanted a home for family members and friends of persons dealing with depression can weight in with their questions, concerns, gripes, etc. The new home went live last night: http://community.projectbeyondblue.com. It is a temporary place, as the design and format will change once I add a resource center to it, and fill it out. But this is a good-enough home for now.

Merry Christmas! This is my gift to you.

Therese

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Therese Borchard
I am a writer and chaplain trying to live a simple life in Annapolis, Maryland.

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23 Responses
  1. Yvonne Gittelson

    Therese, you are giving and gracious as always. Thank you so much; I know this truly was/is a labor of love. You are helping more people than you will ever know.

  2. SGR

    Therese, thank you so much for your compassion & giving, but why is everything about Christmas? Sorry, but some of us aren’t of that persuasion. Please, next time, “Happy Holidays”! Although these wishes are meant to be altruistic I find them excluding. I’m sorry, I really am one of you & obviously depressed. I just wanted to perhaps speak for others who also get continually offended during this season. Please don’t hate me. I know this time should be all about love. Thank you and all others for trying to understand my point of view.
    Again Therese, thank you for this new community.
    Peace to all!

    1. ipookie8

      STOP being so offended by everything! Why can’t Christian’s have their faith and express it like every other religion? If you want to say Happy Kwanzaa or Hannukah or whatever you believe, I would never ever ever be offended by that– so why are YOU so offended by my faith? Get over yourself. It’s not all about you. Good grief.

  3. Stephen

    Merry Christmas to you also. And to your family.

    I appreciate the effort you are making, but after reading the guidelines, particularly the no suicide talk, I still do not feel this is a healthy or safe place. Some probably will disagree. If I have to read 20-something “thou shall nots” it’s probably a place where you have to constantly second guess everything you say. I can’t say for sure, but it seems pretty much the same as the FB group. A list of things you cannot say lest a certain difficult bunch of people get offended and who starts a depression group that bans all discussion on suicide or thoughts of suicide????????? This makes no sense to me at all whatsoever. I would even go as far as to say it’s downright cold at best and at the very least totally ridiculous. Not for me….but good luck and best to everyone.

    1. Daundra Ashwyn-seeling

      I have no idea what this group is all about but feel I would agree with you. I suffer from severe depression and suicidal thoughts and past actions. I need to talk about this and not to feel so alone and lonely. I see things on my phone and feel a bit hopeful but this hope is so quickly dashed away. I truly hope you find some answers to managing your depression….I do know what a horrible disease it is. Peace to you, I DO CARE.

  4. Stephen

    Basically, “Merry Christmas everyone but just don’t say how you feel or talk about anything that will make anyone uncomfortable.Here’s your gift.” You’re just like the rest of the world. This group is just like the rest of the world. Censored and keeping you in the closet so to speak. Not any gift I would want…..but still I wish you and your family many blessings. I pray very much for wisdom and understanding for you.

  5. Merry Christmas Therese! Hope you have a wonderful day. The sun is shining here and I’m in t-shirt & shorts about to have a seafood lunch with my Mum. I’ll have to check out your new group, sounds good! All the best mate xx

  6. Earl Birdy

    Thank you Therese for making Christmas, which is the loneliest time of the year for many of us, a little less lonely this year <3

  7. I hope this is going well, Therese. This is the first time I’ve looked at it. I note that you were immediately criticized. This was my experience with volunteer leadership in the church – it can be demoralizing. I’m sorry to see it. Thank you for your work.

  8. Katherine

    I recently ordered a Fisher Wallace Stimulator. I have only used it for one week but I felt an immediate lessening of my depression. It is supposed to be used for 20 minutes twice a day for 30 days but I feel better already. Has anyone else tried this or know anything about this device?

    1. Katherine, I’m convinced that brain stimulation with one of these devices is the answer for many of us. I have a tDCS (Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation) device for home use, and I felt a significant difference after the very first treatment. I was using it daily for 20 minutes, but have cut back to twice a week and still seem to be maintaining the positive antidepressant effects. I’ve cut back on the tricyclic AD that I’ve been on for 40 years and hope to be off medication altogether at some point. But I’m taking it slow. tDCS has given me more relief than any medication or therapy I’ve ever had.

  9. I’m responding to the comments, members have posted relative to the horrendous conditions, in the hospitals, where members may have been Baker Acted.

    Forgive me, if I’m commenting in the wrong “area” ( I’m still learning to navigate through this website).

    By way of background, I suffer from chronic severe TRD, for more than a decade.

    Unfortunately , I’ve been Baker Acted myself. Each time, the experience was dreadful, I always became more depressed & counted the hours until my release.

    Unlike inpatients, who are hospitalized in rooms with comfortable beds, overhead TV’s, etc. The hospital rooms for patients with a mental illness, can best be described, as sensory deprivation tanks!

    The room, bed & bathroom are more like a prison cell than a hospital room.

    Absolutely, nothing is done ( no effort is made) to try to decrease the scenario of depression you already find yourself in.

    The hospital room, as well as the common areas, all work to make you feel like a “second class citizen” and/or “you really are crazy & need to be ill treated accordingly.”

    This situation, is reflective of the greater societal problem, that still stigmatizes people with mental illness, even more so, when it comes to those who suffer, as in my case, from debilitating depression.

    Since I’m treatment resistant ( including trying ketamine infusions) on a daily basis, I struggle to get any household chore done & even struggle to both show up at, and participate, in a host of activities, I used to really enjoy to do.

    But worst of all, is the amount of mental pain,,suffering & mental anguish I experience, on a daily basis!! And it’s so true, unless one has personally experienced the fatigue & pain of depression, they really just don’t understand, what you’re experiencing.

    Anyway, I realize, that millions of people suffer daily with their own respective illnesses, poverty, etc.

    Nevertheless, having this realization, in no way helps to diminish the severity of the ( unseen) suffering & struggle, “to keep on going on”, on a daily basis, that I endure.

    I know there are no shortage of really bad illnesses out there, but I have to say, having TRD is a nightmare.

    Honestly, because I can’t keep on living with so much mental pain & because there’s no cure in sight; I’m seriously thinking about seeing a pain management Dr. for a prescription for opiads, which “they” say can take away the pain of depression. I know that, once you run out of the opiads, your depression can become worse, than ever before.

    But if it’s between wanting to end my life, or taking opiads to experience some time without depression, what would you do?

    Thanks for letting me share…

  10. Good Morning,
    I currently work for a facility located in Willoughby, Ohio that has been successfully treating patients that have treatment resistant depression with Ketamine Infusion Therapy. I wanted to reach out to your organization in hopes of possibly connecting with someone that has researched Ketamine, and how these treatments have been extremely beneficial for patients who have gone through multiple treatment options (procedures or medications) with little or no success. Majority of the patient base that we treat are patients similar to those mentioned above, with treatment resistant depression, that have exhausted their options but have yet to find something that worked, until they tried Ketamine Infusion Therapy. I would love to speak with a representative from your organization, or provide more information to your support groups if your organization thinks that it could possibly be beneficial to some of Project Beyond Blue’s members. Our care facility knows how important it is to help one another, so if we could help support your community please let us know! Thank you for your time.
    Alison Konicek, Cleveland Medical Institute, 440-944-1414

  11. Mary Campbell

    Good afternoon! I wondered if this web group is still active – I run groups for an outpatient facility in Souteastern PA and have at times shared material from Everyday Health, including some of your articles. My specialty is music therapy, working with adult mental health.