About six months post stroke a dad of my son's friend who is a doctor inquired about my mental state. He informed me that his doctor siblings in the states informed him that anti depressant medications were beginning to be prescribed to all stroke survivors in the USA. This practice identifies a common side effect of strokes. Strokes not only strip individuals of abilities but of confidence and feelings of competency which is partially responsible for my depressive feeling and likely of those of other stroke survivors.
My whole life I have been against the use of anti depressants, my thinking has always been drugs mask an underlying problem and we are better to address the problem than mask it. Over time I have begun to feel that maybe anti depressants are a good tool to get us over the hump to a spot in time where we can face and address the root of the problem. Maybe in the heart of depression we are incapable of addressing and dealing with the root of the problem and need time. Time seems to be a cure to many things in life and this statement has pissed me off in the past because I don't take time for granted although now I am beginning to see that sometimes at the risk of taking it for granted time is the only thing that will help us.
In a book I read by Dr. Norman Doidge, The Brain That Changes Itself, he indicates that studies show the use of anti depressants actually aid the brain in firing to aid us in re mapping our brain enabling us to re acquire abilities.
Although I know that sleep can be a big part of depression I have also learned that it is a huge part of recovery. Sleep helps us digest the gains of mental and physical exercise.
I love sleep because when I do I don't feel numbness in my right arm, right head or right eye or the bad balance of always feeling like I am standing in a canoe. When I sleep, I dream of proficiently playing hockey, skating, stick handling and scoring and other aspects of living life with the "normal" abilities that I once had. Then I wake up and immediately realize my ailments and get depressed. The more vivid my dreams the more drastic my depression but then I have to remind myself that I woke up...I woke up and its not in a hospital and I have another day to try and witness something AWESOME! or taste something and that's AWESOME!
