Dealing with Depression.....and "That's Life"

I am going up to my brother' s house twice this week. Not only is he battling the physical assaults of Motor Neurone Disease, he is suffering from the debilitating effects of a reactive clinical depression.
I thought I knew depression.
As a former psychiatric nurse I have actively treated people with endogenous and reactive depression. Endogenous depression ( for those that may not know the term , it is a depression which often just springs from nowhere)
Through a series of supportive interventions which included, pharmacological treatments, talking therapies, physical exercise and good basic nursing care and support,  I have seen the "black dog" of despondency lifted from the shoulders of those afflicted, but more often than not, the journey towards feeling well again was always a hard and difficult slog for their patient and their loved ones who had to watch helplessly in the wings.


My brother's depression is a particulary difficult one to treat. He can no longer verbalise his distress and physically he cannot activate those natural endorphins that may be of use to him. The symptoms of motor Neurone make him feel dreadful for most of the time, so it is the constant and unwavering support of his wife coupled with medication that are keeping him going at the moment.
I have to hope that a change in antidepressant medication will be of some help.....deep down I am sure that  they will be... although.... not as quickly as we would all like.
The fires of hope, hope that things will improve need to to be stoked and tended by us all, the people standing in the wings and, even if my brother at times may fail to realise that his mood  could lighten, we have to have the constant and unwavering optimism that it will.


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On a different note ( and I apologise for sounding like a presenter from That's Life)
Today I have been catching up with all those necessary but rather horrendous jobs that dog owners always put off until someone tells you that your house smells!
Yes its a day for carpet cleaning and dog bathing.
Now I absolutely HATE bathing the dogs..it's the only animal job that I actively complain about.
The bathing of four dogs, each with their own "individual needs" is a dirty, exhausting and rather WET enterprise.

George

William is the only dog that loves a bath. It has to be a hot bath though, and he has to be allowed to sit and enjoy the experience like a housewife who   may be allowed to enjoy a soak after a hard day with scented candles and a glass of pinot!
George and Meg on the other hand HATE bathing and when plonked into the bath always seem to have that slightly ashamed look of a maiden aunt who has just been goosed at a family party .


Constance, who weighs in at over 25 kilos will put up with a bath but will take a totally passive role in the whole bathing process, which means that she has to be carried upstairs to the bathroom, which is no mean feat I can tell you.


This morning the neighbours must have thought something dreadful was going on as all they could hear was my colourful snippets of pure filth as .I battled to hump a dead weight bulldog up a narrow cottage staircase before slinging  her into the bath with a satisfied splosh!.....
I have only just re cleaned the bathroom after all four baths......
The mess would have made a stout hearted domestic weep!