I have been going through episodes of sadness over the past 2 months, and I knew I had developed a mild form of depression for a while now, but last night, I actually fell into an extremely depressive state where I was truly and completely overwhelmed with this sense of melancholia. It was sadness at a level I had never experienced before.
There has been this lingering sadness in me for a while now, one that started from after I had been socially isolating myself, and by that I mean a lack of socializing at work, because I am alone in the office half the time, and a lack of socializing on my off days because I haven't been meeting up with friends to fill up that need to socialize. I tried to fill that void by meeting new people through a dating app and it didn't really work all that well, they all came and went, the first few matches and dates, although didn't go well, didn't affect me too much, that was until I met someone that I ended up investing too much emotions into, and when nothing came to fruition between us, it send me into a downward spiral.
This ended up worsening my already existing mild depression from the lack of socialising, and during yesterdays' episode, I actually ended up getting very worried about what I would have done to myself. Thankfully I did mange to get out of it, but because this feeling comes and goes, I know that feeling will return again, so I decided I was going to visit a General Practitioner today to get a referral letter to actually see a Mental Health specialist.
I had 2 options this morning, I could either go to the private clinic near my house, or I could book an appointment with the nearest Polyclinic. My initial plan was to go to the private clinic because it was within walking distance to place and I was pretty sure I could get connected to a Mental Health Specialist sooner compared to the Polyclinic route.
I had a meeting with a client in the afternoon, so visiting the one near my place made the most sense, I could just walk over, have a quick chat with the GP, share my feelings and what I am going through and I guess they will direct me to a specialist to talk to.
I was experiencing the lows of my depression, so I really really needed to talk to the GP to at least be able to share what I am currently going through, however, when I finally reached the clinic, I see a sign that had been placed at the main door..
"No doctors in today."
... I stood outside the clinic for a while because it had just opened then, I thought maybe that was placed there to stop people from coming into the clinic before opening hours, but I was not feeling very patient and opened the door, only to be greeted by the staff who confirmed that there were indeed no doctors today. When you are depress and you finally take the steps to go seek help, being told that there was no doctor in the clinic, a clinic I had visited multiple times with the doctors always available, felt like the universe is taking a knife and just pressing it against my wrist.
I was so upset, I remembered how helpless I had felt last night and I knew I really needed to seek professional help, so I quickly went to the NUHS app and booked the earliest appointment at Bukit Batok Polyclinic. I had to rush back home, take a quick shower (literally 20 minutes after I had just taken my morning shower, because of how sweaty I was), grabbed everything I needed for my afternoon meeting with the client later and just rushed over to the Polyclinic. I had booked the 9.50am slot but I was a bit late because the stupid bus was late, I sped walk into the Polyclinic as soon as I reached the bus stop, scanned my IC and then proceeded to wait at the waiting area for my turn.
I went to get Soymilk from the Mr Bean in the Polyclinic, 2 packet of Soymilk for $3, the first packet I had ended up being a curdled mess, but the staff was very nice and ask me to get a new one from the fridge, so I did and I drank my Matcha Soy Milk while waiting for my turn to be called. I hadn't had anything to drink at that point because I had no time. 30 minutes later, my turn finally came and I headed in to the consultation room.
The doctor greeted me as I stepped into the room and I started off by I was in for a sore throat I had been having(was actually a cough but I mixed it up) , but then immediately shared with her my main reason for going down, and that was my intention to get a referral letter to see a Mental Health Specialist because I suspect I have depression.
She was really nice and immediately started asking me how I was feeling, so I told her how I had been feeling really sad, what had been going on in my life recently and also what I think the trigger point for the episode I had last night was, I was on the verge of tearing up a few times because this was the first time I had verbalise what I was going through to someone, this emotional turmoil I have been suffering in silence since May that had gotten significantly worst, she got me to fill up a quick questionnaire and I ended up scoring a "mild depression"
She went ahead and prescribed me some lozenges for my sore throat (which is really a cough so that lozenges is redundant), and then 6 weeks worth of anti-depressant medication called Fluoxetine, she then highlighted to me that the anti-depressant medication has certain side effects, one of which is the the increase in having suicidal thoughts, but then she told me it takes the medication 6 weeks to be fully effective and that the first 2 weeks, I just have to power through it.
2 weeks? I was almost having a mental breakdown last night, and I am suppose to go through that for 2 weeks? I went to reddit to check how other people's experience with that medication was like and it was really bad, a lot bad panic attacks for the first 2 weeks - 1 month, they became more depress, the suicidal thoughts became louder and it was all kinds of fucked up. I am already fucked up as it is, I don't want to have to endure 2 weeks of what is potentially worst before it gets better.
I'm not touching those pills for now, I have been having dark thoughts during the more severe episodes, but I never had plans to follow through with any of them, so the last thing I need are pills that will actually make me want to follow through with those thoughts.
She told me she can help me arrange for an appointment with a Mental Health Specialist, but it's going to take 6 weeks. That means if I take the medication, I might not make it before the appointment.
Anyways, after that visit, I still had some time left, so I decided to head over to my Sister's place to wait until my appointment with my client started, I didn't want to wait at the nearby mall where my client lived because that is where I had my first meet up/date with the person who is partly responsible for causing me to feel the way I am feeling right now, if I wait at that mall, it will only be triggering me even more.
When I was at my Sister's place, I told her about my anti-depressant medications and then asked her if she could introduce her therapist to me because I really needed to talk to someone about what I am feeling. She was worried and I really didn't get into detail about why I am feeling the way I am, I just told her it was just life in general and also because of my recent attempt at trying online dating, which got me feeling really emotional, she explained to me how therapy had worked very well for her, so it made me feel better knowing that there is at least something I can do.
My stay at her place wasn't long, I really just wanted to share about my depression with her and then get her therapist contact.
I then went for the appointment, and I was feeling relatively fine at first, I was talking to the client with my boss, my role was more active at the initial design discussion, then my boss took over during the quotation discussion. As I was sitting at the table, my mind started drifting and I started to think about where I was, and I was reminded of that person again because the place where we first met last month, IKEA Alexandra, was just across the street, and the mall where we had our first and only meal was literally a 2 minute walk away from where the client was staying at. It brought on this feeling of sadness, and as I am typing this out, I am engulfed by it again.
I really wanted to get the meeting over and done with, and when we were finally done, I opened up to my boss and told him I had visited a Polyclinic earlier this morning and the reason why, he was quite surprise and also worried for me, so when we were in his car, I kinda just told him I had been feeling depress because of how isolated I have been feeling and then also because of some other personal stuff, and he jokingly ask me if it is because of relationship stuff, if I had broken up, I then told him we didn't even manage to get together, to which he immediately switched topic so as not to trigger me.
He dropped me off at Orchard and I immediately thought of Laderach Chocolate, which I had gotten a few weeks back when my boss also dropped me off at Orchard after meeting that very same client, back then, I was still on contact with that person and they had been the one who introduced me to Laderach, but I will admit, back then, communication between us was already pretty sporadic, and I was going through a period of sadness at that time as well, but it isn't as strong as the sadness now. I knew I wasn't going to Laderach to get any chocolate today that's for fucking sure. I walked around Orchard a little but it was really way too crowded for my comfort, so I left after a while.
It's currently 6.12pm as I type this sentence out, that overwhelming sense of melancholia I had felt yesterday happened around 7pm, I am not sure if that feeling is triggered by the timing, but I am definitely feeling a lot more depress right now, especially after writing out this post about how down I was feeling. Everything is triggering me right now.
Oh, I also messaged the therapist in the middle of my meeting with the client and she was able to slot me in for Monday morning, so I will be talking to her very soon, I hope talking about all of this to someone and letting it all out will help, I will probably start crying during that chat because I already felt like it when I was sharing what I have been feeling with the Polyclinic GP, my Sister and my Boss. I hate this feeling so much!