It is just my questionalbe sense of humour =) It sometimes happens with me that after I write something, more thoughts stream into my mind and go to comment my own writings. Just for the fun of it, I imagined it as with having a conversation with myself - first Erkka says something, then Erkka replies and so on...

I was something like 17 or 18 when I first tried to consult a doctor about my emotional ill-being. But I didn't quite know how to represent myself, and they didn't know the right questions to ask me, and I felt all of it rather frustrating... Only later on, after I had studied philosophy and psychology at the university, and many of my friends telling me that I should seek professional help, I finally dared to go meet a doctor again. And with more experience I was better able to talk in such a way that they understood my needs, and we got the process started. Later on I was extremely lucky to meet some very talented professionals who have been of great help.

For me it was a long path, and sometimes it felt that nothing is going to help. I tried medication, as some of my friends said it had helped them. But I only felt more confused. Still I believe that for a certain period of time anti-depressant medication was good for me - they alone didn't solve anything, but they gave me the little extra boost to keep me motivated to go to therapy.

Generally speaking, I think that visiting a doctor is a good idea. Sometimes it might be that one has to meet two or three professionals until finding one who is really able to understand and to offer good help. But the important step is to go out looking, asking and seeking.

I don't know if you have browsed through the blog, but there are several entries dealing with depression and the process of recovery. When I have time and energy for that, I'll build some sort of filtering system which will make it easier to filter the blog entries according to tags or topics. ToDo, ToDo =)