Wow it made me so happy to read your daughter is experiencing some (even if only a little) happiness. In my experience, I would also agree with you... feeling emotions is better than feeling nothing at all. But it is important to be able to recognize the emotions that she is feeling, identify them, and regulate them. Because if we go without working through our emotions, they can become so overwhelming that we become numb to them. So yes, emotions are better then numbness, but feeling emotions definitely means we gotta work hard to manage them so they don't over power our lives. Gentle gentle hugs for you and your family xxx (((((((simpleliving)))))))

Hi, first of all I want to say that you are a fantastic parent, trying to understand your daughter is important, even tho its clearly not easy. Im going to try my best answering your question, even tho Im not a psychiatrist nor i know a lpt about depression, I can just talk about personal experience so uh don't take my words for facts, Im just trying to help. So uh, its pretty common to feel this feeling of nothing, this dread, this emptyness, the feeling that nothing matters. stop caring about peoples, and things...these are common emotions arround people that are struggling with depression. Anyway I feel like the signs your daughter is showing up are good, idk how much she was depressed to begin with, but yeah feeling something is good, tho of course it would be better if she felt happiness. In the end, what I want to say is yes its good, but maybe you should talk about it with a psychiatrist, its his job so he should know his stuff. Thats all, sorry if I wasn't helpful, i tried my best, hope your daughter gets better!

Hi again SL. Many people think that depression is just a form of extreme sadness, but this isn't the case. When people get depressed, it's because they are feeling a lot of a single emotion, e.g. pain, so they try to dial down that single emotion as a natural defensive response. However, it's impossible to dial down a single emotion, so EVERY emotion gets dialed-down, which is why people who are depressed say things like 'they're numb,' 'they don't feel anything,' It's also the reason why they no longer get enjoyment from doing things that usually bring them much happiness.

Added to this is that a lot of the time, any expression of any emotion usually manifests itself as anger, and this becomes the default reaction to anything. I'm not saying that this is the situation here, I tell you because it just adds to the fog of confusion when trying to figure out what's going on.

However, what you are seeing may also be side-effects of the medication. Everybody has an individual response to psych meds and very often, a Dr and pt will cycle through a bundle of them in order to find the right combination. This, in itself, can take an extremely long time, because generally, you don't see any positive benefits of the drug until after 4-6wks (although side-effects start much sooner) and then there has to be ramping down of dose and wash-out before another drug can be tried. For me, it was more than 2yrs of trying different combinations before we began to feel we were making progress.

I would strongly recommend that you read the drug label (or google side-effects) of whatever she's taking - you will very often see mood swings, increased anger, worsening of depression, suicidal thoughts etc.. listed, so depending on how long she's been on the meds and at what dose, what you are seeing may just be negative side-effects. If you suspect this is the case, talk to her Dr and see what they say - they may advise trying something else, or they may advise that after a time, these side-effects will subside, at which point any benefits may become more apparent.

This is the start of a journey to the center of a maze for your family, and there will be many wrong-turns and dead-ends before you begin to think that you're making progress. Unfortunately, because MHIs are so individualistic, progress is made by the Edison approach (i.e., Finding 100s of ways not to make a light-bulb).

This is why it's really important for you to nurture other things, i.e., your marriage, and that you also get a network of support for YOU in place. Of course, your daughter's well-being is the priority goal of your family life, but in order to best facilitate that, your priority resource investment has to be your marriage. Otherwise, your daughter will not be the only victim.

I apologize if I'm portraying this in a somewhat brutal manner, but depression takes no prisoners - it destroys every relation it touches (or at least, it tries to). It's a disease that you pro-actively have to fight, not just by tackling it head on, but by making sure your defenses are impenetrable.

Praying for you all. Feel free to PM if you wish. Take care.

sounds to me like some kind of change has taken place. Probably a good sign, but her mental health doctor is who to ask.

Hi there, I agree that her doctor would be the person to ask. Her emotions seem to have shifted and even though you may think this is a good sign, you want to ultimately watch her behavior. Don't give up hope and continue to be there for her as she will need your support.