[Karen W.]

I have to agree with that and tend to agree also that certainly different stages of your life can add to the depression or even lesson the effects of it.. i my case.. I am still struggling with the  ups and downs but the downs are much less severe then they were in 2008 when I posted the above.

[yor_on]

Ther are dangers with them though. They might, some of the new kind of beta blockers as I've understood it,  change your perspective of yourself. I knew a single mother 'going on them' for a year, her kids found her in front of a mirror, cutting herself. As she stopped taking them she became 'normal'

As she told it she had felt perfectly normal the whole time she cut herself, only realising what she did when her kids stopped her.

You have to remember that there aren't really any perfect definitions for 'normality'. Most often it will be those you interact with that gives you the definition of what's 'normal'. War f.ex. will very quickly change your definitions of what is acceptable and what isn't.

And being depressed is quite 'normal'. It is harder to be constantly 'upbeat' I would say, considering the worlds state today You will still be able to laugh, even under a depression. the best remedy for it is good friends that you trust. And if you have trouble finding those, maybe join some 'circle' interested in something you like too, taking a course meeting people that like the same things as you do. There are ways to 'fight' depression. There are also times when there might be a need for medications, but they, as I see it, should be used with care and forethought. Some day one will have to get of them, right?