In addition to any psychopharmacology ( a big word even for me at this hour :-)) depression should always be approached with support and therapy as well. Not all depression is entirely chemically based and when we have a life altering, identity changing debilitating disease - keeping one's motivation going is often difficult.

It can be a long and lonely struggle just to get through each day and a part of "coping with MS" is to have days when you just don't do much of anything....it is a process to learn to acknowledge, adjust and adapt for every single facet of the disease.

I understand how much joy your volunteer work, your grandbaby's quilt must give you - so I know that to not be able to do them is a rip through your heart. Unfortunately it then becomes like a spiral - you cannot initate activity - then because you cannot (when you wish you could) - you feel worse because you cannot - the worse you feel the less able you are and so on it goes around and around - deeper and deeper.

One of the things I do to help to cope with this monster is to try to not cope with it all - if I look at the whole picture of the disease and my life I get overwhelmed - and to be honest there are days when yes it is physically a huge struggle to get out of bed AND a huge struggle emotionally as well.

Fatigue, general ill health, heat, new progression or symptoms all play into making task accomplishment more difficult

So, each day I try to focus on the moment or the aspect of the illness, try to look at what is left rather than what is lost, try to celebrate that any day that I start above ground is already a good day!

I allow myself time of heartache and grief and yes there are times when no I do not "do well" at all - but is it any wonder given what we live with? However, not "doing well" IS coping - it is allowing ourselves the grace to feel and the kindness to cry and lots of people (not necessarily your own good self) think that down time, or grief etc. is not coping. In fact it is the one thing that has neuros reaching for prescription pads - when they should be reaching out with compassion.

But most of all I try to handle one issue at a time one triumph at a time, one step at a time - each issue a process which takes time to go through and sometimes more than once.